Lansing Community College
Procedure Details

Procedure Title: Major Codes
Procedure #: AA.026
Revision #: 000

Unit Responsible: Academic Affairs and Registrar’s Office
Individual Responsible: Director of Academic Operations and Registrar

Effective Date: 10/27/2023
Initial Approval Date: 10/27/2023
Last Review/Update Date: 10/27/2023
Next Review Date: 10/01/2026

*Does this procedure support a Board Policy? Yes
If yes, identify: 3.050 - Approval of New Courses and Programs; 3.160 - Program Review

Board policies can be found at: LCC Board of Trustees Policy Page

*Does this procedure support HLC criteria? Yes
If yes, identify: 4A

HLC Criteria can be found at: HLC Accreditation Criteria

*Does this procedure support a State or Federal Regulation? No
If yes, identify: N/A

*Note: Standard Operating Procedures should be in furtherance of some LCC policy and/or accreditation criteria, even if the relationship is not direct. Assistance in determining this information can be obtained from the Academic Procedure Advisory Committee (APAC) and/or the Accreditation Liaison Officer.

Major Codes, BP 3.050, BP 3.160

1. Purpose

To ensure a standard process for the creation of new major codes and an annual review of the active and valid codes.


2. Scope

This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) applies to the Provost, Registrar, Degree and Academic Records Coordinator, and Director of Academic Operations (DAO).


3. Prerequisites

Major codes include those for programs of study that result in the award of a certificate or degree, and those that are used to identify a student type such as Guest Student, Undecided, and the pre-admit codes for Selective Admissions programs.


4. Responsibilities

  • Director of Academic Operations (DAO) – responsible for an annual review of the major codes for degrees and certificates, and making updates in the Student Information System (SIS) as needed.
  • Degree and Academic Records Coordinator – responsible for updating the SIS with majors for student types, adding new majors, discontinuing majors, inactivating majors, reactivating majors, and updating major titles.
  • Registrar and DAO – responsible for the oversight of the review of major codes used to identify student types.
  • Provost – provide input on decisions that impact college-wide processes.


5. Procedure

Major Codes for Degrees and Certificates

  1. When new programs of study are created, the DAO will manually assign the major code in numerical order. The DAO will add the major to the major validation table and program applications in the SIS.
  2. Revisions to pathways that are extensive or alter the certificate level would also require creating a new major code. See the Curriculum Code Changes SOP for the details.
  3. Upon completion of the annual review of the pathways, the DAO will report any changes that occur including new programs of study, discontinued programs of study, and those with title changes.
  4. For programs of study that are discontinued, the DAO will update the major validation table and program applications in the SIS as needed.
  5. The Degree and Academic Records Coordinator will manually update the SIS with changes provided by the DOA. This includes attaching the major code to the program code, adding or removing the major from the Self-Service Admissions application, and turning the Recruiting, Admissions, General Student, and Academic History modules on or off for terms that are affected by the change.

Major Codes for Student Types

  1. The Registrar and DAO will meet every year to review the major codes for student types to ensure they are active and valid majors.
  2. If new processes are proposed that would require creating a new major code, or changing how a current code is being used, the DAO and Registrar will meet with those requesting the change to review the request.
  3. The Provost will be consulted if the change would impact college-wide processes, such as holds on student accounts.
  4. The request will be presented to the Data Governance Committee for review, feedback, and testing.
  5. If all parties approve the requested revisions, the Degree and Academic Records Coordinator is responsible for updating the SIS with any changes.


6. Reference


7. Definitions

N/A