Requesting Degree Program Moratorium

A moratorium is a temporary suspension of student admissions to an academic degree program. 

A moratorium may be requested for a variety of reasons, including low demand for the program, lack of faculty availability to teach core courses, or significant planned program changes related to academic program review. Programs that are being considered for permanent cancellation must be placed into moratorium for at least one year before they are discontinued. 

Placing a program in moratorium alerts students and the Registrar’s Office that the program is not currently accepting applications from new students and allows academic units time to consider the future of the program and complete any necessary transitional planning. A moratorium may be requested for a period of one year or longer and requests should include a proposed begin and end quarter date. At the end of the period in question, it’s recommended that departments submit a request to lift or extend the moratorium or submit a request for program cancellation. 

Placing a program in moratorium does not absolve the department of its responsibility to allow students already admitted to the program to finish within a reasonable timeframe, generally accepted as a “teach-out” period of up to three years. It is the responsibility of each academic unit to appropriately notify all affected students, including those who have expressed intent to apply for admission via pre-major processes. If cancellation is being considered, it is important for the department to ensure that all necessary courses in the degree program are offered in a timely manner to ensure that current students can complete their degree requirements.

Each fall quarter the Registrar’s Office will check the status of programs in moratorium. When a program moratorium has reached three academic years (or five academic years for graduate programs), ACC will notify the academic unit and the college dean to initiate review of the status of the program. The academic unit will have until the end of fall quarter to notify the ACC chair of how it wants to proceed with the program in question: 

• Continue moratorium status (requires Curriculum proposal and dean approval);
• Cancel the program (requires Curriculum proposal and dean approval);
• Request to remove moratorium status (requires Curriculum proposal and dean approval). 

A moratorium checkpoint review every three academic years will be enforced for a total of six academic years. After the sixth year in moratorium the academic unit must cancel the program or request to bring it out of moratorium and be active for admission the following academic year.

Active programs may be allowed to not accept students if the academic unit (with the approval of the dean) believes there is an urgent need to reassess the program of study due to academic and/or budget concerns. Academic units must notify the Registrar’s Office if this “pause” will continue for a full academic year. A request for moratorium must be submitted if the academic department will not accept students into a program for more than a full academic year.