The Daily Bulletin Archive

At its March 9, 2012, meeting, the College Senate voted to forward to the president a recommendation to change the policy on graduate faculty status as follows:

The Senate Faculty and Staff Welfare Committee submits the following changes to the policy on graduate faculty status. These changes are in response to last year’s vote by the Senate to make graduate faculty status permanent. Because of that change, other sections of the policy also need to be changed. Additions and revisions are outlined below, but some other sections have been deleted.

These changes came to the committee from the Graduate School. The Faculty and Staff Welfare Committee has reviewed the changes and endorses them so that the full policy is consistent with the permanent graduate faculty status policy approved last year.

BUFFALO STATE COLLEGE
DIRECTORY OF POLICY STATEMENTS
Policy Number: VI:11:00
Subject: Graduate Faculty

The graduate faculty of Buffalo State College, State University of New York, shall consist ex officio of the president, the vice president for academic affairs, the deans of the schools, the associate provost and dean of the Graduate School, and those administrative officers or members of the academic staff of the college who have been elected according to the procedures and criteria established by the president of the college and defined herein. The graduate faculty shall be listed appropriately in the Graduate Catalog.

A. Criteria

1. Members of the graduate faculty shall possess earned doctorates or other terminal degrees in the field in which they are teaching or shall have demonstrated, in other widely recognized ways, their special competence in the field in which they direct graduate students.
    
2. Each department shall draw up minimum criteria of training, experience, and demonstrated scholarly activity for graduate faculty status for presentation to the dean of the Graduate School. Upon review of the criteria and consultation with the Graduate Advisory Council, the dean of the Graduate School shall forward each departmental statement on to the vice president for academic affairs for approval. Departmental requirements may be more stringent than the college requirements listed above.

B. Terms of Appointment

1. Permanent: Tenured faculty members nominated by their department, chair, and academic dean—and approved by the provost—receive permanent appointment to the graduate faculty unless and until that status is revoked by the department committee, department chair, or dean. For those departments that have only graduate programs, continuing appointment will be seen as permanent appointment to the graduate faculty.
    
2. Temporary: Tenure-track faculty and full-time lecturer appointments may receive terms matching the length of their current contract with the college. Adjunct faculty members may be nominated for a one-semester or a one-year appointment consistent with the terms of their contracts. Faculty members from other campuses receive graduate faculty status for a particular task, such as serving on a thesis committee or advising a thesis or project.

C. Guidelines

1. Nominations of members for the college’s graduate faculty shall be by the Personnel Committee of the respective department, the department chair, and the school dean. Each nomination shall include the candidate’s curriculum vitae and a list of graduate courses that he or she is qualified to teach (to be listed on the Graduate Faculty Appointment Form). These statements shall be filed in the Graduate School for review by accrediting bodies.
    
2. The Dean of the Graduate School shall, after consultation with the appropriate academic dean, evaluate each nomination in terms of the established criteria and shall recommend appointment to the vice president for academic affairs. Approval by the vice president for academic affairs will constitute election to the graduate faculty.
    
3. Members of the academic community funded solely by non-state appropriations shall be eligible for graduate faculty status. They shall be nominated by the members of the department in which they teach. The term of election to the graduate faculty will coincide with the term of the appointment to the department or the duration of the grant funding.
    
4. Faculty members from other institutions can be nominated to the graduate faculty as well. Nominations should proceed through the typical process, and the length of contract should coincide with the assignment being undertaken by the faculty member.
    
5. Members of the administrative staff who hold academic appointments and wish to teach in a graduate program shall be eligible for graduate faculty status on the same basis as the regular teaching faculty. They shall be nominated by the graduate faculty of the department in which they hold academic appointment.
    
6. Any member of the graduate faculty who wishes to teach graduate courses in disciplines other than those housed in the department to which he or she is regularly assigned may submit a request for graduate faculty status to the department offering those courses. The procedure for nomination and election is the same as that outlined above. Upon election, those faculty members shall be eligible to teach courses on an equal basis with members assigned to that department.
    
7. Permanent appointees can have their status revoked at the discretion of the department committee, chair, and dean.
    
8. Approval of graduate faculty status should be secured before a faculty member begins teaching a graduate class, serving as chair or member of the student's thesis or project committee, or serving as chair or member of a multidisciplinary studies program committee.

D. Rights, Privileges and Responsibilities

1. Graduate faculty members may teach graduate courses.
    
2. Graduate faculty members may serve on the Graduate Advisory Council, the main faculty group determining policies germane to graduate education.
    
3. Graduate faculty members may serve as mentors or readers for a master's thesis, project, or independent study for graduate students and assume the responsibility for constructing and evaluating comprehensive examinations.
    
4. Graduate faculty members should accept the assignment of graduate advisees and mentor them appropriately.
    
5. Graduate faculty members are eligible for professional development and research and travel funds through the dean of the Graduate School.
    
6. Graduate faculty members may request funds through the Graduate School to support conferences, journals, and other academic enterprises that contribute to the intellectual life of the college as it specifically pertains to graduate education.
    
7. Graduate faculty members shall certify and recommend for graduation all graduate students who have completed the requirements for their respective curricula.

These regulations apply to all faculty members who seek appointment to the graduate faculty after December 21, 2011.

I hereby approve the recommended changes to the policy on graduate faculty status. I charge the provost with the responsibility for implementing this new policy for all who seek appointment to the graduate faculty after December 21, 2011.