A61.11: Graduate Committee

Policy

The Senate Graduate and Professional Committee (SGPC), in consultation with College (School or Division) Graduate Committees, the Dean of Graduate Studies and the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the quality of graduate/professional education in the University and its graduate and/or professional centers by (1) making recommendations on proposals for major changes in graduate/professional programs (Forms C and D), including new degrees and certificates, new programs, new majors and minors and concentrations, name changes, substantive changes in existing programs and suspensions or abolition of degrees or programs, and transmitting them to the Faculty Senate; (2) participating, together with members of the Curricula and Undergraduate Committees, in periodic reviews of instructional units and programs; (3) ascertaining the degree to which modifications recommended by the reviews of academic units and programs have been implemented, identifying obstacles to making such modifications, and determining how such obstacles might be surmounted; (4) coordinating and monitoring graduate/professional activities throughout the University; (5) presenting to the Faculty Senate recommendations concerning general policies for graduate/professional education, including the creation, suspension and termination of graduate and/or professional degrees and programs; (6) recommending to the Faculty Senate the granting of graduate, professional and honorary degrees; and (7) hearing and resolving disputes involving policy or quality control issues pertaining to University-wide regulations and standards for graduate and professional students and graduate and professional education following procedures as will be found in appropriate sections of the Faculty Handbook and the UNM Catalog.

(The membership shall consist of fifteen faculty and one student: one faculty member selected by each of the following College/School/Division Graduate Committees from its membership: Architecture and Planning, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Law, Management, Medical Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Administration; three faculty members selected from its Graduate Committee membership by the College of Arts and Sciences, one representing each of the three divisions within the college [sciences, social sciences, humanities]. one member each from the University Libraries, University College, and the Graduate and Professional Student Association. The Dean, Associate and Assistant Deans of Graduate Studies, the University Registrar, the Vice Provost for Extended University, and the Provost or his/her designee shall be non-voting ex-officio members.)

The selection of faculty members is made in the spring semester of the preceding year and is for a two-year term. The terms are staggered so that Architecture & Planning, Engineering, Law, Management, Nursing, Pharmacy, University College, and one member from Arts & Sciences are chosen in odd-numbered years while Education, Fine Arts, Medical Sciences, Public Administration, University Libraries, and the other two members from Arts & Sciences are chosen in even-numbered years. The GPSA representative is chosen for a one-year term. All representatives will serve no more than three consecutive terms.

Late in the spring semester of each odd-numbered year, the committee membership elects a chair-elect who assumes the chair the fall semester of the next even numbered year. The chair serves a 2-year term, but does not represent his/her College (School or Division). Rather the College (School or Division) Graduate Committee whose representative assumes the chair will choose a new representative to serve out the chair's term or begin a new two-year term, as appropriate.

Charge to College Graduate Committees

1. Within the college/school/or division, the graduate and/or professional committee, in consultation with the dean or director of that unit, supervises and coordinates graduate/professional activity and maintains the University's policies regarding graduate/professional affairs and recommends to the college/school/or division faculty supplementary policies appropriate to the unit in question, as well as recommending to the Senate Graduate and Professional Committee whatever revisions in basic University policy it deems necessary to maintain and improve the quality of graduate/professional education.
2. Within the policies established by the Faculty Senate, the SGPC, and the faculty of the college/school/or division, the committee in consultation with the dean or director of the college/school/or division shall be responsible for: (a) endorsement of new courses and programs at the graduate/professional level; (b) approval of regular full-time graduate faculty for courses receiving graduate credits; (c) endorsement of standards for appointment of graduate, teaching, research and project assistants; (d) receiving and processing petitions on behalf of individual graduate and/or professional students dealing with changes in programs, requirements related to that graduate/professional unit, or any other appeal of an academic nature; and, (e) maintenance of quality control processes including admission of students to graduate/professional programs, endorsement of the membership of examination committees, dissertation committees and program of studies committees. Final approval (except 2b) rests with the SGPC in conjunction with the Dean of Graduate Studies or appropriate Professional Program equivalent as noted above in the charge to the Senate Graduate/ Professional Committee.
3. The graduate and/or professional committee of each college/school/or division in consultation with its dean or director and acting within the general faculty policies of that unit shall recommend to the Senate Graduate and Professional Committee the internal arrangement and procedures deemed most appropriate to the implementation of 1 and 2 above. Approval of the implementation proposals from each college/school/or division rests with the SGPC acting in consultation with the Dean of Graduate Studies or appropriate Professional Program equivalent.