The Daily Bulletin

At the April meeting of the College Senate, the Instruction and Research Committee brought forth for a vote a resolution to revise DOPS Policy VI: 11:00 Graduate Faculty. The College Senate voted in favor of the resolution, presented by interim committee chair Senator Gregory Wadsworth on April 8, 2022.

BUFFALO STATE COLLEGE
DIRECTORY OF POLICY STATEMENTS
Policy Number: VI: 11:00                 
Date: Revision
Subject: Graduate Faculty
Original DOPS Policy: http://bscintra.buffalostate.edu/dops/policysect6/061100.pdf (PDF, 27 KB)

Revised DOPS Policy:
BUFFALO STATE COLLEGE
DIRECTORY OF POLICY STATEMENTS
Policy Number: VI:11:00
Date Revised: April 2022
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, 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, 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 and the department chair of the respective department. 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 appropriate academic dean shall 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 may academically advise graduate students.
5. Graduate faculty members shall certify and recommend for graduation all graduate students who have completed the requirements for their respective curricula.

I hereby accept the recommendation of the College Senate and charge the provost with responsibility for overseeing the implementation of this policy change and for communicating the change to the campus community.