SUBJECT:  UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS POLICY FOR
                    GRADUATE FACULTY MEMBERSHIP
                    (Approved by Graduate Council October 14, 1992)
                         (Revised July 21, 1994 and March 15, 2001)

APPLICABILITY: FACULTY

Eligibility

     Graduate faculty membership is in one of three categories (I, II, III). Membership in a category provides authorization to participate in specified functions within the graduate program. Persons with the rank of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor or their equivalent are eligible to be nominated as members of category I, II, or III of the graduate faculty. Persons who hold academic administrative titles of Dean; Vice-Provost; Provost; Vice-President for Academic Affairs; and Chancellor will be designated for Ex-Officio membership in Category III of the graduate faculty.

     Individuals must be members of the graduate faculty to participate in the graduate program; only graduate faculty members are authorized to perform one or more of the following functions:

1. teach 5000- and 6000-level courses;

2. serve as member of Master's Degree Advisory Committees;

3. serve as major or co-major professor for master's degree students;

4. direct master's theses;

5. serve as major professor or co-major professor for doctoral degree students;

6. serve as member of Dissertation Committees or Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) Advisory Committees;

7. serve as major professor for doctoral dissertations or D.M.A. lecture recitals;

8. serve as Graduate School representative (University Member) for doctoral dissertations or final comprehensive examinations for the D.M.A.

     No graduate faculty member in any category whose highest degree was awarded by the University of North Texas may serve as an adviser for or member of a Master's or Doctoral Advisory Committee of a former fellow student.

     Departments may recommend appointments to membership on the Graduate Faculty on the basis of the following minimum qualifications established by the Graduate Council for each category. Each department shall develop its own more detailed guidelines for selection consonant with the spirit of the basic criteria. These written statements of departmental guidelines shall be submitted through the appropriate school or college process, if applicable, and then to the Graduate Faculty Review Committee of the Graduate Council for review and approval. Guidelines that have received final approval by the Graduate Dean will be kept on file in the office of the Graduate Dean and shall be reviewed every four years. The Graduate Council expects that departments will measure each candidate carefully and critically against their own criteria and the minimum criteria listed below before sending recommendations forward.

1. teach 5000 or 6000-level courses, excluding 6950 (dissertation);

2. serve as member of Master's Advisory Committees;

3. serve as member of Dissertation Committees or D.M.A. Advisory Committees;

4. serve as a co-major professor with a Category II or III faculty member on a Master's Advisory Committee (cannot chair master's or dissertation advisory committee).

1. Education: terminal degree or appropriate experience;

2. Experience: college teaching or significant professional experience or both;

1. teach 5000- or 6000-level courses;

2. serve as member of Master's Advisory Committees;

3. serve as member of Dissertation Committees or D.M.A. Advisory Committees;

4. serve as major professor for master's degree students;

5. serve as a co-major professor with a Category III faculty member for a doctoral student;

6. serve as Graduate School representative (university member) for doctoral dissertations or final comprehensive examinations for the D.M.A.

1. Education: terminal degree or appropriate experience;

2. Scholarly and research attainments: evidence of scholarly, research, professional, or creative activity;

3. Experience: college-level teaching or significant professional experience or both.

1. teach 5000- and 6000-level courses;

2. serve as member of Master's Advisory Committees;

3. serve as member of Dissertation Committees or D.M.A. Advisory Committees;

4. serve as major professor or co-major professor for master's and doctoral degree students;

5. serve as major professor or director for master's theses, doctoral dissertations, or D.M.A. lecture recitals;

6. serve as Graduate School representative (university member) for doctoral dissertations or final comprehensive examinations for the D.M.A.

Ph.D./Ed.D. Major Professors

1. Education: doctoral degree or appropriate experience;

2. Scholarly and research attainments: evidence of mature, independent work continuing to the present in scholarly, research, or creative activities. Such evidence takes the form of published books, scholarly monographs, articles in referred or other appropriate journals, presentations, consultantships, or other significantly scholarly and professional activity;

3. Experience: significant graduate-level teaching or professional experience.

D.M.A. Major Professors

1. Education: doctoral degree or evidence of appropriate study in musical performance or composition;

2. Performance or composing achievements: in the area of performance, a significant record in the form of repertoire lists, programs, recordings, or experience with recognized organizations showing a broad coverage of the literature for the special performance field; in the area of composition indication of commissions, performances, publications, or recordings;

3. Experience: significant graduate-level teaching experience or history of producing music either by performance or composition.

     Recommendations for membership to Categories I, II, or III of the Graduate Faculty must follow a specific procedure. Faculty members not recommended shall have the usual rights to file appeals through the appropriate departmental and school/college committees, and the appeals committee of the Graduate Council. Membership to Categories I and II shall occur by appointment and notification. Category III membership shall occur through nomination and review by appropriate departmental, school/college, and Graduate Council committees.

     The Graduate Studies Committee, Personnel Affairs Committee, Executive Committee, or other duly constituted committee of each department shall appoint Category I and Category II graduate faculty members and shall notify the Graduate School of its actions. Schools and Colleges may establish procedures for college-wide review of these appointments and review of these appointments by the School/College dean. The appropriate category level shall be determined by the faculty member's education and experience and by the functions the faculty member is expected to perform in the graduate program.

1. Nominations to Category III membership on the Graduate Faculty shall be made by the departmental Graduate Studies Committee, Personnel Affairs Committee, Executive Committee, or other duly-constituted departmental committee with access to relevant information. Criteria for nominations shall follow the minimum standards listed previously for Category III.

2. The departmental chair may choose to file a report supporting or differing from the committee nominations; but in the event of disagreement, the chair shall discuss the matter with the nominating committee and seek a resolution of the differences.

3. Departmental nominations with all documentation shall be sent to the appropriate academic dean.

4. Schools and colleges may establish procedures for college-wide review of these nominations as advisors to the school/college dean.

5. After review, the dean shall submit nominations and recommendations for Category III membership to the Graduate Faculty Review Committee of the Graduate Council which shall certify by appropriate documentation that those nominated satisfactorily meet the qualifications for Category III.

6. The Graduate Dean shall review all actions of the Graduate Faculty Review Committee and may accept or reject recommendations.

7. When the Graduate Faculty Review Committee is not available to meet, the dean of the Graduate School may make appointments and report them later to the Graduate Faculty Review Committee.

     Faculty may hold graduate faculty appointments in more than one unit. Subsequent Category III nominations for faculty already holding Category III membership in one graduate program may be accomplished with a letter from the appropriate departmental committee to the Graduate Dean.

Review

     Graduate faculty status shall be reviewed every four years through the procedures detailed in this document.

     Faculty members holding the title of Lecturer or Adjunct may be approved by the departmental Graduate Studies Committee for graduate faculty membership only at the Category I level.

     If the appropriate departmental committee certifies by appropriate documentation that a Lecturer or Adjunct meets all departmental requirements for Category II membership, he or she may, on a temporary basis, serve as major professor for master’s degree students or serve as a co-major professor with a Category III faculty member for a doctoral student (Category II function). To do so, specific permission must be granted in advance by the Dean of the Graduate School. Such permission will be valid only for particular dissertations or theses and will expire when the student’s degree program is completed.

     Faculty members holding the title of Visiting Professor, Associate Professor, or Assistant Professor may be approved by the departmental Graduate Studies Committee for graduate faculty membership at the Category I or II level. The appropriate departmental committee may nominate these faculty members for Category III membership on the graduate faculty to Graduate Faculty Committee of the Graduate Council and shall certify by appropriate documentation that those nominated meet the qualifications. Visiting Professors approved at the Category II or III level may serve as co-major professors for master's and doctoral degree students.

     Assistant, Associate, or full Professors holding graduate faculty membership at the Category II or III level at the time of modified service or retirement may continue to act as advisers for their advisees in progress at the time of retirement with the approval of the appropriate departmental committee and notification to the Graduate School. For these faculty emeriti to engage in graduate teaching or advising activities not in progress at the time of retirement, approval of both the appropriate departmental committee and the dean of the Graduate School shall be required.