Graduate Faculty Appointment & Review Policy

Custodian of Policy: Graduate Council

Effective Date: Spring 2017

Last Review: 2017

Next Review: 2024

Policy

  1. The Purpose for Selection and Review of Graduate Faculty
    The quality of the graduate degrees granted by Minnesota State University Moorhead depends upon the qualifications and expertise of faculty involved in the entire graduate educational experience. Selection and review of Graduate Faculty is designed to account for quality, expertise, and participation in graduate education.
  2. Categories of Graduate Faculty
    1. Doctoral Graduate Faculty
    2. Master’s/Specialist Graduate Faculty
      Records of faculty members in the first two categories shall be kept by the Graduate Studies Office.
    3. Temporary Graduate Faculty
      Temporary Graduate Faculty shall not be listed in the Graduate Bulletin. Fixed term and adjunct faculty shall only be eligible for Temporary Graduate Faculty status.
  3. Rights, Privileges, and Responsibilities of Graduate Faculty
    1. Doctoral Graduate Faculty
      Doctoral Graduate Faculty may supervise doctoral research and chair doctoral committees in addition to the duties and privileges of Master’s/Specialist Graduate Faculty status.
    2. Master’s/Specialist Graduate Faculty
      Master’s/Specialist Graduate Faculty shall be eligible to teach graduate courses (600 & 700 level), advise Master’s and Specialist level graduate students, chair Master’s and Specialist graduate student committees, serve on graduate student committees at any level, and be appointed to the Graduate Council.
    3. Temporary Graduate Faculty
      Temporary Graduate Faculty may teach at the 600 or 700 course level and may be appointed by the appropriate College Dean to serve as a committee member in cases where they have particular expertise.
  4. Criteria for Appointment to the Graduate Faculty
    In order to be appointed to the Graduate Faculty, faculty members must provide evidence as follows:
    1. Doctoral Graduate Faculty must provide evidence of achievement in areas 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 below.
    2. Master’s/Specialist Graduate Faculty must provide evidence of achievement in at least three (3) of areas below, two (2) of which must be from areas 1-4 and one (1) of which must be from areas 5-7.
      1. Holding a terminal degree in one’s field (usually the doctorate).
      2. Scholarly or creative activity in one’s field in the last five years.
      3. Relevant professional service and/or ongoing clinical or field-related experience and expertise in the last five years. (Examples are: consulting, professional presentations and/or reports, responsibilities in a professional association, productive recent advanced study, etc.)
      4. Professional development activities in one’s field in the last five years.
      5. Serving as Major Advisor to graduate students.
      6. Teaching graduate level courses (600 & 700 level) at MSUM or elsewhere.
      7. Serving as a member of graduate student committees.
  5. Procedures for Selection and Review of Graduate Faculty
    1. Except as indicated in 5c below, appointment or reappointment to Graduate Faculty status shall be for six years. Faculty may apply by submitting an application form, a current PDP, a current Vita, and any other documents they consider relevant. Applications may be done concurrently with the PDP reviews.
    2. Application materials are submitted to the Graduate Studies Office. The Graduate Studies Office will post the applications on a SharePoint site and give access to Department Chairs, College Deans, and Graduate Coordinators (if appropriate). All parties will be invited to review applications. Files will be considered approved and forwarded to the Graduate Council Subcommittee on Graduate Faculty Review unless an objection is received. The Graduate Council Subcommittee will review and make a recommendation to the Graduate Council. The Chair of the Graduate Council will forward the recommendation to the Vice President of Academic Affairs. The Vice President of Academic Affairs will formally appoint or deny all appointments to Graduate Faculty status.
    3. New MSUM faculty hired on a tenure track appointment to specifically teach master’s/specialist graduate courses shall be given an initial two-year appointment to the Master’s/Specialist Graduate Faculty during which time they must apply for regular appointment to Graduate Faculty status as indicated in 5a and 5b above. New MSUM faculty hired on a tenure track appointment to specifically teach doctoral graduate courses shall be given an initial two-year appointment to the Doctoral Graduate Faculty during which time they must apply for regular appointment to Graduate Faculty status as indicated in 5a and 5b above.
    4. Records of these reviews and decisions shall be maintained by the Graduate Studies Office.
  6. Temporary Graduate Faculty
    Temporary Graduate Faculty shall be appointed for limited, short-term assignments upon recommendations from relevant Department Chair or Graduate Program Coordinator in order to provide special expertise on graduate student committees or to teach a graduate course on a limited or adjunct appointment. The Vice President of Academic Affairs will formally appoint or deny all temporary appointments to Graduate Faculty status.
  7. Appeals Procedure
    Any faculty member wishing to appeal decisions made under these policies and procedures shall notify the appropriate College Dean in writing and shall submit relevant information in support of the appeal. The appropriate College Dean shall notify the Graduate Council and the Vice President of Academic Affairs. The appeal shall be reviewed by the faculty member’s College Dean, the Graduate Council, and the Vice President of Academic Affairs in the order indicated. Each reviewer shall forward the appeal with recommendation to the next reviewer. The President shall formally grant or deny appointment to Graduate Faculty status. Records of these appeals and decisions shall be maintained by the Graduate Studies Office.

Rationale

Section 5b on how applications are routed for approval was edited to simplify the process and 5c was edited to include doctoral faculty. Other minor changes as highlighted.