Senate Graduate Committee

Senate Graduate Committee

The Senate Graduate Committee, in consultation with College (School or Division) Graduate Committees and the Dean of Graduate Studies, is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the quality of graduate education in the University and its graduate centers by: (1) making recommendations on proposals for major changes in graduate programs, including new degrees, 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) coordinating and monitoring graduate activities throughout the University; (4) presenting to the Faculty Senate recommendations concerning general polices for graduate education, including the creation, suspension and termination of graduate degrees and programs; (5) recommending to the Faculty Senate the granting of graduate and honorary degrees; and (6) hearing and resolving disputes involving policy or quality control issues pertaining to University-wide regulations and standards for graduate students and graduate education following procedures as found in the Faculty handbook and the Graduate bulletin.

The membership shall consist of thirteen faculty: one faculty member selected by each of the following College/School/Division Graduate Committees from its membership: Architecture and Planning, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, 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 General Library and the Graduate Student Association. The Dean, Associate Deans of the Graduate Studies and the Directors of the Centers for Graduate Studies at Los Alamos and Santa Fe shall be ex-officio non-voting members. The GSA 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.