Graduate Council

C23D

Membership List

(Information in italics below is repeated from the Faculty Bylaws Article VIII, Section 15.)

Membership

• Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, or designee
• Director of each graduate program, except the Law School, without vote
• Associate Dean for Admissions and Administration for the Law School, or designee, ex officio, without vote
• Director of Graduate Admissions, or designee, ex-officio, without vote
• Dean and University Librarian, ex-officio, without vote
  
• Registrar, or designee, ex-officio, without vote
• Three elected teaching faculty members serving three-year terms, representing the College of Arts and Sciences, one each from the Fine Arts and Humanities, Math and Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. Must have achieved the rank of Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, or Professor.
• Four elected teaching faculty members serving three-year terms, representing the following schools, one each from the Love School of Business, the School of Communications, the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education, and the School of Health Sciences. Must have achieved the rank of Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, or Professor.
• Two at-large teaching faculty members serving three-year terms, elected by the teaching faculty members. At-large members must represent different divisions or schools and be elected in alternate years.
• Elections to the Graduate Council occur on a three-year cycle. In the first year of the cycle representatives from the College of Arts and Sciences will be elected. In the second year of the cycle, representatives from the schools will be elected. In the final year of the cycle, at-large representatives will be elected. At the May meeting, one of these elected representatives will be elected by the committee as Chair.

Duties

• To evaluate proposed additions to or deletions from the graduate curriculum and to approve graduate curricular changes
• To review proposals for new graduate programs and to report to the University Curriculum Committee recommendations on those proposals
• To recommend standards for admission and retention of students in graduate programs
• To develop and recommend policy with regard to graduate programs
• To recommend academic support and student services pertinent to graduate students
• To be responsible for periodic review of the graduate curriculum in order to provide an instructional program that is consistent with the aims and objectives of the Elon University Graduate Program Mission Statement and that will meet the needs of the students who are currently enrolled
• To publish an annual report of its work to the faculty
• None of the above duties of the committee will apply to the curriculum of the Law School, nor will the Law School faculty participate in the decisions of this committee.

C23G

Areas of Committee Concern

• Overseeing all areas of the graduate program of the University, with the exception the Law School
• Approving additions to or deletions from the graduate curriculum, with the exception of the Law School
• Reviewing and recommending new graduate programs
• Upholding the Elon University Graduate Program Mission Statement 

Policies and Procedures

• The Chair of the committee schedules committee meetings at a time convenient to the majority of the committee members. Meetings usually occur at least once a month but may occur more frequently if necessary.
• The Chair of the committee informs members of meetings at least one week in advance with a written agenda, materials to be discussed, and a copy of the minutes of the previous meeting.
• At the May meeting, one of the elected representatives will be elected by the committee as Chair. The Chair presides over the meetings and reviews the agenda with the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs (or designee) prior to distribution.
• All decisions of the committee are made through normal parliamentary procedures and a majority vote of the voting members present.
• A quorum consists of a majority of the committee’s voting membership.
• The Dean making a proposal is expected to attend the meeting when the proposal is formally presented and discussed.
• The Chair of the committee may solicit the attendance of other faculty who are not committee members. Any other faculty members with significant relationships to the proposal(s) under consideration may request the permission of the chair to attend.
• The Chair appoints another committee member to be responsible for recording the minutes of each meeting.
• Graduate program and curriculum proposals must conform to the graduate curriculum and curriculum changes procedures and timetable outlined in Procedures for Proposal of New Graduate Programs.

Methods of Reporting To the Campus Community

• Graduate Curriculum Proposals. The committee can decide on any graduate curriculum proposal before it to take one of the following actions:
• Approve the item and forward it to the President.
• Approve the item, but because of its significance or potential impact on the undergraduate curriculum, decide to forward it to the University Curriculum Committee for approval.
• Not approve the item and send it back to the school/department(s)
• Delay the item for further consideration
• Graduate Program Proposals. The committee can decide to take one of the following actions on any graduate program proposal being considered:
• Recommend to approve the item and forward it to the University Curriculum Committee.
• Recommend not to approve the item and forward it to the University Curriculum Committee.
• Request for Faculty Vote. Upon receipt by the Chair of Academic Council of a written request, decisions made by Graduate Council will be subject to discussion and vote at the next scheduled faculty meeting. The request for a faculty vote must be signed by at least 15% of the fulltime teaching faculty and must be received by the Chair of Academic Council at least one week prior to the next scheduled meeting of the full faculty. In that event, the decision made at the faculty meeting will take precedence.
• Minutes. The minutes of each committee meeting will be disseminated to the faculty and staff in a timely fashion, either on the Web, through e-mail, and/or in printed copy.