Policy on Graduate Faculty Groups for Doctoral Degree Programs

I. POLICY

California State University Fresno’s doctoral degree programs represent the highest level of academic scholarship and student professional achievement offered through our campus. The quality of educational and scholarly experiences that the University can offer to students in these programs requires program faculties who have the requisite disciplinary knowledge and scholarly experience to direct and examine doctoral student work. Therefore, these programs require student guidance from faculty members who possess the highest level of scholarship and knowledge in the field and who meet campus requirements for membership in a doctoral faculty group.

Doctoral faculty groups serve as the organizational means for ensuring distinct governance, consultation and faculty leadership for doctoral programs. Doctoral faculty groups may include full-time faculty members from different academic departments and units as well as faculty members from other institutions for approved inter-institutional programs.

It is the responsibility of the doctoral faculty group to make recommendations to the academic unit regarding:

  1. Program curricula, admissions and exit requirements
  2. Program resources and assessment
  3. The promotion of the values of scholarship and professionalism in the field
  4. Courses of action on all doctoral program matters.

II. ORGANIZATION

  1. To assure that the faculty members comprising a doctoral faculty group attain a critical mass in order to carry out its responsibilities, the graduate group shall contain no fewer than five (5) full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members with the appropriate terminal degree. 1
  2. For inter-institutional joint-doctoral programs, criteria for doctoral faculty group appointment and continuation may be subject to approval of jointly developed criteria that may modify the criteria in Section III.
  3. All doctoral faculty groups must develop bylaws that are subject to review by and approval of the appropriate University Graduate Dean(s).

III. CRITERIA FOR MEMBERSHIP IN A DOCTORAL FACULTY GROUP

  1. Criteria for membership in a doctoral faculty group are as follows:
    1. be tenured or have a tenure-track full-time appointment as an assistant, associate or full professor;
    2. have earned a terminal degree in the appropriate discipline;
    3. be willing to serve and assume the responsibilities of the doctoral faculty group, including serving on and chairing dissertations and examination committees;
    4. possess specific expertise (theoretical, methodological, or topical) in the area(s) of the doctoral program;
    5. meet additional criteria that the department or doctoral faculty group may recommend.
  2. Continuing doctoral faculty group members must:
    1. exhibit a strong, continuous professional record of published research through monographs, refereed journal articles, chapters in edited volumes, grants, and presentations at national and international meetings of relevant professional associations and
    2. develop and offer courses for doctoral students and/or
    3. chair and serve on dissertation and examination committees and/or
    4. serve on program committees.
  3. New faculty members must exhibit a strong ability to develop a specialized record or line of scholarly work, as may be evidenced by their doctoral dissertation, related publications or post doctoral research.
  4. Those who are not eligible to be members of the doctoral faculty group, such as lecturers, clinical faculty, visiting scholars, artists-in-residence, MPP administrators with retreat rights, participants in the Faculty Early Retirement Program (except as provided in Section IV below), adjunct faculty, and other faculty may provide doctoral program instruction and/or guest lectures or serve as second or third readers on dissertation or examination committees based upon departmental recommendations and evidence of appropriate expertise and academic preparation.
  5. Only members of the doctoral faculty group may chair examination committees.
  6. To be approved to chair a dissertation committee, the doctoral faculty group member must also meet the following criteria:
    1. have taught a graduate class in the preceding four (4) years; and
    2. have demonstrated an ability to successfully direct others in research activities.
    3. the first time an individual is being considered as chair of a doctoral dissertation committee, supporting documentation must accompany the recommendation through all levels of review.

IV. PARTICIPANTS IN THE FACULTY EARLY RETIREMENT PROGRAM

Graduate faculty groups are required to maintain a minimum of five (5) full-time tenured or tenure track faculty members. While participants in the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP) are tenured faculty members, 2 many participants in this program are not available every semester to perform the responsibilities of membership in the graduate faculty group. Therefore, FERP participants are not normally counted toward the five (5) full-time tenured and tenure track members required for the maintenance of a graduate faculty group.

  1. Since participants in FERP are defined as tenured faculty members, departments may invite these faculty members to participate in their graduate programs.
  2. In order to participate in ongoing graduate work such as mentoring, theses and projects, participants in FERP who work one paid semester only must be appointed to an adjunct faculty position during the semester when they are otherwise in inactive employment status. 3 4
  3. In instances where
    1. there are not five (5) full-time tenured or tenure track faculty members as members of the graduate faculty group;
    2. the most recent program review justifies continuation of the graduate program; and
    3. the department wishes to use FERP participants as part of the graduate faculty group,

the department must file a Request to Utilize FERP Faculty Form with the University Graduate Committee at the beginning of the academic year. The request must demonstrate

  1. active commitment on the part of each FERP participant requesting being counted as a member of the graduate faculty group;
  2. a commitment from the department chair to hiring new tenured or tenure track faculty including a timetable
  3. a continuing commitment from the college/school dean regarding the replacement of tenured and tenure track faculty to meet the requirement of five (5) full-time tenured or tenure track faculty members.

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Recommended by the Academic Senate April 2003
Approved by the President May 9, 2003

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