Graduate Faculty Status

Graduate Faculty

Eligibility

Faculty are eligible to apply for membership if the following criteria are met:

• Hold a regular Faculty Appointment (tenure or tenure-track) at UMKC with the rank of Assistant Professor or higher; or
• Hold a benefit eligible, ranked, non-tenure-track, Faculty Appointment at UMKC; or
• Hold a Graduate Faculty appointment from another campus of the University of Missouri, and
• Possess a terminal degree appropriate to specialties, or equivalent qualifications and meet the criteria of their academic unit

Criteria

Each discipline or academic unit has the responsibility to determine the qualitative and quantitative criteria consistent with the general criteria listed above and to provide the Graduate Council with the names of faculty members who meet the criteria

Selection

Nominations for membership in the Graduate Faculty originate with the faculty of an academic unit and are submitted to the Graduate Dean through the appropriate academic Dean. The Graduate Dean makes the appointment with the approval of the Graduate Council on an annual basis.

Responsibilities and Privileges

Responsibilities and Privileges of Graduate Faculty members include:

• Serve on supervisory and examining committees for graduate students unless restricted by the degree program.
• Teach graduate level courses.
• Direct master’s theses and chair master’s-level examinations.
• Serve as Academic Advisor to graduate students.
• Serve on the Graduate Council if elected by the Graduate Faculty within the respective academic unit or appointed by the Chancellor.

Ex-officio Graduate Faculty

The President, Chancellor, Provost, Vice Provost, Vice Chancellors, Academic Deans, Directors of Academic Programs, the Director of Libraries, Chairpersons/Heads of the academic department and divisions, and comparable academic officers are ex-officio members of the Graduate Faculty.

The category of ex-officio graduate faculty members is for the purposes of:

• Enabling the academic administrators, who are actively involved in academic research, and the Dean of Libraries to participate in making policies and decisions which influence graduate education and research.
• Enabling them to monitor the quality of graduate education and research in their respective unit/department/division.

Responsibilities and Privileges

Responsibilities and Privileges of Ex-officio Graduate Faculty includes:

• Serve on the Graduate Council if selected.
• Vote within the academic unit on graduate program matters including awarding degrees.
• Serve as non-voting members of supervisory and examining committees for graduate degree programs.
• Teach graduate courses.

Adjunct Graduate Faculty

Membership

There are two categories of Adjunct Graduate Faculty:

Those with Status “A” must:

• Be duly nominated and approved part-time or non-regular members of the faculty (including appointments without compensation).
• Possess a terminal degree appropriate to specialties, or equivalent qualifications.

Those with Status “B” must:

• Possess a terminal degree appropriate to specialties, or equivalent qualifications.

Selection

Nominations for membership in the Adjunct Graduate Faculty originate with the faculty of an academic unit and are submitted to the Graduate Dean through the appropriate academic Dean. The Graduate Dean approves these appointments on an annual basis.

Responsibilities and Privileges

Those with Status “A” may:

• Serve as a regular member on supervisory and examining committees for graduate students (all levels) unless restricted by the degree program. [Note: The majority of each committee must be regular Graduate Faculty members.]
• Teach graduate courses.

Those with Status “B” may:

• Serve as a regular member on supervisory and examining committees for graduate students (all levels) unless restricted by the degree program. [Note: The majority of each committee must be regular Graduate Faculty members.]

Doctoral Faculty Status

Major responsibility for assessment of faculty qualifications rests at the department level where nominations are initiated.

Membership

Duly nominated and approved regular (tenured or tenure-track) members of the faculty with the rank of assistant professor or higher.

Criteria

• Possess a terminal degree appropriate to the specialty, or equivalent qualifications as determined by the discipline; and
• Fulfill discipline-specific criteria as approved by the Graduate Council.
• Newly graduated, full-time tenure-track faculty will receive an initial 3 year appointment to doctoral faculty status. Upon successful progression, as noted in the third year, or mid-tenure evaluation, doctoral faculty status will be extended such that it matches the tenure timeline.
• All doctoral faculty appointments, for tenured faculty, remain in effect for 5 years, unless the faculty member has a change in status (retirement, benefit eligibility). Doctoral faculty status reappointments, while occurring at 5 year intervals, will be coordinated with the 5 year post-tenure review process. If exceptions to the 5 year post-tenure review occur, the doctoral faculty status appointment will also be reset.
• Applications for reappointment to the Doctoral Faculty are reviewed by the Graduate Council to determine if applicants have been engaged in scholarly or creative activity (See Table 1 of the Operating Procedures) of a professional caliber that meets the unit-specific criteria approved by the Graduate Council. During the previous five years, applicants must meet the minimum standard of four significant scholarly accomplishments. In most instances, these accomplishments are expected to be peer reviewed publications, performances, or juried exhibitions. Although quantity is an important factor in judging the level of scholarship and creative activity, the primary consideration for appointment to the Doctoral Faculty must be the quality of the applicant’s accomplishments. Each discipline or academic unit has the responsibility to determine the qualitative and quantitative criteria for acceptable performance and to provide the Graduate Council with an assessment of how each applicant fulfills the unit-specific criteria.
• Individual academic units (School or A&S Department) at UMKC establish the criteria for appointment to the Doctoral faculty. These criteria have been reviewed and approved by the Graduate Council and serve as the guidelines for approval of doctoral faculty appointments.

Selection

Nominations for membership in the Doctoral Faculty originate with the faculty of an academic unit and are submitted to the Graduate Dean through the appropriate academic Dean. The Graduate Council reviews and makes recommendations to the Graduate Dean on nominations for appointment and reappointment to the Doctoral Faculty.

Doctoral Faculty Nominating Committee

The review must begin at the departmental level. Each Department within the College of Arts and Sciences, and each School (Management, Biological Sciences, Computing and Engineering, Conservatory, Dentistry, Education, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy) elects a Doctoral Faculty Nominating Committee. All members of this Committee must hold membership in the campus Graduate Faculty and, where possible, the majority must be comprised of members of the Doctoral Faculty. Units with few or no members on the Doctoral Faculty submit a proposed list of Committee members to the Graduate Council for review and approval.

After completing its review, the academic unit’s Doctoral Faculty Nominating Committee forwards nominations to the Divisional Dean (and the Department Chair, in the case of the College of Arts and Sciences).

Academic Dean and Department Chair

The divisional dean reviews the unit’s Doctoral Nominating Committee’s comments and recommendation for approval or disapproval and after adding his or her recommendations, forwards the entire nomination packet to the Graduate Dean. In the College of Arts and Sciences the Department Chair adds his or her comments and recommendations prior to transmitting the nomination to the Dean of the College.

Graduate Council

The Graduate Council reviews nominations for appointment or reappointment to the Doctoral Faculty through its subcommittees and makes recommendations to the Graduate Dean at each regularly scheduled meeting of the Graduate Council. Nominations must be available at the School of Graduate Studies at least three weeks prior to a Graduate Council meeting in order that members of the appropriate Graduate Council Subcommittee may inspect the nominations prior to the official review. This body reviews each nomination packet and votes on the question of supporting the nomination. Negative votes are accompanied by an explanatory statement, and all nominations are then forwarded to the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies for review.

Dean of the School of Graduate Studies

The Graduate Dean renders an independent assessment of the application. When the Graduate Dean and the Graduate Council are in agreement, there is no further review, and the recommendation is for appointment or reappointment, the recommendations are forwarded to the Provost for appropriate action. When the Graduate Dean and the Graduate Council are in agreement, and the recommendation is negative, the applicant is so informed and given an opportunity to provide additional material in support of his or her application before it is forwarded to the next review level.

Responsibilities and Privileges

Responsibilities and privileges of Doctoral Faculty membership include:

• All the rights and privileges granted to UMKC Graduate Faculty.
• Chairing doctoral dissertation committees.

Application Procedure

Once the application is received, the Dean of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Council review and make independent recommendations on each nomination.

Faculty members whose application for appointment or reappointment receives a negative note at any campus review level have the option of providing additional material in support of the application before it is forwarded to the next review level.

Application Checklist

• Follow the application guidelines for preparing the requested application materials.
• Attach a copy of Curriculum Vitae or for reappointments five-year listing of accomplishments.
• Check the application for the appropriate Dean/Department/Division signatures and recommendations.
• A copy of the discipline-specific Doctoral Faculty criteria must be attached.

Forms for Application & Reappointment

For your convenience, the documents listed below are available for you to download and print with your own computer. They are available in Microsoft Word and PDF (Adobe Acrobat) formats. If a form you need is not available in your desired document format, either check this page later to see if it has been added, or contact the office of Graduate Studies to request a hard copy.

To download:

1. Click on the word “Download” which corresponds to the document and platform desired, according to the chart below.
2. Choose “Save to Disk” from the pop-up window that appears.
3. Specify (in the following “Save As…” window) where you wish to save the document. You need not change the document’s filename.