Faculty and Staff Information Center
From the Graduate Handbook; Chapter 5, Sections C, D and E:
Duties and Responsibilities of the Graduate Faculty
Special Graduate Faculty Memberships
Courses Taught by Non-Graduate Faculty
C. Duties and Responsibilities of the Graduate Faculty
Regular faculty (i.e., those with full or part-time appointments at professorial or instructor ranks) who are admitted to the Graduate Faculty may vote in elections, participate in Graduate Faculty meetings, and sit on the Graduate Council. They may serve on advisory, supervisory, and examining committees for master's degrees and doctorates; serve as major professors for master's candidates; and teach courses for graduate credit in the field of specialization as assigned by the department head; and, if certified, serve as major professors for doctoral candidates.
The Graduate Faculty maintains the broad framework for all graduate study. Within this framework, the graduate faculties of departmental and interdepartmental programs stipulate programmatic requirements for individual programs of study. Although considerable latitude is permitted, minimum requirements for admissions, courses, languages, research, and other matters are established under the authority of the Graduate Faculty.
C.1 New Graduate Faculty
It is the responsibility of the graduate faculty members in a department or program to ensure that a new graduate faculty member is provided with any necessary assistance so that the quality of his or her supervision of graduate degree candidates meets appropriate standards.
C.2 Special Duties for Program Heads
Department heads and chairpersons of interdepartmental programs must review applications for admission, programs of study, and other documents to determine that all program requirements are met. Department heads and chairpersons have the additional responsibility of giving leadership in developing programs and in reviewing ongoing graduate work.
C.3 Exceptions for Non-Graduate Faculty
With the approval of the Graduate Council, faculty other than Graduate Faculty may also teach graduate courses. In unusual cases, with the approval of the Graduate Council, scholars of exceptional attainment who do not hold a terminal degree may be permitted to serve as major professors for candidates seeking graduate degrees.
D. Special Graduate Faculty Memberships
Persons may be appointed to the graduate faculty under the following special circumstances:
D.1 Faculty from Other Regent's Institutions
Anyone holding graduate faculty membership in any of the other five Regents' institutions and having a terminal degree may be awarded full Graduate Faculty status at Kansas State University upon presentation to the Dean of the Graduate School of evidence of research activity within the past five years.
D.2 Faculty From Other Institutions
In the case of a proposed joint program between Kansas State University and an institution other than the five Regents' institutions, the Graduate School shall review that institution's requirements for graduate faculty membership and extend reciprocity if the requirements are at least as stringent as those at Kansas State University. An individual wishing to teach graduate courses or to serve on supervisory committees, but not as a major professor, may be extended limited graduate faculty status if he or she is a member of the graduate faculty of any college or university.
Anyone else seeking limited or full Graduate Faculty status at Kansas State University shall present his or her credentials for review.
D.3 Adjunct Professors
An adjunct faculty member is one who contributes to the University's educational efforts through a courtesy appointment without regular compensation. Individuals may become adjunct members of the faculty by a process defined in the Faculty Handbook. Departments or graduate programs may deem it advantageous to include adjunct faculty as members of their graduate faculties, and may nominate adjunct faculty to be considered for admission to the Graduate Faculty according to procedures outlined elsewhere in the Graduate Handbook.
D.4 Emeritus Faculty
Upon recommendation of their department heads, retired members of the Graduate Faculty who have been actively engaged in directing graduate students and in conducting scholarship, research, or creative activities may be approved by the Dean of the Graduate School for service on graduate supervisory committees or as co-major advisors of graduate students. The Dean of the Graduate School may also appoint such faculty members to other assignments in service to the Graduate School. Such activities and assignments will generally reflect an expressed interest of the faculty member and will under normal circumstances be without pay, although compensation is not precluded.
D.5. Graduate Faculty Associate
The purpose of the Graduate Faculty Associate membership category is to permit limited Graduate Faculty membership to exceptional individuals for teaching and/or supervisory committee membership. A Graduate Faculty Associate possesses specialized training, experience, or certification required for specific teaching or committee service. Appointment to Graduate Faculty Associate is for a term of three (3) years. At the end of the term, the faculty member may be re-nominated. There is no limit to the number of terms to which a faculty member may be appointed.
Nomination to Graduate Faculty Associate must be initiated by the appropriate department, division, program, or equivalent unit, which must provide documentation for a combination of substantial professional expertise, publications or other scholarly contributions to the discipline, advanced training, degrees, certification, or recognized status in the relevant field. It is incumbent upon the administrative unit to describe the teaching and/or supervisory activities of the candidate and provide a rationale regarding the qualifications of the candidate to make significant and necessary contributions to the program. If the candidate is nominated for the purpose of teaching, the nominating unit is expected to provide a list of courses that the candidate will teach, along with detailed justification as to the qualifications the candidate has for teaching those courses. If the candidate is nominated for committee service, detailed justification as to the qualifications the candidate has for serving on the committee(s) must be included. In the event the activities of the individual change within the unit, a new nomination process must be initiated. Nomination guidelines should follow the general procedure described in Chapter 5.A.3 of the Graduate Handbook, and limitations as delineated in Chapter 5.D.6 apply.
D.6 Supervisory Committee Restrictions
A graduate supervisory committee may include one or more persons who is not a regular member of the Graduate Faculty so long as a Master's Supervisory Committee includes at least two, and a Doctoral Supervisory Committee includes at least three regular members of the Graduate Faculty and one of the regular graduate faculty members must act as the sole or co-major professor for the committee. In the case of doctoral committees, the major or co-major professor must be certified to direct dissertations.
E. Courses Taught by Non-Graduate Faculty
All graduate courses (600-level and above) shall be taught by members of the Graduate Faculty except as follows:
1. Upon certification by a department head that no member of the Graduate Faculty in that department is available to teach certain graduate courses, a faculty member who does not belong to the Graduate Faculty but who has the appropriate terminal degree, or qualifications considered to be equivalent, may teach those courses in a specific program area for no more than three one-year terms. Such persons shall be recommended by the majority of the department's graduate faculty and approved by both Graduate Academic Affairs Committee and the Graduate Council on the basis of evidence documenting their capability in the specific program area.
2. If time is insufficient for the foregoing procedure, the Dean of the Graduate School may approve faculty other than Graduate Faculty, upon the recommendation of their department heads, to teach graduate courses for a maximum of one semester. All such actions must be reported at the next meeting of the Graduate Council, together with an account of all similar prior actions for the persons involved.