Graduate Council

Purpose: The primary purpose of the Graduate Council is to act upon graduate level curricular matters that are referred to it by academic departments/schools.

Powers: The Graduate Council is empowered, for courses numbered 600 or higher. The council shall recommend the approval of a curricular proposal, reject and return a proposal to the college council(s) that submitted it, or amend and recommend approval of the proposal.  A proposal may be withdrawn from consideration without motion or vote by the originating units before final disposition by the council upon specific request to the council chair.  All curricular proposals recommended for approval by the council, amended or not amended, shall be forwarded to the Secretary of the Faculty for disposition as described in ART VI .Other responsibilities include program planning, curricular control and policy-making for the Graduate College.

Membership: The Graduate Council shall consist of the Chair, one member of the graduate faculty of each department/school offering one or more graduate degree programs, or in the case of an interdisciplinary program, a representative from the sponsoring college, and a representative of the Graduate Student Council.  The term of office for members of the Graduate Council is two years.  A Graduate Council member may be elected for two consecutive terms, but following the second term shall not be eligible to serve until after the lapse of an intervening year.  A person elected Chair of the Graduate Council during their second term as member may serve out their term as Chair.  Upon completion of the term as Chair that person shall not be eligible to serve on the Graduate Council until after the lapse of an intervening year.  Department Heads are not eligible for election except in the case where a department head is the only graduate faculty member in a department/school.