Official Description of the Graduate Studies Committee

1. Develop, maintain, and monitor policy and procedures for the operation of the Department's graduate program, consistent with Graduate School rules governing CIS graduate faculty, graduate student body, and graduate program.<.li>
2. Handle administrative tasks necessary to keep the graduate program operating in accordance with Departmental and University rules and regulations.
3. Maintain procedures to obtain information about sources for fellowship and other awards.
4. Disseminates information on and coordinates the Department's participation in fellowship programs for students currently in the graduate program.
5. Prepare, publish, and distribute documents describing the Department and describing policies, rules and procedures for Department programs, including maintaining and issuing M.S. and Ph.D. brochures.
6. Establish and maintain procedures for assigning and changing advisors.
7. Consider and act on student petitions, including writing letters of petition for exceptions.
8. Appoint faculty for Category I and II membership, and nominate faculty for Category III membership to the Executive Committee of the Graduate School. (Because Category III nominations are based on qualifications similar to those involved in tenure considerations, and because of the sensitivity of discussions pertaining to evaluation of those qualifications, decisions on Category III nominations are delegated to the tenured faculty at the request of the Graduate Studies Chairperson when a faculty member seems to have the necessary qualifications for nomination to Category III.)
9. Approve applications to take Comp/Qual examination.
10. Approve applications to graduate for M.S. and Ph.D. students.
11. Approve membership of graduate student general examination committee as well as appoint a Departmental representative to each general exam, and approve Doctoral Reading Committees.
12. Assume other responsibilities as assigned to it by the Graduate School, the graduate faculty members of the Department, the Department Chair, or the committee members themselves (with approval of the graduate faculty members of the Department).
13. Handle all nominations of current graduate students or faculty for college, University, or national awards; normally this requires forming a nominating subcommittee, collecting up-to-date nomination materials (minimally vitae, but possibly reference letters and other material as well), convening the subcommittee, and handling the final processing of nomination materials.
14. Chair serves as a member of the college committee of chairs of graduate studies committees and as a member of the Graduate School "area" committee of same.
15. Chair attends official Graduate School functions as Departmental representative, e.g., graduate receptions to honor all new fellows, or farewell functions for retiring officials, etc.
16. Supervise the format, writing, administration and reporting of results of the Comp/Qual Exam; although there is a chair of a Comp/Qual Committee, Graduate Studies sets policy and handles exceptions. The Graduate Studies chair usually handles situations arising when students fail these exams and require special attention of various kinds.
17. Maintain all literature pertaining to both the CIS graduate program and others (except that information maintained by the Graduate Admissions Committee).
18. Provide assistance, as required, to the Curriculum Committee.

19. Develop and maintain procedures to estimate graduate

    The membership criteria and the responsibilities of the Graduate Studies Committee are detailed in Section 2 of the Graduate School Handbook. Since the CIS Department has a separate Graduate Admissions Committee, responsibilities to 2-4-18, given in the Graduate School Handbook, are handled by the Department's Graduate Admissions Committee. Appropriate liaison between the Graduate Studies and Graduate Admissions Committees is maintained by interaction between the respective chairpersons.

    Chairpersons of the Graduate Admissions Committee and the Comp/Qual Examination Committee are ex-officio members of the Graduate Studies Committee in the event that they are not appointed as regular members of the committee. Consult with the Graduate Admissions chair and the Comp/Qual chair to coordinate tasks, especially because the University officially communicates only with the chair of Graduate Studies.

5/14/87 replaces 6/5/86