4.3 Graduate Faculty Status

4.3.1 Qualifications of Graduate Faculty

Full Members of the Graduate Faculty at Mines are those qualified to be the primary advisor for a student conducting research toward a graduate degree and to serve as a graduate student’s committee chair. Associate Members of the Graduate Faculty are those qualified to serve as a co-advisor or one of the required or additional voting members of a student’s thesis committee. Academic units may choose to further specify the privileges and responsibilities granted to Full and Associate Graduate Faculty in the areas of student supervision, teaching assignments, voting rights, etc. Such unit-level policies should be expressed in writing.

4.3.2 Criteria for Selection to the Graduate Faculty

It is assumed that all Colorado School of Mines faculty in full-time, tenured or tenure-track positions who serve in academic departments or programs offering graduate degrees are qualified to be Full Members of the Graduate Faculty. Hence, they will be appointed as such upon joining Mines. Tenure/tenure-track faculty in departments that do not offer graduate degrees, Teaching Faculty, Research Faculty, Professors of Practice, and Emeritus Faculty, who meet the minimum requirement in 4.3.2(A) may be given Associate Member status and are eligible to become members of the Full Members of the Graduate Faculty. External Joint Appointees, Research Associates, and qualified Administrative Faculty are eligible to apply to become Associate Members of the Graduate Faculty, but not Full Members. Postdoctoral fellows are not eligible to be members of the Graduate Faculty. Candidates for Full and Associate Graduate Faculty status are subject to the following minimum requirements:

1. All Full Members of the Graduate Faculty must hold a terminal degree appropriate to their academic field or discipline. All Associate Members of the Graduate Faculty must hold a terminal degree appropriate to their academic field or discipline or show a comparable level of expertise.
2. If not in a full-time, tenured or tenure-track position, selection to Full Graduate Faculty status must be requested by the eligible candidate and supported by a two-thirds majority of the Full Members of the Graduate Faculty in an academic department. If not already an Associate Member of the Graduate Faculty, such status must be requested by the eligible candidate and supported by a two-thirds majority of the Full Members of the Graduate Faculty in an academic department.
3. The proposed candidate for either Full or Associate Graduate Faculty status must meet any other criteria established by the approving department and must be endorsed by the Department Head and the Graduate Dean.

Reflecting the University’s interest in encouraging interdisciplinary research and scholarship, faculty who have requested and received Full Graduate Faculty status in one department may request permission to serve as primary advisor to graduate students in another department or interdisciplinary program. Such requests shall be approved by the Department Head or interdisciplinary Program Director and forwarded to the Graduate Dean for approval. 

4.3.3 Procedure for Selection to the Graduate Faculty

Selections to the Graduate Faculty are made and approved by an academic department and the Graduate Dean. Full-time faculty in tenured or tenure-track positions will be appointed as Full Members of the Graduate Faculty upon joining Mines. All other selections to the Graduate Faculty (Full or Associate) must be initiated by the individual requesting such status. 

To request Full or Associate Graduate Faculty status, the eligible faculty member should complete the Graduate Faculty request form and submit it with appropriate documentation to the chair of the approving department’s Promotion and Tenure committee. The department’s Promotion and Tenure Committee Chair should then bring the case to the Full Members of the Graduate Faculty in said department for a vote. A positive vote of at least two-thirds of faculty with Full Graduate Faculty status is required. The Chair should then submit the results of the vote to the Department Head who should provide a letter of support that includes the results of the vote to the Graduate Dean. The Graduate Dean will then give final approval.  Once an individual has been approved as Graduate Faculty, that member will retain graduate faculty status until such time as the Department Head, with the input and advice of the Full Graduate Faculty in the department, decides to terminate the status.