Graduate Program Director Handbook Chapter 3: Program Duties

Recruitment: To partner with the Graduate School to attract high quality applicants.

Applicants: To partner with the Graduate School in keeping informed about applicants, and where they are in the process.

Referrals, Admission Decisions, and Funding Decisions: Receive referrals from the Graduate School and decide whether to accept the referred candidate. Then inform the Graduate School about the acceptability or non-acceptability of the candidate. Upon receipt of the program’s recommendation, the Graduate School will process the decision and notify the candidate.

Advising: Advise students in the program concerning the design of their programs of study, their progress in their programs of study, and their capstone experiences (comprehensive examinations, presentation of creative works, thesis, dissertations, defenses, and so forth).

Advising: Use the CAPP system, a Banner program, to both advise the student and prepare her/him for graduation.

Pre-Certifications: Approve the student’s pre-certification, the document that lists what last requirements must be met in order for the student to qualify to graduate.

Post-Certifications: Approve the student’s post-certification, the document that lists the completion of all requirements for graduation.

Supervise Graduate Assistants with instructional duties, Graduate Teaching Assistants, and Graduate Research Assistants: Work with department chairs and/or college deans to assign duties, to monitor progress toward successful completion of those duties, and to annually evaluate all graduate assistants.

Departmental Bylaws: Function as prescribed by the program’s departmental bylaws.

Referrals, Admission Decisions, and Funding Decisions: Assist the Graduate Program Director in the administration of the program as specified in the departmental bylaws. This will most likely include assisting in making the decisions on the acceptability of student applicants and on the awarding of graduate assistantships, fellowships, and department based scholarships.

Departmental Bylaws: Function as prescribed by the program’s departmental bylaws.

Instruction: Instruct the graduate student in how to write a thesis or dissertation.

Guidance: Guide and advise the student through writing the thesis or dissertation.

Editing: Require, when the committee chair regards it as necessary, that the student employ outside editorial or statistical assistance.

Committee Convening: Convene the thesis or dissertation committee as appropriate (for instance, for defense of the proposal or for defense of the completed document).

Quality Assurance: Ensure the quality of both the content and the form of the thesis or dissertation; to ensure that the final document is in a form acceptable for library deposit.

Electronic Submission: Request that the student provide to the Dean of the Graduate School an electronic copy of the thesis or dissertation when the document is submitted to her or him.

Committee Service: Convene as called upon by the committee chair (for instance, for defense of the proposal or for defense of the completed document).

Departmental Bylaws: Function as prescribed by the program’s departmental bylaws.