Graduate Faculty Nomination Evaluation Committee

­­College of Health and Human Development Nominations for Graduate Faculty Membership and Requests to Teach 500- and 800-Level Courses

Related resources

• GCAC-101: Graduate Faculty Membership
• Frequently asked questions about GCAC-101
• Graduate School Procedure for Nomination to Graduate Faculty
• Forms for nominations to the Graduate Faculty: Category P and Category R
• Graduate School Procedure for Approval to Teach 500- and 800-level courses
• Form to request approval for a non-Graduate Faculty member to teach a 500- or 800-level course

Purpose

Policy GCAC-101 describes membership in the Graduate Faculty at Penn State. The following was developed in response to the GCAC-101 mandate that each college constitute a Graduate Faculty Nomination Evaluation Committee (GFNEC) and college-specific guidelines of Graduate Faculty membership qualification.

Eligibility for Graduate Faculty Status

Full-time faculty may be granted Category P or Category R membership in the Graduate Faculty. Category P membership is intended for advising, teaching, supervising, and serving on committees in professional graduate programs, whereas Category R membership is for the education and training of graduate students in research degree programs (Ph.D., M.S., M.A.). In general, Category Q does not apply to faculty in the College of Health and Human Development. Faculty members who are not members of the Graduate Faculty may be eligible to apply to teach a graduate level course (500 or 800-level) within a professional or research degree program in the College.

Graduate Faculty Nomination and Evaluation Committee

Consistent with GCAC-101, the role of the Graduate Faculty and Evaluation Committee (GFNEC) is to evaluate the qualifications and experiences of faculty who will teach and advise students enrolled in the College’s graduate programs. The membership of the College’s GFNEC will be three graduate faculty members, representing different programs within the college when possible, and appointed by the Dean of the College or the Dean’s designee. One member will be appointed Chair. Members will normally have a 3-year term, and members may be reappointed by mutual agreement of the Dean/designee and the committee member. Whenever possible, terms will be staggered, and appointments may be made for a period of less than three years.

Process

The process for reviewing nominations for membership in the Graduate Faculty and requests for approval to teach 500- and 800-level courses is overseen by the Office of the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education. Nominations will be submitted using GCAC-101 forms for Category P and Category R, with the appropriate signatures. The core element of each nomination will be a nominating statement requesting the category of membership, with accompanying information about the qualifications of the nominee to serve in that category. The committee will evaluate the nomination and make a recommendation to the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education.

In the following situations, the Committee is relieved of conducting a review:

• Nominations for tenure-line faculty. When faculty are appointed to tenure-line positions in the College, their home graduate program will complete the nomination form for Category R membership and submit it to the Office of the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education.
• Initial nominations of non-members of the Graduate Faculty to teach. Graduate program head can approve non-members of the Graduate Faculty to teach graduate courses for up to one calendar year (three consecutive semesters) without further approval. [Note that, per policy, an individual enrolled in a graduate program may not be assigned to teach a graduate course.] Graduate program heads should ensure that the potential instructor is qualified to teach the graduate course, in line with the expectations described below. During the 3-semester period, the instructor’s teaching should be supervised and evaluated, consistent with department and program practices. When the instruction has been successful, the individual can become a candidate for a 4-year period of approval to teach in the graduate program.

The GFNEC will be asked to review materials when:

• The nomination is for a full-time, non-tenure line faculty member for Category R or P membership in the Graduate Faculty.
• An individual has already successfully taught courses in the graduate program for one calendar year and teaching approval is requested for additional years.

Criteria and Review of Nominations

The College of Health and Human Development acts on the presumption that Graduate program chairs and School Directors, as leading scholarly representatives of their disciplines as well as administrators responsible for enabling the education of students and functioning of graduate programs, will recognize the research and teaching qualifications necessary to provide appropriate education and mentorship to graduate students at Penn State. As such, the professional discretion of the Head/Director is a primary decision-making factor for the GFNEC. In general, we expect that appropriate qualifications for graduate faculty membership or course instruction may include, but are not limited to, a graduate degree in that or a closely related field to the department or course to be taught; teaching experience in the subject; mentoring/graduate supervisory experience in the subject; and/or leadership, administrative, or professional experience in structurally or substantively similar areas.

The following information will be used to support the Committee’s review of nominations, and should be used by graduate programs in conjunction with GCAC-101 to determine eligibility and preparing nomination materials.

Nominations for Category R Membership in the Graduate Faculty

Research graduate degree programs in the College may nominate full-time, non-tenure line faculty for Category R membership to contribute to the program through advising/mentoring, teaching, and serving on committees on a continuing basis. Per GCAC-101, to be eligible for Category R membership, a non-tenure line faculty member must have the following:

• a full-time appointment,
• a research or professional doctoral degree,
• a record of scholarly achievement, and
• an active program of research/scholarly activity, appropriate to the field.

The GFNEC will undertake a holistic consideration of each nominee’s accomplishments. Faculty members with ongoing journal publications or recent books, combined with other regular scholarly and professional activities, would be well-qualified for membership in this category.

Scholarly Achievement

Scholarly Achievement may be demonstrated by:

• Published scholarly works
  • Books and book chapters
  • Peer-reviewed journal articles
  • Software
  • Scientific data projects
  •  
• Scholarly activities
  • Invited talks
  • Presentations at academic meetings and workshops
  • Presentations at professional conferences and workshops
  • Communications of one’s primary research to a non-scientific audience (e.g., technical reports, extension articles, etc.)
  • Serving on advisory committees
• Professional activities and publications
  • Organizing academic meetings
  • Participating in funding review panels
  • Leadership in the creation and maintenance of extension programs
  • Leadership positions in professional organizations
  • Technical reports, extension articles

The specific activities listed are not exhaustive. The common focus is on activities that generate new knowledge. Most of these will be communicated to peers (e.g., peer reviewed publications), however, those communicated to audiences who are direct beneficiaries of the new knowledge (e.g., technical reports, extension articles) can also be considered. As new forms of knowledge generation may be developed at any time, these may also serve to meet the qualifications in the future.

Active Program of Research/Scholarly Activity

Candidates for Graduate Faculty status should be regularly engaged with the scholarship and/or professional organizations of their disciplines. The College recognizes that research and scholarly activity occurs at different rates for different disciplines and that there are also different forms of evidence for different disciplines. There is an expectation of multiple documented examples of ongoing, active engagement in scholarship in the relevant field of research.

Nominations for Category P Membership in the Graduate Faculty

Professional graduate degree programs in the College may nominate full-time, non-tenure line faculty for Category P membership to contribute to the program through advising/mentoring, teaching, and directing culminating experiences on a continuing basis. There are two subgroups in Category P: Category P-M, for individuals who participate in professional master’s degree programs, and Category P-D, for individuals who participate in professional doctoral degree programs. Faculty with Category P-D membership may also participate in professional master’s degree programs.

To be eligible for Category P membership, a non-tenure line faculty member must have the following:

• a full-time appointment,
  • a master’s degree (for Category P-M) and a research or professional doctoral degree (for Category P-D)[1], and
  • recent or ongoing professional experience relevant to the professional degree program field, or ongoing research/scholarly activity in the professional degree program field.

Professional Experience Relevant to the Professional Degree Program Field

The GFNEC will undertake a holistic consideration of each nominee’s accomplishments. The expectation of recent or ongoing professional experience relevant to the professional masters or doctoral degree program field derives from the fact that professional graduate degree programs prepare students for expert practice in the chosen field. Accordingly, with the recognition that fields evolve quickly, it is preferred that faculty members who will be fully engaged in professional degree programs be familiar with the current state of practice in the field. With the recognition that professional practice may evolve differently in different professions, we generally expect professional experience to be within the last 5 years.

Illustrative examples of professional experience include:

• Employment
• Licensure or Certification
• Formal consulting activities
• Presentations at professional workshops or meetings
• Serving on professional advisory committees
• Participation in professional and industry networks
• Demonstration of mentoring and professional development of others

The specific activities listed are not exhaustive, and different professions may accommodate or develop different forms of engagement. An expectation of professional degree programs is that they incorporate new practices derived from new discoveries in their field of study; thus, individuals with ongoing scholarly work in the field can also appropriately be approved to Category P membership.  Such membership is particularly important when the scholarly work in the field is significantly in advance of the professional activities in the field such that there would not be professionals available or able to teach at the leading edge of the professional discipline.

Nominations to Teach 500- and 800-Level Courses

Individuals who are not members of the Graduate Faculty may teach specific graduate courses for one year (three consecutive semesters) when approved by the graduate program head of the program offering the course. After this period, individuals must be nominated for a longer- term approval to teach in the graduate program (up to four years). Current graduate students are not eligible to be assigned to teach graduate courses.

To be eligible for continuing approval to teach 500-level (research graduate education) courses, an individual must have the following:

• a research or professional doctoral degree,
• a record of scholarly achievement,
• an active program of research/scholarly activity, appropriate to the field, and
• documentation of teaching effectiveness (e.g., formal student evaluations, peer evaluations, self-reflections, etc.) from the initial year of teaching in the graduate program.

In reviewing a nominee’s application for continuing approval to teach 500-level courses, the GFNEC’s evaluation and recommendation will be based upon the same types of considerations listed above for Category R membership.

To be eligible for continuing approval to teach 800-level (professional graduate education) courses, an individual must have the following:

• a master’s degree or, in some cases, a doctoral degree (examples include AuD, DrPH, DHA, DBA, DPA, DHSc, and others at the program’s discretion),
• recent or ongoing professional experience relevant to the professional degree program field, or ongoing research/scholarly activity in the professional degree program field, and
• documentation of teaching effectiveness (e.g., formal student evaluations, peer evaluations, self-reflections, etc.) from the initial year of teaching in the graduate program.

In reviewing a nominee’s application for continuing approval to teach 800-level courses, the GFNEC’s evaluation and recommendation will be based upon the same types of considerations listed above for Category P membership.

[1]GCAC-101 notes that “In rare and extraordinary cases, nominations for Category P membership may be considered for individuals who do not hold a graduate degree, but for whom there is clear evidence of a) exceptional experience and outstanding achievement at a national or international level; b) sustained excellence and recognized leadership in their professional field; and c) effective teaching ability are evident.”