Graduate Faculty Classifications

The graduate faculty consists of those faculty members in area or departments in which graduate study is offered who have been approved by the Graduate Council in one of the following classifications:

NOTE: Graduate assistants may be granted graduate faculty status under unusual circumstances and may hold that status for only one semester at a time and only for courses in which they are not teaching their peers (defined as students in the same degree program). 

For graduate assistants to have access to Blackboard they must be the entered in UAConnect as either the instructor of record or the teaching assistant.  For courses in which graduate level credit may be earned, if the graduate assistant is the instructor of record or has significant responsibility for independently assigning grades in the course, he/she must obtain graduate faculty status.  This is only possible if the graduate assistant is not teaching or grading his/her peers.

Classification Group I, Group I-T*

Authority

  • Chair doctoral committees (for those with a doctoral degree)
  • Chair MFA committees
  • Chair Ed.S. committees
  • Serve on doctoral, MFA, or Ed.S. committees
  • Chair master's committees (excluding MFA committees)
  • Serve on master's committees (excluding MFA committees)
  • Teach courses for graduate credit

Minimum Qualifications

  • Terminal degree for the field equivalent to a doctoral or MFA degree
  • Evidence of proficiency

Classification Group II, Group II-T

Authority

  • Serve on doctoral, MFA, or Ed.S. committees
  • Chair master's committees (excluding MFA committees)
  • Serve on master's committees (excluding MFA committees)
  • Teach courses for graduate credit

Minimum Qualifications

  • Terminal degree for the field equivalent to a doctoral or MFA degree
  • Evidence of proficiency

Classification Group III, Group III-T

Authority

  • Chair master's committees (excluding MFA committees)
  • Serve on master's committees (excluding MFA committees)
  • Teach courses for graduate credit

Minimum Qualifications

  • Terminal degree for the field equivalent to a doctoral or MFA degree
  • Evidence of proficiency
  • Terminal master's degree (for terminal master's programs only)
  • Demonstrated qualifying experience without terminal degree

Classification Group IV, Group IV-T

Authority

  • Serve on master's committees (excluding MFA committees)
  • Teach courses for graduate credit

Minimum Qualifications

  • Terminal degree for the field equivalent to a doctoral or MFA degree
  • Evidence of proficiency
  • Terminal master's degree (for terminal master's programs only)
  • Demonstrated qualifying experience without terminal degree

Classification Group V, Group V-T

Authority

  • Teach courses for graduate credit

Minimum Qualifications

  • Terminal degree for the field equivalent to a doctoral or MFA degree
  • Evidence of proficiency
  • Terminal master's degree (for terminal master's programs only)
  • Demonstrated qualifying experience without terminal degree

Classification Group VI, Group VI-T

(Graduate Assistants only)

Authority

  • Teach courses for graduate credit

Minimum Qualifications

  • Supervision by a faculty member
  • Cannot teach peers

Requests for approval of such classifications are initiated by departments and are subject to the approval of the appropriate deans.

* Graduate faculty with an adjunct position may not direct doctoral dissertations or MFA theses. Applications for temporary faculty status must specify the time period requested.