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Grad Student Representatives at Faculty Meetings?

Brian Leiter

A philosopher elsewhere writes:

Do you have some sense of how widespread the practice of having graduate representatives at department meetings is? It seems to me that my department should have a graduate liaison at meetings, setting aside personnel matters naturally. 

I have anecdotal evidence only–I know some departments where grad students attend the faculty meetings, including some personnel meetings, and others where they attend only when invited because graduate student issues are on the table, but are otherwise excluded.  Readers, what are the practices at your departments?  Comments are open; valid e-mail addresses required.

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27 responses to “Grad Student Representatives at Faculty Meetings?”

  1. Chris Rawls

    Duquesne University's graduate philosophy program has had at least one (sometimes two) graduate student reps at every faculty meeting for many years now. I support this and commend my university program and the professors for allowing it.

    Reply
  2. Chris

    SIUC philosophy has three graduate student representatives. A PhD and MA representative at departmental meetings, and a third representative on the committee that presides over graduate curriculum. The department, however, may call a faculty only meeting to discuss matters only relevant to faculty. Undergraduate philosophy majors may have a non-voting representative at departmental meetings as well.

    Reply
  3. John Collins

    UCSB had it in the 90s, when I was a grad student there.

    Reply
  4. Joshua Brown

    Michigan has a graduate representative attend the faculty meetings. (At least they did while I was there–I left in '08.)

    Reply
  5. Owen Flanagan

    Duke has a graduate student representative at all meetings.

    Reply
  6. Andrew Chapman

    University of Colorado has grad student reps at the faculty meetings, but they're asked to step out at certain points (when personnel matters and issues regarding specific graduate students are discussed, for example).

    Reply
  7. Jeremy Henkel

    At the University of Hawaii student representatives are at every faculty meeting of the philosophy department.

    Reply
  8. IU Undergrad

    Indiana University by-laws Section 3 (d) "Eligibility to Attend: Persons eligible to attend departmental meetings shall include:" names both "departmental graduate students" and "a duly elected representative of the undergraduate majors."

    I cannot find any specification regarding this "duly elected representative of the undergraduate majors." I would love to know how that works and possibly get involved.

    Voting powers are covered in Section 4 (d) "Student Representation: The [Graduate Association for Students in Philosophy] shall be empowered to select a student representative to departmental meetings. This representative will have voting privileges on all matters which do not concern personnel and are decided during open meetings. GASP is also empowered to select a representative to be a voting member at open meetings of the Graduate Curriculum Committee, Appointments Committee, the Recruiting Committee, the Graduate Student Admissions Committee, and the Nelson Committee…"

    Reply
  9. Sandy Goldberg

    Northwestern has a grad rep at all meetings, though like some other departments the grad rep is asked to step out for issues pertaining to personnel, as well as for issues in which particular grad students are discussed.

    Reply
  10. John Basl

    Bowling Green has a grad student representative at all meetings, but, as is the case elsewhere, the students are asked to step out in some circumstances. UW-Madison also allowed a grad student representative to attend department meetings.

    Reply
  11. Michael Rutter

    University of York (UK) has a university wide policy of undergraduate and graduate student representation for all departmental board of studies (the main decision making body for each department) and for the significant university wide bodies such as the university senate. The representatives are elected through the undergraduate and postgraduate student unions, and are officially minor union representatives. The representatives attend every meeting, but the board has the discretion to exclude representatives from the discussion and voting of sensitive matters.

    The Philosophy department has five student representatives; three undergraduate representatives elected for each undergraduate year, and two postgraduate representative elected for taught and research postgraduates respectively. Usually at the end of the fairly long meetings (2-4 hours) students are asked to leave for what is usually a very short starred meeting for sensitive matters.

    Student representative are often invited to attend relevant sub-committees. For example, graduate student reps are usually invited to attend the department's Graduate School Board meetings throughout the year.

    As a student, these meeting have been very interesting for the discussions about new courses and modules, explanations (usually good) for decisions that can seem bizarre without some context, and for learning about the the politics of department and the university. Of course the real reason why I actually attend is for the free cake and biscuits!

    Reply
  12. Ram Neta

    UNC-Chapel Hill has a grad rep at all meetings, except for tenure and promotion meetings, and for meetings reviewing grad student progress. Also, we have two grad reps for hiring, and they attend hiring meetings and APA interviews.

    Reply
  13. Marc Bobro

    University of Washington had a grad representative at departmental meetings when I was there in the 90s. I'll bet that the practice continues. I would be disappointed (and somewhat surprised) if this were not a common practice among American departments.

    Reply
  14. Landon W Schurtz

    I was a grad student rep at University of Oklahoma. There are two each year and at least one is at each faculty meeting, though we were – as is common practice – asked to withdraw during discussion of certain topics. I was able to stay for most stuff, though, and my input was even occasionally solicited. On my end, it was an excellent education in the nuts and bolts of academia.

    Reply
  15. Trevor Hedberg

    I currently serve as the grad student rep. at the University of Tennessee. My main responsibility is to articulate and promote the general interests and preferences of the graduate students during our general meetings. If we vote on something (e.g., a change to the graduate handbook), I have a vote, just like the other members of the graduate committee. However, I'm excluded from meetings that involve faculty hires, tenure decisions, and renewal of graduate student funding. (Grad students are free to voice their opinions on potential new hires and tenure decisions, but we don't have a formal vote on them and do not attend the meetings where major decisions are made.)

    This experience has offered me some valuable insight into how the both the department and university administration function, and I think grad students benefit from having the chance to serve on these committees.

    Reply
  16. Eric Schliesser

    In my department at Ghent *all* graduate students and post-docs can attend faculty meetings *and vote*. (I routinely get outvoted in landslides.) However, some personnel decisions are discussed (and voted) only among permanent faculty.

    Reply
  17. Jeff Moriarty

    Rutgers allowed graduate student reps. at faculty meetings when I was there about a decade ago — I was one of the reps. for a short time. We weren't on hand for discussions of graduate student progress, and (I'm pretty sure) we didn't participate in hiring discussions either.

    Reply
  18. John Fischer

    At UC Riverside we have two graduate student "representatives" who attend every meeting except personnel meetings. They do not have a vote but they can participate in discussions.

    Reply
  19. Josh Bright

    During my time there (graduated 2010) UC Riverside had two elected graduate students representatives who participated in all departmental faculty meetings, apart from those involving personnel issues. Reps were elected on staggered two year terms, and were asked to both represent student perspectives on issues of concern, as well as to communicate with their peers regarding the topics of meetings and goings on in the department. Like others commenting above, I found the experience to be invaluable for understanding aspects of faculty life and the workings of the university. I think in general it contributed to the graduate students' sense that faculty were concerned for the students' interests and to understand their perspectives and the impact decisions (funding, TA loads, etc.) would have on the students.

    Reply
  20. Tim Crane

    At Cambridge we have graduate and undergraduate representatives at all general faculty meetings, and all business conducted at other meetings (of sub-committees etc) is conveyed to a committee of student representatives once a term (with the exception of the kind of thing that has already been mentioned).

    Reply
  21. N.J. Jun

    I seem to remember Purdue having two graduate representatives when I was there ('04-'08). I'm almost certain Penn did as well, but someone else will have to verify that.

    Reply
  22. Antony Eagle

    At Oxford, as of 2011–2, two graduate representatives sit on the Graduate Studies Committee, the main committee with decision making responsibility for graduate life and policies, stepping out for confidential issues, generally those involving particular students. Students do not have a vote, but participate fully in discussions, and this committee rarely makes decisions other than by consensus in any case. (Prior to this, faculty-graduate student communication was the responsibility of the Graduate Joint Consultative Committee, but that committee only had a reporting and liaison role with no real decision making authority, and was ineffective for various reasons. At present we retain that kind of arrangement for communication with undergraduates through the Undergraduate Joint Consultative Committee.)

    Reply
  23. Ted Shear

    Here at UC Davis, we have a graduate student representative in department meetings. When I was an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia we even had an undergraduate representative in department meetings. I can say from my experience acting as the undergraduate representative at UBC that it played an important role in reinforcing an active community of interested and engaged undergraduates. Having that representation really helped foster a strong community and feeling of trust that the faculty had the students' interests in mind.

    Reply
  24. Jake Earl

    Georgetown has two elected graduate representatives who attend all faculty meetings and have one vote each that can be applied to any issue but tenure review.

    Reply
  25. Hannah Sandvik

    Two or three undergraduates or graduates are represented in the faculty board at the University of Oslo, as well as in the institute board and the university board. They get one vote in all issues.

    Reply
  26. Kristopher Phillips

    The University of Iowa has one Grad Student Rep each year who attends all faculty meetings that do not involve hiring or graduate student evaluations. The role that the GSR varies depending on the department's hiring situation. If the department is hiring the GSR is charged with accumulating and reporting the overall rankings of candidates by the graduate student population. Other duties mainly involve being a liaison between the faculty and students should any issues directly pertaining to the graduate student community come up.

    Reply
  27. Justin Kalef

    It's good to see that not a single commenter has identified a department at which there are _not_ graduate representatives at meetings.

    Here's a slight exception to that rule: when I began as a graduate student at the University of Victoria (in Canada) about ten years ago, the department maintained a policy of having graduate and undergraduate representatives at every meeting as non-voting members (aside from discussions of hiring/firing). But a few faculty members, including a graduate director who began in the mid '00s, were quite vocally unhappy with this arrangement. At first, they simply neglected to tell the representatives about the meetings. Soon after, they made a case to their colleagues, who voted to bar student representatives.

    As I understand it, however, this only lasted a year or two. At that point, institutional pressure led the department to reconsider its decision and bring back the student reps. Other departments at UVic at the time gave student representatives full voting rights at meetings. I'm not sure whether the philosophy department ultimately followed suit.

    Reply

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