Faculty of The Graduate School
Membership and duties of the Faculty of The Graduate School (or graduate faculty) are defined in Article IV, Section 3 of the University Statutes and may only be amended by the Board of Trustees:
"The Faculty of The Graduate School shall be drawn from the faculties of Colleges or Schools of the University which have placed the administration of part or all of the graduate work under the control of The Graduate School and, except as provided below, shall be limited to persons who hold tenure or tenure-line appointments, and shall be made up of those persons who clearly demonstrate ability and continuing interest in research and whose academic duties normally involve instruction and supervision of graduate students.
The duties of the Faculty of The Graduate School shall be to approve the various programs of study leading to advanced degrees, to establish regulations governing the conferring of advanced degrees, to recommend candidates for advanced degrees, and to perform such other duties as ordinarily fall to a faculty."
The Graduate School automatically, annually, appoints all faculty members who hold tenure or tenure-line appointments at the University to the graduate faculty. An appointment to the graduate faculty is not necessary for teaching graduate courses.
Ad hoc graduate faculty appointments
University Statutes further outline the option for non-tenure-track faculty to be appointed to the graduate faculty under certain conditions:
“… other persons may be appointed to the Faculty of The Graduate School if they hold a faculty appointment in another School, are actively involved in graduate education, and are nominated by a School Dean.”
The Dean of The Graduate School in consultation with associate deans for graduate education in our partner schools review these requests through the ad hoc graduate faculty appointment process. Non-tenure-track faculty and faculty who have left the Northwestern for a position at another university who are actively advising and/or serving on thesis, prospectus, and/or dissertation committees of a current TGS graduate student may request an appointment at any time during the academic year. Ad-hoc appointments to the graduate faculty of non-tenured or tenure-track persons are made for a term of four years and may be renewed.
Requesting an appointment
To request an ad-hoc appointment, please complete the Ad-Hoc Graduate Faculty Appointment Request form. The form will require you to upload a current CV and a brief letter of support from the chair of the department in which you will be advising graduate students. Once submitted, the form will be routed to the appropriate school associate dean who must approve before TGS’s final review. If and when approved by TGS, the submitter will receive a letter of approval for a standard 4-year term appointment and be added to the look-up tool for milestone forms.
Contact
Email TGS Academic Affairs tgsacademicaffairs@northwestern.edu with questions.