Graduate Curriculum Committee (GCC)

Statement of Purpose and Organization

The Graduate Curriculum Committee is created to ensure academic excellence and integrity in the design, development, and marketing of graduate education at the University of St. Thomas. It serves not as a gatekeeper or final authority on questions of new or existing graduate education, but as a support and resource to the programs, to the Vice President of Academic Affairs and to the University as a whole. In this regard, the Committee is guided by the principle of subsidiarity, moving authority to approve curricular changes to the appropriate level within the organization, which in most cases will be within programs or individual Schools. The Graduate Schools acknowledge the need for this representative academic council, which becomes for them an intellectual resource with a shared commitment to the well-being of the institution, to the good of the academic community, and to professional graduate education. Underlying the creation and design of work for the Graduate Curriculum Committee is a philosophy embedded in the following objectives:

To enable innovation to proceed with appropriate speed while retaining essential review processes.
To inform and educate colleagues across graduate programs about program curricular developments of interest to the whole community.
To provide a mechanism for academic programs to seek informed review and constructive feedback from St. Thomas colleagues outside their disciplines or programs.
To ensure that significant resource issues, especially in regard to new initiatives, are addressed from a broad university perspective.
To encourage appropriate collaboration and to take appropriate action with regard to curricular and program redundancies among schools.
To develop curricular and academic policies which serve fairly and equitably the needs of all programs and students in the University’s graduate schools.
To give the Vice President of Academic Affairs thoughtful feedback and recommendations from faculty regarding new graduate initiatives.

Membership

The Graduate Curriculum Committee will consist of one representative from each of the following units of the University:

Graduate School of Professional Psychology
School of Engineering
Graduate Program in Software Engineering
College of Business
College of Arts and Sciences
School of Divinity
School of Education
School of Social Work
School of Law

Representatives will be chosen by election of faculty within that unit to serve four-year terms.

One undergraduate faculty representative elected by the University Faculty will serve as a voting member of the Committee.

The Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs or designee will sit on the Committee as a non-voting member and Chair. The university Registrar will also be a non-voting member.

Meetings

The Committee will meet regularly and in response to scheduling needs of individual Schools, with authority to call meetings residing with the Chair.

Scope of Authority

(See link)

Comments, questions, or feedback on each committee can be directed to the committee chair. Please see directory above.

Comments, questions, or feedback on the web site can be directed to committees@stthomas.edu