In preparation for each academic year and admissions season, Dean Matsuda writes to work out which faculty and staff will take the key roles over your grad programs. Both the Department Chair and Dean Matsuda will electronically sign this document to formally assign those roles (such as director of graduate study and admissions chair). Please find the description of each role below and the nomination form at the bottom of this page.
Graduate Program Roles
Director of Graduate Studies
The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) is responsible for the oversight of the graduate program (degree, diploma, or certificate) and academic processes. The role of Director of Graduate Studies corresponds to what SACSCOC refers to as the “Program Coordinator” (Standard 6.2.c here), and the expectations written here are in part adopted from the SACSCOC rules. To meet the SACSCOC requirements as the SACSCOC Program Coordinator, the Director of Graduate Studies must be a full-time faculty member qualified to teach in the graduate academic program, with qualifications appropriate for the curricular content and degree level of the program. In doctoral programs, only tenure-track faculty approved to chair dissertation committees may serve as the Director of Graduate Studies. In accordance with SACSCOC Standard 10.4, the Director of Graduate Studies directs the learning enterprise, including the oversight and coordination of educational programs. The Director of Graduate Studies ensures appropriate curriculum design, development, and evaluation, identifies and assesses student learning outcomes, and oversees student advising, research and creative activity, and institutional and professional service. The DGS makes academic judgements on behalf of the graduate program, which may not be further delegated to other faculty or to staff. The Director of Graduate Studies is the primary liaison on interactions between the departmental (or program) faculty and GPS once the student has accepted the offer of admission. The Director of Graduate Studies (rather than the student’s advisor) is the only individual who makes petitions on behalf of the degree program to the Dean of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies (DGPS). The responsibilities outlined here are those that interact with GPS, and the Director of Graduate Studies may have other responsibilities, depending on program practice. Sometimes a department will use a different title for this role (e.g., Chair of the Graduate Committee, Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, Program Director), but we will use here the standard Rice terminology and refer to that role as the Director of Graduate Studies.
Official Degree Certifier
The contents of Rice University’s curricular programs are the collective responsibility of the Faculty acting through their representatives in the Faculty Senate. The General Announcements is Rice’s documented, official curriculum. As the university’s degree audit system, Degree Works is the tool used to enable the degree certification and approval of an academic program. Each degree program must designate an individual who will consider and approve course waivers (for doctoral programs) or petition for course waivers (for master’s programs) and ultimately indicate departmental certification for the complete program requirements. The Official Certifier must meet all qualifications to be the Director of Graduate Studies and often is the same individual.
Graduate Admissions Chair
The Admissions Chair is the faculty member to whom the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies delegates authority to oversee admissions in a graduate program and make recommendations for admission to the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The Admissions Chair must meet the same qualifications as the Director of Graduate Studies and Official Certifier; they must be a full-time faculty member qualified to teach in the graduate academic program, with qualifications appropriate for the curricular content and degree level of the program. The Admissions Chair is the primary faculty contact with whom GPS would work on the development of the application, and throughout the admissions and recruiting process. The Admissions Chair is the person who would petition to DGPS for any exceptions to academic expectations in admission (e.g., the GPA floor). In many degree programs, the Admissions Chair is part of the Director of Graduate Studies role. When those roles are distinct, the natural transition point between the role of the Graduate Admissions Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies is when the student accepts the offer. Some departments use a different title for this role, but we will use here the standard Rice terminology, and refer to that role as the Graduate Admissions Chair.
Academic Integrity Contact
Each department must identify one Graduate Academic Integrity Contact as a point person to manage all cases involving graduate students taking courses in that department. For context, the Faculty Senate endorsed the recommendations of the Graduate Honor Council Working Group in April 2023, and the current procedures are available at http://gradhonor.rice.edu. Academic integrity is now governed. where the academic expertise lies – the primary department of the course’s instructor. The local unit now adjudicates academic misconduct accusations within the Academic Integrity System. If the department does not identify a different individual, the Department Chair will default to be the Academic Integrity contact.
Graduate Administrator
The Graduate Administrator is the staff member who has primary responsibility for assisting students from orientation through graduation. This individual has the primary staff responsibility for orientation, student registration, petitions, leaves, withdrawals, and graduation. This person may or may not have financial responsibilities related to student financial aid. This person is not an academic mentor nor do they have the authority to file petitions independent of the Director of Graduate Studies. They cannot serve or appear to be serving an academic mentor to the graduate students unless they are similarly qualified as the Director of Graduate Studies (see above). Sometimes the person in this role holds a different HR position title, but in standard Rice terminology, we will refer to this role as the Graduate Administrator. For clarity for the Rice community, this person’s working title should be easily distinguished from those of the Director of Graduate Studies.
Graduate Admissions Administrator
The Graduate Administrator is a staff member who is responsible for assisting the admissions committee through the application review process, decision delivery, visa initiation, and student record creation or activation. The Graduate Admissions Administrator is the primary staff contact with whom GPS staff and OISS staff would work on the development of the application, on the development of recruiting materials, and throughout the admissions and recruiting process. The Graduate Admissions Administrator cannot make academic decisions or petition for academic decisions, but they may submit petitions to GPS staff that are purely of an administrative nature (e.g., to submit petitions that notify GPS that the reason a student did not take the TOEFL was that they have a degree from a university in which the language of instruction is English). In most graduate programs, a single person performs the roles of the Graduate Admissions Administrator and Graduate Administrator (i.e., that person is the staff support for both admissions and students in the program). The roles are listed as possibly separate since some programs do split them. When those roles are distinct, the natural transition point is after the student ID has been created (so the Graduate Admission Administrator works primarily within Slate and the Graduate Administrator works primarily in Banner. More of the technical work in Slate will be automated or absorbed by GPS in the coming years. Please confer with GPS prior to hiring a new Graduate Administrator. The workload and balance of skills needed to serve this role well will evolve.
Application Manager
The application manager is the single contact person who will partner with GPS to develop, test, and maintain the application. The degree program frequently designates the Graduate Admissions Administrator (staff) to be the Application Manager, but some departments designate the Graduate Admissions Chair (faculty) to this role. The degree program delegates to that individual the responsibility to work with internal stakeholders, think through what faculty will need to make admissions decisions and how to design the application accordingly.
On the nomination form, feel free to put multiple programs on one form if doing so feels workable. For example, if the same person is DGS for both master's and PhD, you can simply put both degrees under “degrees”. If the arrangement is more complicated (such as separate people for two degrees), please use two lines. If it seems easier to submit separate forms for each degree, that’s fine as well.