Mass Media and Communication Doctoral Program
MM&C Bylaws
Adopted May 2, 2002
Most recent revisions approved: October 25, 2004
Table of Contents / Quicklinks
Article 1 Prevailing authority of other policies
3.1.1 Eligibility for faculty membership
3.4 Student input and role in governance
3.5 Role of administrative staff
Article 4 Policies and procedures
4.2 Review of student progress
4.3 Budget and student financial support
4.6 Information management and distribution
Article 5. Amending the Bylaws
Preamble
These bylaws outline the policies and procedures regarding the governance and operation of the Mass Media & Communication doctoral program (hereafter, MM&C) in the School of Communications and Theater (hereafter, SCT) at Temple University. MM&C is the only doctoral degree program in SCT; it is an interdepartmental program created from an earlier doctoral program in 1990.
Article 1 Prevailing authority of other policies
In the event of any conflict or contradiction between 1) any of these bylaws or any action taken by MM&C or its faculty under the authority of these bylaws, and 2) any action or current or future policy of Temple University, its President, its Board of Trustees; the bylaws of the Graduate School; the bylaws of SCT; and where applicable, the Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP) contract, the latter action or policy will take precedence and supercede the former.
Other official policies of MM&C are detailed on the MM&C Policies and procedures page of the MM&C web site. The policies and procedures outlined in these bylaws and that document should always be consistent; in cases where they conflict, those in the latter document take precedence.
Article 2 Mission statement
MM&C is the doctoral degree program of SCT; it exists to pursue and accomplish the following goals:
- To make significant contributions to the development of theory and research in the field of mediated communication and communication generally.
- To train the next generation of researchers, scholars, and teachers for successful careers primarily in academic institutions but also in industry, public policy institutes, and private research institutions.
- To help graduates become experts in multiple approaches to research and multiple research methodologies and techniques, who can conduct independent research projects on a wide variety of communication topics.
- To help graduates become experts in pedagogy who can teach a variety of topics to diverse student populations using many different techniques, including those that utilize advanced technology.
- To help graduates become independent thinkers who can critique developments and trends in the field of communication and in society generally; who understand the context of their work both within the scholarly world and the world beyond.
- To help graduates consider the ethics and morality of all of their professional actions and to act in accordance with the highest ethical precepts, and to value collegiality, civility, and collaboration in all aspects of their professional lives.
- To offer advanced training in topics of import and interest including:
- New Media
- Global Communication
- Psychological Processing of Media
- Sociology of Media
- History and Cultural Studies
- Policy and Interest Groups
Article 3 Governance
3.1 Faculty membership
Rather than a department or a program within a department, MM&C is an interdepartmental program. Further, unlike a traditional interdepartmental program, faculty who are affiliated with MM&C do not receive a joint appointment to both their home department and the program. Instead, eligible faculty in SCT apply for membership (and for annual renewal of membership) and when membership is granted, are simply recognized as members of the MM&C faculty. Note that faculty membership status is distinct from the status of member of the Temple University Graduate Faculty. The sections below describe who is eligible for MM&C faculty membership, the benefits and responsibilities of membership, the purpose for and specific criteria for membership, and membership application procedures.
3.1.1 Eligibility for faculty membership
All full-time faculty members in SCT with Presidential appointments who have a Ph.D. are eligible to apply for MM&C faculty membership.
Full-time faculty who have less than two years of full-time teaching experience are eligible for MM&C faculty membership and all of the benefits thereof (see below) but with only limited responsibilities (i.e., they can serve as members but not as chairs of doctoral examination and dissertation committees, they can not serve as chairs of Standing Committees, and only those who have at least one year of full-time teaching experience can teach MM&C courses). As with all MM&C faculty members, productive service on MM&C by these junior faculty must be explicitly accounted for in the individual's overall faculty workload.
3.1.2 Benefits and responsibilities of faulty membership
3.1.2.1 Benefits
The benefits of faculty membership include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The opportunity to teach doctoral level courses, including courses devoted to the faculty member's specific interests.
- The assignment of graduate research assistants to work with and assist the faculty member in his or her research.
- The opportunity to shape the next generation of communication scholars by serving as instructor, advisor, and dissertation committee member and chair.
3.1.2.2 Responsibilities
The responsibilities of faculty membership include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Participation in the administration of the program, including
- Regular attendance at faculty meetings and processing of electronic discussions among the faculty.
- Taking minutes at faculty meetings (assignment based on rotation using faculty members' last names).
- Productive service and active contribution to standing administrative committees under the following guidelines: Productive membership on a committee constitutes a single unit of such service while productive service as chair of a committee constitutes two units of service. Although the number of service positions and committees varies over time, every tenured faculty member is required to contribute up to 3 units of this service and every untenured faculty member is required to contribute up to 2 units of this service.
- Participation in the pedagogical work of the program, including teaching core and other program courses, supervising and collaborating on student research projects, servicing on students' preliminary examination and dissertation committees (including chairing these committees as appropriate), and advising of individual students.
- Attendance at and participation in the events and activities of the program, including the annual Graduate Research Forum, the semi-annual MM&C Poster Session, the bi-weekly SCT Theory and Research Seminar Series [STARSS], and MM&C social events.
- Contribution to scholarship in the form of publication (at or above the level required for membership) and involvement in an ongoing program of research.
- Identification of academic affiliation as ?Mass Media & Communication Program, School of Communications and Theater, Temple University" in all of the faculty member's publications and presentations.
- Continued service as chair of previously constituted dissertation advisory committees for which the student has successfully defended the dissertation proposal even if faculty membership lapses.
- Submission of a copy of the faculty member's curriculum vitae to be kept on file in the SCT Graduate Office.
3.1.2.3 Failure to fulfill responsibilities
MM&C faculty members who do not fulfill the responsibilities listed above, and in articular do not participate constructively in the administration of the program, will not be allocated the support of research assistantships and will not retain their status as member of the program's faculty.
3.1.3 Membership criteria
3.1.3.1 Reasons to have criteria
The establishment and selection of criteria for faculty membership are intended to accomplish the following:
- Provide students in the program the opportunity to be trained by and collaborate with outstanding, active scholars and informed teachers.
- Build and maintain a group of communication scholars with diverse but related interests and areas of expertise
- Encourage the production of research of the highest quality by both faculty and students.
- Establish and maintain a top-tier doctoral program that attracts outstanding students, external funding and new faculty scholars.
- Establish a positive reputation for the program within Temple University and at the regional, national, and international levels.
3.1.3.2 Specific criteria
To become or remain a member of the MM&C faculty, eligible faculty (see 3.1.1 above) must, within the previous five years, have authored or co-authored 1) two scholarly, blind peer-reviewed publications on MM&C-relevant subjects, 2) three scholarly, (blind or non blind) peer-reviewed publications on MM&C-relevant subjects, or 3) one scholarly blind peer-reviewed book (not an edited volume) on MM&C relevant subjects.
A scholarly publication is one that features work by learned persons who are specialists in an academic field or discipline and for which the intended audience is similarly learned peers. The work is expected to be original (i.e., not published elsewhere) and make a substantial or significant contribution to theory and knowledge in the field.
A peer reviewed publication is one in which submitted manuscripts are evaluated by one or more individuals who serve as expert referee, editor (not copy-editor) or critic and who have the authority to either approve or reject the manuscript for publication.
A blind peer reviewed, or mask reviewed, publication is one in which the identity of the author(s) of a manuscript are concealed from the individual(s) who serve as referee(s), editor(s), or critic(s) during the review process (see APA, p. 360). (The Instructions to Authors statement published in each issue of a journal typically indicates whether work that appears in the journal is peer or blind peer reviewed.)
The term publication refers to the form of the work and here specifically includes books (but not textbooks), chapters in edited books, full articles in journals (including electronic journals that meet the requirements outlined in Halliday, 2001[1]), and serial monographs, and specifically excludes review essays, reviews, reports, comments, "in brief" columns, or work that appears in newsletters, trade or professional publications, and magazines.
An MM&C-relevant subject is any topic related to the areas of interest and import identified in the mission statement for the program (see Article II above).
Publications that are "in press" may be used to fulfill the membership criteria (for these publications, the 5 year period begins with the date of the publisher's letter of acceptance).
The publication criterion is a minimum requirement for MM&C faculty membership; it is expected that faculty members also have made or will make some of the following scholarly contributions:
- Attainment of nonproprietary research grants
- Status as book editor or co-editor
- Authorship or co-authorship of refereed conference papers
- Authorship of bibliographies and other scholarly tools
- Active involvement with and service to regional and national associations
- Attendance at regional and national conferences
- Service as editor or editorial board member of a journal
- Service as host of regional and national conferences
Faculty membership, once achieved, must be renewed annually.
This policy was adapted on April 23, 2002 and takes effect with respect to all applications for membership from that date forward. No grand parenting from any previous version of this policy will be in effect, with one exception: those members of the MM&C faculty who had attained the status of "lifetime member," which has been removed from this version of the Membership Criteria, retain this status.
Note: The definitions within this policy have been informed by material from the following references:
APA (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Fifth Edition). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Halliday (2001, July). Scholarly communication, scholarly publication and the status of emerging formats. Information Research, 6(4). Retrieved on March 27, 2002 from http://InformationR.net/ir/paper111.html.
3.1.3.3 Membership application procedures
A Call for Members will be distributed late in the spring semester of each year to all faculty in SCT, and those whose appointments will begin the following fall. The Call will include a cover letter; the relevant sections of these bylaws; and an application form. The cover letter will outline the benefits and responsibilities of membership, the rationale for having membership criteria, and the specific criteria for membership. The application form will require applicants to indicate their highest degree earned and the number of years they have had a full-time teaching appointment, to list only those publications they believe fulfill the membership criteria, to indicate which of the publications are blind peer-reviewed and which are only peer reviewed, and to attach any documentation (e.g., letters of acceptance for in press publications, Instructions to Authors statements that verify the review process used for a publication, etc.). The Call will include a deadline for submission of all application forms to the SCT Graduate Office by mid-April. Applications for membership for the following academic year will not be considered after this deadline; the only exception to this policy that may be made at the discretion of the full faculty is for a faculty member whose appointment begins in the fall of the following academic year; in such cases no applications will be considered after September 30.
Following the deadline for submission of application forms, the director will review and compile all of the applications and at a subsequent faculty meeting, present them to the faculty along with recommendations regarding approval, rejection, or requests for further information. The faculty will vote on each application, with a two-thirds majority required for approval. In cases where the faculty determine that more information is needed, the director may request that the applicant provide a copy of one or more publications. Every attempt will be made to resolve those cases judged to require additional information quickly.
Prior to the end of the spring semester, the director will notify the applicants and all members of the SCT faculty regarding the membership of the program faculty for the following academic year.
The director will retain all of the application forms along with the other program materials and refer to them as necessary in evaluating future applications.
3.2 Director
The director of MM &C is responsible for the overall administration of the program. His/her duties and responsibilities are defined by these bylaws and any pertinent policies of Temple University. The director is appointed by the Dean of the School of Communications and Theater following an election by the members of the current Program faculty, and shall report to and be accountable to the dean or his/her designee and serve at the pleasure of the dean. This section describes the responsibilities of the director and procedures for the election of the director.
3.2.1 Responsibilities of director
The responsibilities of the director include, but are not limited to the following:
- Appoint chairs and members of standing and ad hoc committees.
- Oversee the work of standing and ad hoc committees.
- Attend meetings of the SCT chairs.
- Attend meetings of the SCT Graduate Policy Committee (GPC).
- Monitor and manage the funds of the program.
- Maintain all physical and electronic materials related to the program in an organized manner; this includes coordinating the recording and archiving of minutes for all meetings.
- Process petitions and complete other routine work concerning MM&C.
- Schedule, prepare and distribute agendas for, and chair regular faculty meetings.
- Schedule and coordinate all professional and social events described in these bylaws.
- Answer queries regarding the program from internal and external audiences.
- Assign research assistants to program faculty.
- Update physical (e.g., brochures) and electronic (e.g., web site) information regarding the program, or see that such updating takes place.
- Inform all current students of changes to official policies and procedures, via the MMC listserv or other appropriate channels.
- Make a "State of the Program" report at the beginning of each year describing the academic condition of the program and outlining goals for its improvement.
3.2.2 Election and term of director
All members of the MM&C faculty who are tenured are eligible to be elected as Director. The director must be at the rank of associate or full professor and the latter is preferable.
The director serves for a 2 year term, beginning on September 1 and ending on August 31. An individual can serve as director up to 3 consecutive terms. If the Director is temporarily unable to serve for an extended period of time leave or absence, illness, or other reason he or she should be replaced temporarily or for the duration of his/her term, at the director's option, by procedures described in this subsection.
Election of the director for the following year must be completed by the end of the spring semester. The current Director is responsible for appointing another faculty member to oversee the election process. Nominations for self or others are to be put forward, and brief statements from the candidates made, at a meeting during the spring semester (the agenda for this meeting must contain notice that the election process will begin at the meeting). At a second meeting any additional discussion is to be followed by the distribution and tallying of secret ballots. If it is requested by any member of MM&C, mail or e-mail ballots are to be distributed by and returned to the faculty member overseeing the election within 5 business days following this second meeting. Only those faculty present at one of the two meetings described here at which the election is discussed are eligible to vote. A positive vote of two-thirds of the faculty members eligible to vote is required for election. If this threshold is not met by a first vote, a change in the candidates (withdrawals and/or new nominations) are to be requested and the procedures repeated.
The dean of SCT must officially accept and appoint the person elected to be director.
3.3 Committees
Separate standing committees will perform administrative tasks in five distinct areas as described below. Ad hoc administrative committees will be established as deemed appropriate by the Director and the other faculty.
With the exception of the Information Management committee, each administrative committee will have no fewer than three members, with one serving as chair. Faculty members serve on these committees for one year terms (September - May) and where possible multiple years, with staggered service to provide continuity. The Director will appoint members and designate chairs. Based on faculty suggestions and consensus, the Director will invite individual MM&C students, who must be and remain in good standing, to participate in the work of the committees.
3.3.1 Research Forum committee
This committee schedules, plans, coordinates, and hosts the annual Graduate Research Forum event. The responsibilities of this committee include:
- Establish the timeline for the event, including relevant submission and reviewing deadlines and the date of the event.
- Design and distribute a Call for Papers.
- Recruit reviewers from the MM&C and SCT faculties and MM&C alumni.
- Coordinate the distribution of submitted papers to reviewers and the tabulation of reviewer evaluations.
- Determine the acceptance and rejection of submitted papers and the papers to receive awards.
- Design and distribute the invitation to the event for presenters and guests.
- Coordinate a single seminar meeting to instruct and prepare the presenters.
- Arrange for the required equipment and catering services for the event.
- Provide a report on the event each year with recommendations for changes and improvements in future years.
The chair of the committee is responsible for coordinating the activities of the committee, including scheduling and chairing meetings, regularly reporting on the committee's work to the full faculty, and presenting proposals to the full faculty as necessary and appropriate.
3.3.2 Admissions committee
This committee coordinates the faculty's consideration of applications to enter the Program each year. The responsibilities of this committee include:
- Schedule consideration by the full faculty of applications for admission and financial support.
- Establish and coordinate the procedures for consideration of applications, including the assignment of faculty supporters or ?champions? and contacts between faculty members and applicants.
- Record, regularly update, and distribute to the full faculty the status of all applications.
- Provide a report on the admissions process each year with recommendations for changes and improvements in future years.
The chair of the committee is responsible for coordinating the activities of the committee, including scheduling and chairing meetings, regularly reporting on the committee's work to the full faculty, directing discussions and decision-making processes at meetings of the full faculty, and presenting proposals to the full faculty as necessary and approporiate.
3.3.3 Curriculum committee
This committee evaluates, and considers and offers proposals for changes in, the Program's curriculum, which is defined broadly as including all elements of professional training. The responsibilities of this committee include:
- Consider and offer proposals for new courses or sets of courses and/or modification (including scheduling frequency) or discontinuation of existing courses.
- Consider and offer proposals for changes in the policies and procedures used to evaluate and encourage student progress and success in the Program (e.g., the Program Proposal).
- Consider and offer proposals for changes in the policies and procedures used for the administration and evaluation of student examinations, the dissertation proposal, and the final dissertation.
- Provide a report on the curriculum each year with recommendations for changes and improvements in future years.
The chair of the committee is responsible for coordinating the activities of the committee, including scheduling and chairing meetings, regularly reporting on the committee's work to the full faculty, and presenting proposals to the full faculty as necessary and appropriate.
3.3.4 Recruiting committee
This committee oversees recruiting of outstanding applicants for the Program via the design, production and dissemination of information. The responsibilities of this committee include:
- Evaluate the quality and accuracy of information about the Program that is disseminated and/or publicly available
- Design, produce (or have produced), and disseminate (or have disseminated) physical and electronic information products (e.g., posters, brochures, CD-ROMs, web sites, etc.).
- Monitor and evaluate the success of recruitment efforts.
- Provide a report on recruitment activities each year with recommendations for changes and improvements in future years.
The chair of the committee is responsible for coordinating the activities of the committee, including scheduling and chairing meetings, regularly reporting on the committee's work to the full faculty, and presenting proposals to the full faculty as necessary.
3.3.5 Information Management committee
This committee, which may have only one member, oversees the distribution of information to the MM&C community regarding the program and the archiving of that information. The responsibilities of this committee include:
- Maintain (serve as listowner for) the program listserv.
- Maintain (serve as webmaster for) the program web site.
- Distribute official announcements (e.g., regarding student defenses) and news (e.g., of publications by students and faculty) via the program listserv and web site.
- Maintain archive copies of minutes of MM&C faculty meetings.
- Provide a report on information management activities each year with recommendations for changes and improvements in future years.
The chair of the committee is responsible for coordinating the activities of the committee, including scheduling and chairing meetings, regularly reporting on the committee's work to the full faculty, and presenting proposals to the full faculty as necessary.
3.4 Student input and role in governance
In recognition that the perspectives and insights of students can make important contributions to the MM&C Program, the following policies are adapted:
At the beginning of each Fall semester (beginning Fall 2001), the MM&C Director will distribute via the MMC listserv (or other appropriate channels) 1) a request that interested MM&C students meet monthly with the Director to discuss their perspectives on MM&C related issues, and 2) an announcement that any MM&C student may request that an issue or concern be placed on the agenda of an upcoming MM&C faculty meeting and, if desired, present and discuss this issue or concern at the meeting.
Based on faculty suggestions and consensus, the MM&C Director will invite individual MM&C students, who must be and remain in good standing, to participate in the work of faculty standing and ad hoc committees.
No MM&C students will be permitted to attend portions of MM&C meetings during which confidential matters regarding faculty and/or other students are discussed or receive copies of minutes detailing such matters.
3.5 Role of administrative staff
The duties of the member(s) of the administrative staff are determined by the current job description of the position, available from the office of the Dean. These duties include advising applicants and potential applicants, students, and alumni regarding administrative policies and procedures; administering student examinations as needed; and maintaining updated records regarding applicants, students and alumni. The staff member(s) are to be informed of all relevant deliberations and decisions of the faculty via interpersonal and electronic channels as appropriate (including subscription to the faculty listserv and access to the faculty material on the Program web site).
3.6 Faculty meetings
The full faculty shall meet as often as necessary to address issues that require deliberation and action, but not less often than once each month during the academic year (September to May).
A special meeting will be held once a year in which the research and scholarship of the faculty members is discussed.
All meetings of the full faculty shall be guided by Robert's Rules of Order (latest edition).
The minutes of all meetings of the full faculty will be taken, retained, and made accessible to the faculty. The taking of minutes will rotate alphabetically among the faculty, excluding the Director.
Article 4 Policies and procedures
4.1 Admissions
4.1.1 Timing
Admission procedures occur once per year in the early Spring semester for Fall admission. Admitted students can defer entrance to the program for one year, but students may not begin the program in the spring semester.
4.1.2 Procedures
- Applications are compiled by the staff in the SCT Graduate Office. All files are held in that office for review by faculty; applications are to be removed only with notice to the office staff.
- The MM&C director notifies all applicants by letter or by e-mail once their application is complete.
- The SCT Graduate Office staff enter relevant application information into the MM&C database and into the Temple computer system as required by the Graduate School.
- All applications, with priority given to those that are complete, are reviewed by members of the MM&C admissions committee as early as possible. The committee assigns each application to a single faculty member based on the (apparent) interest areas of the applicant and/or other information the committee deems appropriate. The faculty member assigned to each application is tentatively designated as the applicant's 'champion.' This person is expected to make a close assessment of the application, contact the applicant if the application is promising, identify an appropriate second faculty member to evaluate the application, make a recommendation to the full faculty regarding acceptance or rejection of the application, and if the faculty votes to admit the applicant, encourage the applicant to enter the program (i.e., to recruit or 'woo' the applicant). If the applicant enters the program, the 'champion' serves as the student's academic advisor. Each faculty member will be expected to agree to serve as champion for a reasonable number of applicants.
- Only current MM&C faculty members are asked to take responsibility for contacting, supporting the admission of, and serving as primary advisor for applicants to the program.
- To further assess the appropriateness of the candidates' interests, to insure they have adequate spoken English skills, and to address their questions and/or concerns regarding the program, at least one MM&C faculty member must speak with all promising applicants before they can be accepted for admission.
- Each application is discussed by the faculty and a final admission decision is made by the faculty as a whole at one of several scheduled meetings early in the spring semester.
- If an applicant does not meet normal admission criteria but a faculty member is willing to work with the applicant after admission, then special consideration will be given by the faculty as a whole regarding the admission of that applicant.
- The MM&C director notifies all applicants by letter and/or by e-mail of the admissions decision.
- As faculty champions gather and report information, the faculty make admissions decisions, and applicants report acceptance or rejection of admission offers, the SCT Graduate Office staff updates the MM&C database and the MM&C admissions committee generates automatic updated reports for use at subsequent faculty meetings and for tracking purposes.
- To increase the likelihood of bringing outstanding students to the program, every effort is made to evaluate applications and make admissions (and financial support) decisions quickly and inform applicants of these decisions.
- Because Temple University is a signatory to the Council of Graduate Schools' Resolution Regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees, and Assistants, students who are given offers of financial support must be given until April 15 to accept or reject them. To maintain consistency with this policy, all students admitted to the program will be given until April 15 (or later if necessary) to accept or reject the offer of admission.
- A list of all candidates for admission each year and the decision made regarding their admission are to be entered in the minutes of the MM&C program.
4.1.3 Criteria
- Under normal circumstances, only those applicants who have earned a master's degree, or will have earned the degree by the time they begin the program, are admitted. The faculty reserve the right, however, to consider applicants who do not meet this criterion if they deem another aspect of the application to be exceptional.
- Admission should be based on several criteria: a match between the student's abilities and the expectations of the faculty, a match between the kind of training and other attributes of the program and the applicant's goals, the applicant's academic and personal references, and his/her scores on standardized tests.
- There must be more than one faculty member who is willing to support an applicant for that person to be admitted. Students will also be required to focus dissertation topics only on faculty members' existing areas of research.
- Under normal circumstances, only those applicants who have a minimum undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of 3.0, a graduate GPA of 3.25, and a minimum total GRE score (verbal and math) of 1100 will be considered for admission, with a minimum verbal score of 350; candidates with scores near these minima will have their references scrutinized rigorously. The faculty reserve the right, however, to consider applicants who do not meet these criteria if they deem another aspect of the application to be exceptional.
- Although an applicant may have arranged for or not request or need financial, this should not be used as a criterion by the faculty when deciding if an applicant is admitted or not.
4.1.4 Financial support
To avoid losing top candidates to other schools because the program is unable to inform them about funding in a timely manner, MM&C makes every effort to obtain the necessary information regarding graduate student financial support allotments by the application deadline, February 1.
The most outstanding applicants each year are nominated for University, Conwell, Presidential, or Future Faculty fellowships as early as possible. Other outstanding applicants are offered teaching/research assistantships for their first year. Although no promise can be made, it is assumed that students awarded these assistantships will be supported in their second and third years as well.
4.2 Review of student progress
4.3 Budget and student financial support
4.3.1 Teaching and research assistantships
Following the University and School, MM&C considers assistantships as awards for academic excellence intended to provide outstanding graduate students with valuable experience and training. Because they cover tuition expenses and provide other benefits, assistantships are an expensive and limited resource. Rather than simply using them to fulfill the teaching needs of departments (for which hiring adjunct instructors would be more logical and economical) our priority is to use assistantships to recruit the best students possible, help our students complete their degrees in a timely manner, provide the research and teaching experiences they need to excel in their academic and/or professional careers, assist and stimulate the research and scholarly productivity of our faculty, and build MM&C's and SCT's academic reputations.
In order to do this, MM&C has adopted these policies regarding the assignments of its students who receive graduate assistantships:
- Assignments will be made primarily and whenever possible to contribute to the students' training - not simply to meet teaching obligations of departments or personal desires of faculty.
- In recognition of the importance of training in research as well as pedagogy, half of the assistantship assignments will be as research assistant and half as teaching assistant or instructor.
- To maximize their training, all students will receive a combination of research and teaching assignments each semester. This also allows flexibility during peak times of the semester in one of the two assignments (e.g., at midterms and during finals).
- All students will be given the opportunity to teach; MM&C makes every effort to only admit students who have the necessary spoken English skills to work in the classroom. Any students without these skills should be asked/required to develop the skills.
- Only those students with appropriate production background will be assigned to assist or teach production courses.
- To maximize students' training, and to prevent departments from having to train too many students, teaching assignments should be made for a full year (with six semesters of support, changing assignments in this way means giving students three different experiences). In some cases students may be assigned to assist or teach different courses during the two semesters of a given year, or to teach or assist the same course as many as (but not more than) three times during their degree program (of course this restriction of three teaching experiences with the same course does not apply when departments use other funds to directly hire MM&C students).
- To provide a breadth of experiences and expertise, students should be assigned to work as teaching and research assistants or instructors with faculty members in different departments whenever possible.
- Where a department has trained and prepared students for a sequence of assignments, the next assignments in the sequence should be honored if possible.
- New students should be assigned to work as research assistants initially with their temporary advisor; students who have not worked as a research assistant with their advisor should be given the opportunity to do so.
- Research assistant assignments may change each semester or each year, depending on the nature of the work the student is doing and the student's advisor and the full faculty's assessment of the value of the assignments for the student's training. To provide a breadth of experiences and expertise, students should not be assigned to work with the same research supervisor more than three of the six semesters of (potential) assistantship support.
- Because the University requires offers of graduate assistantships to contain specific assignments, and to provide students and faculty with timely information, assistantship assignments for an academic year should be made as early in the spring semester of the previous year as possible. At that time the MM&C director will request a list of teaching assistant and instructor needs from all relevant SCT departments (currently BTMM and JPRA but as of fall 2003, SOC and theoretically others). The full MM&C faculty will then develop a set of suggested research and teaching assignments based on a review of these needs, every student's Program Proposal (a detailed outline of his/her particular experiences and goals in the areas of research and teaching) as well as each eligible student's detailed application for funding (which includes all the student's previous research and teaching assignments and his/her preference for future assignments). The MM&C director will then present and discuss the suggested teaching assignments individually or during a group meeting with the relevant department chairs and any problems will be resolved. Any adjustments in the teaching assignments required by changes in courses to be offered must be agreed upon by the MM&C director and relevant department chair(s).
4.4 Curriculum
4.4.1 Courses and course scheduling
As one piece of a multi-part effort to make SCT's doctoral degree program, Mass Media & Communication (MM&C), a competitive, top-tier Ph.D. program in communication, beginning with the fall 2002 semester MM&C has (1) received a limited budget to buy out faculty from SCT departments (and on some occasions hire visiting or adjunct professors), and (2) used these buyouts to begin offering a small rotating set of doctoral level courses.
These policies assure that SCT offers enough doctoral courses each semester to maintain (1) the rigor and specialization necessary for a high-quality doctoral program, and (2) the timely progress of MM&C doctoral students through their course of study. At the same time, they are designed to avoid imposing on or penalizing other SCT programs by requiring the judicious use of faculty buyouts.
Doctoral courses. Although they remain open to any qualified SCT or other Temple graduate student, MM&C doctoral courses are designed for MM&C students - that is, they assume the background and the ability to carry out advanced doctoral-level work; workload and evaluation will not be adjusted to accommodate non-Ph.D. students. Therefore, non-MM&C students are to be advised to carefully consider, after discussion with an advisor, whether they should enroll in these courses. Enrollment requires permission of the instructor, which will be granted based on the student's likely ability to benefit from and perform at the level required for a course designed for doctoral students.
MM&C students are to be encouraged (in published material and by MM&C faculty advisors) to take all appropriate courses offered by all SCT masters programs, for which they will receive credit toward the MM&C degree. To avoid confusion, neither set of courses (those offered by MM&C with its limited budget and those offered by SCT masters programs) will be cross-listed. However, SCT graduate students are to be encouraged to review the course offerings in all SCT graduate programs.
Faculty buyouts. When MM&C buys out a faculty member's course for a given semester, the faculty member's department will receive funds (e.g., $4,000) from MM&C's limited budget to allow it to hire a replacement instructor. Departments must be protected from having to grant buy outs of so many courses taught by their faculty members as to interfere with the departments? ability to meet their instructional obligations. Therefore, MM&C will not request more than 3 buy outs from any single department during any single semester or 5 buyouts in any year. However, to allow MM&C to offer a consistent and predictable curriculum, departments will be obliged to release faculty up to this limit.
MM&C Courses. MM&C will use its limited budget to cover two sets of courses: 1) core or required courses which all MM&C students must take, and 2) elective courses.
Core courses: The current set of core courses will be offered in a repeating schedule every year and will require three buyouts each semester, one of which is for a one-credit colloquium.
Elective courses: The enrollment plan, and the credit requirements, for the MM&C program suggest that it is appropriate to offer two elective courses each semester. The specific courses offered will be based on a scheduling matrix created from the specialization areas identified in MM&C's mission statement. Courses identified with each area will be scheduled in a consistent rotation. The set of courses will be modified as necessary based on changes in the field and our available faculty.
Procedures. A meeting will be scheduled (e.g., following a SCT chairs' meeting) every semester for the MM&C director and the chairs of all relevant SCT departments to plan and coordinate their respective course schedules for the following semester. The MM&C director will be obligated to inform the chairs regarding any buy outs for the following semester by a pre-established deadline date every semester.
4.4.2 Preliminary examinations and dissertation
4.5 Program events
4.5.1 New student orientation
4.5.2 Graduate Research Forum
4.5.3 Poster Session
4.6 Information management and distribution
4.6.1 Recruiting
4.6.2 Policies and procedures for students
4.6.3 Program listserv
4.6.4 MM&C Information Bank
4.6.5 MM&C Database
4.7 Other
4.7.1 Transfer credits
4.7.2 Ethics
4.7.3 Miscellaneous
Article 5. Amending the Bylaws
Revisions or amendments to these Bylaws may be recommended by the Director or any current MM&C faculty member at any time. The Director also shall review the Bylaws of the Program every five years and, after consultation with the faculty, may recommend revisions or amendments. In all instances, revisions or amendments must be presented to the faculty for their approval. It may be necessary to forward some recommended revisions to the Dean of SCT and/or the President of the University or his/her designee. It may also be necessary that University counsel review recommended revisions or amendments to assure conformity to University policies. The MM&C faculty shall be authorized to amend these Bylaws by a two-thirds vote at a meeting following the meeting at which the amendment is proposed.
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[1] The relevant excerpt is in the conclusion section: "This paper aimed to provide a working definition of 'scholarly publication'. The framework provided by Kling and McKim supplemented by the IWG definition and the criteria of questionnaire respondents was used to generate the following definition which divides criteria into those that are: essential (E); Highly desirable (HD); and preferable (P). Thus, a scholarly publication requires:
Trustworthiness
- Publications should not be changed (HD).
- Different versions should be clearly identified (HD).
- To satisfy all potential interest, trustworthiness should be based on 'institutionalised' measures such as peer review rather than on personal knowledge (HD).
- Each publication should have at least one identifiable author (P).
Publicity
- The potential audience must be made aware that the publication exists (HD).
- The publication should have metadata containing a minimum set of information, preferably including information about all versions (P).
Accessibility: the document must be readily obtained by those who wish to use it.
- The author must intend that the publication be made publicly available in a durable form over the long term (E).
- The publication must be durably recorded on some medium (E).
- The publication must be reliably accessible and retrievable over time (E)
- There should be a commitment not to withdraw the publication (E).
- The publication must be publicly available, i.e. available to any member of the public on demand as of right, whether for payment of a fee or not. (E).
- The publication should have stable identifiers (HD).