Graduate Council

The Graduate Council provides guidance to The Graduate School at Charleston Southern University.

Third Thursday of the month at 3 p.m., excluding holidays or otherwise communicated.

  • Deadline for new spring classes: October meeting
  • Deadline for new May/Summer classes: March meeting
  • All significant Level 2 programmatic changes for the following fall semester: February meeting

Quick Links

Council Reports
Curricular Approval Process
Curriculum Design & Expectations
Forms
New Program Development Guidelines


Membership

To be eligible for full memberships on the Graduate Faculty, a faculty member must meet the following criteria:

  1. Earned the terminal degree or its evident equivalent in scholarly maturity and productivity.
  2. Completed a minimum of three years of college teaching experience, at least one of which must be subsequent to the receipt of the terminal degree
  3. Be elected by the Graduate Council upon the recommendation of
    • the Department Chair
    • the Director of Graduate Studies in the appropriate area
    • the appropriate Academic Dean, and
    • the Vice President for Academic Affairs
  4. Be re-appointed at five-year intervals, with reappointment requiring evidence of productivity in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service, and
  5. Have taught graduate courses at Charleston Southern University or another regionally accredited university/college within three years of appointment.
  6. Doctoral faculty members teach only in the Ed.D. or the planned Physical Therapy program.

To be eligible for associate membership in the graduate faculty, a faculty member must meet the following criteria:

  1. Completed at least two years of graduate work in the major field or its evident equivalent in scholarly maturity and productivity; professional experience and licensure for two years may count as equivalency for scholarship in professional and clinical fields.
  2. Have at least two years of college teaching experience or hold the terminal degree in lieu thereof; or have at least two years professional experience and licensure in professional and clinical fields.
  3. Be elected by the Graduate Council upon the recommendation of
    • the Department Chair
    • the Director of Graduate Studies in the appropriate area
    • the appropriate Academic Dean, and
    • the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
  4. Be re-appointed at three-year intervals, with reappointment requiring evidence of scholarly productivity.

Affiliate members are those who are appointed to teach on a course-by-course basis. These members must possess a minimum of a Master’s degree and demonstrate successful experience in their fields in order to be appointed. Starting last year, there are two levels of Affiliate: Provisional, for 1 year; and “Continuing” (formerly full affiliate), approved for 3 years.

Graduate programs are designated as one of two categories:

  1. Research Intensive (to include the Ed.D.), or
  2. Professional Preparation (DPT), MED, MBA, so on. Deans will consult with the VPAA on the designation appropriate for their programs.

Primarily Professional Preparation track: Graduate courses count as regular load; professional backgrounds and experience are weighed along with research and development.

Research Intensive Track: Graduate courses count as 4/3rds load. This is the primary track designated for full time faculty teaching in the EdD program.

  • Appointment to this track is determined by academic credentials and information on the CV providing evidence of research, scholarship, and/or related scholarly activity. Coursework taken is aligned with course content in the EdD program of study.
  • Faculty will be required to demonstrate research/scholarship for continuing appointment as this level of graduate faculty; for theEdD faculty the minimum requirement includes submission of an IRB proposal or grant application AND submission of a manuscript to a peer reviewed academic journal. This requirement will be evaluated on an annual basis for continuing classification as Research Intensive faculty.

Curricular Approval Process

The Graduate Approval Process of Charleston Southern University works as follows: 

  • Faculty of a graduate program, led by the program director, chair, or dean, decide to develop a new course or program or to revise or remove current courses or programs of study.  
  • The director of the program completes the appropriate form and attaches documentation for the curricular request appropriate to the request; this request is then approved by the appropriate dean.
  • The original of all graduate curricular requests (signed by the required personnel, such as the chair, director, dean, and registrar) must be submitted by the second Thursday of each month to the Registrar, and one copy should be sent to the council’s administrative recorder.
  • The recorder will immediately post the materials electronically for the Council.
  • The Graduate Council meets the third Thursday of each month to deliberate upon and approve curricular changes and requests by the various graduate programs.

Requested actions are grouped into two levels: 

Level One items require action by the following people:

  1. Graduate Director
  2. Dean of the respective school or college
  3. Graduate Council chair review
  4. VPAA

Curricular changes that are considered Level One include:
Course Changes (other than those affecting core requirements)

  1. Courses to be deleted from the catalog
  2. Course prerequisites
  3. Increase or decrease in the hours of a course
  4. Course title, level, number, and/or designator
  5. From credit/no credit or pass/fail to letter grades or vice-versa
  6. New courses
  7. Major content revisions of existing courses

Program Changes

  1. Changes in the name of program, emphasis, concentration;
  2. Requirements for an existing program which do not change the total number of credit hours in a program or do not substantially change the content of a program
  3. Requirements for a special academic program which do not change the total number of credits in the special academic program or do not substantially change the content of the special academic program.

Level Two items require action by the following people:

  1. Graduate Director
  2. Dean of the respective school or college
  3. Grad Council
  4. VPAA

Curricular changes that are considered Level Two include:

  1. Addition or deletion of a special academic program
  2. Modifications to a special academic program (e.g., concentration, emphasis, etc.)  which change the total number of credit hours or which substantially change the content of a special academic program
  3. Degree Requirements
    1. New Degrees
    2. Deletion of existing degrees
  4. Changes in programs
    1. New programs
    2. Deletion of existing programs
    3. Modifications to a program which change the total number of credit hours or which substantially change the content of a program

Note that many level 2 changes may require SACSCOC approval or notification. Note that no Curricular Changes are final (even after being approved by the Committee and VPAA) until SACSCOC has approved the changes. See the CSU Substantive Change Policy R-64.

Additionally, some new programs may require extensive planning and commitments.  New programs requiring such preliminary investments will require Board and senior officer approval either before or after the Committee approves the program.  Programs such as these, which require extensive investment of funds and personnel by the university, must be accompanied by a full prospectus and budgetary pro-forma plan with approval by the Board and senior officers before implementation.

All forms for requesting curricular changes at the Graduate level are found under the “Forms and Documents” page of MyCSU under “Graduate Council.” 

The appropriate form must be completed for each request; for some requests (such as requesting a New Graduate Program) the submitting chair, dean, or director should also attach other necessary forms such as those for new courses and impact studies. Submissions should also include appropriate evidence indicating that the program or course is graduate level in terms of academic rigor and work required. Note that many curricular requests may require SACSCOC approval or notification.  Note that in these cases no Curricular Changes are final (even after being approved by the Graduate and VPAA) until SACSCOC has approved the changes. See the CSU Substantive Change Policy R-64.

Technology or Library Impact Statements

When the addition of a new course or new program (or revisions to previously existing ones) will have an impact on either Information Technology Services (for example, a course will always be taught in a computer lab, or extensive amounts of computer resources will be required) or the Library (for example, a course might require the acquisition of an extensive series of texts and films, or a database), the Chair or Dean is required to notify the head of Information Technology Services and the Director of the Library as part of the curricular process. This notification and the response to the department from Information Technology Services &/or the Director of the Library should be submitted with the curriculum request to the Graduate Council.


New Program Development Guidelines

Length of Programs: The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges (SACS COC) requires that a master’s degree require a minimum of 30 semester credit hours (Core Requirement 9.2). The overall length of the programs must be “appropriate for each of the institution’s educational programs” (Core Requirement 9.2). Therefore, all Graduate Courses of Study at Charleston Southern University must require a minimum of 30 graduate semester credit hours.  42 semester credit hours for a program should be considered the upper limit; any program requiring more than 42 hours for a master’s level degree should submit evidence justifying the increased requirement. Note that doctoral degree programs will require progressively (and substantively) more hours than master’s level programs.


Curriculum Design & Expectations by Academic Class

As noted in SACSCOC Comprehensive Standard 9.6, “post-baccalaureate professional degree programs” and master’s programs are “progressively more advanced in academic content than undergraduate programs.”  These differences should be distinct and made clear in Graduate Curriculum submissions and particularly in those submissions for cross-registered graduate/undergraduate courses.

Note: Graduate Courses which are 500 level are generally offered in support of the master’s degree programs and are introductory graduate courses or graduate level fundamental courses in the discipline.  These may be designated as prerequisites to upper level graduate courses or be foundational in content.

There are two types of Graduate Courses that have 500-level numbering.

The first type includes courses that are generally offered in support of the master’s degree programs and are introductory graduate courses or graduate level fundamental courses in the discipline. These may be designated as prerequisites to upper level graduate courses or be foundational in content.

The second type includes cross-listed courses. Cross-listed courses are courses in which both graduate and undergraduate students attend the same class but receive credit under different course numbers.  Cross-listed courses may serve as electives in a graduate program. Syllabi for cross-listed courses will clearly specify how the nature (quality and/or quantity) of the work expected of students and the criteria for evaluation of the work produced is commensurate with degree level. The nature of the requirements for cross-listed classes may vary by quality and/or quantity. The quality of work may be differentiated by requiring graduate students to engage with material that is more challenging, such as requiring reading of original works of scholarship rather than secondary presentations of scholarly work (textbooks). The quality of work may also include requiring graduate students to assume a leadership role in the course, such as mentoring undergraduate students, serving as discussion leaders, or setting standards for class participation. The quality of work products may be differentiated by level as well.

Graduate-level assignments require a greater degree of analysis, synthesis, or evaluation of knowledge and/or be result of greater independence than undergraduate-level assignments. The quantity of work may be differentiated across levels by requiring additional assignments, projects, or examinations at the graduate level compared to the undergraduate level. At the doctoral level, additional readings, research, and writing are required that extend the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of knowledge, concepts, and application are required.

Graduate Courses offered at the 600 level or higher are core content courses for the masters degree in the field of study.  These require intensive study, research, and analysis of content. These courses usually require an in-depth knowledge of the discipline that is further developed through classroom, independent work, or collaborative models of learning.

Graduate courses at the 700 level consist of the core courses that require intensive study, research, and analysis of content and require the submission of evidence of theory and application to the content. 800 level courses contain the research and analysis required for advanced studies, to include design, development, application and implementation of research questions, data, and findings. The 900 level designation is for the dissertation phase of the new program where the integration of content, research, and findings are presented as a scholarly work reviewed and approved by a doctoral faculty and content is defended by students prior to the completion of the program.