The University of New Mexico

Senate Graduate and Professional Committee

The Senate Graduate and Professional Committee (SGPC), in consultation with College (School or Division) Graduate Committees, the Dean of Graduate Studies and the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the quality of graduate/professional education in the University and its graduate and/or professional centers by 

  1. Making recommendations on proposals for major changes in graduate/professional programs (Forms C and D), including new degrees and certificates, new programs, new majors and minors and concentrations, name changes, substantive changes in existing programs and suspensions or abolition of degrees or programs, and transmitting them to the Faculty Senate;
  2. Participating, together with members of the Curricula and Undergraduate Committees, in periodic reviews of instructional units and programs;
  3. Ascertaining the degree to which modifications recommended by the reviews of academic units and programs have been implemented, identifying obstacles to making such modifications, and determining how such obstacles might be surmounted;
  4. Coordinating and monitoring graduate/professional activities throughout the University;
  5. Presenting to the Faculty Senate recommendations concerning general policies for graduate/professional education, including the creation, suspension and termination of graduate and/or professional degrees and programs;
  6. Recommending to the Faculty Senate the granting of graduate, professional and honorary degrees; and 
  7. Hearing and resolving disputes involving policy or quality control issues pertaining to University-wide regulations and standards for graduate and professional students and graduate and professional education following procedures as will be found in appropriate sections of the Faculty Handbook and the UNM Catalog.

The membership shall consist of fifteen faculty and one student: one faculty member selected by each of the following College/School/Division Graduate Committees from its membership: Architecture and Planning, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Law, Management, Medical Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Administration; three faculty members selected from its Graduate Committee membership by the College of Arts and Sciences, one representing each of the three divisions within the college [sciences, social sciences, humanities]. one member each from the University Libraries, University College, and the Graduate and Professional Student Association. The Dean, Associate and Assistant Deans of Graduate Studies, the University Registrar, the Vice Provost for Extended University, and the Provost or his/her designee shall be non-voting ex-officio members.

The selection of faculty members is made in the spring semester of the preceding year and is for a two-year term. The terms are staggered so that Architecture & Planning, Engineering, Law, Management, Nursing, Pharmacy, University College, and one member from Arts & Sciences are chosen in odd-numbered years while Education, Fine Arts, Medical Sciences, Public Administration, University Libraries, and the other two members from Arts & Sciences are chosen in even-numbered years. The GPSA representative is chosen for a one-year term. All representatives will serve no more than three consecutive terms.

Late in the spring semester of each odd-numbered year, the committee membership elects a chair-elect who assumes the chair the fall semester of the next even numbered year. The chair serves a 2-year term, but does not represent his/her College (School or Division). Rather the College (School or Division) Graduate Committee whose representative assumes the chair will choose a new representative to serve out the chair's term or begin a new two-year term, as appropriate.

Committee Members

For the most current list of committee members, click here.