The position of Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) will be a three-year appointment (August 1 – July 31). In the Spring semester of the third year of a current DGS's term, the faculty will follow these procedures to select the DGS for the following three years.

The Chair will call for nominations from the faculty at least two weeks before the meeting at which DGS selection will take place.

1. Any tenured regular faculty member (Associate Professor, Professor) can be a candidate for DGS (but not Retired or Emeritus professors). Self-nominations as well as nominations from other faculty are permitted.
2. Candidates for the position will distribute a brief statement of their vision for the graduate program prior to the meeting at which DGS selection will take place.
3. A meeting of the regular Department faculty (including tenured and tenure-track Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, Professors, and Graduate Student Representative) will be devoted to selecting the DGS (Adjunct, Emeritus, and Non-regular faculty will not participate in the meeting or the vote).
4. During the meeting at which DGS selection will take place, candidates may make statements and faculty may ask questions. The goal of this meeting is to reach consensus on who should be the DGS. Only as a last resort (if consensus cannot be reached) a secret ballot will be taken. A faculty member who is not a candidate for DGS will collect the ballots, tally them, and report the vote. If no candidate receives a majority (if there are more than two candidates), the candidate with the fewest votes will be removed from the ballot and another vote taken (and if there are more than three candidates, this step could be followed more than once). If the voting results in a deadlock between two remaining candidates, the faculty will adjourn for a week and then repeat steps 3 – 5.

Ordinarily, a faculty member will serve no more than two consecutive terms (6 years) as DGS. In order to provide for a smooth transition, the current DGS will mentor the incoming DGS during June and July and be available to provide advice thereafter.

If there is need for an interim or temporary DGS, the Chair will appoint a faculty member to fill this vacancy for a term that will expire at the end of the academic year in which the temporary appointment was made.