1
Graduate Council Minutes 9/18/13
GBB 205, 12:10-1:00 p.m.
Members Present: L. Gray, D. Biehl, D. Campbell I. Crummy, L. Frey, N. Hassanein, A. Kinch,
J. Johnson, A. McKeown, S. Sprang, K. Swift
Members Absent/Excused: M. Alwell, B. Klaasen, J. Laine, E. Stone
Ex Officio Members Present: R. Arouca, B. Brown, N. Hinman, S. Ross
The 9/11/13 minutes were amended and approved.
Business Items

The Council discussed, amended, and approved the draft Graduate Advising /
Mentoring Policy, Procedures, and Guidelines (appended below). Once the
document is approved, Camie will send a request that it be sent to all faculty through
the Provost’s Office. It will also be posted to the Faculty Senate website and the
Graduate School and GSA websites will link to the document as well.

Program Review should be completed by Thanksgiving. Chair Sprang will draft the
summary document for BMED for the Council to review in two weeks. Professor
Johnson agreed to be the primary reviewer for Mathematics. The Chair of the
Mathematics department is working on rebuttal (explanation) for some of the external
reviewers comments. This should be considered in the review information.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
Procedure Number:
Procedure:
Approved by:
302.30
Graduate Advising/Mentoring Policy, Procedures and
Guidelines
XX/XX/13
09/18/13
Collective Barganing Agreement (CBA) 6.20, 10.120, 10.310,
19.00, 21.00; Graduate School Policy C6.000, D4.000, F1.000,
G1.000; The Northwest Commission on Colleges and
Universities (NWCCU) Accreditation Standards 2.D.3 and
2.D.10; University Policy 410
Graduate Council
Resources:
Samples of Best Practices see section E
Date Adopted:
Last Revision:
References:
A. Purpose & Scope
2
Academic units/programs have various cultures and styles for student advising/mentoring
that meet their program requirements and student needs. Each Master’s and Doctoral
degree program has an orientation session to introduce graduate students to the policies,
practices, and resources of the department, including a mechanism for student
complaints. This document provides students and faculty with guidelines for Graduate
Advising/Mentoring at the University of Montana, as well as clarifies existing policy.
B. Definition(s)
Academic advising/mentoring is a goal-oriented, growth-oriented process that helps
students assess their strengths and weaknesses, set realistic academic goals, and monitor
progress toward achievement of these goals. The Council of Graduate Schools defines
mentors as:
1. Advisors, who have career experience and share their knowledge with the student
informally or in the classroom.
2. Supporters, who give emotional and moral encouragement.
3. Tutors, who provide specific, timely, and constructive feedback on performance.
4. Sponsors, who are sources of information and opportunities about research, grant,
internship, employment, or other opportunities.
5. Role Models, who are professionals with integrity.
The University adopts the distinction that “advising is a short-term process where the
focus is giving information and guidance to the learner, [while] mentoring is a more
intricate, long-term process, one-on-one relationship that goes well beyond simply
providing information” (Galbraith, 2003, as cited in Johnston, n.d.)i.
Mentoring is a continuous process with accumulation of personal contacts between
mentor and mentee. Goals should be established and owned by the student and should
encompass academic, career, and personal development areas. Mentors should be models
for students to emulate, specifically demonstrating behaviors that lead to selfresponsibility and self-direction. Mentoring should utilize as many campus and
community resources as possible.
C. Policy
Graduate programs shall provide students with timely, specific, accurate information and
advising about the requirements of their program of study, including key steps with
timelines towards graduation. This information shall be disseminated during orientation
sessions, in the form of a student handbook, and published on both the Graduate School
and program's websites.
“Faculty member’s responsibility includes a deep interest in students’ progress and
welfare, which includes counseling and advising and maintaining a responsible,
professional relationship with the students. The advisor and advisee should discuss the
educational objectives suited to the advisee’s demonstrated abilities and expressed
interest.” (CBA 6.20)
“Student advising is a general activity that shall be given consideration in any faculty
evaluation for purposes of promotion, award of tenure, determination of salary increment,
or recommendation for retention.” (CBA 10.120)
3
Faculty advisors/mentors shall be available to assist graduate students in planning their
academic programs, but students have the responsibility for meeting all requirements for
their degree. To identify an advisor/mentor for the different phases of their graduate
studies, students are urged to consult with professors, academic advisors, department
chairpersons, Graduate School staff and others, as needed. All of these university
representatives maintain regular office hours for student consultations.
The faculty member assigned to a graduate student as advisor/mentor must possess a
degree at least at the level of the degree sought by the student. Programs may petition for
exceptions to this policy on the grounds that the advisor/mentor possesses specialized
experiences and expertise relevant to the graduate offerings. All such petitions must be
submitted to and approved by the Graduate School.
The Graduate School ensures compliance with Graduate School policies C6.000, D4.000,
F1.000 and G1.000 referring to the membership on graduate committee and advisingii.
The Graduate School is also responsible for providing accurate and current information to
graduate students and faculty regarding graduate committees and advising/mentoring
issues.
Graduate programs are required to clearly communicate the respective roles of graduate
student and faculty in the advising/mentoring process. “Both faculty member and advisee
share responsibility for making the advising relationship successful.” (CBA 6.20).
Programs should identify an appropriate course of action for initial efforts to resolve
problems that may arise between advisor/mentor and advisee/mentee. Programs should
also clearly communicate the grievance procedure (CBA 19.00) and student complaint
procedure (CBA 21.00).
D. Expectations of Graduate Students and Advisors/Mentors
Graduate students take primary responsibility for informing themselves of the
regulations, policies, and practices governing their degree, course requirement, research
activities, and conflict resolution. They understand faculty advisors/mentors’ central role
as well as their constraints:
Students should understand that advisors/mentors are essential to the intellectual
and instructional environment.
Advisors/mentors are responsible for monitoring the accuracy, validity, and
integrity of the student’s research, and ensuring that the contributions of all
participants in the research are properly acknowledged in publications. Students
shall consult with their advisor/mentor before attempting to publish the results
of work carried out under the advisor/mentor’s direction and or in
advisor/mentor’s studio or laboratory.
Students should be aware of time constraints and other demands imposed on
faculty members and program staff.
Student should take the initiative to arrange meetings with faculty
advisor/mentor as often as necessary and to keep the advisor/mentor informed
of any factors that might affect the process of their research or time to degree.
Circumstances and diverse academic cultures will dictate the frequency of
4
-
meetings; best practices suggest a minimum of twice a semester.
Students should seek an early and informal resolution of problems that may
occur in their working relationships with their advisor/mentor, or others, by first
consulting with the advisor/mentor prior to starting a formalized process.
Faculty advisors/mentors take an active role in understanding the academic and
nonacademic policies that pertain to graduate students. These include, but are not
limited to, requirements of coursework, research tools, examinations, authorship,
intellectual property, environmental health and safety, scientific misconduct,
Institutional Review Board guidelines, and the Student Code of Conduct.
Faculty advisors/mentors may provide students with financial support through
access to teaching and research funds when available. Expectations,
requirements, limitations and duration of financial support, when available,
should be clearly stated. Such support is considered a contract.
Advisors/mentors serve as intellectual and professional mentors to their
graduate students, encouraging faculty-graduate student collaborations and the
sharing of authorship or rights to intellectual property developed in research or
other creative or artistic activity.
Advisors/mentors provide students with evaluation of their progress and
performance in regular, timely and informative ways.
Advisors/mentors prepare students to be competitive for employment,
encouraging them to participate in professional meetings, perform or display
their work in public settings, and publish the result of their research.
Advisors/mentors provide a realistic view of the field and the current job market
and make use of professional contact for the benefit of their students.
Advisors/mentors maintain a high level of professionalism, and excuse
themselves from participating in committees where they have a conflict of
interest as described in CBA 12.30.
Advisors/mentors shall never impede a graduate student’s progress toward the
degree sought, either through negligence or to benefit from a student’s
proficiency as a teaching or research assistant (see CBA 10.310 and University
Policy 410).
E. Resources for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Advising/Mentoring
In general, all units of the University of Montana must meet the Northwest Commission
on Colleges and Universities Standard for Accreditation 2.D.10 for advising
http://www.nwccu.org/Standards%20and%20Policies/Standard%202/Standard%20Two.h
tm. Specifically, the Graduate Council and Graduate School expect units to develop
mechanisms for evaluating the effectiveness of the advising/mentoring of individual
faculty members and the unit as a whole, with special attention paid to troubleshooting
problems with ineffective advisors/mentors.
Guidance and information on best practices adopted by public universities for
Advising/Mentoring is available at The University of Michigan publication How to
mentor graduate students: a guide for faculty at
http://www.rackham.umich.edu/publications/, and The Ohio State University Graduate
Student Handbook at http://www.gradsch.ohio-state.edu/Depo/PDF/Handbook.pdf and
5
mentoring guide at
http://www.gradsch.osu.edu/DEPO/PDF/MentoringAdvisingGradStudents.pdf.
i
Johnston, J. (n.d.) Mentoring Graduate Students. Vanderbilt University, Center for
Teaching. Retrieved April 11th, 2013 from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teachingguides/interactions/mentoring-graduate-students/
ii
For reference see www.umt.edu/grad/Academic%20Policies/default.php