Legislation

Legislation Adopted by the Department

Department of Linguistics
UCLA

Source:  faculty meeting minutes


 Undergraduate Programo

February 18, 2011:  Grading in Linguistics 20

It is the custom of the department not to give more than 75% of grades of B- and above in Linguistics 20.  For purposes of calculating 75%, students listed on the roster at grading time as dropped are included.

Graduate Program

May 13, 2011:  MA committee 4th-quarter due date; 260-level courses ineligible for outside-area requirement

All graduate students shall have formed their MA committees by the end of their fourth quarter.

Courses in the 260 series may not be counted toward the post-MA requirement of 8 units outside the student's main research area.  Students who have satisfied the MA requirements as of 5/13/11 are exempted.

March 11, 2011:  2-unit versions of courses, obligatory application to Research Mentorship Program

Courses numbered 200-259, excepting 210A and 210B, will be offered in versions for both four and two units.  The two-unit versions will require a Permission to Enroll number for enrollment and will not satisfy course requirements for the Linguistics graduate program.

Graduate students who are eligible for the Research Mentorship Program (regular academic year) and have not already received an award under this program are required to apply in each year of elibigility.

March 4, 2011:  First year student review, Linguistics 221, course renumbering

The faculty will meet in early Spring Quarter to review all first-year graduate students.  The first-year students will be notified of the result of the meeting.

For academic year 2011-2012, Linguistics 221 will satisfy the graduate requirement for psycholinguistics/processing/neurolinguistics/computational linguistics.

Course renumbering:   The following system was approved:  120 = first quarter undergraduate course, 165 = second quarter undergraduate course, 200 = first quarter graduate course, 201 = second quarter graduate course, A = phonology, B = syntax, C = semantics.

February 18, 2011:  Graduate Support Offers

Graduate support offers are made for five consecutive calendar years only; extensions are given only for approved medical leave.

February 2, 2007:  Changes in the Graduate Course Requirements

1. Students may petition to substitute Linguistics 125 "Semantics" for Linguistics 200C, "Semantic Theory".

2. Students may satisfy the requirement for a graduate psycholinguistics course with Linguistics 209 "Computational Linguistics".

This renders permanent a change adopted as "experimental" on June 10, 2005.

February 22, 2002:  Colloquia and Ph.D. Defenses

1. A formal defense is required.  It must be announced at least one week in advance and be open to the public.

2. A department colloquium is required, not necessarily on the dissertation topic.  It must be announced at least one week in advance and be open to the public.

3. At the committee's option, the formal defense and colloquium may be combined into a single public event in the format of a colloquium.

April 14, 2000: PTE's for Independent Study

It was decided to require PTE numbers to sign up for independent studies. This is 596A, 596B, 597, 598, 599.

April 7, 2000: TAships for Seventh Year Students

A supernumerary TAship is defined as one that the Department can assign, after it has fulfilled all obligations to graduate students established in their admit letters.

The Department is willing to assign TAships to seventh year students, who may apply in the annual competition for supernumerary TAships.

In assigning supernumerary TAships, priority is given to graduate students in the Linguistics Department (over students in other programs) if they have a good teaching record and are in good academic standing.

November 12, 1999: Finding RAships for First Years

The department asks the Admissions Committee to circulate appropriate application files among faculty, soliciting offers of RA support, prior to making their final decisions.

October 29, 1999: Workloads for First Year Students

The department authorizes first year students to work as RA's.

The department authorizes first year students to work as TA's.

October 1, 1999: Sixth Year Support

The Department adopts the following ranked priorities for allocating teaching assistantships and department-controlled research assistantships:

--Adhering to obligatory directives of the Graduate Division--Keeping commitments to students made at admission

--Funding sixth year students who conducted a serious job search during their fifth year. Judgment on whether this criterion was met will be made at the June faculty meetings for reviewing student progress.

For purposes of this policy, "sixth year" is defined as 'sixth year, suitably adjusted for time spent on leave and taking required undergraduate prerequisites.'"

March 9, 1999:  Time to MA Degree; Field Methods

The normative time for completion of the M.A. will be seven quarters. Earlier wording of our official policy, specifying four to six quarters in the M.A. program, is eliminated.

The normative deadline for advancement to candidacy (orals) is the end of the eleventh quarter.

Field Methods will be a 4 unit course, with 5 contact hours per week. Students will be expected to take the course during their second year."

February 26, 1999: Time To Degree; Study Lists

We only agree to support graduate students through Year 5. In exceptional circumstances, support is sometimes offered to students beyond the fifth year.

In order to be eligible to further support, students to whom no other commitments have been made must apply for a Dissertation Year Fellowship during their fourth year.

To remain in good standing, students must discuss their course requirements with their adviser and submit a department-supplied form, stating that this has been done. The form must be signed by their adviser and submitted to a designated member of the department staff.

February 19, 1999:  Second Language Requirement, Historical Linguistics

Abandon second language requirement.

Historical Linguistics becomes a requirement only at the undergraduate level.

June 6, 1992:  Superannuated Students

All students beyond the seven year limit who are not registered or on official Leave of Absence will have their files removed from the active student roster and will not be further discussed at year end faculty meetings.  Should students on inactive status wish to continue work toward completion of their degrees, they must apply for readmission to the graduate program before further discussion.

May 15, 1992:  Dissertation Prospectus Content

The dissertation prospectus should be a maximum of 20 pages long and should include the following:

--a statement of the research question and the candidate's relevant previous work

--a bibliography of relevant literature (the student should be prepared to discuss the content of the references listed and why they are relevant, i.e. a massive list of items "to be consulted" is not acceptable)

--a plan for research, e.g. field work, laboratory research, types of data to further investigated which will fill in gaps and answer questions raised in preparation of the prospectus.

October 13, 1990:  Courses for MA

All students, regardless of whether they have an MA when they enter or not, will now have to take at least the five [updated:  now four] required courses; i.e. the only courses from which they might be exempted on the basis of course work elsewhere are the electives.

Only survey courses [not proseminars] will satisfy MA elective course requirements.

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Academic Personnel and Teaching Load

Personnel Reviews for Assistant Professors (Dec. 8, 2000)

All personnel reviews for assistant professors will be voted on by the department faculty as a whole, rather than just by the Merit Review Committee.

Revision in policy on teaching loads (Oct. 20, 2006)

1. Sponsored research: It is resolved that PI’s and co-PI’s supervising at least two 50% time student research assistants on their grant or contract receive one third course release per quarter, subject to the Chair’s approval.

2. Co-teaching: It is resolved that full credit be given to each instructor in a co-taught course.

3. Heavy advising and other special circumstances: There are various special circumstances in which teaching release is occasionally granted, including hiring/retention packages, teaching outside the department, etc. It is resolved that faculty with exceptionally heavy advising loads also be considered for special treatment on an ad hoc basis.

4. Chair discretion. In acting on the discretionary items listed above, the Chair will bear in mind the need for all faculty to teach a certain minimum number of courses as well as the need to staff the Department’s course offerings.

Solicitation of student letters (Dec. 11, 2009)

The Department will solicit letters from students for all (and only) personnel actions in which the candidate's file is evaluated by the Committee on Academic Personnel.  This includes proposed accelerations.

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Department Life

November 8, 1989:  Student Membership on Colloquium Committee

"The faculty voted to recommend to the G[raduate] L[inguistics] C[ircle] that it consider forming a Colloquium Committee, which would include the department Chair as faculty representative but would be the decision making unit within the department in terms of choice of speakers and dispensation of funds allocated for guest speakers."  [11/17/89:  the GLC did indeed vote to establish such a committee.]

February 2, 1990:  Colloquium and Faculty Meeting Scheduling

"There was a consensus that a Friday morning schedule with 1 1/2 hours allotted for faculty meetings and 1 1/2 for a Colloquium would be preferable to [the previous] arrangment ... It was left to the Chair to decide on the exact time configuration, with two 1 1/2 hours slots for faculty meeting followed by Colloquia in the time frame between 9:00 AM and 12:30 PM."  [12/11/09:  this was not implemented; both faculty meetings and colloquia continue to have 2 hour slots.]

Sept. 27, 1991:  Phone Use

"There has been an informal departmental policy of covering faculty phone bills up to about $40, with faculty expected to reimburse the Department above this amount, either through recharging to grant accounts or personally paying.  It was decided to continue with the current informal policy."

Sept. 27, 1991: Joint Mailing of LSA Abstracts

"Approval was expressed for the Department gathering abstracts for the LSA Annual Meeting and sending them as a group by Express Mail at departmental expense." [12/11/09:  LSA abstract submission is now carried out over the Internet.]

October 10, 1992:  Unsolicited FAX messages

"Members of the department were urged to tell their colleagues not to send large items to the departmental FAX number.  For unsolicited items of any consequence, the Department will return a one page "request" that items not be sent by FAX without prior agreement of the recipient.  For very large items, the Department will try to collect from the sender at 25 cents per page."

December 14, 2000:  Mailing for Graduate Students

(policy adopted by chair)

"Grad students can use ordinary dept mail for job applications and conference submissions. The department however will not pay for express mail (or any variant thereof)."

[see however the exceptional case dealt with above]

February 22, 2002:  Use of Syntax and Semantics Lounge

"The faculty and the student representative agreed that the Syntax and Semantics lounge (3103C Campbell) will not be used for regularly scheduled meetings (classes, seminars, weekly consultant sessions etc.). Furthermore, the lounge will not be used for any formal meetings between 12-2pm and 4-6pm so that the students/faculty/visitors can have lunch/afternoon tea in this room."

October 3, 2008:  Conference Room Policy

"Regularly scheduled instruction will not be held in the Conference Room.  Exceptions to this policy will be made, by the Chair, only on an emergency basis."

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