Department Committees

See also:
Archive: old committee assignments

Description of Committees

Colloquium

The colloquium committee is student-run and is in charge of all aspects of colloquia. The faculty adviser helps with institutional memory, advice and oversight as needed.

Desk Assignment

This student committee assigns desk space to students and visitors.

Faculty Awards

Nominate faculty for university awards and other honors as appropriate.

Graduate Admissions

Read applications files, select and rank applicants for admissions offers.  Work in collaboration with Director of Graduate Studies, who does an initial triage of applications. (Note: Inquiries about graduate admissions should be addressed to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer (DGS), not the committee.)

Graduate Student Research Funding

Make decisions on the allocation of research funding (language consultants, research subjects, travel) to graduate students, ensuring that Human Subjects and other regulations are properly adhered to. Generally funding is distributed liberally, with checking with the Chair should funding run low. Usually one member is an experimentalist and one does language-consultant work.

Legislative Assembly

Serve as the department’s representative to the Legislative Assembly of the UCLA Academic Senate.  Report to colleagues by email what happened at the meetings.

Merit Review

Evaluate records of candidates for personnel actions that require only Dean’s review (these include most merit increase in rank and certain accelerations). Prepare reports for Chair.  Detect cases where acceleration is appropriate. Refer cases going beyond Dean’s review to chair for full faculty vote.

Minicourses

Generally the faculty who propose minicourses will constitute the committee, each primarily responsible for their own proposed minicourse. Invite the teacher, schedule the course (consulting with the Colloquium Committee to find a mutually compatible schedule).  Consult with the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to arrange for staff to (1) find a classroom, (2) reimburse travel costs, (3) make sure the invitee is paid.  Make sure the teacher is housed and entertained at times. Monitor the budget allocated to the visit and make sure it is not exceeded. Report progress from time to time to the Chair.

Student Fellowships & Awards

Rank-order applications for DYFs and Mentorships and related graduate student instruments as requested by DGS. Nominate and prepare nomination letters and forms for various undergraduate awards as requested by DUS. Nominate a graduate student to win the department-internal Teaching Assistant award.

Teaching Evaluation

For each faculty personnel review, examine the teaching record, including course evaluations and syllabuses, and prepare and present an evaluative/interpretive report (either to the full faculty or the Merit Review Committee, depending).  Work with staff to maintain computerized course-and-instructor evaluation records. We need to work on how we evaluate teaching, so this charge might expand a bit.

Undergraduate Advising — Linguistics and Computer Science Major

Advise and collaborate with the Undergraduate Student Affairs Officer (SAO) and the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) on the design and management of the Linguistics and Computer Science major; help advise students in the major about their long-term goals; provide liaison with the Computer Science Department.

Undergraduate Advising — Linguistics & Psychology and pre-Speech-Language Pathology

Advise and collaborate with the Undergraduate SAO and the DUS on the design and management of the Linguistics and Psychology major; help advise students in this major about their long-term goals in psycholinguistics, and students in any major about graduate work in Speech-Language Pathology; provide liaison with the Psychology Department and local universities with SLP programs.

Visiting Students and Scholars

Answer requests to be a visitor; circulate requests with relevant faculty; connect visitors with relevant staff. Note: there is a web page set up by the Committee to assist applicants.

Web Site

Maintain and improve the departmental website.