Departmental structure

Here's an overview of who's in charge within the EEB department and what domains each person is mainly 'responsible' for:

Susan Kalisz - Department Head, structurally, the head is a bridge between the department and the college. Technically the head works “for” the dean, but functionally it’s a mixture of advocating for the department at the college level while implementing college policies at the department level.
Jen Schweitzer & Brian O'Meara - Associate Heads, these two work within the department to assist the head and deal with EEB-specific issues. Jen generally deals with undergraduate issues, while Brian generally deals with graduate issues, though these are not exclusive areas of focus.
Brandon Matheney - Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), DGS works to assign TA lines, deal with day-to-day graduate student issues, and acts as a third party to resolve any conflicts between advisors and students.

Above the Department Head, there is the college (Arts & Sciences) and then University leaders more broadly (think Chancellor, Provost, etc.). Below the DGS, in terms of who is 'in charge' of the department as it relates to grad students, would be the rest of the faculty, GREBE, and the grad students themselves. The department tries to do a good job of involving grad students in decision making processes, as much as is possible.

Other information about departmental and university structure:

We have policies established by the grad school that apply to all programs: dissertation formatting, maximum time to degree, etc. These are in the graduate catalog as well as various pages on https://gradschool.utk.edu/. The department tries to send reminders about these, but it’s worth checking yourself once a semester.

We have our own department graduate student handbook: https://eeb.utk.edu/graduate-student-handbook/ . These are EEB policies (but grad school policies overrule them, though we try to eliminate any conflicts).

The College of Arts and Sciences also has an effect on grad student issues. They allocate TA lines, which support the majority of our students, and also have policies and guidance. They have helped troubleshoot various issues grad students face, too.

The offer letters given to students are binding. So if a student was offered a certain stipend for a certain period of time as long as they perform adequately, and they agreed to that letter to come, it sets expectations – that stipend shouldn’t be cut, for example.

The faculty vote on issues according to our bylaws at faculty meetings. Some questions are limited to tenure track faculty, others are open to faculty more broadly.

A lot of work is done by committees (because academia, but also because it lets focused groups of people dig into an issue rather than require everyone be experts in everything). Committees have a head and members.Major committees include:

grad affairs (grad policy, grad evaluation, some assignment of TA roles),
undergrad affairs,
graduate admissions (selecting students, including who is recommended for fellowships),
seminar committee,
diversity committee,

GREBE appoints at least one student as a voting member of every department committee, with two exceptions.

There is no grad student rep on the grad admissions committee – we’re concerned about student privacy issues of having a student evaluating students (transcripts, letters, personal narratives, etc.).

For the same reason, the grad rep on grad affairs is not in the room for discussions of individual students’ progress but is for other discussions.

For the diversity committee, we’ve had a process where that committee itself selects new members, mostly for power dynamics so it’s not, say, the head picking new members.

GREBE also has a rep at faculty meetings (often the president). They can’t vote, but they can speak on any issue, and are often specifically asked to weigh in on grad student specific matters.

Half of grad recruiting weekend is student only, run by GREBE, so recruits can talk to current students without faculty lurking.

UT has a graduate student senate. Lately they’ve been working with others to try to reduce or eliminate grad student fees, but they do other work as well.

There is a United Campus Workers group – they have done things such as effectively arguing against outsourcing of facilities positions. They have a Graduate Workers Organizing Committee.

There are also support structures within the university but largely outside department hierarchy. Examples include:

The ombuds office, which is open to grad students and can be a confidential sounding board.
OED and the Title IX office can handle complaints about misconduct, and these sometimes result in the removal of faculty and others.
The counseling center offers mental health services.
The bias education and referral team can support members of the community experiencing discrimination and make referrals to groups with more enforcement powers when they think it’s appropriate.

GREBE

Departmental structure

Here's an overview of who's in charge within the EEB department and what domains each person is mainly 'responsible' for:

Jen Schweitzer & Brian O'Meara - Associate Heads, these two work within the department to assist the head and deal with EEB-specific issues. Jen generally deals with undergraduate issues, while Brian generally deals with graduate issues, though these are not exclusive areas of focus.

Brandon Matheney - Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), DGS works to assign TA lines, deal with day-to-day graduate student issues, and acts as a third party to resolve any conflicts between advisors and students.

​

​

Other information about departmental and university structure:

​

​

We have our own department graduate student handbook: https://eeb.utk.edu/graduate-student-handbook/ . These are EEB policies (but grad school policies overrule them, though we try to eliminate any conflicts).

The College of Arts and Sciences also has an effect on grad student issues. They allocate TA lines, which support the majority of our students, and also have policies and guidance. They have helped troubleshoot various issues grad students face, too.

​

The offer letters given to students are binding. So if a student was offered a certain stipend for a certain period of time as long as they perform adequately, and they agreed to that letter to come, it sets expectations – that stipend shouldn’t be cut, for example.

​

The faculty vote on issues according to our bylaws at faculty meetings. Some questions are limited to tenure track faculty, others are open to faculty more broadly.

A lot of work is done by committees (because academia, but also because it lets focused groups of people dig into an issue rather than require everyone be experts in everything). Committees have a head and members.Major committees include:

grad affairs (grad policy, grad evaluation, some assignment of TA roles),

undergrad affairs,

graduate admissions (selecting students, including who is recommended for fellowships),

seminar committee,

diversity committee,

​

GREBE appoints at least one student as a voting member of every department committee, with two exceptions.

There is no grad student rep on the grad admissions committee – we’re concerned about student privacy issues of having a student evaluating students (transcripts, letters, personal narratives, etc.).

For the same reason, the grad rep on grad affairs is not in the room for discussions of individual students’ progress but is for other discussions.

For the diversity committee, we’ve had a process where that committee itself selects new members, mostly for power dynamics so it’s not, say, the head picking new members.

GREBE also has a rep at faculty meetings (often the president). They can’t vote, but they can speak on any issue, and are often specifically asked to weigh in on grad student specific matters.

Half of grad recruiting weekend is student only, run by GREBE, so recruits can talk to current students without faculty lurking.

UT has a graduate student senate. Lately they’ve been working with others to try to reduce or eliminate grad student fees, but they do other work as well.

There is a United Campus Workers group – they have done things such as effectively arguing against outsourcing of facilities positions. They have a Graduate Workers Organizing Committee.

There are also support structures within the university but largely outside department hierarchy. Examples include:

The ombuds office, which is open to grad students and can be a confidential sounding board.

OED and the Title IX office can handle complaints about misconduct, and these sometimes result in the removal of faculty and others.

The counseling center offers mental health services.

The bias education and referral team can support members of the community experiencing discrimination and make referrals to groups with more enforcement powers when they think it’s appropriate.