Composition
The Graduate Program Committee (GPC) is comprised of four tenured or tenure-eligible English faculty, one graduate student, and the Director of Graduate Studies (non-voting). To ensure representation of the several areas around which the graduate program is structured, elected faculty members are drawn from the following fields:

• one member representing British literature
  
• one member representing American literature
  
• one member representing Creative Writing
  
• one member unspecified/at-large.

The graduate student representative is a voting member of the committee and advises that body on issues relating to the experience of graduate students within the program. S/he is elected by the English graduate students, as arranged by the Director of Graduate Studies, and is entitled to participate in all meetings except for those involving the assigning of Graduate Research Assistantships. In the event that two students are elected, they both may participate in all GPC meetings, subject to the aforementioned proviso, but may cast only one vote.

Terms of Service
The normal term of service for faculty members is two years and for graduate-student members one year. A year of service is understood to begin in the summer term and end immediately following the subsequent spring term. Elections are held each year in the spring for the positions of those representatives whose terms are about to expire. Faculty candidates stand for election to the specific position they wish to hold (e.g., British literature representative, American literature representative, Creative Writing representative); however, candidates may specify that they wish to stand for election in one or more categories for which they are qualified. Any member whose term is expiring may stand for re-election. Each year, following the elections, the Department Chair will convene a meeting of the incoming members to elect a committee chair. The GPC Chair will serve for one year but may stand for re-election. Should s/he resign the post during the year, the Department Chair will convene a meeting of the GPC for the purpose of electing a new chair to serve for the remainder of the year.

At the end of spring term, the Director of Graduate Studies will arrange elections by the English graduate students to select their representative(s) on the GPC.

Mission Statement
The GPC advises the Department on all matters relating to the graduate program. It exists to foster a spirit of collegiality and shared enterprise among graduate students and faculty, and it provides a forum to which both groups may bring issues concerning the general functioning of the program. The GPC's responsibilities include (1) oversight of all curricular matters related to the program; (2) conferral regarding advertisement of the program; (3) review of plans for the recruitment of graduate students; (4) collaboration with the College of Education in the English area of the M.Ed. exams; (5) design of the English M.A. oral exam; (6) organization of a colloquium series by graduate students and/or faculty; and (7) social functions for all involved in the program.

Reporting Structure
The Department may charge the GPC at any time to discuss particular areas of concern within the graduate program and to make recommendations that the Department may then consider as a whole. Any faculty member or graduate student may bring specific issues to the attention of the GPC, whose recommendations are presented to the Department at regularly scheduled faculty meetings.