The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Catalog Editor Instructions

The information provided here is aimed at editors who oversee the program description pages of the Graduate Bulletin. You should not feel required to make extensive changes to your format and content. However, below are guidelines for you to follow.

Purpose

The Graduate Bulletin is the official list of graduate programs offered by the University. It should include a general description of each program and any concentrations, admissions and graduation requirements, perhaps even a description of the types of research being done in the department. Although all programs have an individual website which is the main promotion page for prospects, you should not rely on a link to your program page for these basic descriptions since the catalog is the historical record of these programs and requirements. Any student should be able to look back at an archived copy of the Graduate Bulletin to find the requirements of the program into which they were admitted and were required to fulfill. All accredited institutions of higher education are required by their accrediting agency to maintain such a document.

Programs, Faculty, and Courses landing page

This page must include:

  • Degrees offered
  • Physical location on the campus
  • Contact information for applicants
  • A link to the program website

Program Overview page(s)

This section of your program pages should describe what a prospective student can expect should they choose to enroll. It should summarize the goals, philosophy or general expectations of the program. There should be a detailed description of program expectations, admissions requirements if they differ from the Graduate School's general requirements, graduation requirements, plus concentrations and/or research areas. Specific courses required for the degree or concentration can be listed if desired. Sometimes the overview is separated by degree or concentration. It should not say this: "Courses of study leading to both the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are available through the department. These are described in detail on the department's website."

Graduate Faculty page

Regular Graduate Faculty

You can verify who is eligible for inclusion in your list of Graduate Faculty by running the SPIRE query called UM_GRAD_DPT_GRAD_FACULTY_LIST. If you cannot run this query, you can request access to Graduate School Queries & Reports in SPIRE via Main Menu > My SPIRE > SPIRE Access Request or ask graduate program staff in your department to run the query for you.

To be included, a faculty member must have been recommended to and approved by the Graduate Dean at the "Full" or "Member" status level. New faculty names should not be added to the catalog list unless a request for Graduate Faculty Status has already been sent to the Graduate Dean's Office. If you list someone whose request has been submitted and is awaiting approval, comment about the pending request on the page where you submit all of your pages for review. Read more about requesting Graduate Faculty Status. All names listed in this section should include the academic credentials/qualifications of the individual. Formatting of these credentials is described below.

Adjunct/Associated Faculty

To be listed in the Adjunct/Associated section of your Graduate Faculty, that person must at least have Graduate Faculty Status at the "Teach" level. If they are a faculty member in another department and their credentials are listed elsewhere in the Bulletin, they can be listed as Name, Professor of <Other Department>. If they are not listed elsewhere in the Bulletin, their academic credentials should be listed.

Faculty Emeriti and retired faculty

Only names which have officially been sent to the Provost's Office for emeritus status should be listed here. This is not merely a list of retired faculty and a faculty member is not removed from the Graduate Faculty because they have retired. If they remain actively associated with the program, then they can continue to be listed with the regular Graduate Faculty.

Formatting

Sort order:

The sort order of the Graduate Faculty is as follows: the name of the Department Head or Chair should be first; the Graduate Program Director's name should be next; all other faculty should follow in alphabetical order.

Formatting credentials:

The easiest way to format the academic credentials of the Graduate Faculty is to follow the examples of the other faculty credentials. Here are some pointers:

  • There should be no abbreviations
  • The words University and College should be left off unless there is confusion with another institution. An example of this exception would be Washington University and University of Washington in St. Louis which should each be spelled out completely. Another example would be Amherst College which should be spelled out to prevent any confusion with our own institution which is listed as Massachusetts at Amherst. Foreign institutions are generally spelled out complete with the country listed. For example: Yonsei University, Korea.
  • When there are multiple campuses, the institution is listed with the campus location following. Examples are: Massachusetts at Amherst; New York at Buffalo; and California at Berkeley.
  • The institution should only be listed once for multiple degrees
  • For punctuation, there should be a semi-colon between each degree and a comma should separate the degree, institution and year of degree. Here are two examples:

Firstname I. Lastname, Associate Professor, B.A., Iowa, 1997; M.A., Massachusetts at Amherst, 2000; Ph.D., 2005.

Firstname I. Lastname, Professor, B.S., Missouri at Columbia, 1984; M.A., Oregon State, 1992; Ph.D., Arizona, 1999.

Courses

  • Generate a list of courses last offered no more than three years ago using the SPIRE query named UM_GRAD_DPT_BULLETIN_COURSES. If you cannot run this query, you can request access to Graduate School Queries & Reports in SPIRE via Main Menu > My SPIRE > SPIRE Access Request or ask graduate program staff in your department to run the query for you.
  • Courses must already be listed in SPIRE or be fully approved by the Faculty Senate and awaiting entry in SPIRE
  • Course descriptions should closely match the SPIRE Course Catalog
  • Courses must be in sequential order by subject and not by concentration. In general, the Bulletin should primarily be considered a long term reference guide and only secondarily as an advising document. Listing courses by concentration might make more sense, however, on the department's website.
  • Credits should be indicated only if other than 3; thesis and dissertation credits (n99) should be listed as the number of credits required for the degree
  • Experimental courses (ending in n90) may be listed if they are approved by the Faculty Senate
  • Seminars needn't have a complete course description if they change frequently; a generic description is sufficient, i.e. "Discussion and review of current topics in the field"
  • Titles for all course numbers that end in n98 are practica, n97 are special topics, n96 are independent studies, n91-95 are seminars

Other information

  • We do not recommend copying and pasting content directly from Microsoft Word or another webpage. It is preferable to copy and paste plain text only, perhaps transferring the content into Notepad or Text Editor first and then into the Catalog Editor, or to type directly into the WYSIWIG box that is provided.

Questions?

  • For technical help, please email catalog-it-help [at] it [dot] umass [dot] edu; for content and formatting assistance, please contact the Graduate School by emailing  gradreports [at] grad [dot] umass [dot] edu

University of Massachusetts Amherst