Campus-Based Faculty
Because most courses are taught (and dissertations are supervised) by faculty whose appointments are at colleges other than The Graduate Center, CUNY's doctoral programs in every instance are dependent on the consortial coopera-tion of the colleges. The allocation system (described more fully at the link) is the University's means of recognizing the contribution of college (i.e., non-Graduate Center) faculty to CUNY's doctoral programs. The system involves the annual allocation to the senior CUNY colleges of appointment authority for a pool of lines administered by the Graduate Center.
In the allocation system, each doctoral course is considered a unit, and six units equal a line. Each enrollment in supervision of independent study and doctoral dissertations (90000) is credited as 0.2 of a unit, and thus five enrollments equal a course. The Graduate Center will credit each college with the units earned by faculty members supervising independent study and dissertations only if the college routinely recognizes as part of doctoral faculty workload the "courses" earned by these enrollments. Note: almost half of the lines in the allocation pool are earned by college faculty members who supervise independent study and dissertations.
A graduate course earns a course credit in the allocation system for the home college of the instructor when five or more doctoral students enroll (excluding auditors). Partial credit is not given for courses with fewer than five doctoral students. A doctoral course (80000 level) with fewer than five enrollments will be canceled as not having met the minimum level of enrollment.
The Executive Officer must confirm arrangements for participation of college-based faculty by sending a letter each semester to the academic dean and the department chair of the appropriate CUNY college (see list of chief academic officers) [PDF]. This sample memorandum [PDF] may be helpful.
