Cognitive Program Secondary Faculty

A secondary appointment in the Cognitive Program and Department of Psychology is an acknowledgement of sustained past and future contributions to the missions of the program and department. Cognitive secondary faculty have an established program of research, with research interests relevant to the broad field of cognitive psychology. A secondary appointment provides faculty with opportunities to participate in program activities. After secondary status is granted, faculty are eligible to apply to the Undergraduate Education Committee to mentor undergraduate students, or to the program chair to advise graduate students (see below). Secondary appointments have no implications for salary or lab / office space.

Please note that one can be a secondary faculty member without graduate student privileges, leading to fewer requirements. Prospective or current secondary faculty can seek permission to obtain graduate student advising privileges, which then comes with additional expectations (detailed below).

Process for receiving secondary faculty status

  1. Potential secondary sends request and CV to the current cognitive program chair
  2. Program chair meets with applicant to discuss the process and requirements
  3. Program chair presents applicant’s request and CV to the cognitive faculty at the next available program faculty meeting
  4. Program chair communicates result of faculty discussion to applicant

If cognitive faculty vote to proceed:

  1. Applicant schedules and gives a 45-minute talk in the Cognitive Program Talk Series
  2. Cognitive program faculty vote on application. If positive, the secondary case is presented for a Psychology Departmental vote. If positive, the case is forwarded to the Department Chair to initiate paperwork with the Dean.

Expectations for secondary faculty

  1. If not already Graduate Faculty, apply for Graduate Faculty status.
  2. Contribute 5-20 hours of service annually, through a combination of accepting student invitations to serve on milestone committees, serving as a member of mentoring committees through appointment by the program chair, interviewing prospective graduate students, mentoring undergraduates, participating in professional development workshops, etc.
  3. Attend program faculty meetings when expected (e.g., a secondary who has interviewed prospective grad students should attend the meeting about graduate recruitment). Secondaries who are currently advising a graduate student in the program are expected to regularly attend program meetings.
  4. Consider cross-listing relevant undergraduate and graduate courses in Psychology.

Requirements for secondary faculty to obtain graduate advising privileges

  1. Be able to provide a clear plan for how a student would be supported in their first 3 years. Generally, this will involve partial or complete GSR support in each year, as primary faculty have priority for any available Teaching Assistantships.
  2. Read, understand, and accept departmental (particularly the most recent version of the graduate handbook) and program advising guidelines.
  3. Primary cognitive program faculty judge the Secondary as having experience and behavior indicating a sincere desire and skill to advise students. This can be demonstrated by prior experience of advising graduate students, serving and performing well on graduate student committees, mentoring undergraduate directed research or honors thesis students, teaching undergraduate or graduate courses, and/or other mentoring-related activities.

Notes:

  1. Permission to recruit a student in any given admission year is not guaranteed and depends on the total number of advisement requests, funding, and other general program considerations.
  2. Only one student may be initially advised by a new secondary faculty member. 
  3. Advising more than one concurrent student requires permission of the program.
  4. Continued approval to advise students depends on satisfactory mentoring and funding of past and current students.