Function and Purpose
The primary purpose of the Graduate Liaison Program is to create a vehicle for students to communicate points of appreciation as well as actionable ideas, issues, and concerns for the betterment of their own graduate experience as well as cohorts to follow. The Student Liaison Program Representatives would function as spokespersons for the student group as a whole. Representatives would bring anonymously submitted matters related to curriculum, scheduling, advising, materials, work environment, clinic, resource room, the application process, program structure, orientation week, and other areas to meetings. Meetings will be held for thirty minutes during finals week of each semester with the Speech-Language Pathology Program Coordinator. Issues specifically related to the individual faculty members, professors or supervisors, legal, discriminatory, and or Title IX issues would not be included since the University has established procedures for dealing with these matters and those procedures will be followed. Supervisor feedback forms are also available as a means of student expression. Ideas, concerns, and issues related to an already existing class will also not be included since there is the opportunity to express ideas, concerns, and issues through course evaluations.
Roles and Responsibilities
Student Liaison Program Representatives
- Selection: Three students from each cohort, chosen by volunteer and random selection, will represent the cohort as whole in meetings. Selection will take place the week clinic begins. The program director’s graduate assistant will send out an email to each cohort the week classes begin. The email will include the program description and the opportunity to self-volunteer to be a part of the program. Volunteer submissions will be open for one week following the date the email was sent. Once the submission period ends, the program coordinator’s graduate assistant will enter all submitted names into a random selection picker wheel to determine the three cohort representatives. A video of the selection via the picker wheel will be included in an email to the respective cohort notifying cohort members of student representatives.
- Eligibility: All students from both first- and second-year cohorts are eligible to volunteer to be a representative for his or her respective cohort. The student will remain eligible for a one-year term as long as he or she is enrolled in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Program. A designated graduate assistant will assist with the administrative duties of the program stated in this description and will remain for the duration of the graduate assistantship. That graduate assistant is eligible, but not required, to serve as a Student Liaison Representative for his or her respective cohort. Should a representative leave the program for any reason, the designated graduate assistant will immediately reopen volunteer spots and reselection process.
- Term: The first-year graduate student term runs from the week clinic begins in the first fall semester until the final week of summer clinic of his or her first year in the graduate program. The second-year graduate student term runs from the week clinic begins in their second fall semester until the final week of summer clinic of his or her second year in the graduate program.
- Meetings & Meeting Preparation: Student representatives are responsible for collaboratively coordinating a means of collecting anonymous student ideas, issues, and concerns in time to summarize input for the meeting during finals week of each semester. Student representatives are also responsible for coordinating the meeting time and location with the Program Coordinator at least one week prior to the start of finals. The representatives for each cohort will be given 30 minutes to respectfully discuss student input with the Coordinator. At the start of the meeting, representatives will provide the Program Coordinator with an electronic or paper copy of summarized points of appreciation, student ideas, issues, and concerns that fall within the guidelines set forth in the function and purpose of the program. Following the meeting, student representatives are responsible to remain available via email to collaborate with the Program Coordinator on matters of feedback implementation.
Student Cohort Members (Representatives and Non-Representatives)
- If student cohort members chose to anonymously submit constructive input, they are responsible for on time submissions of points of appreciation, ideas, issues, and concerns that are accompanied by actionable steps for implementation. Constructive input must fall within guidelines set forth in the function and purpose of the program. By providing further ideas for actionable implementation, the Program Coordinator will be better able to understand how the feedback could be implemented if chosen to do so.
Program Coordinator and Program Director
- The Program Coordinator is responsible for attending the one-hour meeting held during finals week of each semester. Following the meeting, the Coordinator is responsible for determining the feasibility of implementation of student feedback. Should the Coordinator and Director choose to implement any aspect of student feedback within their job responsibilities, matters will also be discussed with program faculty. The program coordinator can reach out via email to the student representatives to engage student input throughout the process of feedback implementation. Changes and suggestions will be instituted with program faculty knowledge and approval.