At its Feb. 19 meeting, the Faculty Senate will discuss proposed changes to policies governing Stanford’s coterminal master’s degree programs.

The Committee on Graduate Studies approved the proposed changes on Jan. 28, 2015. The Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Policies approved the proposed changes on Feb. 6, 2015.

Documents describing the proposed changes, the recommendation of the committees, as well as background information on the proposal can be found on the senate’s Feb. 19 meeting agenda.

Since the late 1960s, Stanford allowed undergraduate students to apply to Stanford master’s degree programs and, if accepted, to pursue both degrees simultaneously for some of all of their studies. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of each entering class elects to seek coterminal master’s degrees.

The senate also will discuss a proposal to adopt a policy (approved on a trial basis by the senate in 2010) to allow the director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to approve SLAC distinguished and senior staff scientists to be principal investigators on non-Department of Energy-funded research proposals.

The Committee on Research has recommended that the policy continue indefinitely.

If adopted, Stanford will amend its Research Policy Handbook, a collection of policies, guidelines and general information related to its research enterprise.

“The trial period has provided sufficient information and lessons learned that the Committee on Research has voted in favor of recommending that the Research Policy Handbook 2.1 be amended to continue the PI exception for SLAC Senior and Distinguished staff indefinitely,” physics Professor Peter Michelson, chair of the Committee on Research, wrote in a Jan. 27 letter to the senate.

Michelson’s letter and a document showing the proposed amendments to the Research Policy Handbook can be found on the Feb. 19 meeting agenda.

The senate meeting will begin at 3:15 p.m. in Room 180 of the Law School.

Discussion is limited to members of the senate, but members of the Stanford community may request to attend the meeting by contacting the Academic Secretary’s Office at (650) 723-4992 or Trish Del Pozzo at delpozzo@stanford.edu.

The minutes for the Jan. 22 Faculty Senate meeting can be found on the senate’s website.