All doctoral students and master’s thesis (Plan I) students must officially nominate committees
Senate Regulation 300.B details the requirements for master’s thesis committees, and Senate Regulation 350.D.2 details the requirements for doctoral committees (the requirements for master’s thesis and doctoral committees are the same). Additional details and explanations can be found on the Graduate Division’s website.
For Doctoral Students, committees should be nominated before the student takes their qualifying exams to advance to doctoral candidacy.
For master’s thesis students (Plan I), committees should be nominated before they file their thesis. Students completing a master’s degree via comprehensive exam or project (Plan II) do not need to nominate a committee.
Expectations for Departmental Staff Graduate Advisors
Staff Graduate Advisors are expected to advise students on the departmental policies and Graduate Council regulations for nominating valid thesis and doctoral committees.
Staff Graduate Advisors can initiate committee nominations and changes on behalf of the student, so you need to determine if you will advise your students to start the process on their own via GradPoint Students, or if you will initiate the nominations via GradPoint Academics.
Staff Graduate Advisors must complete the second step of the workflow, and will coordinate the collection of any exception request memos and CVs as needed when a committee needs an exception.
Expectations for Department Chairs
According to Academic Senate Regulations, all graduate student committees must be approved by the student’s major department. Therefore, all committee nominations and changes must be reviewed and approved by the Department Chair.
Also, in the case where a conflict of interest is disclosed between a student and a committee member, the Department Chair must determine and report on what steps will be taken to mitigate the conflict.
Expectations for Committee Members
Committee members must approve to be members of the committee, and disclose whether or not they have any conflicts of interest with the student.
Expectations for the Graduate Division
The Academic Services staff are responsible for ensuring that committees are valid, and if not, are reviewed and approved by the Chair of the Graduate Council. We record each committee and committee changes for the student’s official record.
Procedure for Nominating and Changing Committees
Committee nominations and changes take place via GradPoint, with step-by-step instructions below.