Committee Create (Nomination)- GradPoint Students

This workflow action is used to nominate your master’s thesis or doctoral committee.

Overview

Per policy, all master’s thesis and doctoral student need to formally nominate committees that meet the UCSB Academic Senate Regulation minimums.

That is done via the Create Committee workflow in GradPoint Students. This workflow facilitates that nomination process by checking that the committee meets the Senate Regulation minimums, collecting the committee member and departmental approvals, and formally recording the committee with the Graduate Division.

Only master’s thesis committees need to be formally nominated. Students completing a Master’s via exam or project do NOT need to formally nominate a committee.

Watch the Overview!

How do I start the Create Committee Workflow?

Always talk to your Staff Program Advisor before starting your committee nomination to make sure your committee meets departmental and campus regulations!

The nomination can be started in two ways; either by your departmental Staff Graduate Advisor or by you (the graduate student) via GradPoint Students.

Watch the Demo!

To begin the workflow action, log into GradPoint Students using your net ID and password.

Once logged in, navigate to the Petition Actions tab

From a desktop/laptop computer:

From a mobile device:

Click “Start New Petition” and choose “Create Committee” from the dropdown

Desktop View

Mobile View

Select the correct objective for the committee you wish to create:

Build your committee by searching for the members

Search UCSB-affiliated members via name, select the correct member, select their role, and add the member:

Desktop

Use the “Enter External Member” button for any member who is not from UCSB (and therefore won’t return in the UCSB Directory).

For External Members: Please use their institution email address

The left shows what it looks like to enter a member that is not already in our External Database

The right shows what it looks like when the external member’s email address is already in our database

Continue to build your committee. Added members will appear underneath:

Use the red X to remove members if needed.

Once you are done building your committee, then click the Validate button. This will compare your committee against the Academic Senate Regulation minimums to determine if your committee is valid or will require an exception. From a mobile device, you will click “Next” before the Validate button is visible.

Validation results

The validate button compares your committee against the university’s minimum requirements for a committee.

If you get all green checkmarks next to the rules, then your committee is valid.

Red Xs signify that rule was not met by the committee

If your committee is not valid, you could add more members to create a valid committee, or submit it anyway (and ask your department to write an exception on your behalf. Discuss this with your departmental staff graduate advisor).

Once you are done building your committee and have clicked the validate button after making all changes, hit the submit button

What is next?

From here, the committee will be reviewed by your departmental staff graduate advisor, who can input any exception requests as needed. You will receive an email when you need to review it again during the “Student Signature” step, documented below.

Student Signature

When it is time for you to review your final committee nomination (before it gets sent off for approvals from your members, Department Chair, etc), you will receive an email directing you to log in to GradPoint

This will take you directly to the screen you need to review.

Review the committee. If you want to make changes to it at this point, you could decline the step (and it will take you back to Step 1 above).

If you have a conflict of interest to disclose, please enter it here.

Once you are ready, click Approve

Full Workflow

The full workflow depends on whether a valid committee is being proposed, or if it needs an exception or a Conflict of Interest Review.

Workflow for a valid committee

Propose committee (student or staff grad advisor)
Department Review (staff grad advisor)
Student Approval (student only)
Member Approvals (members)
Department Chair Approval

Upon Department Chair approval, the committee is finalized and all parties will be sent a confirmation email. Your Academic Information Tab in GradPoint Students will be updated to reflect your committee.

Workflow for an invalid committee or conflict disclosure

Propose committee (student or staff grad advisor)
Department Review (staff grad advisor)
Student Approval (student only)
Graduate Division Review
Member Approvals
Department Chair Approval
Associate Dean Review
Graduate Council Review

How to Check on Progress

Navigate to your Petitions Tab in GradPoint Students and click View Petition