Graduate Student Committee Service

Contents

Introduction

The Graduate College governs policies defining what constitutes a valid committee for graduate students. This document explains those policies and how an individual would qualify to serve on a student’s committee.

Graduate Faculty and Special Members

Members of the Graduate Faculty have special privileges and obligations within graduate education, especially related to thesis, dissertation and other culminating capstone project committee roles and membership, as well as graduate advising and mentorship. The Graduate College, in coordination with the academic colleges and programs, oversees the criteria, processes, and procedures related to the granting, review, and in rare cases of unacceptable performance, the remediation or removal of Graduate Faculty membership to ensure the quality of graduate programs and delivery of graduate education. The complete Graduate Faculty policy is available here.

Special Members are people who possess the knowledge and expertise to evaluate a student's graduate work, but who do not meet the criteria to be added to the Graduate Faculty.

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Graduate Committees

The following graduate student committees are subject to the standard policies of the Graduate College.

Doctoral Comprehensive Exam Committees

Per the degree requirement policies for the Doctor of Philosophy

  1. The committee must include a minimum of four members, including at least three members of the Graduate Faculty.
  2. A Special Member may serve as the fourth (or fifth) member of the committee. (See section B for definitions of member status.)
  3. Each committee must have a chair. The chair of the committee must be a member of the Graduate Faculty with endorsement to chair.
  4. If there are co-chairs of the committee, one must be a member of the Graduate Faculty with endorsement to chair, while the second can be either a member of the Graduate Faculty or Special Member.
  5. The committee should include at least one member representing the student's minor area of study.

Doctoral Dissertation Committees (Ph.D., DNP, DMA) 

Per the degree requirement policies for the Doctor of Philosophy

  1. The committee must include a minimum of three members of the Graduate Faculty.
  2. If there are more than three committee members, those beyond the core of three members of the Graduate Faculty may be members of the Graduate Faculty or Special Members.
  3. Each committee must have a chair. The chair of the committee must be a member of the Graduate Faculty with endorsement to chair.
  4. If there are co-chairs of the committee, one must be a member of the Graduate Faculty with endorsement to chair, while the second can be either a member of the Graduate Faculty or Special Member.

Master’s Thesis Committees

Per the degree requirement policies for Master's Degrees

  1. The committee must include a minimum of three members, including at least two members of the Graduate Faculty.
  2. A Special Member may serve as the third member of the committee.
  3. Each committee must have a chair. The chair of the committee must be a member of the Graduate Faculty with endorsement to chair.
  4. If there are co-chairs of the committee, one must be a member of the Graduate Faculty with endorsement to chair, while the second can be either a member of the Graduate Faculty or Special Member.

Master’s students who are not completing a thesis are not required to report a committee to the Graduate College but must still complete the Master’s/Specialist Committee Appointment form in GradPath to confirm their advisor.

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Committee Member Status

Graduate committee members are considered to be either Members of the Graduate Faculty, Invited members, or Special Members.

Regular Members

To qualify as a regular member for service on graduate student committees, a person must meet one of the following criteria:

  1. Be currently a member of the Graduate Faculty;
  2. Be an Invited member (this is a member of the Graduate Faculty who does not normally serve as a committee member in this student's program).

Special Members

  1. A Special Member is a person who does not qualify as a member of the Graduate Faculty or Invited members as defined above, but whom a department deems qualified to serve on a committee or committees based on academic qualifications and expertise in relevant subject matter.
  2. A Special Member approved by the Graduate College for committee service may serve on a given committee with approval of the department. 

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Procedure for Requesting Special Member Status

Upon the student's request the department (normally the Graduate Coordinator) initiates a Special Member request form.

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Requesting Graduate Faculty or DCC Graduate Faculty status

Please refer to the Graduate Faculty decision tree.

Request the relevant committee member status. Please access the request form available here:

  1. Graduate Faculty requests for faculty members or academic professionals should be routed through your departmental Human Resources representative in consultation with your Director of Graduate Studies and your Dean of Faculty or Academic Affairs.
  2. Graduate Faculty requests for an active University employee where UAccess Employee will not support the additional of a Graduate Faculty title and where the employee meets the Graduate Program criteria for Graduate Faculty membership should be submitted via the Graduate Faculty request form.
  3. Requests for non-employees who hold status as Designated Campus Colleagues (DCCs) who meet the Graduate Program criteria for membership in the Graduate Faculty should be submitted via the DCC Graduate Faculty request form.

Requesting Chair Endorsement for Graduate Faculty

Tenured and tenure eligible members of the Graduate Faculty can chair graduate student committees.

Continuing Status, Career Track faculty members, and Designated Campus Colleagues (DCCs) who are members of the Graduate Faculty may chair committees with the endorsement of their department. Endorsement to chair can either be requested for the graduate committee of a specific student or for the graduate committee of any student in your department.

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Approval of Graduate Students’ Committees

Every graduate student committee must be reported and approved on the relevant form in GradPath.  The student designates the committee role for each member listed. The roles are Chair, Co-Chair, Member, Special Member and Co-Chair/Special Member.  A committee must be approved by the student’s department and by the Graduate College.  The specific approvers for each type of committee are:

  • Doctoral comprehensive exam committee: Requires approval from the committee chair (or co-chairs if applicable), the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) for the student’s major department, and the Graduate College.
     
  • Doctoral dissertation committee: Requires approval from the committee chair (or co-chairs if applicable), the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) for both the student’s minor and major departments, and the Graduate College.
     
  • Master’s thesis committee: Requires approval from the student’s department Graduate Coordinator and the Graduate College.

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Emeritus Faculty

Emeritus faculty members who held Grad Faculty status at the time of their retirement can continue serving on graduate student committees as a Graduate Faculty member (as long as they remain current in their field). Emeritus faculty may be sole chair of a committee for one year after their retirement. After the one-year grace period they may co-chair with a current University of Arizona Graduate Faculty member who holds endorsement to chair.

Retired UA Faculty

Retired UA faculty members who held Grad Faculty status at the time of their retirement can continue serving on graduate student committees as a Graduate Faculty member if one of the following is true:

  1. The person remains employed by the University of Arizona at minimum 0.25FTE; or
  2. The termination date of the faculty position is within the past year

After the one-year grace period, the department may request Special Member status.

For retired faculty who did not hold Graduate Faculty status at the time of their termination the department may request Special Member status.

Note that a committee including a retired University of Arizona faculty member as a Special Member must still have the required number of Graduate Faculty per the relevant policy.

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