Changes to supervisory committee rules:

  • The student will fill out a Change of Committee form listing all committee members.
  • The student will clearly indicate which committee member(s) are being replaced by each new member.
  • The student will obtain approval from the chair and the new member(s).
  • The student will notify the replaced committee member(s) that their service is no longer required.

The student will then submit the Committee change form to Graduate Advising. Their Graduate Advisor will input the committee into the electronic records system via CIS. The Director of Graduate Studies and the Graduate School will electronically approve the Committee or return it to the student for correction.

Committee member dismissal rules:

This policy only applies after the PhD proposal defense. Before their PhD proposal or MS defense, the student and Advisor may reform the committee by following the changes to supervisory committee rules above. After the PhD proposal, the student or their PhD Advisor may request to remove and replace a committee member. The request must be submitted to the Graduate Director in writing and provide a rationale for the requested change.

The Graduate Director reviews the request and can take one of two actions:

  1. The Graduate Director accepts the request. The Graduate Director informs the committee member to be dismissed, in writing, of the change in the committee. If the committee member does not want to be dismissed, the Graduate Director must refer the request to the Graduate Committee (option 2).
  2. The Graduate Director refers the request to the Graduate Committee. The Graduate Committee reviews the case and makes a recommendation on whether to grant the request. If the request is granted, the chair of the Graduate Committee (who may also be the Graduate Director) informs the committee member to be dismissed of the Graduate Committee’s decision. If the request is not granted, the chair of the Graduate Committee informs the PhD student and Advisor of the Graduate Committee’s decision not to grant the request.

The decision of the Graduate Committee is final. If the removal of the member in question results in a committee consisting of less than 5 members for a PhD committee or 3 members for an MS committee, the student must then add another member to the committee.

A committee member may also request to be removed from a committee. This request is made to the Graduate Director who will usually grant the request and inform the student and Advisor that a replacement member is needed. If the replacement occurs after a PhD student has defended their proposal, the student must present the proposal information to the new member.