Faculty Actions for Milestone Six

All research doctoral students who have approved dissertation committees or who are ready to form their dissertation committees should use Graduate College Doctoral Milestone 6 Form: Selection of Dissertation Committee to submit their dissertation committee. Students should complete their submission by December 15. Students can access detailed instructions for completing MS 6 Form and links to multiple drop-in office hours for assistance and troubleshooting help.  

The most common issue students experience is not finding faculty on the drop-down menus of the form. If that happens, they should NOT submit an incomplete committee. Students can use the button for reporting a problem. The Graduate College and OIT are correcting identified problems quickly. 

Students may ask if they need to complete Milestone 6 Form. These instructions can help determine if a student should complete MS 6 Form now or wait until a later point in their program.

Graduate faculty who  are on a student’s dissertation committee (member or chair/co-chair) will receive requests to approve dissertation committee membership when students submit Milestone 6 Form. Approving or rejecting membership on committees in a timely manner is critical. 

Faculty have 14 days to submit a response or the form times out and must be resubmitted by the student. If the form times out, students will automatically receive an email instructing them to resubmit due to the form expiration. Faculty do not need to do anything, until the approval request reaches their in box again. During the 14-day approval window, faculty will receive multiple automated reminders. In general, faculty should approve dissertation committee membership, if they are on the student’s dissertation committee or if they have verbally agreed to serve on the student’s dissertation committee.

Faculty should reject a request for to confirm committee membership if they have had no prior conversation with the student about serving on their committee. Should a faculty member reject any requests, the comment field (max 1000 characters) must be used to explain briefly why the committee was rejected. It is also helpful for comments to suggest a course of action to the student. When approval of a form is rejected, students receive notification of the rejection with the comments. Some reasons that might be included in the comment field for a rejection:

• “Student has not discussed this committee membership with me; they should email me to set an appointment to discuss” or
• “Student has discussed this committee membership with me and I am unable to serve. Student should talk to [suggest faculty member].”
• “My ability to serve has changed since student initially spoke to me. Reach out to [suggest faculty member] to gauge their interest."

Graduate Chairs/Program Directors will receive requests to approve dissertation committee membership for any student in their program who submits Milestone 6 Form: Selection of Dissertation Committee. Approving or rejecting membership on committees in a timely manner is critical. The approval from the Graduate Chair/Program Director together with the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies is considered part of the college-level approval.  

Faculty have 14 days to submit a response before the form times out and must be resubmitted by the student. During the 14 day approval window faculty will receive multiple automated reminders. If the form times out, students will automatically receive an email instructing them to resubmit due to the form expiration. Faculty do not need to do anything, until the approval request reaches their in box again. 

In deciding if a committee should be approved, Graduate Chairs/Program Directors should consider that if the proposed committee meets department and college requirements for number of members and if those members who are OU faculty have graduate faculty status appropriate to their role on the committee.  

All faculty listed in the dissertation chair drop-down menu of the form are cleared to serve as dissertation chairs by their home departments. Similarly, all faculty who appear in the drop-down menus for committee members are cleared to serve as dissertation members by their home departments. In many cases, the way the forms are set up takes care of the ‘does the faculty have the appropriate status?’ issue. The scenario that may require careful consideration by Graduate Chairs/Program Director is when a student in Department A has a committee member in Department B and Department A expects committee members to conform to graduate faculty standards of Department A. In this instance, the Graduate Chair/Program Director would need to determine if the faculty member meets the graduate faculty requirements for the student’s home department. Graduate Chair/Program Director’s review of a proposed committee does not need to address additional requirements for Dean’s Representatives or members who may be external to OU. Review of those members is handled by the Associate Dean.

Should a Graduate Chair/Program Director reject a request for a proposed committee, the comment field (max 1000 characters) must be used to explain briefly why the committee was rejected. It is also helpful for comments to suggest a course of action to the student. When approval of a form is rejected, students receive notification of the rejection with the comments. Some reasons that might be included in the comment field for a rejection:

• “Committee member 1 does not have appropriate graduate faculty status, please discussion with you dissertation chair and department chair for appropriate next steps”
• “Committee member 2 does not have appropriate graduate faculty status in our department; I’ve asked our department chair or grad committee to evaluate/approve their graduate faculty status, please resubmit this in two weeks”

Associate Deans for Research & Graduate Studies will receive requests to approve dissertation committee membership for any student in their college who submits Milestone 6 Form: Selection of Dissertation Committee.  Approving or rejecting membership on committees in a timely manner is critical. The approval from the Graduate Chair/Program Director together with the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies is considered part of the college-level approval.  

Associate Deans for Research & Graduate Studies have 14 days to submit a response before the form times out and must be resubmitted by the student. During the 14 day approval window multiple automated reminders are sent. If the form times out, students will automatically receive an email instructing them to resubmit due to the form expiration. Faculty and Associate Deans do not need to do anything, until the approval request reaches their in box again. 

In deciding if a dissertation committee should be approved, Associate Deans should consider if the proposed committee meets the college’s requirements for 1) number of members, 2) members who are OU faculty have graduate faculty status appropriate to their role on the committee, 3) Dean’s representatives and members external to OU are appropriately qualified to serve (i.e., meets the guidelines of the student’s home academic college).

Should an Associate Dean reject a request for a proposed committee, the comment field (max 1000 characters) must be used to explain briefly why the committee was rejected. It is also helpful for comments to suggest a course of action to the student. When approval of a form is rejected, students receive notification of the rejection with the comments. Some reasons that might be included in the comment field for a rejection:

• “Dean’s rep must be outside your department, consult with your dissertation chair to identify an appropriate faculty member in another department.”
• “Dean’s rep must be outside your college, consult with your dissertation chair to identify an appropriate faculty member in another college.”
• “Dr. Y, who is not OU faculty, must submit a CV and sample publication to me before I can approve them. Please email me this info or have them do so.”