Mentoring Committee

All students will form a 4-5 member Mentoring Committee by the Spring Semester of Year 1. The Chair of this committee will be to student’s advisor.
This committee serves a critical role in the development and evaluation of a student over their time in the program. This committee will provide advice on course selection, research design, developing timelines, and other issues as they may arise.

This committee will serve as the evaluating committee for the First Year Project.
This committee will eventually serve as the dissertation defense committee. As such, it is encouraged to form a committee that will be able to serve in this capacity (i.e. meet all requirements for the dissertation defense committee). However, this is not mandatory.
Committee membership can be changed at anytime by the student and advisor for any reason. Simply turn in a new form to the Graduate Coordinator.
The first meeting of this committee should be in the Spring of Year 1 to discuss the First Year Project as well as other aspects of graduate training (e.g. future course selection).
The committee will meet in the Fall of Year 2 to evaluate the recently completed First Year Project (First Year Project Defense) as well as other aspects of graduate training (future research plans, course work).
Following Year 2, the committee will meet annually, either in the Fall or Spring, at the discretion of the student, advisor and committee.
Following the completion of each annual meeting, the student needs to turn in the Mentoring Committee Annual Form