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The Graduate School

Accept/Deny Committee Membership and ETDs

The following information is for faculty members who have been asked to serve on a student's committee.

Email notifications will be sent to faculty members when:

  • Students request them to serve as a member of their advisory committee
  • Students request them to serve as a Graduate School Representative (GSR)
  • A student’s Electronic Thesis/Dissertation (ETD) has been accepted by the Graduate School and is awaiting committee approval

In the degree audit system, these requests no longer appear in a Worklist; the notification emails will have direct links for faculty members to use to enter their decisions. The instructions below provide the navigation faculty members can use when they are unable to locate a notification email for one of these requests.

Navigate to the Committee Acceptance page

MyPack Portal > Student Information System > Advising tile > Graduate Degree Planning > Committee Acceptance

  1. Log into MyPack Portal
  2. View your Student Information System Homepage
  3. Select the ‘Advising’ tile
  4. From the left-hand navigation menu, select ‘Graduate Degree Planning’
  5. Select ‘Committee Acceptance’

Accept committee membership (including GSR)

In the Committee Acceptance page, enter the student’s ID number, Unity ID, or name, then click Search. On the next screen, select your decision for this committee. (Note: If you have been asked to serve as both a member and the outside representative/GSR, you must select your decision for that role as well.) Then, click the “Process Action” button to save your decision(s). The example below shows someone who was asked to serve as both a member and the GSR, but the same process applies to someone who was requested to serve in one role.

Screenshot of Committee Acceptance page; showing how to accept/decline a role on a student's committee

View your committees (accepted and pending)

In the Committee Acceptance page, leave the search fields blank and simply click “Search.” Doing so will pull up a list of students’ committees that you have either already accepted or still need to review and accept/deny.

Screenshot of Committee Acceptance landing page with red box around the Search button

Approve ETDs

In the Committee Acceptance page, leave the search fields blank and simply click “Search” to see a list of students with an ETD that needs your approval. (To look for a specific student, enter the student’s ID number, Unity ID, or name, then click “Search.”)

On the student’s committee page, you may view the final ETD file by clicking the “View Electronic Thesis/Dissertation” button. Enter your decision by clicking the “Approve ETD” or “Deny ETD” checkbox, then “Save ETD Decision” (see screenshot below). By approving the ETD, you are approving the thesis/dissertation in its current form and will not have the opportunity for further review.

Screenshot of Committee Acceptance page showing a student's committee with red boxes around the "view thesis/dissertation" button, the approve/deny checkboxes, and the "Save ETD Decision" box

If you deny the ETD, the student will be immediately notified and prompted to upload a new file to the ETD system. After the student has uploaded the new file, they must manually prompt the committee by clicking the appropriate link on the committee page in the MyPack portal. These instructions have been sent to the student. After the student completes this re-submission process, ALL committee members must approve the new file.