Graduate Advising Guidelines, Department of English (promulgated 18 November 2012)
The term graduate advising, as used here, has two principal meanings: (1) supervising a student’s master’s essay/thesis or doctoral dissertation and (2) working with a graduate student to appropriately support his/her successful completion of course and language requirements. Basic expectations regarding both forms of advising are provided below.
Master’s Essay/Thesis and Dissertation Direction
Master’s essay/thesis and dissertation directors not only have primary responsibility for guiding the student’s culminating project but also the obligation of keeping other members of the student’s essay/thesis/dissertation and examination committees informed of all major aspects of the project, including sharing drafts of the project at appropriate times and securing approval of each doctoral student’s reading list and dissertation prospectus prior to allowing him/her to take qualifying exams.[1] During those times when a project director may be unable to respond to a student’s draft for an extended period of time, s/he is expected to elicit reaction to the draft from another member (or other members) of the project committee rather than allowing it to go unread. In addition, the director has the obligation to closely monitor candidates’ academic progress on their culminating projects, especially their time-to-degree,[2] and report on it annually to the Director of Graduate Studies using the approved departmental reporting form at http://www.slu.edu/Documents/arts_sciences/english/Annual%20Faculty%20Report%20on%20Grad%20Student%20Prorgess%20-%20final.pdf. For a more complete list of directorial responsibilities, including scheduling students’ qualifying and final examinations, see the documents on the Department’s master’s program and doctoral program webpages at http://www.slu.edu/english-department/graduate-program/masters-program and http://www.slu.edu/english-department/graduate-program/phd-program.
Graduate Student Advising
Faculty members advising students who have not begun their theses or dissertations, or those on the non-thesis master's track, have primary responsibility for providing guidance, as needed, during these students’ period of course work. In addition, each student’s faculty advisor has the obligation to closely monitor candidates’ academic progress on their culminating projects, especially their time-to-degree,[3] and report on it annually to the Director of Graduate Studies using the approved departmental reporting form at http://www.slu.edu/Documents/arts_sciences/english/Annual%20Faculty%20Report%20on%20Grad%20Student%20Prorgess%20-%20final.pdf. A more complete list of faculty advisors’ responsibilities, including scheduling master’s students’ final examinations, may be found on the Department’s master’s program webpage at http://www.slu.edu/english-department/graduate-program/masters-program.
[1] The requirement for obtaining approval of the prospectus prior to taking qualifying exams applies only to students following the “new” doctoral program approved in 2010-11.
[2] See the document “Department of English Policy on Academic Progress and Retention” at http://www.slu.edu/Documents/arts_sciences/english/English%20Graduate%20Retention%20Policy.pdf.
[3] See fn. 2 above.