Graduate Advisory Committee Selection

Selecting an advisory committee represents an important part of one's graduate education. Students must work with their departments and the Graduate and Professional School to establish an advisory committee as a part the degree planning process.

Creating a Graduate Advisory Committee

Selecting faculty members to serve on an advisory committee is a process that merits careful evaluation, as the individuals chosen will have the potential to shape one's academic future.

GRADUATE COMMITTEE FACULTY SEARCHABLE DATABASE

Students searching for faculty eligible to serve on advisory committees can search the database or currently approved members on the Graduate Committee Faculty Portal (Grad.Com)

Degree Plan Submission

To establish advisory committees, students must submit an official degree plan for approval through the Graduate and Professional School's Document Processing Submission System (DPSS). The degree plan formally declares the degree objective, lists the specific courses of the degree program, and the members of the advisory committee, who will approve the degree plan along with the department head or interdisciplinary degree program chairperson.

See below for answers to questions you may have regarding choosing and nominating your committee members and using the required web systems.

Creating Your Advisory Committee

Who can serve on Graduate Committee Faculty?

The Graduate Committee Faculty Guidelines outline the required qualifications for nominees at each membership level.

How many committee members am I required to have?

This varies by program. Please refer to your program’s page in the Graduate and Professional Catalog for requirements specific to your degree

How can I make changes to my committee?

You can change coursework or alter committee membership by submitting a petition through DPSS. Committee changes must receive the approval of all members of the committee, old and new. In the Proposed Committee section, please list everyone on the committee, including those whose status will not change.

My committee member is leaving the university; can they stay on my committee?

The committee member may remain with committee and department approval. However, they must also be willing to continue to participate in all committee meetings, discussions, examinations, and sign off on the thesis/dissertation. Please discuss this with your committee and department head.

How do I add a special appointment to my committee

Your department should initiate the request by submitting a Graduate Committee Faculty nomination through http://gradcom.tamu.edu. Keep in mind that special appointments do not count toward the minimum number of Graduate Committee Faculty necessary to form the committee, are not considered voting members and will not be included on the title page of the thesis or dissertation.

Nominating Committee Members

How do I nominate someone for Graduate Committee Faculty?

All requests for Graduate Committee Faculty nomination must be submitted through the Graduate Committee Faculty Nomination System found at gradcom.tamu.edu. To access this system, your name must appear with access designated on the Authorized Signer form for your unit.

I have a faculty member who will be teaching a course this semester. Do I need to submit a nomination for them?

Faculty members who will only be teaching courses do not need to be added to the Graduate Committee Faculty system. Their credentialing will happen through the Dean of Faculties as the course is being approved.

If I want to nominate a member to Graduate Committee Faculty who is not at Texas A&M University, what do I need to do?

When nominating a member who is not a part of Texas A&M, you need to make sure a UIN and NetID is requested for this member. To request a UIN, please complete the NetID Account Request and submit it to Identity Management.

If you have any questions, please contact Identity Management at identity@tamu.edu or 979.862.4300.

You will also need to make sure this member claims their NetID, which they can do at http://gateway.tamu.edu. Once they claim their NetID, they will be given an @tamu.edu e- mail, and this e-mail will need to be published to the TAMU Directory in order for this member to appear in the Document Processing Submission System.

Technical Issues

I am in the process of submitting my degree plan, but my committee member does not appear in the DPSS dropdown list.

If you cannot find your desired committee member in the faculty member list in DPSS please contact your unit’s staff graduate advisor to inquire about having them added. Adding a member to Graduate Committee Faculty is a process that is initiated and completed by the department.

The faculty member has been approved, but they are still not appearing in DPSS

If the faculty member you have nominated has been approved in the Graduate Committee Faculty system, and they appear in the Graduate Committee Faculty Search, but are not appearing in the Document Processing Submission System, the issue is most likely related to the e-mail we have on file for the faculty member. To appear in the Document Processing Submission System the individual must have a @tamu.edu e-mail and must publish this address to the TAMU Directory.

I tried to log into the Graduate Committee Faculty system but it says I am not authorized.

Access to the Graduate Committee Nomination System is given only to those indicated on the Authorized Signer form for each unit. If you believe you should have access, please contact gradcom@tamu.edu.

If you are the designated individual to submit and/or approve nominations and you have receive this message, please e-mail gradcom@tamu.edu to have your access restored. Access to the system is deactivated if you have not logged in in the previous 6 months.