Hoops

Graduate school has not necessarily been very hard. For me it has felt more like a game, a game of jumping through hoops. The school says jump, and I must ask, "how high?" Another hoop was presented to me today in the form of an e-mail from my adviser. I have to find another thesis committee member. JUMP. This is because my department chair has left SCAD for another position. Therefore it is my new responsibility to replace my department chair for some one else. JUMP. I made it though that hoop last week when I asked my professor of the on-line thesis writing class to be my new thesis committee chair. To have this new chair approved, I must re-apply with the three signatures of my new committee. JUMP. My committee is now spread across the country in three different states, Georgia, Illinois, and New York. JUMP. I must now fill out the application (again) and fax it to three different states for three different signatures. JUMP. Although the course work is not that hard, SCAD sure does make it difficult to get anything done quickly.

To clarify any confusion of the thesis committee requirements my adviser sent me this e-mail:


Thesis committee requirements:

The committee should consist of three members—a chair and two additional members. At least two of the thesis committee members, including the chair, should be SCAD faculty.

The chair must be a SCAD faculty member and should hold a terminal degree (MFA, PhD or other), should be familiar with the student and his or her work, and be a professor in the student’s major program of study. The chair will submit the final grade for the thesis after consulting with the other two members.

Under the guidance and support of the chair students should select the other two committee members. They do not carry titles, but be known simply as thesis committee members. The chair will make the determination regarding the appropriateness of the other two members serving on the committee. One of the two must be a SCAD faculty member, preferably full time. Any outside committee members should not be related to the student in any way and should possess the necessary experience or credentials for serving on a thesis committee.

All three committee members, under the guidance of the chair, will work to assure that the student work is appropriate visually and verbally. The committee should be aware of resources available to students working on the written component of the thesis.

Make sure to get all of your thesis committee members signatures on the thesis application, - your functioning department chair after the start of summer quarter is Denise Smith, who you can contact at hdsmith@scad.edu.


- All committee members' signatures must be on the same thesis application form, and it can be hand delivered, faxed, shipped or emailed to me.


Please let me know if you have any other questions!

Very Best,
Siv


I plan to e-mail her back with two questions.
1. WTF?
2. How high?

JUMP.