The Office of Graduate Studies must approve all members of student committees’ prior to appointment to the committee. Approval is requested by completing the Faculty Approval Form and submitting it, together with curriculum vitae to the Office of Graduate Studies. The Faculty Approval form should be submitted to OGS a minimum of two weeks before the student’s committee is announced.

The categories of faculty approvals for service on student committees (with the approval of the unit faculty and the Office of Graduate Studies) are as follows:

• Category One: UNM tenured or tenure-track faculty or UNM-National Laboratory Professors. Role: chair or a member of any master’s or doctoral committee in any discipline, regardless of their FTE status.
• Category Two: Tenured or tenure-track faculty at other institutions. Role: external member on dissertation committee.
• Category Three: Individuals whose primary employer is UNM and who hold the titles of research professor, research associate professor, research assistant professor; clinician educators with the rank of professor, associate professor assistant professor or faculty hired onto the flex track or “V” category in the School of Medicine. Role: chair, co-chair, or member of master’s or dissertation committee; may only chair or co-chair committees if within the student’s major.
• Category Four: Others who are considered experts in the field. Role: voting member of the committee.

• Committee Compositions

• Master's Exam and/or Thesis Committees:

• A minimum of three members approved for committee service
• Two members must be in Category 1 or 3
• The chair of the committee must be in Category 1, or 3 if within the student's major.
• One member must be from Category 1
• No more than one voting member can be in Category 4

• Doctoral and MFA Comprehensive Exam Committees:

• A minimum of four members approved for committee service
• Two members must be Category 1
• The chair must be Category 1, or 3 if within student’s major
• One member must be Category 1 AND outside the student’s major, or in Category 2
• One member must be Category 1, or 3 within the student’s major
• One member may be in Category 4 if the above requirements are met. (No more than one voting member may be in Category 4.)

The department must notify OGS when a faculty member who is chairing a thesis or dissertation committee retires. If the graduate unit approves, Emeriti/Emeritae faculty are allowed to continue to chair existing thesis committees for up to one calendar year from the date of their retirement. They may not be appointed chair of any new thesis committees once retired. If the student has not completed his/her thesis within one year of the chair’s retirement, the retired faculty member may continue to serve on the thesis committee as a co-chair or member of the committee. The approval is subject to renewal.

The department must notify OGS when a faculty member serving on a committee in Category1 or 3 leaves the university for another position. The graduate unit may submit a Faculty Approval Form for Categories 2 or 4. In addition, they may serve as co-chair of existing student committees for which they served as chair.

Semester grades available for thesis (599) and/or dissertation (699) hours are PR (progress) and NC (no credit). At the time of graduation the student’s transcript will indicate that he/she earned either 6 hours of thesis (599) or 18 hours of dissertation (699) credit (CR), dependent on the degree earned.