There are three faculty members who serve on a CHC thesis committee, with various roles to fulfill:

PRIMARY THESIS ADVISOR

This faculty member is most likely from your major department. She or he is the first faculty member you’ll need to recruit to be on your committee. This person will:

• Have a high interest in your project
• Help narrow the scope of your project
• Guide your research
• Sign the Thesis Prospectus Application form
• Attend your thesis prospectus presentation
• Attend your thesis defense and provide feedback based on established Criteria.
• Sign the Thesis Evaluation form
• Sign both copies of your thesis abstract page

The Primary Thesis Advisor also takes a special role during the oral defense:

• Advises candidate about whether a formal 15-20 minute presentation will be required;
• Begins the formal questioning of the candidate after the oral presentation is concluded.
• Guides examination questions so that they remain on the subject.
• Declares within the time limit that the oral examination is over.
• Begins the discussion with his or her personal evaluation of both the thesis itself and the oral examination. (In the case of performance or creative work, this may refer to either the actual performance or creative work separately.)
• Discusses with the committee whether the student fails, passes, passes with honors, or passes with distinction.
• In cases when the decision is “Pass Awaiting Revision,” agrees to be responsible for seeing that revisions are done to certain standards before signing and returning the final Thesis Evaluation Form to the CHC Academic Coordinator.
• Decides in rare cases whether a second oral examination is necessary.
• Calls candidate back and announces committee decision; may announce the decision to audience separately.

SECONDARY THESIS ADVISOR

This faculty member, generally recruited later in the thesis process, provides a second specialist opinion on the thesis’s scholarly or creative rigorousness, or on performance standards. In addition, her/his role is to:

• Review your thesis draft and prepare comments.
• Attend your thesis defense and provide feedback
• During the defense, ask candidate questions designed to illuminate the thesis;
• Confer with other committee members to determine whether the student fails, passes, passes with honors, or passes with distinction.
• Sign the Thesis Evaluation form

CHC THESIS ADVISOR

This faculty member provides a link between the Primary Thesis Advisor and the CHC. In addition, it is her or his role to:

• Authorize you to use the Thesis Defense Scheduling website to schedule your thesis defense.
• Contact the Primary Thesis Advisor before the oral defense to answer any questions he or she may have about the defense.
• Bring the Thesis Evaluation form and Criteria to the thesis defense.
• Ensure that, in both thesis and oral examination, the candidate demonstrates ability, at least in introductory and summary sections, to explain clearly to educated non-specialists what the thesis is about and what the scholarly questions and problems are.
• Attend your thesis defense and provide feedback
• In the case of a Creative or Performance Thesis, makes sure that the candidate has clearly expressed artistic aims and given some general idea of the technical problems involved.
• In a performance project, makes sure that the candidate has explained as clearly as possible to a non-specialist what techniques he or she has mastered and how those techniques are a necessary part of a fine arts performance.
• Determines whether the written work meets CHC standards and suggest revisions if it does not.
• Circles the appropriate decision on the Thesis Evaluation Form and signs it.
• Delivers the completed thesis evaluation form to the CHC Academic Coordinator.