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Sharing an Exemplary Element: Advising Committees Our
biochemistry students are required to present a formal seminar on their
research and meet with advising committees annually. The advising
committees serve to evaluate the student's yearly progress and
advancement to degree.
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Details of the Faculty Advising Committees Meetings
with advising committees typically begin in the third year, after
students complete their qualifying exams. A committee consists of the
student's advisor and two other faculty members with similar research
interests. The student gives a yearly presentation of their research,
followed by a meeting in which the faculty members evaluate the
student's progress and provide suggestions for future directions in the
research. These meetings are a required part of the biochemistry
program, and are the student's responsibility to organize, although the
thesis advisor will help enforce that the meetings take place.
Committee Meeting Form
This is the form filled out each year by the student and committee to
document the advising meeting and evaluate the student's progress.
Annual Committee Meeting Guidelines
This is a document given to biochemistry students explaining the guidelines for the required Annual Committee Meetings.
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What educational purpose do Advising Committees serve? Advising
committees serve students in a variety of ways. First and foremost,
mentoring is not solely in the hands of the thesis advisor but is
expanded to a group of experts in the student's field. The yearly
meeting provides feedback when the student is no longer taking courses
or exams, helps keep the student's research efforts on-track, and
fosters strong ties between members of the division. Lastly, advising
committees are beneficial in the unfortunate circumstance that a
student (or advisor) is having difficulty with their relationship and
an outside source is needed to evaluate the student's progress to
degree.
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What data or evidence tells us that this works? Informal
surveys of biochemistry students suggest that this program is well
liked and generally helpful, and many students in other divisions have
asked that advising committees be implemented for them. Faculty in
organic, inorganic and analytical chemistry will start advising
committees for students in Spring, 2004. To
further evaluate this program it would be useful to look at
time-to-degree before and after this program began, student surveys and
alumni feedback.
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Reflection from faculty members "During
the third and subsequent years of graduate school, students in the
Biochemistry Division meet on a yearly basis with a faculty committee
to evaluate progress. The monitoring committee consists of at least
three Biochemistry faculty including the thesis advisor. Students
present a formal 30 min seminar on their research, which is attended by
the monitoring committee members. Students may present their talk in a
number of different forums, such as Signaling Supergroup,
Bioinformatics Supergroup, RNA Club, Biophysics Supergroup,
Biochemistry Retreat, and laboratory group meetings. Within a few weeks
after the research talk, the committee meets with the student to
discuss progress and outline goals for the next year. Problems or
obstacles that interfere with progress of the dissertation are noted. A
meeting summary is then written by the committee chair and signed by
the student and thesis advisor. In the final year, 6-12 months prior to
completion of the thesis, students meet with the monitoring committee,
which is now referred to as the thesis committee and includes 5 faculty
(one from outside the department). During this meeting, students must
obtain approval of the proposed dissertation content in order to
proceed with its preparation. The monitoring process provides valuable
support and advice for students who may be encountering problems with
their work, and enables students to formulate and prioritize their
research aims." -Faculty Members Drs. Jim Goodrich, Art Pardi, and Deborah Wuttke
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Reflections from students
Kristi Kincaid, 4th year Biochemistry "I
think that these meetings are helpful for two main reasons: 1. I think
it's always good to evaluate your own work on a yearly basis. 2. For
the most part I think if you are coming along fine these meetings don't
make a huge difference, but if you need help, they help. So it's either
neutral or positive, but not negative. And they don't take too much
time if you don't really need them. Also, if there's a conflict between
a student and an advisor it's helpful for both the advisor and the
student to have a couple of people to back either one of them up."
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Chris Downey, 4th year Biochemistry "The
requirement to meet with an advising committee once a year during PhD
study has been valuable. It is a good way to get feedback and
suggestions from outside the research group. It also provides an
outside evaluation of progress towards the thesis, so that the thesis
advisor is not the only person to decide when a student is ready to
graduate. An
important benefit is the associated requirement that students present
their research in a public forum prior to meeting their advisory
committee. As public speaking is an important skill for scientists to
develop, giving these talks is a necessary part of the PhD education
and should be required of all students in the department. Another
benefit is regular contact what becomes the thesis committee, which
assures that committee members are familiar with students’
research long before they submit their theses. This allows any problems
members might have with the research to be addressed early rather than
when the thesis is already written and the student is trying to
graduate."
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