Who can serve on an M.A. thesis committee?
Numbers: Two – up to two from the department, or one insider and one from outside the department. All must be from UVA. Chairs: Committees must be chaired by someone who is a regular, full-time faculty member of the department. Regular full time faculty means: No emeriti (unless the committee pre-dates their change of status); no adjuncts/temporary hires; no “associated” faculty (i.e. people holding courtesy appointments in the department); no “general” faculty. Secondary members: Any full-time faculty of the university except adjuncts/temporary hires (thus you may have emeriti, general faculty, associated faculty). For M.A. theses, as a general rule, a secondary member from the department is preferable to someone from outside the department if you are planning on continuing to the Ph.D. because the readers’ evaluations of the thesis carry great weight in the graduate committee’s decision to pass you into the Ph.D. program (to “EPPP” you in our parlance).
