Only the voting members of the dissertation committee sign the Certificate of Result. Decisions of the committees for both preliminary and final examinations must be unanimous. In the case of a final examination, each committee member must also indicate that the thesis has been read and approved. The committee may record a failure but grant the student another opportunity to take the examination after completing additional course work, independent study, or research. In this case, the Graduate College will be informed of the failure, and the committee chair will indicate that the student should be given a second examination.
Failure can be final.
If the examination is scheduled to be held within two months after the committee dissolution date, the unit can extend the committee s lifetime by sending a memorandum to the Graduate College giving the scheduled examination date and certifying that all original committee members have agreed to meet at that time. The Graduate College does not require examination or thesis committees for the master s degree. Units that do require such committees may determine their own rules for committee membership.