Faculty Advisor
Faculty advisors act as points of contact and guide students through the program until they become dissertators. Advisors may also become the student’s dissertation chair.
Before Enrollment (April to August)
- April/May: Welcome students to the program via email.
- June: Introduce and connect them to current PhD students in the program.
- June: Help students choose courses in Fall by reviewing the curriculum in the Handbook and checking the schedule of classes on UWM’s homepage.
- April-August: Answer any questions they may have about the program.
Year 1
- Socialize students into the profession and academic culture. Most students do not know anything about the norms and mores of academic life. Discuss the tenure process and untenured positions; academic conferences and key journals in the area; the submission and review process for publications; expectations for service to a college and university as a faculty member; and more.
- Encourage students to attend Lubar research presentations within and across the areas.
- Encourage students to take courses and workshops through CARMA, the Consortium for the Advancement of Research Methods and Analysis. (Lubar has a membership that allows students to take courses at a reduced cost.) These courses and workshops can supplement their core statistics and research methodology coursework. For students with no prior experience in statistics and research methodology, CARMA courses and workshops can be vital to bring them up to speed.
- Meet with them regularly during the semester to check their progress. Make a note of any red flags and discuss with area faculty ways to help the student get back on track.
- Help students choose courses for Spring by reviewing the curriculum in the Handbook and checking the Schedule of Classes. Discuss with other faculty advisors the options available.
- Review options for scholarships and write letters of recommendation.
- Conduct an Annual Evaluation. Review the student’s transcript and discuss how they plan to address any incompletes. Discuss project assistantship evaluations. Comment on and sign the form.
- Help students complete a program of study. Review the curriculum in the PhD Student Handbook to be sure they are meeting all requirements. See “Tips for Doctoral Student Course Planning.”
- By end of Year 1, encourage students to start thinking about their potential dissertation topics and meet with faculty who are experts in those areas to explore the topics.
- Remind students of first-year paper requirement.
- Encourage them to use their first summer to start working on and/or revising their first-year paper. Encourage students to continue to explore potential dissertation topics and lay the groundwork for a potential conference submission or an area brown-bag presentation.
Year 2
- Help students select courses for Fall and Spring. Review their Program of Study to see if they need to submit a Program of Study Modification form should they not complete the courses listed on their program. Remind them of the CARMA course options. See also “Tips for Doctoral Student Course Planning.”
- Minimize the use of independent studies. Encourage students to use independent studies to learn more about potential dissertation topics
- Schedule regular check-ins and monitor their progress.
- Remind students of first-year paper deadline. The paper completion form is due to PhD Coordinator by December 31. The student must turn in a draft for you to review before December 31, so you can note if it is complete or needs revision. If it needs revision, you will set a deadline for the student to revise and submit it to you before the end of the spring term.
- Schedule the presentation of the first-year paper.
- Conduct an Annual Evaluation. Review the student’s transcript and discuss how they plan to address any incompletes before taking the preliminary exams. Discuss when they plan to take the exams. Discuss project assistantship evaluations. Comment on and sign the form.
- Answer questions about the preliminary exam.
- Discuss the need to choose a dissertation chair and the roles of the dissertation chair. (See PhD Student Handbook.)
- Conduct Preliminary Exams
- Establish the Preliminary Exam Committee.
- Approve the student’s readiness to take the exam on Milestones.
- Gather questions for the preliminary exam from the major and minor area faculty.
- Work with PhD Program Coordinator to schedule exam Parts 1 and 2.
- Request Preliminary Exam grading form from the PhD Program Coordinator.
- Send student answers to exam committee members for grading.
- Gather exam results from the committee and send the final score card to the PhD Program Coordinator. Notify the student of the results and report exam results on Milestones.
Common Core: Conducting Supervised Readings
You and the student must fill out and submit a form PRIOR to starting a supervised reading. After completing the supervised reading, you and the student must submit a completion form. See the PhD Advising website to obtain both forms. Forms should be submitted to the PhD Program Coordinator.
Dissertator Chair
According to the PhD Student Handbook: “The dissertation chair supervises the dissertation, which involves mentorship and advisement regarding the research design, data collection, and analysis processes. The dissertation chair also advises you on your employability in the job market, which may include, but is not limited to, making you aware of seminars, conferences, and other professional development opportunities in your/their area of research. Overall, the chair mentors you in your development as a researcher and future member of faculty. In regards to your dissertation, you and your dissertation chair should establish a mutually agreed upon authorship credential expectation as early as feasible and revisit the agreement throughout the research and publication process as appropriate.”
Complete Dissertator Course enrollment form every semester.
- Complete Annual Evaluation every semester.
- Meet regularly with the student to monitor progress on dissertation.
- Discuss preparing for the job market (where to find job ads, types of jobs in academia, preparing a CV, interviewing skills, etc.).
- Discuss major conferences and academic journals in the field.
- Discuss and help the student choose faculty to serve on the dissertation committee.
- Work with the student to set a date for the proposal presentation. Enter the proposal presentation results on Milestones.
- Work with the student to set a date for the dissertation defense.
- After the dissertation defense, gather signatures on the warrant and send the warrant to PhD Program director for signature and submission to Graduate School.
Tips for Doctoral Student Course Planning
- Review the Background and Common Core requirements in the PhD Student Handbook. If the student has not met these requirements with prior coursework, discuss how they might meet these requirements in future coursework or other forms of evaluation and what that might mean in terms of credits per semester.
- Does the student have a master’s degree? If not, they must take a minimum of 54 credits to graduate. This can include the credits they would take as a dissertator.
- Discuss the areas of research they would like to explore. Review courses you or your area faculty have recommended to past doctoral students. If you don’t have past programs of study, reach out to the PhD Program Coordinator to ask for past programs of study.
- If they have little to no background in statistics and/or research methods, start them off with some statistics research methods courses. You might also recommend courses through CARMA, the Consortium for the Advancement of Research Methods and Analysis. Lubar has a membership that allows students to take courses at a reduced cost. Discuss with other faculty advisors which CARMA courses they recommended to past students. CARMA is hosted by Texas Tech University and aims to help faculty and graduate students: “learn of current developments in various areas of research methods and statistics. Our focus is research methods is relevant to the management and organizational sciences.”