Master's Thesis Committee (Plan A) Information and Forms

The steps and information below will help guide Master's students through the thesis committee approval process.

1. Master’s students must be Advanced to Candidacy prior to appointment of a thesis committee, or (in a few Master’s programs) the Thesis Committee Form is submitted to Graduate Studies at the same time as Advancement to Candidacy. Please check with your Graduate Advisor to learn your program’s workflow.

2. After Advancement to Candidacy, students should meet with their Graduate Advisor to discuss the proposed thesis committee. If you are considering a committee member who is not a tenured/tenure-track faculty member, please review the table below:

Permissible thesis committee member affiliations:

¹  Current SDSU lecturers and SDSU Adjunct Faculty can be approved for committee service if the petition described in Step 3 below is filed and approved.
²  Individuals with no current SDSU affiliation may serve as 4th (or higher) committee member if they are appointed as volunteers through HR (contact department or school coordinator) and the petition described in Step 3 below is filed.
* To promote parity and objective standards across all master’s programs, Graduate Council highly recommends that the third committee member be an SDSU faculty member who is "outside" the graduate program ( = not a member of the degree program’s graduate faculty list). Each Master’s program may create an “outside” member policy that is appropriate for their field of study. It is also highly recommended that “outside” faculty only co-chair Master’s thesis committees, and not act as Chair.
‡  Only active Tenured / Tenure-track faculty may chair committees, except in highly unusual circumstances. Emeritus and FERP faculty may continue to chair thesis committees if approval was obtained prior to the faculty status change. Otherwise, Emeritus, FERP, lecturers and adjunct faculty may Co-Chair a Master's thesis committee, but may not be the Chair. Graduate Advisors may petition for a rare exception (Emeritus, FERP, lecturer or adjunct faculty to act as Chair) by emailing Graduate Studies at [email protected] with the petition described in Step 3 below.

3. Thesis committee members who are not tenured/tenure track faculty at SDSU must be approved using the Petition for Master's Thesis Committee Exception. The Master’s program Graduate Advisor will coordinate completion of the Petition in Adobe Acrobat. (Signature fields are unlikely to function in a web browser.)

Note: For doctoral student committees, the doctoral program director must initiate a separate request, using a different process.

Two additional documents are required as part of the Petition for Master's Thesis Committee Exception:

• Letter of support from Graduate Advisor, verifying relevance and current knowledge in a relevant field
• Current CV or resume for the new committee member

The Petition and two supporting documents will be submitted as part of the Appointment of Thesis/Project Committee Packet.

4. The Master’s program Graduate Advisor will need to gather this information prior to submission:

• Student’s SDSU email address or SDSU Empl ID# (beginning with 1) or old Red ID# (beginning with 8).
• Each committee member’s status (tenured/tenure-track faculty, lecturer, adjunct, FERP, emeritus, etc.)
• Each committee member’s SDSU email address. Individuals with no SDSU affiliation can be added as a 4th member.
• The anticipated thesis title.
• Whether the thesis will be written in a foreign language.
• Whether the thesis is associated with research that could require IRB (human subjects) approval.
• Whether the thesis is associated with research that could require IACUC (animal research) approval.
• The Graduate Advisor will need an electronic copy of the student and thesis chair's data ownership and publication agreement.  Alternatively (after confirming with the student and thesis chair), the advisor may simply indicate that all rights to data (and sole publication authorship) belong exclusively to the student.
• If applicable (as described in #3 above), the Petition for Master's Thesis Committee Exception and two supporting documents.

5. The Graduate Advisor will submit the Appointment of Thesis/Project Committee Packet as an OnBase form, launched from the Advisor Forms tile in the my.SDSU home page. Each required supporting document will be uploaded in this form, so the advisor will need to have them completed and organized.

Note:  An older pdf version of the "Appointment of Thesis/Project Committee Packet" will be available until 12/31/2024. After that time, the thesis committee packet must be initiated and submitted by the graduate advisor through OnBase

6. Rarely, students wish to delay public release of a thesis or dissertation. Montezuma Publishing and the SDSU University Library can delay public release of a thesis or dissertation if the author (i.e., student) requests such action, and Graduate Studies approves. The purpose of this embargo is to protect the author's right to publish or otherwise exploit the new knowledge before making it available to others.

The embargo (delayed release of a thesis, dissertation, or Plan A project) may be for a period of up to one year. Please review the Embargo Policy for instructions on how students may submit a request.

7. Each Master’s program oversees its own processes for thesis defense, thesis committee review, and thesis committee approval. Discuss these requirements with your thesis chair and your Graduate Advisor.

8. Registration in 799A (Thesis) is required for students to complete their Master’s thesis, and a 799A grade of Credit is required to award the degree.

• 799A registration should happen prior to the start of the graduating term.
• The Thesis Committee Form (Step 5 above) must be approved by Graduate Studies prior to enrolling in 799A.
• Students may request 799A registration permission and information by emailing Graduate Studies [email protected]. Assuming that an approved Thesis Committee Form is on file, review and processing should be completed within 7-10 business days.
• Montezuma Publishing does require and verify 799A registration at the moment that students submit their approved and formatted thesis for review.

Thesis submission deadlines for each semester are posted on the Graduate Studies Deadlines page.

9. If a student registered in 799A is unable to submit their thesis to Montezuma Publishing before the last day of the semester, they will need to enroll in Thesis Extension 799B in a future term.

• 799A registration will only happen one time; subsequent registration(s) will be 799B.
• 799B registration may be through main campus or SDSU Global Campus, although Global Campus registration may be ineligible for Financial Aid. Please refer to the online Catalog for more information on thesis and thesis extension courses.
• Students may request 799B registration permission and information by emailing Graduate Studies [email protected]. Review and processing should be completed within 7-10 business days.
• Montezuma Publishing will require and verify a student’s 799A or 799B registration at the moment of thesis submission.
• Thesis submission deadlines for each semester are posted on the Graduate Studies Deadlines page.

10. Changes to the thesis committee can be requested by submitting a new Appointment of Thesis/Project Committee Packet in OnBase. Committee members who are being removed from the committee must submit a simple email to [email protected] acknowledging that they are aware of this change.

Thesis committee approval expires after 3 years. After expiration, the student should confirm their current committee members with the Graduate Advisor. The Graduate Advisor should then email Graduate Studies [email protected] and indicate whether the committee is unchanged, or changes are needed.