Psychology > Graduate Programs > Information for Current PhD Students > Ph.D. Degree Committee Composition
Department Policy on the Composition of the Dissertation Committee
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Inclusion of core psychology faculty. Core faculty are individuals who hold tenure–track or tenured faculty positions at UH–
Manoa and whose primary departmental affiliation is with the Department of Psychology. Dissertation committees must include
at least TWO, one of whom is either chair or co–chair of the committee. In concentrations with faculty with joint appointments
(UH Psychology and some other non–UH agency; e.g. joint appointment between the Department of Psychology at UH–Manoa
and the State of Hawaii's Department of Health), PhD students may have ONE individual holding such a joint appointment
serve in lieu of a core faculty member on dissertation committees, and may have that individual chair or co–chair the
committee. However, dissertation committees must still include at least one core faculty member.
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Impact of faculty retirement or resignation on committee composition. When a faculty member retires or resigns from
UH, he or she may continue to serve on committees that have already been formally constituted (via filed paperwork) and to
be counted as core psychology faculty for those committees. However, he or she cannot be included as core psychology faculty
on any committees that were not yet formally constituted at the time of the retirement or resignation. Emeritus faculty may
serve on dissertation committees formed subsequent to retirement, so long as they are still members of the Graduate Faculty;
however, they may not be counted as a core faculty member on those committees.
- On–site advisors. Any student whose dissertation is being chaired by a faculty member who has retired or resigned from UH–Manoa must also have an on–site advisor who is a member of the core faculty and whose role is to maintain contact between the department and the student. The on–site advisor shall also be responsible for monitoring the timeliness of student progress and the continued effectiveness of having the committee chaired by an off–site individual. In cases where the dissertation work continues for more than one year after the chair has left UH, if the on–site advisor deems it advisable that the student have an on–site chair or co–chair he or she may, in consultation with the Chair of Graduate Studies, mandate a change in committee composition to accomplish that.
