Work, work, and more work....GFR (April 11, 2009)

One more professorial "task" that you probably don't know about is our obligation to serve as Graduate Faculty Representatives. What the heck is that? The ISU web page has this snippet:

"Graduate Faculty members are expected to serve as graduate faculty representatives on thesis and dissertation defense committees or final examination committees for those graduate students with a non-thesis option for the degree."

Still don't get it? Here's more:

"A non-departmental member of the examining committee, called the Graduate Faculty Representative (GFR) is appointed and/or approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. The GFR is the representative of the Graduate School on the examining committee and is responsible for reporting the results of graduate examinations to the Dean of the Graduate School. "

For example, yesterday I served as GFR on a thesis defense of a master's student in Mechanical Engineering. What do I know about Mechanical Engineering? More than you might think, since my initial major (before seeing the light and changing to CS) was Engineering. That doesn't mean I know much about ME, but at least I am somewhat familiar with some of the material. My job was to read her 140+ page thesis, attend her oral defense, make sure everything was fair (that her committee was neither too mean nor too nice), ask intelligent (hopefully) questions about issues that might improve his/her work, and report back to the graduate office. It's not terribly onerous, as long as you can read fairly quickly, but it is extra work that takes time and that students are unaware of.

In two weeks I am serving on MBA Oral Defense committees for three MBA students. If you haven't heard about those before, well, that's a rant for another day.

Now back to answering another glut of student messages via email....