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Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Submissions |
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Dear Colleagues:
Over the past two years we have successfully phased in the electronic thesis and dissertation submission process. Working with Rutgers Libraries, with special thanks to Shaun Ellis, our graduating students are relieved of the pressures of printing their thesis or dissertation on multiple copies of expensive paper. At the same time, the Graduate School-New Brunswick continues to present Dissertation and Thesis Workshops throughout the year, we host a website https://etd.libraries.rutgers.edu/ that provides detailed guidance on how to prepare an electronic submission, and Barbara Sirman is available to answer the myriad questions that students have at the final stages of the submission process.
I provide all this detail because, to be frank, our students are making so many errors on what should be minor matters that the degree conferral deadlines have been compromised in many cases. As you may know, we have had to move the May 1 dissertation and thesis submission date back to April 15 to insure that our students’ work is reviewed and resubmitted by the absolute cut-off date of May 1 to enable them to graduate.
The problems we have seen with the dissertations and theses, however, have been extensive, as if our students do not think anyone will be checking their work (even though we have provided the requirements in great detail). Students have not adhered to the margin specifications, fail to include page numbers, have used incorrect fonts, and more. To complicate matters further, when we ask the students to correct four problems, they will correct one problem and resubmit the work to us. We want to make the submission process as painless as possible, and we want our graduates leaving RU with good feelings about their experience this hope is compromised if we have to ask them to resubmit their work three, four, or even more times.
We are going to try to build, electronically, a check system that prevents students from submitting their work without page numbers, but there are still many other details that require Barbara Sirman's personal review. We will also review and revise our instructions to help our students better understand the processes, but we also need your help in conveying to students that they are compromising their ability to graduate at a certain time if they do not submit their work correctly.
We have tried to be accommodating up to this point and the result has been very burdensome for those who have to deal with the problems posed by graduating students, primarily Barbara Sirman and Shaun Ellis. Regrettably, we are not going to be able to be as accommodating about extending deadlines in the future; we do not have the personnel to continue to review the same mistakes repeatedly. Students who fail to follow instructions and make corrections in a timely fashion will have their graduation dates deferred. Please make sure that students understand that the Style Guide still governs all submissions and that it is their responsibility to submit their work correctly, before the deadline, to earn their degree for the date they are planning to graduate.
Cordially,
Barbara E. Bender, (bbender at rci.rutgers.edu)
Graduate School-New Brunswick
Rutgers University, 25 Bishop Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
voice: (732) 932-7747; fax: (732) 932-4284
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