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If a student’s work is ranked “needs improvement,” the student should design an Action Plan with the help of their advisor. The Action Plan should have concrete and measurable tasks within a manageable timeline and clear deadlines. It should also address all deficiencies recognized by the committee. The graduate office has provided numerous resources for creating Action Plans.
The Action Plan should be concisely presented to the committee in 10-15 minutes. It should contain a clear timeline and metrics for measuring improvement. There are no formatting requirements.
Meeting to Discuss Performance Goals
If a student’s work is ranked satisfactory or, more rarely, excellent, the performance goals notated on the Annual Review Form and within the Executive Summary will be sufficient to initiate discussion with the committee. Committee members can meet individually or within a group with the student. A group meeting may be called by the student, the advisor, or any member of the committee. Group meetings should be short, ideally lasting less than 45 minutes. Individual meetings can be shorter.
When reserving a room for a group meeting, schedule time before and after the meeting for set up and clean up. Room reservations can be done in CPE through the departmental website.
Summarizing Meeting Discussions
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- Executive Summary
- Annual Review Update Form, signed by the advisor(s) and completed by student
- Action Review Signature Page, signed by the entire committee
- If student's work was ranked "needs improvement," the committee must also sign the second half of the page approving the Improvement Action Plan
- Email summary of discussion and any follow up clarification. If the student was asked to create an Improvement Plan, this email summary should include a brief description of the plan.
Timeline
Deadline | Student | Advisor | Committee |
Create Executive Summary and complete Annual Review Form | |||
Approve the Executive Summary and Annual Review Form | |||
6 weeks before given deadline | Send Executive Summary and Annual Review Form to Committee | ||
4 weeks before given deadline | Submit feedback of student’s work to advisor via electronic form sent by Graduate Coordinator | ||
Discuss feedback | Discuss feedback | ||
If feedback is “needs improvement,” create Improvement Action Plan | |||
If feedback is “needs improvement,” approve Improvement Action Plan | |||
2 weeks before given deadline | Schedule meeting(s) with Committee | ||
Completed by given deadline | Meet to discuss student’s progress. Individual meetings should last approximately 15 minutes. Committee member signs the Annual Review Signature Page. If initial feedback was that the student needs improvement, a group meeting lasting no more than 45 minutes should be held. In the group meeting the student presents their Improvement Action Plan with concrete metrics and clear timeline for 10-15 minutes. The committee then provides feedback on the Improvement Action Plan. After all comments, the committee signs twice on the Annual Review Signature Page, once to confirm meeting with the student and again to approve the Improvement Action Plan. Committee members should rank the student’s work as “exceeds expectations,” “meets expectations,” or “needs improvement,” based on the original review of the Executive Summary and Annual Review Form. That is, the committee should rank the student’s work consistently with the feedback originally submitted to the advisor. | ||
Send a single summary email of meeting discussion to committee. If meetings were individual, email should contain a summary of all meetings. If student created Improvement Action Plan, email should summarize discussion and any additions to Plan. | |||
Submit all paperwork (listed below) to Graduate Program Coordinator | |||
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