Part One: Administration

1. The Degree

The Department offers a course of study leading to the PhD in Philosophy.

2. Supervisory Committee

The Supervisory Committee (SC) consists of three members. One of these is the Graduate Program Director (GPD). The other two are members of the Graduate Faculty of the Department of Philosophy, appointed to the SC annually by the Department Chair. The Chair may not serve on the SC. The SC administers the Starred Paper/Area Exam system, interprets the regulations governing that system, and performs other duties that are assigned to it by the department.

3. Advisors

Before the beginning of their first year in the program, the GPD will assign to each incoming student a member of the Department’s Faculty as Advisor. When a student’s PhD Dissertation Committee has been formed, its Chair becomes the student’s Advisor. Advisors are expected to review progress with their advisees at least once per semester. Advisors are responsible for representing the interests of their advisees at the Review. A student may change their Advisor at any time (with the consent of the faculty member selected and the GPD), but ABD students can only change their advisor if they change the chair of their dissertation committee.

4. Review

The work of each student in the Program is reviewed by the Department after each semester. Students who wish some action to be taken at a review should so inform the GPD by email prior to the review. Students are expected to consult with their Advisors after each review. Students whose work is found to be satisfactory are so informed by their Advisors. Those whose work is found to be unsatisfactory may be asked to confer with the Department Chair or GPD, as well as with their Advisors, and they may be dismissed from the program.

5. Grades in Courses

The grades given in graduate courses are: A, A−, B+, B, B−, C+, C, C−, and F.

See the addenda to the regulations for more information about what grades mean.

6. Incompletes

If a student is unable to complete the work for a course by the time grades are due for the semester, the student may petition the instructor for a grade of incomplete. The granting of incompletes is at the discretion of the instructor. If the student receives a grade of incomplete, they will then have (with the instructor’s permission) until 11:59 PM of the day prior to the first day of the next semester to complete the work. (Thus, an incomplete for a Fall course must be completed before the first day of the following Spring semester; an incomplete for a Spring course must be completed before the first day of the following Fall semester.) If the coursework is not completed by the deadline, the course will no longer be eligible to be counted toward the satisfaction of any Departmental requirement, even if the coursework is subsequently completed and the student receives a grade in the course to replace the grade of I (incomplete) or IF (incomplete failure) on their graduate school transcript. This policy is not applied to the Area Exam Practicum, which has its own policy, stated in Section 21 below.

7. Preliminary Decision Semester

The SC assigns a Preliminary Decision Semester (PDS) for each incoming student during their first semester in the Program. Normally the Preliminary Decision Semester is the Spring semester of the student’s third year. This is the semester by the end of which a student is expected to have satisfied the Preliminary Requiement—see Part Two; and especially Section 22 below.