Graduate Student Handbook

Contents

Welcome
Your First Year
The Ph.D. Program
The Masters Programs
For All Students
Student Rights
Statement of Assurance

1. Welcome to the Department of Philosophy

1.1 Resource for graduate students.

This, the Department’s Graduate Student Handbook is a resource both for new and continuing members. Its goal is to be informative about the important departmental procedures and policies relevant to graduate studies here. Our handbook is specific about many of the services that the department provides, and we indicate what we expect in turn from our graduate students. In all our decision making about policies, since such regulations are guidelines and cannot be explicit about all circumstances that arise, we apply what the School of Computer Science happily calls “the reasonable person principle.” We expect each member to treat others and to be treated as a reasonable person, understanding that sometimes reasonable people differ and, more important, understanding that reasonable people learn how to improve their cooperative arrangements. Hence, the procedure and policies described in this document are open to revision as we see better how to serve as your teachers and colleagues
In short, we are very pleased to have you here, and we will do all we can to assure you a rewarding experience.

1.2 Additional Sources of Information.

There are some additional sources of relevant information that supplement this departmental handbook and with which students should become familiar.
At the department level there are these:

• Studies in Philosophy, a brochure that is sent to all applicants. It describes the general environment a student might expect to find here and contains brief statements from faculty members concerning their interests.

• Also, information about individual programs, faculty research interests, and other aspects of the department are accessible electronically through the department's home page.

The university provides publications about policies affecting all graduate students at Carnegie Mellon:

• The Student Handbook includes information on general University policies.

• The Graduate Student Handbook describes regulations pertaining to graduate students, and also lists support programs and services provided by the University.

Upon your arrival at the department you receive these two publications from the Graduate Program Assistant. We encourage you to review them and to begin to become familiar with the policies that govern the operations of the University.

• You also receive the Guide to Living in Pittsburgh.

• Finally, the Graduate Student Assembly maintains an informative home page.

Questions concerning any of the topics covered here, or any other matters pertaining to the functioning of the department, may be addressed to any member of the faculty or staff. However, the people most likely to know answers are the Graduate Program Assistant, Jan Puhl, and the Business Manager, Jacqueline DeFazio. The Department Head Wilfried Sieg is responsible for determining graduate student policies in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, Teddy Seidenfeld, and the rest of the faculty.

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2. Your first year at CMU.

2.1 Prior to the start of term.

• Housing.
  As part of your selection of CMU, you may have already visited the campus. In that case, you know that CMU does not provide graduate student housing. Pittsburgh has a good supply of pleasant and affordable rentals within easy commuting distance of the campus. Many of our graduates live within walking distance of CMU. But the best locations are taken quickly. We strongly advise you to secure a place prior to arriving for your first (Fall) term. The Graduate Program Assistant can help you find on-line rental services, and to connect you with senior students whose current knowledge of the rental market is invaluable.

• TA/Grading duties.
  If you are serving in the Fall term as a Grader or Teaching Assistant (TA), over the summer prior to your arrival, the Associate Department Head matches you with a suitable course and faculty instructor. It is your responsibility to contact that faculty member in order to know the details of your duties and to be prepared to help in the delivery the course.

• Language testing for Foreign Graduates.
  As required by the University, all graduate students coming from foreign institutions are required to undergo an assessment of their English language skills through a test administered by the University’s Intercultural Communications Center. Based on the Center’s evaluation, you will be judged eligible for one or another level of Grading or TA duties. Also, the Center may require you to attend classes to help you accelerate attaining fluency in English.

• Orientation for new Graduate Students.
  CMU’s annual graduate orientation is held the week prior to the start of Fall term classes. The Philosophy Department’s graduate orientation is provided through formal and informal events that occur over several weeks during the start of the Fall term.

• Offices and computers.
  When you first arrive on campus, the Graduate Program Assistant helps to enroll you, to obtain an Andrew account on the CMU computer network, to locate your personal desk, and to identify your individual desktop computer.

• Registering for courses.
  Prior to your arrival, the Graduate Program Assistant may pre-enroll you in several core and/or required courses. This is done to provide you with enrollment options for when you arrive. For example, MS students are usually pre-enrolled in a Computer Science course, in fulfillment of their formal skills requirement. You will revise your selection of Fall term enrollments once you arrive on campus. These decisions are made in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, who helps you to form both short and long-term plans for completing your degree requirements.
  Important Note: Full-time enrollment is achieved with a minimum of 36 units/term. Our graduate programs are designed so that they may be completed on time by enrolling in 36 units/term. Typically, graduate courses count 12 units each, and undergraduate courses count 9 units each.

• Tuition Fellowships, Health Insurance, and Teaching Stipends.
  Your letter of admission to the Department includes details about the amount of tuition fellowship and stipend opportunity available. The Department provides all full-time graduate students with a University Health Insurance policy. The University bills students for Fall tuition at the start of the term and you are responsible then for the balance of the term’s tuition not covered by the Department’s Fellowship. You need to arrange with the Business Manager in case you will be applying Stipend income to your tuition bill. Last, the University pays graduate employees at the end of the month, which means that you will receive your first stipend check for TA/Grading at the end of September.

2.2 During your first term.

• Adjusting course enrollments.
  Though the University provides a generous “drop” period for removing courses without leaving a trace on your transcript, there are only two weeks allocated at the start of each term for adding new classes. Thus, it is wise to begin the term with an additional graduate (12 unit) course enrollment, beyond the minimum 36 needed for full time enrollment. The situation is somewhat more complicated as, also, there are 6-unit (half-term) “mini” courses offered by some Departments, e.g., Statistics and Economics, though there are no mini-courses currently offered by Philosophy. Each term, there is a 1st and 2nd mini-course period, divided at about the halfway point into each term. You will review these options at your initial meetings with the Director of Graduate Studies.

• Choosing courses for the Spring term – finding your research/thesis advisor.
  Registration for Spring term courses typically occurs during late-Fall term, at about the time of the Thanksgiving break. By then, you will have a better idea of which members of the faculty might eventually serve as your research/thesis advisor for your Masters thesis. We recommend planning to study with one of these faculty in your Spring term, either through a course or an independent study.

2.3 During your first Spring term

• Faculty evaluation of graduate students.
  Twice each year the faculty meet to assess all the graduate students’ achievements and provide feedback so that each student is aware of his or her standing, progress toward a degree, and any possible change in financial support. The first meeting is held in January, after grades from the Fall term are available. The second review is in May at the end of the Spring term.
  
  During Spring term, each student receives a letter summarizing the results of the faculty discussion at the end of the Fall term. In addition to offering an evaluation of a student's academic progress, the letter contains information on financial support for the next academic year, for students whose program would ordinarily continue beyond the current academic year. Specific requirements may be described which a student must meet in order to have his or her academic status and/or financial support continued beyond the current academic year. The faculty may decide to put a student on probation for a term to allow him or her to satisfy academic requirements; in rare cases, a student may be asked to resign from the program, if he or she fails to meet and maintain program standards. The same message also is communicated in a conversation with the student’s research/thesis advisor, or with the Director of Graduate Studies, if no research advisor has yet been chosen.

• Planning your summer teaching.
  There are no Philosophy graduate courses offered during Summer term. Instead, you have the opportunity to do autonomous undergraduate teaching, provided that you have prepared by serving as a TA/Grader for the course in question. The Associate Department Head organizes summer teaching assignments. You should communicate your interests in summer teaching to the Associate Head early in the Spring term.

• Planning your summer research.
  The summer is an important time for moving ahead on your research. By end of your first Spring term, you should have selected a prospective faculty research/thesis advisor, and coordinated with her or him about your summer work. This may include focused readings, preparing a paper for presentation to an academic conference, or assisting in the faculty member’s ongoing research. Summer RA support is not automatic; however, the Department tries to assist faculty in providing some summer RA funds.

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3. The Ph.D. program.

The programs leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy strikes a balance between theoretical and applied work, while preparing students for careers in academia, research, industry, and government. In addition to their course studies and assigned duties, doctoral students are expected to participate in seminar and workshop courses, assist in teaching, and aid in research projects. En route to satisfying their programs’ core requirements, doctoral students must complete the department’s M.S. degree, usually, by the end of the second year. The third year is devoted to pre-dissertation research and should result in a dissertation prospectus by no later than the middle of the fourth year.

3.1 Advising.

• For doctoral students, there are three distinctive
  aspects to the advising system. First, all students are expected to meet with the Director of Graduate Studies once a semester to have their next semester’s schedule approved. The second and third aspects of the advising system involve Master’s thesis and Ph.D. dissertation advising. At the Master’s thesis stage of the program, students are encouraged to talk with many faculty members about possible areas of research for a thesis. After these discussions, the student should select a particular faculty member and engage in reading and research to identify a specific thesis topic. The faculty member supervising this project will normally become the student’s academic advisor and chair of the Master’s thesis committee. Additionally, at least one additional department faculty member is expected to serve on the thesis committee and may also serve as an advisor for the student.

• Upon completion of the Master’s thesis, students are
  expected to repeat this process for selecting a dissertation topic. Students are not committed to continue on the topic of their Master’s thesis. It is possible for a student to change projects and even advisors at this stage. Nonetheless, such changes are relatively rare as it is assumed that the student will have carefully selected a project. The faculty member supervising the dissertation is both the student’s academic advisor and chair of the Ph.D. dissertation committee. At least two additional faculty members are required to serve on this committee, with as least one of them being from outside the philosophy department.

3.2 Registration.

• Students at Carnegie Mellon may register as either
  full-time or part-time students. Full-time students must register for 36 units per semester and discuss their course selection with the Director of Graduate Studies. Part-time registration is also possible on a per-unit fee basis, with a minimum of five units required for graduate student benefits. However, there is minimum residency of three years of full-time study for Ph.D. students. All students are expected to register full-time, but they may consult with the Director of Graduate Studies if part-time registration is desired.

• All Carnegie Mellon students who enroll for 19 or
  more units in a semester must pay the Student Activities Fee at the Cashier's Office. The monies generated by this fee are administered by the Student Government organization to support various campus activities. The Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) receives some of this money, and it in turn divides some of its allocation among graduate student departments.

3.3 Research and Teaching.

• During their first semester at Carnegie Mellon,
  doctoral students do not serve as teaching assistants because they are expected to conduct an individual research project with a faculty member. This project ideally lays the groundwork for the students’ future thesis work. As the students’ interests develop, research may lead to paid work on funded projects. It is also not uncommon that joint publications come out of this research. Students are strongly advised to start identifying a research area early on, as this is necessary for beginning the master’s thesis.

• Beginning second semester, doctoral students are
  required to serve as teaching assistants. Generally, this may be done in a variety of ways, e.g., as a grader, or as a course assistant who conducts office hours and/or leads discussion and review sections. While the department recognizes that not all doctoral students desire academic employment upon completion of the degree, it is committed to preparing all students to ably pursue this option because demonstrated teaching ability is required for most academic positions. To this end, doctoral students are generally required to serve as teaching assistants or graders for at least two semesters, and are strongly encouraged to gain the experience necessary to be allowed full responsibility for one or more courses.
  Detailed information on being a teaching assistant can be found in the Philosophy Department Teaching Assistant Handbook. In addition, the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, combined with the Office of Technology for Education, offers regular seminars to help students refine their teaching methods and also make use of appropriate technology.

3.4 Financial Support.

• Financial support awards are made in the initial offer
  letters admitting students to the graduate program. Doctoral students are generally awarded full tuition and a stipend for the academic year. The department also provides health insurance for all doctoral students, which currently costs the department approximately $1,100 per student per year. Students are provided with an course/research budget of $300 per academic year, which can be used for copying and other course- and research-related expenses. Students are also reimbursed up to $300 per academic year for travel to conferences. Travel support does not carry foward, and requests for travel reimbursement must be approved in advance by the Director of Graduate Studies.

• For the 2007-2008 academic year tuition is $32,200.
  The basic Ph.D. stipend is currently $16,000. The stipend is paid in eight equal installments, and it requires the student to serve as a teaching or research assistant.

• Doctoral students may receive financial support
  through outside fellowships awarded, for example, by the National Science Foundation. These external awards typically provide partial tuition support and a stipend. The department often supplements partial tuition awards to provide full tuition support for doctoral students. The Fellowship Resource Advising Center (FRAC) provides useful information on external fellowships.

3.5 Summer Financial Support.

• The department does not guarantee summer
  funding, but in recent years financial support has been found for most students seeking it. One common way in which students earn summer support is through organizing and teaching their own course. Graduate students teach for one of two six-week periods of summer school, and, as compensation is a function of enrollment, earnings usually range between $3,500 and $4,500. This is a good way of gaining teaching experience, as this is an important opportunity the department provides for independent teaching of courses. However, it is standard policy that teaching assignments for particular courses will be given only to students who have assisted those courses previously.

• Some of the more senior students are supported by
  faculty research projects. In late February or early March, the Associate Department Head distributes a form asking each student about summer plans and wishes. Some students may plan to take a position outside Carnegie Mellon, while others may desire to stay at Carnegie Mellon and seek employment here. Plans frequently change, but it is important to keep the Associate Department Head informed.

3.6 Continuation of Financial Support.

• When the department admits a doctoral student with financial support,
  it does so with the expectation that full support will be continued through the fifth year of study, provided the student is making satisfactory progress. In particular, students are expected to complete their Master's degree within two years and their Ph.D. degree in an additional two to three years. Students are also expected to complete all coursework and defend a prospectus by the end of their fourth year, at which point they are enrolled with "ABD" (All But Dissertation) status. Each January and June, the Director of Graduate Studies will write a letter to each student outlining academic progress. The Department's commitment of support for the following academic year will be made in the June letter. Support beyond five years is considered exceptional, and will be decided year-to-year based on the circumstances.

3.7 Financial Support from Outside Employment.

• During the academic year, full-time doctoral students
  in the department are expected to devote full-time attention and energy to their educational and research endeavors. Coursework and research assignments are planned to occupy completely full-time students, which ordinarily precludes outside employment and consulting. Doctoral students are asked to decline such work and concentrate on their graduate studies, with their stipends serving as financial compensation.

• Only in exceptional cases, which would provide
  helpful experience in addition to remuneration, may doctoral students pursue opportunities for outside consulting or employment. Regardless, coursework, research, and teaching assignments must take precedence over outside work. Before assuming outside commitments all full-time graduate students must consult the Director of Graduate Studies, their academic advisor, or the Department Head. Also, students should be careful about consulting where conflict-of-interest and intellectual property issues may arise. Information on the University policy concerning intellectual property is contained in the University's Student Handbook.

3.8 All But Dissertation Status.

• Doctoral students who have completed all
  course requirements for the Ph.D. degree – not necessarily including a successful presentation of their thesis proposal – may be considered to be all but dissertation (ABD). For ABD students, University rules on time limits to complete the degree and related policies go into effect. See the University's Graduate Student Guidebook for more information.

3.9 Job Placement.

• The Philosophy Department conducts activities and
  procedures intended to help its graduate students find employment after graduation - both in academics and in the private sector. A faculty member serving as the Placement Director, together with the Graduate Program Assistant, coordinates activities.

• The vigorous, early support of the department
  presupposes a realistic expectation that a student is going to graduate before the start date of the position. For academic positions that begin in the fall of an academic year two conditions have to be satisfied: (i) a good talk is prepared and presented to the department by December of the previous academic year; (ii) in the judgment of the student's advisor and thesis committee the dissertation will be completed no later than the summer prior to the start of the job.

• The placement dossier contains all supporting
  materials that are sent in an application for a position. It includes at least a curriculum vitae, three (confidential) letters of reference (generally from faculty members), and for academic positions a writing sample, a statement of research interests, and teaching documentation. For more information, please see the Philosophy Department Teaching Assistant Handbook.

• To facilitate efficient handling, particularly of
  confidential portions, dossiers are administered by the University's Career Center at the initiation of the student. The Career Center, located in Warner Hall 19, provides a credential service and maintains a file of the materials to be sent to prospective employers upon request. For more information on setting up a file, please call the Career Center at 268-2064. If, for any reason, a student is not comfortable utilizing the Career Center, the Graduate Program Assistant may maintain a file in the department.

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4. The Masters programs M.S. and M.A. Students.

• The programs leading to the degrees in Master of
  Science and Master of Arts are structured for students who wish to gain, at the graduate level, an effective operational knowledge of logic or general methodology. These programs prepare students for positions in industry and government, and their completion can also serve as a first step toward a doctoral degree. It takes usually two years to complete the programs: the first year is devoted to satisfying core requirements, while in the second year students take additional courses and pursue a research project.

• For some, the programs may also be completed in
  one year, provided the student has an advanced background, for example, given by appropriate B.A. or B.S. degrees at Carnegie Mellon. Students from other institutions have to petition the department to accept previous work as satisfying requirements of the M.S. or M.A. programs.

• Master's students who wish to enter the Ph.D.
  program must complete the standard application process, and completion of a master's degree from the department in no way implies automatic or guaranteed acceptance. Indeed, it is rare for students to move from the master's to the Ph.D. program.

4.1 Advising.

• For M.S. and M.A students, there are two distinct
  aspects in the advising system. First, all students are expected to meet with the Director of Graduate Studies once a semester to have their next semester’s schedule approved. Second, when beginning to formulate their Master’s thesis, students are encouraged to talk with many faculty members about possible areas of research for a thesis. After these discussions, the student should select a particular faculty member and engage in reading and research to identify a specific thesis topic. The faculty member supervising this project will normally become the student’s academic advisor and chair of the Master’s thesis committee. Additionally, at least one additional department faculty member is expected to serve on the thesis committee and may also serve as an advisor for the student.

4.2 Registration.

• Students at Carnegie Mellon may register as either
  full-time or part-time students. Full-time students must register for 36 units per semester and discuss their course selection with the Director of Graduate Studies. Part-time registration is also possible on a per-unit fee basis, with a minimum of five units required for graduate student benefits. However, there is minimum residency of one year of full-time study for M.S. and M.A. students. Occasionally, Master’s students desire to continue into a fifth term, either for additional coursework, or to remain in residence (without taking classes) while completing their thesis. Written requests for either of these special arrangements should be submitted to the department by June of the summer preceding the proposed fifth term.

• All Carnegie Mellon students who enroll for 19 or
  more units in a semester must pay the Student Activities Fee at the Cashier's Office. The monies generated by this fee are administered by the Student Government organization to support various campus activities. The Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) receives some of this money, and it in turn divides some of its allocation among graduate student departments.

4.3 Research and Teaching.

• It is not uncommon for M.S. and M.A. students to
  collaborate with faculty members on funded projects serving as paid research assistants. Furthermore, M.S. and M.A. students are strongly advised to start identifying a research area early on. Indeed, already towards the end of the first year serious thought should be given to topics for the master's thesis.

• M.S. and M.A students also have the option of
  serving as teaching assistants. Generally, this may be done in a variety of ways, e.g., as a grader, or as a course assistant who conducts office hours and/or leads discussion and review sections. While the department recognizes that not all Master’s students desire further academic study upon completion of the degree, it is committed to preparing all students to ably pursue this option because demonstrated teaching ability is an asset for most Ph.D. and other advanced degree programs.

• Detailed information on being a teaching assistant
  can be found in the Philosophy Department Teaching Assistant Handbook. In addition, the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, combined with the Office of Technology for Education, offers regular seminars to help students refine their teaching methods and also make use of appropriate technology.

4.4 Financial Support.

• Financial support awards are made in the initial offer
  letters admitting students to the graduate program. A common award for M.S. and M.A. students consists of a partial tuition fellowship and some opportunity for grading and/or TA’ing. Master’s students may also have opportunities to serve as research assistants. The department also provides health insurance for all Master’s students, which currently costs the department approximately $1,100 per student per year. Students are provided with an office budget of $300 per academic year, which can be used for copying and other course- and research-related expenses. Students are also reimbursed up to $300 per academic year for travel to conferences. Travel support does not carry foward, and requests for travel reimbursement must be approved in advance by the Director of Graduate Studies.

• For the 2007-2008 academic year tuition is $32,200;
  the salary for being a grader for a semester course is currently $4,000. Salary is paid in eight equal installments.

4.5 Summer Financial Support.

• The department does not guarantee summer
  funding, but in recent years financial support has been found for most students seeking it. One common way in which students earn summer support is through organizing and teaching their own course. Graduate students teach for one of two six-week periods of summer school, and, as compensation is a function of enrollment, earnings usually range between $3,500 and $4,500. This is a good way of gaining teaching experience, as this is an important opportunity the department provides for independent teaching of courses. However, it is standard policy that teaching assignments for particular courses will be given only to students who have assisted those courses previously.

• Some of the more senior students are supported by
  faculty research projects. In late February or early March, the Associate Department Head distributes a form asking each student about summer plans and wishes. Some students may plan to take a position outside Carnegie Mellon, while others may desire to stay at Carnegie Mellon and seek employment here. Plans frequently change, but it is important to keep the Associate Department Head informed.

4.6 Continuation of Financial Support.

• M.S. and M.A. students are expected to complete
  their degree in two years. For those granted financial support in the form of partial tuition fellowships, this support is expected to last through two years of study. Support is contingent on being in good academic standing, that is, making satisfactory progress toward the degree. Each January and June, the Director of Graduate Studies will write a letter to each student outlining academic progress. The Department's commitment of support for the following academic year will be made in the June letter. Support beyond two years is considered exceptional, and will be decided semester-to-semester based on the circumstances.

4.7 Financial Support from Outside Employment.

• During the academic year, full-time M.S. and M.A.
  students in the department are expected to devote full-time attention and energy to their educational and research endeavors. Coursework and research assignments are planned to occupy completely full-time students, which ordinarily precludes outside employment and consulting. Master’s students are generally advised to decline such work and concentrate on their graduate studies.

• Only in exceptional cases, which would provide
  helpful experience in addition to remuneration, may doctoral students pursue opportunities for outside consulting or employment. Regardless, coursework, research, and teaching assignments must take precedence over outside work. Before assuming outside commitments all full-time graduate students must consult the Director of Graduate Studies, their academic advisor, or the Department Head. Also, students should be careful about consulting where conflict-of-interest and intellectual property issues may arise. Information on the University policy concerning intellectual property is contained in the University's Student Handbook.

4.8 Job Placement.

• The Philosophy Department conducts activities and
  procedures intended to help its graduate students find employment after graduation - both in academics and in the private sector. A faculty member serving as the Placement Director, together with the Graduate Program Assistant, coordinates activities.

• The vigorous, early support of the department
  presupposes a realistic expectation that a student is going to graduate before the start date of the position. For academic positions that begin in the fall of an academic year two conditions have to be satisfied: (i) a good talk is prepared and presented to the department by December of the previous academic year; (ii) in the judgment of the student's advisor and thesis committee the dissertation will be completed no later than the summer prior to the start of the job.

• The placement dossier contains all supporting
  materials that are sent in an application for a position. It includes at least a curriculum vitae, three (confidential) letters of reference (generally from faculty members), and for academic positions a writing sample, a statement of research interests, and teaching documentation. For more information, please see the Philosophy Department Teaching Assistant Handbook.

• To facilitate efficient handling, particularly of
  confidential portions, dossiers are administered by the University's Career Center at the initiation of the student. The Career Center, located in Warner Hall 19, provides a credential service and maintains a file of the materials to be sent to prospective employers upon request. For more information on setting up a file, please call the Career Center at 268-2064. If, for any reason, a student is not comfortable utilizing the Career Center, the Graduate Program Assistant may maintain a file in the department.

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5. For All Students.

5.1 Seminar Attendance.

• The department sponsors seminars by researchers
  from within and outside Carnegie Mellon, which are attended by faculty, graduate students, and staff. Students are encouraged to meet and interact with these visiting scholars. This is extremely important, both to get a sense of the academic projects that are pursued outside Carnegie Mellon and to get to know the leaders of such projects. This applies not only to seminars directly relevant to a student’s research interests; the seminars provide an opportunity to widen one’s perspective on the field.

5.2 Courses Taken Outside the Philosophy Department.

• Students are encouraged to take courses in other
  departments at Carnegie Mellon to broaden their training; indeed, the interdisciplinary character of all our programs demands that. Full-time students may also take one course per semester at the University of Pittsburgh without having to pay additional tuition. Such courses appear on the student’s transcripts and count toward requirements (if appropriate). Students should discuss their plans for taking cross-registration courses with the Director of Graduate Studies.

5.3 Leaves of absence.

• Students must apply for leaves of absence and must
  request extensions on a yearly basis. All requests must be made in writing to the Director of Graduate Studies. In general, two kinds of leaves are recognized: professional and personal. Professional leaves include periods away from a program when working as an intern or trainee on a job or when participating in extended research or educational activities at other institutions. No support is available for professional leaves.

• Personal leaves include limited periods away from a
  program for personal reasons, e.g., maternity leaves or illness. Personal leaves need not result in full-time absences. In cases where a student on support wishes to maintain part-time registration in a program, e.g., to take a reduced load of classes during a period of partial personal leave, pro-rata support may be requested. Long-term personal leaves are discouraged.

5.4 Conference attendance.

• The department encourages students to attend and
  participate in conferences. These conferences give students a chance to meet other researchers and learn of their work. They also provide students the opportunity to present their own work and to make contacts that could lead to employment.

• The department tries to offer financial support for
  conference attendance, when the student has some official function such as presenting a paper or poster. For major meetings, the department has offered modest partial stipends to participating students; most recently, an amount up to $250 was granted to each student. The departmental funds are limited and are awarded for eligible expenses on a first come-first serve basis. The expenses have to be documented by original receipts, and reimbursement must be requested within two weeks after travel.

• It is expected that students will make every effort to
  obtain as much of their own funding as possible to help defray the costs. The Department Head or any other faculty member can help identify possible funding sources, and Carnegie Mellon has a limited amount of funding available for supporting graduate student travel to conferences.

5.5 Teaching and research.

• Students and faculty find here natural and
  straightforward contexts of interaction. Students serve as TAs in a variety of ways, e.g., as graders, as course assistants interacting with undergraduates through office hours and/or teaching of discussion and review sections. Detailed information on being a TA can be found in the Philosophy Department Teaching Assistant Handbook. In addition, the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, combined with the Office of Technology for Education offers regular seminars to help students refine their teaching methods and also make use of appropriate technology.

• The most natural research contact is with the
  student's thesis advisor and other members of the thesis committee: the advisor helps in isolating an exciting, yet manageable thesis topic and provides continuous support and guidance. Research contacts with faculty members can also arise through work on funded projects. In either case, it is not uncommon that joint publications come out of this research. Students are strongly advised to start identifying a research area early on. Indeed, already towards the end of the first year serious thought should be given to topics for the master's thesis (which is required for all graduate students).

5.6 Commencement.

• All students who are certified by the department as
  expected to complete their studies by the deadline for August graduation during a given calendar year are allowed to march in the preceding May commencement ceremony, if they wish to do so. Students who are expected to complete their degree requirements later than the August deadline are allowed to march in the ceremony the following year. In all cases, only students who have fulfilled their graduation requirements by the May deadline receive their actual diplomas or doctoral hoods during the May commencement ceremony.

5.7 Note for non-native speakers of English.

• The Intercultural Communication Center (ICC) has
  many programs available for foreign students ranging from English as a Second Language (ESL) to handling job interviews. The most important program for new graduate students entering the department is the program to improve a student's English language skills.

• All graduate students for whom English is not their
  native language must visit the ICC and be tested. This is vital because, in accordance with state law, Carnegie Mellon will not permit any non-native English speaker to have contact with undergraduates as an educator (in the classroom, laboratory, or office) unless they are certified by the ICC. Furthermore, all graduates from our department must have excellent English language communication skills to function comfortably as professionals, for example, when presenting papers at conferences.

5.8 Other information.

• Security.
  Although Pittsburgh does not have the crime problems of many major American cities, theft and assault remain threats on or near the Carnegie Mellon campus. Students should be careful with their belongings and should avoid walking alone in poorly lit or remote areas. For the safety of everyone, and in the interests of protecting our valuable equipment, it is extremely important that all students be very careful about the security of the department. In particular, students should make sure that their office windows are locked, when leaving for the day. After regular office hours, the lobby doors of BH 135 should be kept locked. People not affiliated with the department should be admitted to the departmental suites only if known or if accompanied by a department member. If strangers are found in the wing after hours, they should be asked to identify themselves and their purpose for being there; if the situation is uncomfortable, Security (Campus Police) should be called at extension 8-2323.

• Public spaces.
  Out of courtesy to everyone in the department, all common areas (i.e., kitchenette, lounge, and copy room) should be kept in good shape. Dirty dishes and utensils should not be left in the kitchenette; spills should be cleaned immediately. The refrigerator is for short-term storage only; all items should be removed after a few days, before any spoilage occurs. All items in the copy room should be returned to their proper places immediately after use. The lounge/seminar room should be kept in order. Student offices and other spaces with a number of occupants (like the Laboratory for Symbolic and Educational Computing) are quasi-public spaces, and the same courtesy considerations should be applied.

• New policies.
  When policies are changed it is because the department believes the new rules offer an improvement; any such changes will be discussed at a meeting with the graduate students. However, students currently enrolled whose degree program is affected by a change in policy may choose to be governed by the older policy that was in place at the time of their matriculation. In case degree requirements are changed and certain courses are no longer offered, the department will try to find some compromise that allows those students to satisfy the original requirements.
  

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6. Students’ Rights.

6.1 Communication.

• Students are invited to raise academic or personal
  issues with any faculty member. Nevertheless, there may be situations, such as concerns about the quality of teaching in a particular course, where direct interaction with a particular faculty member is difficult for a student. In such a situation, all graduate students should be aware that a major part of the department head's duties is addressing such issues. Furthermore, all such complaints or concerns will be handled in confidence by the Department Head.

• A second vehicle for communication is the
  department's graduate student representative, elected by the students. The representative serves as a formal link between graduate students and faculty. The student representative participates in all the general meetings of the department and, in particular, assists in discussions of proposed curricular changes and provides student input concerning faculty who are candidates for promotion or tenure.

6.2 Grievance procedures at the departmental level.

• From time to time students may have worries or
  complaints about some aspect of life within the department. Graduate students are encouraged to discuss such concerns with any faculty member, especially their advisors or the Department Head. Indeed, an important part of the Department Head's job is to hear from graduate students about any serious problems they face. The department tries to solve problems informally; it is rare that a problem cannot be resolved through informal procedures. In the event that this does happen, however, there is a formal grievance procedure.

• An investigative process commences when a student
  files a grievance in writing with the Department Head. The grievance is heard by a three-person board including the Department Head, a member of the Student Advisory Committee and a department faculty member or suitable substitutes, as determined by the Department Head. The board renders a written recommendation, with copies sent to the student, the Dean's office, and those against whom the grievance was brought (if specific individuals are involved). No person against whom the grievance is brought has a role in investigating it.

• If the Department Head is among those against
  whom the grievance is brought, then the Dean is asked to designate another senior faculty member from the department to substitute for the Department Head on the three-person board. University policies and agreements governing student, staff, and faculty rights supersede this departmental procedure. If a satisfactory settlement is not reached through the activity of the three-person board described above, the student may bring the grievance to the Dean and, subsequently, to the Provost (see the following two subsections). In this case the departmental board's written recommendation is made a part of the preliminary background information reviewed by the Dean or Provost or other university official before any action is taken.

6.3 Grievances within the college of H&SS.

• Graduate students are encouraged to discuss their
  concerns with members of their academic department. If they wish, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (Kristina Straub) and the Dean (John Lehoczky) are also available at any stage of the process. All discussions will be considered confidential.

• Any graduate student who has exhausted normal
  grievance procedures within the department may present a grievance to the office of the Dean of the college. The Dean may request statements or testimony from other parties involved, and will consider the grievance in an ad hoc committee composed of the Dean, a faculty member from a department not involved in the grievance and a graduate student from a second uninvolved department. The committee will present its decision in writing to all parties involved.

6.4 University contacts and procedures.

• Provost Mark Kamlet personally serves as the
  advocate for graduate students in the central administration. It is his responsibility to ensure that issues addressed by the departments, colleges and university are handled fairly and adequately. He encourages graduate students to discuss matters with him if they believe it might be inappropriate to raise them at the department or college level.

• Indira Nair, the Vice Provost for Academic projects,
  Michael Murphy, Dean of Student Affairs, and Anne Witchner, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, also meet regularly with graduate students. Students are likewise encouraged to speak directly to their graduate student representatives and to the president of the Graduate Student Assembly.

• If a conflict cannot be resolved at the department or
  college level, an appeal may be made to the Provost at the request of one of the parties involved. The Provost may handle the case with the advice of others and/or choose to refer the case to a committee.

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7. Statement of Assurance

• As we value a diversity of skills, backgrounds, and
  outlooks, we also strive for a good balance of women and men, minorities, and American and international students. Our experience has shown that such diversity leads to a more creative, innovative, and productive environment. Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate and Carnegie Mellon University is required not to discriminate in admission, employment, or administration of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex or handicap in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or other federal, state, or local laws or executive orders.

• In addition, Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate
  in admission, employment, or administration of its programs on the basis of religion, creed, ancestry, belief, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or in violation of federal, state, or local laws or executive orders. However, in the judgment of the Carnegie Mellon Human Relations Commission, the Department of Defense policy of "Don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" excludes openly gay, lesbian and bisexual students from receiving ROTC scholarships or serving in the military. Nevertheless, all ROTC classes at Carnegie Mellon University are available to all students.

Inquiries concerning application of these statements should be directed to the Provost, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, telephone (412) 268-6684 or the Vice President for Enrollment, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, telephone (412) 268-2056.

 

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