The Microbial Biology Graduate Program expects that each faculty member will maintain a culture of mutual respect with their students. Communication is especially important and students must allow sufficient time for faculty members to review and assess their work and faculty members must be as prompt as circumstances allow in responding to their students with such assessments.
Further, it is the responsibility of advisors and students to keep thesis committees informed and engaged throughout the process of the student’s research and to ensure that the committee is given adequate time to assess the final product before it is defended.
Microbial Biology faculty and students will adhere to the following principles:
1) Graduate students will make all efforts to give their professors draft documents which adhere to scientific writing standards as found in microbiology journals. Professors have the option to return without review documents not clearly written in English or in scientific style. Graduate students are advised to take advantage of the numerous writing courses at Rutgers and in having others proofread their documents.
2) Students should keep in touch with their advisors and committee members regarding their availability to review documents. In particular holidays, vacations, conferences, academic/personal travel plans, and end of semester grading periods may limit the availability of certain faculty members to review documents. Students should schedule meetings well in advance to make sure faculty are available and have the time to review any provided documents before the meeting.
3) Material should be submitted by the student at least two weeks before an examination or other deadline giving professors adequate time to review the documents. In the case of thesis writing it is advisable to break the work into chapters so that the whole thesis does not need to be reviewed by the research advisor at one time.
4) Graduate students and their research advisors should be in regular communication with each other with regard to these timelines as well as the other facets of their relationships. For example, students should alert faculty members to their intention to submit work at a certain time and faculty members should indicate their expectations for the timing of their responses.
Policy accepted by the Microbial Biology Faculty in May, 2016