Handbook for graduate students in Civil, Construction, and Nuclear Engineering (downloadable PDF)

These forms can be downloaded to print and collect required signatures. If you would prefer to collect signatures digitally, please email your advisor to request these forms via Docusign.

• Change of Graduate Classification - with supervisor signature
• Change of Graduate Classification - without supervisor signature
• FERPA - Letter of Recommendation Release
• Formation of Supervisory Committee
• Graduate Transfer Credit Authorization
• Late Reapplication for Graduate Degree
• Report of Final Dissertation Defense
• Report of Final Thesis Defense
• Report of Proposal Dissertation Defense

The Thesis Office is responsible for approving the formatting of your finalized document. This format approval is the final step in the completion of a research degree. Email is the fastest way to get a response from this office. Please email them at thesis@gradschool.utah.edu.

Thesis Office Resources Helpful Links:

• The Thesis Office Handbook
  • Use this as your go-to reference for all things thesis & dissertation.
• Submission Deadlines
• Thesis Office How-To Videos
• Document templates available for download
  • These include Word, LaTeX and Overleaf. Templates do not guarantee format approval however they are a helpful tool.

The Preliminary Review Process. Editors report that individuals who submit for preliminary review, require fewer edits prior to the final format approval. You may submit with only a portion of the document complete- in fact, this is what editors prefer. By doing so, you will familiarize yourself with the formatting expectations earlier in the writing process, rather than correcting these much further along in the writing process.

The Preliminary Review Process

Editors report that individuals who submit for preliminary review require fewer edits prior to the final format approval. You may submit with only a portion of the document complete. In fact, this is what editors prefer. By doing so, you will familiarize yourself with the formatting expectations earlier in the writing process rather than correcting these much further along in the writing process.

Review the Graduate School Thesis Office Information

To ensure your thesis will be on track for completion on the date you wish to graduate, familiarize yourself with the deadlines, format guidelines, and expectations of the thesis office:

• Main website
• Calendar and deadlines
• Thesis Handbook
• Document Templates

Submit your document for Preliminary Review

Submit your document for Preliminary Review to the Thesis Office and your Committee.

Scheduling Your Defense

You will need to find a two-hour window of time that all committee members are available. Start by asking committee members about a two-week window of time and find out when they are unavailable. After finding the common days that committee members are free, identify the two-hour window of time the presentation will be held. The following tools can help you simplify the scheduling process: When2Meet and schej.it.

Reserve a Room and Equipment for your Defense

Once you have found a time for your defense, reserve a room from the department using this tool.

You will also need to reserve any equipment needed for your defense. You can do so by this using this tool.

Equipment needed:

• Computer cart
• Owl
• Slide clicker
• If you do not have a laptop of your own, you will need to check one out to use with the computer cart.

Announce your Defense to the Department and your Committee

Use this form to create an email announcement for your defense. Please do this two weeks prior to your defense date.

Meeting Invites

As a University of Utah student, you have access to a fully licensed version of Zoom. Learn more about your Zoom account.

If you send your committee members a Microsoft Outlook meeting invite, ensure that you remove the autogenerated Microsoft Teams meeting. Please only send a Zoom link to the committee members who must be remote. This will ensure the local committee members attend the presentation in-person. The department’s expectation is that the committee chair should be present in-person at the time of the final defense. It is advised that all professors within the department attend in-person.

Power Point Templates

University of Utah branded PowerPoint Templates are available for download.

Committee Review

Send your thesis/dissertation to the committee members for their review three weeks prior to the defense. After the professors have had sufficient time to review the document, it is suggested that you seek feedback from the committee members, particularly those who are not co-authors, or have been less involved in the writing process. You may choose to have an in-person meeting with the committee members, or you can seek this feedback over email. By seeking this feedback, this allows you to address their comments/concerns prior to the final defense. Please ensure that these items are addressed in the presentation.

As you approach the date/ time of your scheduled presentation, send several reminders to the supervisory committee including the date, time, and location. Please send more reminders than you think necessary.

Defense Support

To support a smooth defense, you consider “banking” PowerPoint versions that you created for prior presentations at the end of your defense presentation. These can be helpful if a particular question comes up regarding a component of your research.

• Collect all edits that are needed by the committee and thesis office and incorporate them into the final document.
• Submit the final document to the Thesis office and make sure you are aware of the final submission deadline for the Thesis Office. You need approval by the graduate committee and Department Chairman. Note: the thesis system has issues with Gmail email addresses.
• Ensure all grades are posted, including thesis hours, and that your graduate paperwork is situated for clearance once the Thesis Office Clears your document.
• Attend the University’s Commencement and the Price College of Engineering Convocation in the Spring semester. More commencement information.

• International Students who have a change of date on their I-20 need to notify the Administrative Manager of their end date to keep compliance for their employment.
• Ensure that all data and papers can be accessed by the supervising professor.
• Data, laboratory notebooks, etc. should be handed over to the identified individual taking over the work after the student is departing. This individual will be identified by their Supervising Professor.
• Ensure all your data in Box and Canvas is shared with those that will need access. Access will be removed upon termination/ graduation.
  • What happens to your IT accounts and resources when you leave.
  • IT access upon concluding time at the U.
• uMail access will still remain but it is encouraged to set a forwarding address to a preferred personal email.
• If a desk was assigned, all items need to be removed from the space. Computers should be returned to their Supervising Professor. Leave any items at or around the desk prior to arrival: desk, chair, power outlets.
• Keys should be returned to the Administrative Assistant on their last day of employment/in office. You will get a letter for each key returned, as long as it matches the key issued.

College guidelines and safety information

CvEEN Department guidelines on conflict resolution (downloadable PDF)

College guidelines and safety information

Graduate Program Transition Policies (downloadable PDF)