Ideally, every reasonable effort should be made so that a graduate student's entire committee be physically present for all student milestones (proposal defense, oral examination, master's thesis defense, dissertation defense). However, faculty travel, sesquicentennial leaves, and other absences should not be a major deterrent to a student's progress, especially given the increased availability of tele-/video-conferencing facilities. Given the importance of the final defense, however, the faculty has developed the following policy:

1) the student's major professor(s) must be physically present at all master's thesis and doctoral dissertation defenses;
2) if committee members are not available because of sesquicentennial/sabbatical leave, they may participate via video or tele-conferencing, if such facilities are available;
3) in the event of extraordinary extenuating circumstances, the student or major professor must contact the Department Chair for advice on how to proceed.

Maintained by msl3v@virginia.edu and hee2b@virginia.edu.