Faculty Thesis Roles & Responsibilities

Guiding Exceptional Thesis Work

Faculty play an essential role in helping Schreyer Scholars develop and complete high-quality honors theses. Whether serving as a thesis supervisor or thesis honors adviser, you provide the disciplinary expertise, mentorship, and academic oversight that guide Scholars through a significant scholarly or creative experience.

Thesis Supervisor

Any non-adjunct/non-graduate student faculty member who has the thesis honors adviser's approval — on behalf of the department — can serve as a thesis supervisor. As thesis supervisor, you are the primary faculty mentor who guides a Scholar through the research and writing process and, ultimately, judges the merits of their scholarly work.

Following the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School guidelines, faculty who are retired or emeritus at the time of the thesis proposal may not supervise honors theses. Faculty who will move to retired or emeritus status over the course of the thesis process (after submission of the proposal) may supervise theses with the approval of the department via the thesis honors adviser.

Key Responsibilities

: Your mentorship may range from regular consultations to fully integrating the student into a lab or field research. Keep in mind, Schreyer Scholars are highly capable students, but they are undergraduates who, in many cases, may not have previous research experience. In addition, we expect Schreyer Scholars to graduate on time rather than deferring graduation solely for thesis work. Please take these factors into account when determining whether the initial thesis proposal is appropriate, and whether the final submission is acceptable.

Schreyer conveys to students that the honors thesis is public and forever. It is in the Penn State Libraries online catalog and housed in a special full-text database. It can be helpful for Scholars to review past theses in their area of honors on that database. But it’s even more helpful for you, as thesis supervisor, to refer Scholars to specific theses that you consider examples of high-quality work.
: You are responsible for working with the student to meet all the Schreyer Honors College procedural deadlines (proposal, check-in, format review, and final submission). This may mean you set earlier deadlines to accommodate intermediate reviews, especially for the final draft, where you will want to incorporate time for the student to make any suggested revisions. You and the Scholar should also be aware of any college- or department-specific deadlines. All deadlines should be stated in the thesis proposal to avoid confusion.
: As part of a Scholar’s thesis committee, you are responsible for reviewing and approving the Thesis Proposal, the Thesis Check-in, and the Final Submission. While you may review these with the student, you must provide approval within our Student Record System (SRS). You will receive an email when each of these is submitted and your review is needed. For each submission, you can request revisions from the Scholar.
: You should evaluate the thesis based on high-quality undergraduate standards, recognizing that Scholars, while highly capable, are not yet graduate students. Writing should primarily be judged on content and clarity. We recommend you require an early installment of written work, most commonly the literature review, to get an early indication of any issues with the student’s writing.

The thesis itself is not graded, but it can carry 3 to 6 graded thesis research honors credits (typically 494H). In most departments, the instructor of record for thesis credits is the thesis supervisor, but in some departments, there is a single instructor of record for all thesis credits, and that person consults with thesis supervisors to determine the grade.

Funding

The financial viability of honors thesis research and creative activity across the University depends on most students either not having significant expenses or having those expenses met within their department or lab. Schreyer has limited resources to fund students in their thesis work, and our preference is to devote those resources to truly independent projects that aren’t integrated into ongoing (and funded) labs. Please consider, jointly with the student, what kind of resources the proposed thesis will require, whether materials, testing, travel, compensation to survey respondents, or anything else; also consider what the funding options are, whether from your resources or elsewhere.

IRB/IACUC Approvals

The thesis proposal asks whether the proposed work requires IRB or IACUC review and whether approval has been granted. As thesis supervisor, you have principal responsibility for your student’s adherence to the letter and spirit of Penn State and outside requirements in this regard.

Publication Embargoes

Theses are published online with the University Libraries. We are willing to delay publication by up to two years if there is a patent or publication pending. We will not delay for proprietary or classified material, which should not be included in the thesis. For more information about access levels, visit the thesis submission guide page.

Thesis Honors Advisers

The thesis honors adviser is an adviser in the area of honors a Scholar is pursuing. Because Scholars can choose an area of honors outside of their primary major, you may be asked to serve as thesis honors adviser for a Scholar who isn't your honors advisee, or your honors advisee might have someone else as thesis honors adviser.

As thesis honors adviser, you have several key roles, but primarily, you are the gatekeeper for the area of honors your advisee is pursuing. You evaluate the Scholar’s work in terms of expectations within the discipline and enforce appropriate standards.

A student may also have more than one area of honors for a thesis, in which case this interdisciplinary thesis proposal and final submission must be approved by one thesis honors adviser in each area (a thesis may have only one thesis supervisor).

Key Responsibilities

: Your advisees will vary in their need for guidance during their thesis process. You are a valuable resource for Scholars when it comes to understanding the major in a scholarly context, helping them navigate the expectations of theses in your major, and working successfully with faculty and graduate students. Your mentoring can have a strong impact on their success.
: Schreyer Honors College shares our thesis deadlines  with all Scholars. It is your role to convey major-specific thesis timelines to your advisees. Major-specific deadlines are in addition to any deadlines the thesis supervisor sets with the student. Ideally, all deadlines should be stated in the thesis proposal to avoid confusion.
: Your review should consider the overall quality of the proposal as well as how well it fulfills the disciplinary expectations for a thesis in the major. If you see deficiencies in the proposal (too vague, inappropriate thesis supervisor, not aligned with the major, etc.) and send it back for revision, the student must revise it. Once you have approved the proposal, the thesis supervisor will review it.

When reviewing the thesis proposal, you are also reviewing the appropriateness of the proposed thesis supervisor, especially in terms of their disciplinary expertise. As with honors options, graduate students and adjunct professors may not supervise a thesis. If you have doubts or concerns, please contact the Academic Affairs Office. Some majors are comfortable with a thesis supervisor who isn't in the major (e.g. a history professor proposed to supervise a thesis for honors in classics), while others are not. You should consult with past or current honors advisers or department administration if you're in doubt about local policies. Ideally, such policies should be stated on a web page accessible to students as they prepare their proposals.
: You are responsible for monitoring thesis progress by periodically consulting with your advisee and their thesis supervisor. You may also assist in mediating any conflicts between your advisee and their thesis supervisor. While Schreyer’s associate dean for academic affairs is willing to participate in these discussions and should be made aware of any problems, the thesis honors adviser as a faculty colleague is best positioned to handle conflicts without escalating the situation further.
: The thesis check-in provides information about thesis progress so far, any significant changes to the project, and the extent of contact between the student and thesis supervisor. In reviewing the check-in, your role is to evaluate whether sufficient progress has been made to meet the thesis deadlines for the intended graduation semester.
: Your role is to review the final submission for overall quality and fulfillment of the area of honors expectations. If you are the thesis supervisor and thesis honors adviser, you and the student should agree upon a faculty member in your department to serve as the faculty reader.

Commonwealth Campus Thesis Advising

If you are an adviser at a Commonwealth Campus with a single honors adviser model, you can make arrangements to ensure sufficient faculty expertise beyond the thesis supervisor. For instance, if you are the campus honors coordinator and an English professor, you may want a third reviewer for an engineering thesis.

Understanding Allowed Area of Honors

Schreyer recognizes majors, some minors, and some graduate programs as valid areas of honors for the thesis.  Any first-year entering Scholar planning to propose a thesis for honors in a major, minor, or graduate program that is not their own should consult with the honors adviser for that area of honors before committing to the thesis project with a thesis supervisor. College and department policies about non-majors pursuing honors vary.

Multiple Majors Area of Honors

Scholars who have more than one major can do the following:

Pick one major and write a thesis for honors solely in that major
Pick a topic that can earn honors in both majors. This will be considered interdisciplinary.
Write multiple theses, one for honors in each major
Pick a non-major area of honors.

Graduate Program Area of Honors

For students pursuing an Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate degree (IUG) and who submit a single thesis at the master’s level to satisfy both graduate degree and undergraduate honors requirements, the undergraduate area of honors can be either the undergraduate major or the graduate program.

Second- and third-year entry Area of Honors

Scholars who join the Honors College in their second or third year may only pursue honors in the major for which they were admitted to the Honors College. If a Scholar’s interests significantly shift, they may seek permission from the primary honors adviser in a new desired area of honors. If the change is granted, this must be communicated directly from the appropriate honors adviser to SHCAcademics@psu.edu before the student submits the thesis proposal.

Faculty Thesis Roles & Responsibilities

Guiding Exceptional Thesis Work

Thesis Supervisor

Key Responsibilities

Funding

IRB/IACUC Approvals

Publication Embargoes

Thesis Honors Advisers

Key Responsibilities

Commonwealth Campus Thesis Advising

Understanding Allowed Area of Honors

Multiple Majors Area of Honors

Graduate Program Area of Honors

Second- and third-year entry Area of Honors

Legal Statements