Professor Joseph M. Piro
HomeE-mail: joseph.piro@liu.edu
Phone: 516- 299-3683
FAX- 516-299-3312
Selecting a Dissertation Chair and Committee
One of the most important decisions a doctoral student will make is to select a faculty member to serve as the chair of his or her dissertation committee. Students will select chairs and work with their chairs to form dissertation committees in the spring semester of their second year of doctoral studies. From that point forward, the dissertation chair will serve as the student's primary mentor, advisor, and advocate throughout the rest of the program.
The dissertation chair should be a full-time faculty member of the College of Education, Information and Technology faculty and/or administration nad have expertise related to the student's intended area of dissertation research or with special expertise in the research methods relevant to the intended topic. Full time faculty and administration from other Colleges in LIU may serve as a chair subject to approval by the EdD Program Director and the Dean of the College of Education and Information Technology. Adjunct faculty from the College of Education and other LIU colleges may also serve as chairs subject to approval by the Chair of the Educational Leadership program and the Dean of the College of Education and Information Technology.
The initial dissertation committee will also include two other faculty members in addition to the chair. At least one of those members should be a full-time faculty member from any campus, department, or program at Long Island University. The third member may either be any other Long Island University faculty member or may be an external committee member who holds an accredited terminal degree (e.g., PhD, EdD) in a relevant discipline and has special expertise in the student's intended area of research. The ability to have committee members from outside the College of Education and Information Sciences and to add an external member from outside the University reinforces the Interdisciplinary nature of the doctoral program.
The initial, three-person dissertation committee will work with the doctoral student in selecting a dissertation topic, developing a dissertation proposal, obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, conducting the dissertation research, and preparing the dissertation. The three-person committee will also be responsible for conducting a public presentation of the dissertation proposal and for approving the student's proposal.
The committee will be provided a copy of the approved dissertation proposal and will evaluate the acceptability of the dissertation based on the previously approved research plan reflected in the proposal.
