Dear Council,

Following a feedback period from the Council on my proposal to form a STAR
Graduate Student Thesis Committee, I would like to announce the present
committee membership below. I am still in the process of adding a member
from outside the U.S. I thank Declan Keane for agreeing to chair this
committee. I wish to encourage you to send any comments you may have on
this subject to Declan. I will announce the formation of the committee in
the next newsletter and also encourage any input from the collaboration
directly. I include here my original message to the Council regarding the
basis for this committee action from my perspective.


"Up until now, I have placed in the hands of the Physics Working Group
Convenors much of the responsibility of encouraging people who are
working on similar research topics to collaborate (i.e.  to work
together).  I have asked the Convenors to try to put people together or
at least in contact with each other if they are working on the same or
similar projects, and have asked them to bring to my attention any
conflicts that may be occuring in this regard.  Things seem to be going
okay for now, but I have been alerted that the PWG Convenors have a
strong concern that the thesis advisors and other Council members are
not aware of the potential problems that may arise.  A little awareness
could go a long ways!

As a result of questions addressed to me by the PWG Convenors and some
graduate students, and in order to reduce potential conflicts with
regard to analysis topics in general, I propose to form a graduate
student thesis committee and give them the charge below.  I would like
to present to you some background and my motivation for forming such a
committee.  Formation of this committee will in itself raise the level
of awareness of the Council and collaboration to various potentially
difficult issues regarding student contributions to STAR (expected) and
Ph.D.  thesis topics (one payback for contributing).  I would expect the
committee, that will be formed, to identify issues that require
attention and in appropriate cases recommend guidelines or a policy
based upon Council and collaboration feedback that STAR can follow to
address any problemmatic issues regarding graduate student contributions
and thesis research.  It is my view that Ph.  D.  theses are primarily
the responsibility of the students, their advisors and institutions.
However, I already anticipate (and have discussed with some students)
potential conflicts between students and postdocs regarding research
topics.  It is up to us (myself as spokesperson, this committee, and the
Council) to ensure that people are aware of potential problems and to
provide guidelines for student contributions and thesis research to
address such issues before they grow into problems.

On a more technical nore, I think that the present policy which states
that updates to the list of Ph.  D.  theses will take place at the time
of collaboration meetings is outdated and should be eliminated or
changed to state that updates should take place any time there is a
change."

I state below the present written guidelines, and propose a charge and
committee.

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The present STAR Publication Policies contain the following statement on 
graduate student theses:

"STUDENT THESES:

7. The Spokesperson will maintain a list of students' thesis topics which
will be updated at collaboration meetings.  The Council may aid in
resolving any conflicts."

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______________________________________________________________________

Graduate Student Thesis Committee

Charge: 
 
To develop guidelines and a policy for graduate students and thesis
advisors to follow in defining the work and contributions to STAR of
individual graduate students, and the appropriate timing and selection 
of a thesis topic.

To decide whether, and how, the STAR Publication Policies should be
modified to incorporate a definition of a significant contribution
made by a graduate student to STAR.  Also, to decide about any
modifications of the STAR Publication Policies resulting from the 
first paragraph of this charge. 

To determine the best way to adjudicate conflicts (spokesperson,
Council, standing committee, other committee) in these cases.


Committee:

Declan Keane, chair
Tom Humanic
Jack Sandweiss
Rene Bellwied
Huan Huang
Jerry Hoffman
______________________________________________________________________



						Sincerely,
						John


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| John W. Harris                        email: John.Harris@yale.edu |
| WNSL - West, Room 311                 phone: (203) 432 6106       |
| Physics Department, Yale University   fax:   (203) 432 8926       |
| P.O. Box 208124                                                   |
| 272 Whitney Avenue                                                |
| New Haven, CT 06520-8124, USA                                     |
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