For students

1. Start your thesis

From Your theses, choose Start a thesis: pick your program and graduation term and give the thesis a working title. You can change these while the thesis is still in planning.

2. Propose your committee

On the planning form, choose a chair and the required number of members from your program's faculty. The form checks the committee rules as you go (for example, how many members must be tenure-track) and tells you exactly what to fix. To add someone from outside CSUN, use Invite an off-campus member on the same form: they receive an email, set a password, and appear in your list right away.

When you Submit, your graduate coordinator reviews the committee, then each member accepts or declines their seat. The thesis page names who has not answered yet.

3. Preliminary draft

Once planning is approved, upload your draft as a PDF. Upload and submit for review sends it to Graduate Studies in one step; Upload only keeps it pending so you can replace it. The evaluator either approves the format or returns a checklist of required changes; make them and upload a corrected draft. Every version is kept.

4. Final submission

The final submission is one page with sections that save as you go: library metadata (title, abstract, page counts), 1 to 10 keywords, an optional embargo, the distribution license, your final PDF, and any supplemental files. The readiness list at the bottom turns into Confirm and submit when everything is complete. Your committee approves the content, then Graduate Studies gives the final approval and the thesis is complete.

If a reviewer asks for changes, the same page reopens with their reason at the top; replace the files that need it and confirm again.

Holds and appointments

A reviewer may put your thesis on hold to ask you to make an appointment. The thesis page shows who to contact; the hold is released after you meet.

Deactivating

If you need to pause, Deactivate thesis on the thesis page stops the workflow; you can reactivate it later. Only one thesis can be active at a time.