electronic v. wet signatures

[Sally R. Evans]

Greetings, colleagues.

On your Signature Sheets, do you require all wet signatures? Do you permit electronic signatures? If you allow electronic signatures, can ALL of the signatures be electronic?

Thank you,

Sally

Sally Evans

Coordinator

University Dissertation & Thesis Services

[Haines, Lou]

Hi Sally,

We want all signatures to be wet.  Sometimes, however, that is impossible. In that case, I will ask that the missing person send an email directly to me letting me know that they have approved.  I also ask that they sign the scanned page and return it back to me for my records.  

Best regards,

Lou A. Haines

Manager, Graduate Student Services

Miami University Graduate School

513-529-3734

Miami University Graduate School

           

PGP: She, Her, Hers

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[Babcock, Renee E]

Hi Sally, we used to require all wet signatures, but we found for students with committee members outside our university in particular, it was often challenging for them to collect all those signatures, esp since it seems so many of students defend in the few weeks before our ETD submission deadline. 

Our deans are now allowing us to collect scanned or electronic signatures on the signature page. We do still require the signature page to be turned in, since we image it to the student record after awarding the degree. We have a few caveats that we warn students about: the document quality has to be good (we’ve had people try to send us photos they took with their camera, for example, and we’ve just said nope); the scan has to be a good, dark scan (so we can image it), and if the signer uses an electronic signature, we have to be able to read the attached certificate. We also require a single page for the signature page, not multiple pages. 

We will allow any or all signers to sign with scanned or electronic signatures. Because of committee members being outside UT, or because of travel schedules of other committee members, this flexibility has made it a lot easier for students to collect signatures.

Renee

Renee E. Babcock, Ph.D. | Degree Plan Evaluator III | Graduate School | The University of Texas at Austin | (512) 232-3629

[Matt Kramer]

We prefer wet signatures. We do have some faculty members who use electronic signatures which we accept. One issue we have is the authenticity of the third member signature since the third member is often a non faculty member who is not associated with the college.

We offer a temporary solution for logistical difficulties in obtaining signatures on our dissertation approval form:  an email placeholder that allows us to accept the submittal provided that the student secure the wet signature on the approval form at the defense. Our requirement is that the committee member who cannot sign the approval form prior to submittal send us a direct email stating that they approve the dissertation along with the official approved title.

Matt Kramer

William James College.

On Thu, Apr 13, 2017 at 11:31 AM, Sally R. Evans <sally...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Sally R. Evans]

Thank you, all.

I ask because I received an email from a professor (see below), and I just wanted to see if we're being unreasonable or behind the times.

In the email, he asked:

"Why do we require wet signatures? What if we got an electronic signature chain, and then a PDF spit out that was automatically in compliance? What’s holding up such a process?"