4.2 Community Life, Relationships and Expectations (Alphabetic Listing)
4.2.1 Appointments with Faculty
Students should make appointments directly with the individual faculty member by calling Capital Seminary and Graduate School (866.275.8720) or by email. Appointments with the Program Director are made by calling the same number or made directly via email at MMeyer@lbc.edu. Appointments with adjunct faculty or visiting lecturers should be made directly with the adjunct or visiting faculty member.
4.2.2 Calendars
It is the responsibility of the student to take note of due dates, registration dates, hearing dates, and submission deadlines in the completion of degree requirements. Failure to track these dates carefully can cause you to incur additional fees and could delay progress in the completion of your doctoral degree.
4.2.3 Community of Learning
Doctoral students are encouraged to abandon any competitive habits acquired during previous years of formal schooling. The purpose of the coursework is to engage the doctoral student in the giving and receiving of ideas, information, sources, and materials in the context of a community of scholarship. Doctoral students are expected to ground their research in significant and pertinent literature, and to share those ideas and resources with their colleagues. This sort of exchange includes sharing foundational research and advanced research manuscripts with other students for analysis and evaluation.
Doctoral students are expected to enter fully into cohort dialogues and to participate constructively in discussions regarding research. This community of scholars will be developed and maintained through the use of email and online discussion groups, as well as through face-to-face dialogues during the face-to-face residency portions of each course.
In the effort to establish a community of cooperative learning, three educational principles are considered essential:
- The outcome of advanced graduate education is the development of refined, sustainable habits of scholarly inquiry with professional integrity. These habits include engaging in seamless and lifelong learning, as well as discerning, upholding, and accurately communicating truth.
- Competitive practices and individualistic approaches to scholarly inquiry are considered inappropriate toward the community of learning.
- The preferred learning environment is one that fosters a community of cooperative inquiry. Faculty and students alike are to be engaged in this learning community toward the development of all participants, not just the individual.
4.2.4 Dissertation Advisor
Doctoral students are assigned a dissertation advisor (also called a “faculty mentor” and first reader). Every effort is made to match student research interests with the areas of expertise of the faculty of the PhD in Biblical Studies program.
Students will be surveyed for their preferences in the configuration of the student’s Dissertation Committee consisting of a dissertation advisor and a second reader. Faculty members are limited in the number of dissertations they can supervise at one time. Doctoral students should discuss the assignment of Dissertation Committee members with the Director of the PhD in Biblical Studies rather than directly approaching any faculty member to ask the member to serve on their Dissertation Committee.
4.2.5 Faculty Advisors
The Program Director will serve as the advisor for students enrolled in the PhD in Biblical Studies.
4.2.6 Email Notifications
All doctoral students receive a free LBC email account. This is the official account for communications. Students are responsible to check this account on a regular basis. Notifications of matters pertinent to the PhD in Biblical Studies are sent to your LBC|Capital account and constitute formal notification to the student.
4.2.7 Open Hearings
Dissertation defense hearings are open to all students and faculty. Open hearings provide an opportunity for doctoral students to engage in observation of hearing protocols and lines of inquiry in preparation for those hearings in the completion of their own program requirements. Attendance and participation in open hearings are also encouraged for purposes of collegial support of the person whose work is being evaluated.