# 5. Whose responsibility is it to call committee meetings? What are the committee membersā responsibilities in this situation? Should anyone monitor the supervisor-trainee relationship?

It is usually the responsibility of the chair or head of the traineeās advisory committee to call meetings. However, any member of the committee can and should ask for meetings to be scheduled on an as-needed basis. The department chair always has the authority and responsibility to call for special review if the situation dictates. In addition, many schools and departments have special entities to watch over graduate and postgraduate students to insure that difficulties are not allowed to fester, ignite, and burn. Appropriate individuals are charged with the responsibility to meet regularly with the students and to deal immediately with any problems that arise. Departments in some schools will even go so far as to set up a fund to deal with those rare circumstances in which the relations between trainees and their supervisors are irreparably impaired, so that they can move the trainees with funding to other research positions.