umthesis -- A LaTeX Class File for Dissertations to be submitted to the Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

umthesis is a LaTeX2e class file for preparing documents in the required form for submission to the University of Massachusetts Graduate School. It can be used for doctoral dissertations or for dissertation proposals. It is based on the LaTeX2e report class and accepts all of the options of that class. It also introduces several new ones:

doublespace -- the default, indicates double spacing as per U.Mass. requirements. You will need this when you do your final copy.
singlespace -- for earlier work, not acceptable to the Grad school.
condensed -- for earlier work, not acceptable to the Grad school, creates condensed versions of the frontmatter. Condensed implies singlespace.
uncondensed -- the default.
dissertation -- the default, indicates that this document is a dissertation.
thesis -- indicates that this document is a Master's thesis rather than a dissertation.
proposal -- indicates that this document is a thesis or dissertation proposal, rather than a thesis or dissertation. This will only change the wording on the title and signature pages.
allowlisthypenation -- (the default), allows hyphenation of words in the table of contents, the list of figures, and the list of tables. I believe that this is acceptable to the Graduate School.
nolisthyphenation -- disallows hyphenation of words in the table of contents and the list of figures and tables. Use this option if the Grad School doesn't like your hyphenation.
nicerdraft -- relaxes some of the Grad School's rules for working with drafts -- has no effect when doublespace is in effect
nonicerdraft -- the default, leaves things in draft as they will be in the final version

This class adds the following commands and environments to the report class, upon which it is based: Commands

\degree{name}{abbrv} -- Sets the name and abbreviation for the degree. These default to ``Doctor of Philosopy'' and ``Ph.D.'', respectively.
\copyrightyear{year} -- for the copyright page.
\bachelors{degree}{institution} -- for the abstract
\masters{degree}{institution} -- for the abstract
if you have other degrees you may use
- \secondbachelors{degree}{institution}
- \thirdbachelors{degree}{institution}
- \secondmasters{degree}{institution}
- \thirdmasters{degree}{institution}
- \priordoctorate{degree}{institution}
\committeechair{name} -- for the signature page
or, if you have two co-chairs: \cochairs{first name}{second name}
\firstreader{name} -- for the signature page
\secondreader{name}
\thirdreader{name}
\fourthreader{name}
\fifthreader{name}
\sixthreader{name}
\departmentchair{name}
\departmentname{name}
\copyrightpage -- produces the copyright page
\signaturepage -- produces the signature page
\frontmatter -- these are required in their various
\mainmatter -- appropriate locations
\backmatter --
\unnumberedchapter[toc]{name} -- like \chapter, except that it produces an unnumbered chapter; alternatively, like \chapter*, except that it lists the chapter in the table of contents.

New environments:

dedication -- for the dedication
abstract -- for the abstract

Getting umthesis.cls

umthesis.cls is automatically available to anyone in the Comnputer Science department using teTeX from the /exp/rcf tree as their LaTeX implementation. Just use \documentclass{umthesis} in the LaTeX file. A sample driver is shown in /exp/rcf/common/teTeX/texmf/tex/latex/local/ridgway/umthsmpl.tex. This shows the required order for the elements of the document. It gives you a good starting point.

If you are not in the Computer Science department you will not automatically have access to umthesis. You may download umthesis.tar. This tar file, which can be unpacked with the command tar xf umthesis.tar, will unpack about a dozen files into the current directory. umthsmpl.tex is a sample dissertation that you can use as a a model for yours.

From time to time I update umthesis.cls to fix problems that the Graduate School has found. For those getting their version off of the /exp/rcf tree this is not a problem as they will always get the latest version. If you have downloaded your own copy you may want to subscribe to the umthesis-announce mailing group. I send messages to this group whenever I update anything, and this will let you know that it's time to download again. You can subscribe by sending e-mail to majordomo@cs.umass.edu with the command subscribe umthesis-announce as the only thing in the body of the e-mail.

Acknowledgments

The original author of umthesis.sty, a LaTeX 2.09 style file was Tony Hosking. A few people added changes and fixes, but Tony was the major one. John Ridgway rewrote most of it and turned it into a LaTeX2e class file.

umthesis.cls IS supported. If you have any problems send me mail. It HAS been used, something like a dozen dissertation have been accepted by the Graduate School. If the Graduate School has problems with yours please let me know so I can work on it for the next person -- with any luck that next person will be me.

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at ridgway@cs.umass.edu