Burnaby, Bennett Library: Thesis Defence Room

This room is reserved for the express use of graduate students looking for a space to defend their thesis or to practice their thesis defence. 

• Bookings are made by the graduate program assistant in a student's home department/school/faculty/program.
• The Library highly recommends that you book at least a one-hour practice session prior to the defence (especially if Zoom is required or if the student plans to use their own laptop).

How to book: Instructions for the graduate program assistant:
Important booking information: 

• You will need to log in with your SFU ID and password to book the Thesis Defence Room.
• Allow three (3) hours for Masters defences and four (4) hours for PhD defences.
• Add an extra 30 minutes at the beginning of your time slot, for room and equipment set up.
• Note that after you select your time, the system will add additional time before and after your booking, to prevent back-to-back bookings and allow Library staff to do extra set up.

Selecting the time you want:

• Start time: Go to the date you want, and select the start time from the grid. (Available times will be indicated in green.)
• End time: To choose your end time, use the drop-down menu below the grid.
• Click on Submit Times to complete your booking.  

Confirming your booking:

• Your reservation is not confirmed until you receive a confirmation email.
• If you do not receive a confirmation email in 2-3 business days please contact the SFU Library at library@sfu.ca.

 Notifying the student and committee members:

• It is the graduate program's responsibility to notify the student and committee members of the location and date of the defence.

Additional notes for consideration:

• A Library PC laptop on the podium is available for the presentation and connected to the projector.
• Please bring the candidate presentation on a USB as back up in case of unexpected technical difficulties (even if using your own laptop).
• If you would like to use your own laptop, please book a practice session to ensure compatibility with the equipment provided by the Library in the room (eg, you may need to bring your own cables to connect to the projector, especially if using a MAC laptop).
• If using Zoom, the Library recommends having a third party (such as a member of the department) act as the host for the Zoom session on a separate laptop to manage the Zoom participants so that the graduate student is not interrupted during their presentation admitting late-comers to the Zoom session.