🚀 go-pugleaf

You are not the only institution to have a bureacrat that judges
thesis formats.  However at Rutgers we somehow managed to get them
involved in the computer document-processing technology.  When we
first started doing theses using laser printers, we showed them a
sample.  They liked the looks, but of course wanted to control the
format.  So one of my staff worked out a procedure for certifying
formats (style files, whatever).  We produce a test document that uses
the full range of facilities (footnotes, references, chapter headings,
title page, etc.).  We go through an iterative adjustment process
until they get something they like.  By going through this process, we
get separate standards for computer-generated theses, and don't have
to emulate formats designed for typewriters.  We have certified
formats for several different laser printers in Scribe (the way Scribe
works, we have to certify each device type) and LaTeX.  I'm pretty
sure we have them for several other document processors as well.  It's
a pain to do, but it sure makes things easier for our Ph.D. students.