Announcements

Graduate Faculty Resources

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Sent on behalf of Kent Holsinger, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School

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Colleagues,

 

I am writing to let you know about the expanded resources that The Graduate School is offering to graduate faculty, staff, and faculty who hold an administrative role, such as Departments Heads or Directors of Graduate Studies.

 

Timely Topics

 

The Graduate School’s Timely Topics Series is an opportunity to engage with subject matter experts on important topics related to graduate education. We hope that those who support or advise graduate students and those who administer graduate programs will find them useful. We offer two “tracks”—one specifically tailored to the interests of graduate faculty and one designed both for faculty who hold an administrative role and for staff. This fall, the faculty track will feature sessions such as:

  • Career Outcomes for PhDs and Implications for PhD Training
  • NSF Letter Writing Workshop
  • Supporting Graduate Students with Disabilities
  • From Expectations to Evaluations: The Importance of Timely Feedback with Provost Carl Lejuez

 

You can find detailed information about the sessions being offered, as well as links to sign up, in the attached flyer and on the Timely Topics webpage. I’m writing to encourage you to attend the sessions listed on the faculty track, all of which will be offered via WebEx this semester. If you are also interested in attending the more staff- and administrator-oriented sessions, we’d be delighted to have you.

 

GradSlate

 

The Graduate School also has a wealth of resources supporting the online application and CRM system (GradSlate), including documentation and presentations. Our GradSlate Training Sessions offer a deep dive into various aspects of using Slate for application review and recruitment. You can find these resources and upcoming events within the GradSlate User Portal. If you need access to the system, please fill out this form for GradSlate Access.

 

Website Resources

 

The Graduate School’s website serves many audiences, including prospective students, current students, faculty and staff. We are always looking for better ways to serve visitors to our website. Recently, we expanded The Graduate School resources and consolidated university resources into a reconfigured Faculty & Staff area of our website that we hope you will find useful. Please let us know if there’s a resource you’d like to have that we haven’t provided a link to. We welcome any suggestions you have.

 

Kent

 

—

Kent E. Holsinger

Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor

Vice Provost for Graduate Education

and Dean of The Graduate School

University of Connecticut

www.grad.uconn.edu

UConn’s PostDoc Seed Award Winners 2021

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The Graduate School is delighted to announce this year’s Postdoc Seed Award Recipients.

Dr. Maria Rodgers, from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has been funded for the following project:

“I am isolating and examining various immune cells from a small fish species called the threespine stickleback. While I recently completed a project that determined what types of cells are present in various tissues of this fish species, still lacking in the field is knowledge of how specific cells are different between populations. For example, a specific cell type in one population might highly express gene x, but those same cells in another population do not express gene x. The more that we understand these nuances, the more we can 1. Understand evolutionary processes, and 2. Use cells as treatments/therapies.”

Dr. Matthew Sasaki, from Marine Sciences, has been funded for the following project:

“Climate change is causing an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. As we saw during the recent heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, these events can be fatal for animals, which in turn has detrimental effects on ecosystem health and human activities. To better understand how extreme heat events may affect recreational and commercial fisheries around Connecticut, I am proposing to measure lethal thermal limits (the highest temperature an individual can survive) for copepods. These are abundant crustaceans that are an important source of food for many fish species.”

Dr. Heather A Kittredge, from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has been funded for the following project:

“Evolution is often a slow process, but it can happen incredibly fast. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is one mechanism of evolution that is increasingly thought to drive rapid adaptation. HGT allows microbes to steal DNA from neighboring cells, making it a powerful evolutionary force. However, acquiring foreign DNA can also be lethal if it disrupts finely tuned cellular processes. Despite potential risks, computational models indicate that high rates of HGT facilitate microbial invasion. Here, I apply experimental evolution and genetics to understand if HGT helps microbes invade extreme environments, revolutionizing the contemporary idea that evolution is too slow to alter ecological processes like invasion success.”

UConn’s 3MT Winners 2021

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The Graduate School is delighted to announce this year’s 3MT winners.

In 1st place, Shipra Malik (Pharmaceutical Sciences) with her presentation “Precise and Safe Genome Engineering.” View her winning presentation here:


In 2nd place, Tommy Lee (Psychological Sciences) with his presentation “How the Brain Turns New Experiences into Memories.” View his presentation here:

In 3rd place, Corrin Laposki (Anthropology) with her presentation “Burning Questions: Oxygen Isotopes as Biomarkers of Air Pollution in Archaeological Bone.” View her presentation here:

Retroactive and Non-standard GA Appointments

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Sent on behalf of Kent Holsinger, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School, and Alison Cutler, Labor Relations Associate, Labor and Employment Attorney, to Department Heads, Directors of Graduate Studies, and Department Graduate Admins

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Dear Colleagues, 

 

With rare exceptions, during the academic year Graduate Assistants (“GAs”) are appointed either for Fall or Spring semester or for the entire academic year. Fall and academic year appointments begin on August 23, and Spring appointments begin on or about January 6. Many benefits provided to GAs as part of the collective bargaining agreement, including tuition waivers and insurance, are tied to these appointment dates.

 

As the Fall 2021 semester approaches, we write to remind you that GA appointments with either a retroactive date of hire or a retroactive increase in percentage of appointment are prohibited. Appointment start dates must reflect the date employees begin their work assignments, including training and orientation. However, non-standard appointment dates can impact GA benefits, such as resulting in the GA losing some or all of their tuition waiver and/or affecting their eligibility for insurance coverage. Appointments for less than one semester also require advance approval from the union.

 

If a department believes that a non-standard, including a retroactive, start date is necessary, it should contact The Graduate School prior to issuing an offer letter. Among other things, this will allow for The Graduate School to work with the department and the GA to review the implications of the proposed non-standard start date.

 

Please remember that once you have issued an offer letter and it has been accepted by the GA, the University is obligated to honor the offer under Article 6 (Appointment Security) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Graduate Employee Union (GEU). Please also remember that GA assignments cannot exceed an average of twenty hours per week and that they not unreasonably exceed twenty hours in any given week (or the prorated hourly equivalent with a lower percentage appointment) under Article 10, (Workload) of the CBA.

 

Please contact us if you have further questions. 

 

Thanks,

 

Kent Holsinger

Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Biology                     

Vice Provost for Graduate Education                                                   

   and Dean of The Graduate School                           

University of Connecticut                                                                        

www.grad.uconn.edu                                                                              

 

Alison Cutler

Labor Relations Associate, Labor and Employment Attorney

Office of Faculty & Staff Labor Relations

University of Connecticut

9 Walters Avenue, Unit 5075

Storrs, Connecticut 06269-5075

www.lr.uconn.edu

Come and join us for UConn’s 3MT competition final this Thursday evening

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After a year hiatus due to Covid, UConn’s 3MT competition is back, bigger and better than before.

We cordially invite you to join us this Thursday at 6-7pm EDT where 11 graduate student finalists will compete for the opportunity to represent UConn on the global stage. Please feel free to forward the following link (which contains the info to join the event) to your undergraduate and graduate student populations as well as interested staff and faculty. Come and cheer on the finalists! https://mailchi.mp/uconn.edu/youre-invited-to-support-uconns-3mt-finalists.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Onwards!

Stuart P. Duncan PhD DMA

Message from Payroll: Welcome, Graduate Assistants, to UConn Fall 2021

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The first GA payment will be on August 27, 2021 and will be prorated for the pay dates between 8/23/2021 and 8/26/2021 (4 days paid with the first check). UConn pays bi-weekly (every two weeks).  Payroll-Calendar 2021.pdf  The second pay day is Sept 10, 2021 and every two weeks thereafter for the full biweekly stipend payment (10 days paid).   

 

Keep in mind, your graduate assistant payments will vary depending on whether or not you elect health insurance GA-health-insurance/, if you elect to join the GEU-UAW union and pay union dues, or sign up for payroll fee bill deductions graduate Fee Bill-payroll-deduction.  General deductions do not begin immediately (with the first payment) so keep an eye on your pay statement to see the various deductions.  The first deductions for insurance premiums and Bursar’s fee bill deductions will be on 9/24/2021 so mark your calendars and review your pay stub if you signed up for these deductions. Your tax withholdings will be deducted from your first GA payment. 

 

The Rec Center Relief reimbursement payment will be paid in the second payment of September on 9/24/2021. Please refer to the GEU-UAW contract for more information on this relief payment. 

 

NEW HIRE GAs:  Once your payroll record has been set up and the fall semester has begun on 8/23/2021, you can log into Employee Self Service (ESS) portal as of 8/24/2021 (https://ess.uconn.edu/) to manage your personal data such as tax withholdings, name changes, address changes, and setting up or changing direct deposit accounts. Payroll’s direct deposit is separate from the Bursar’s direct deposit and should be entered separately through ESS. Also, ESS is where you will go to view your biweekly pay stubs and print out your year-end W2 when it’s available. If you prefer to upload your tax and direct deposit information prior to 8/24/2021, please use these links to send your documents securely:    

 

NEW HIRE GAs:  Your first payment will be mailed to the address that was listed in Student Administration (SA) at the time your payroll record was created. Therefore, if you have relocated and your address is different than your SA address you must let me know prior to 8/13/2021 so I can update the payroll system for your first payment. Updating your address in SA will NOT update Payroll-CoreCT. You must email your local address and write LOCAL ADDRESS in the Subject line to gena.twarz@uconn.edu. International GA’s who did not have a US address at the time your payroll was set up will have the first payments mailed to the Payroll office. As soon as you have a US address email gena.twarz@uconn.edu with your valid home/mailing address. 

 

RETURNING GAs, or GAs that were previously employed or are currently active at UConn on Student Labor, Special Payroll, or any other UConn payroll (or any other state agency) and were receiving a direct deposit payment – you do not need to submit a direct deposit form. If the existing direct deposit is a valid account, you do not need to do anything. If you are currently active on a UCONN payroll you can log into Employee Self Service ESS and make changes to your address or direct deposit if needed. If your prior direct deposit account is no longer active, please email gena.twarz@uconn.edu as soon as possible so your first payment does not go to an inactive account. 

 

Finally, for NEW hire GAs, if your SA account does not have your valid social security number, and consequently Payroll will not have your valid SSN, you need to update both the Registrar’s Office and Payroll with your valid SSN. DO NOT EMAIL your SSN or copy of your card to Payroll or the Registrar’s office. Instead, use the following links to update your SSN:   

  • Follow the instructions on the Registrar’s Biographical Information Update Request form (fax#860/486-0272; In-person office hours as of 8/16/21; or arrange to send via filelocker.uconn.edu). Do not send your Social Security Number in an email.   
  • Please send Social Security card to Payroll through OneDrive:  Upload SSN here  

  

Be well and best wishes for a successful year, 

Gena 

 

Gena Twarz 

Graduate Assistant Payroll Manager 

Gena.twarz@uconn.edu  

Payroll Department 

343 Mansfield Rd, Storrs, CT 06269-1111 

Available to Speak via Teams:  https://email.uconn.edu/what-is-microsoft-teams/ 

fax: 860/486-4296 

International TA Orientation – registration open

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Good afternoon,

Registration for UCAELI’s online International TA Orientation on August 9th is now open. Please see the below message from UCAELI for more details and share with your grads as appropriate.

The deadline to register for the August microteaching test is July 27th. More information about testing and the testing schedule can be found here.

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Who needs to attend ITA Orientation on Monday, August 9?
ITA Orientation is intended for international TAs who have never taught in the United States. International TAs with teaching experience from another university in the United States are welcome to attend, but their attendance is not required. Students who have been screened for TA via the microteaching test, waiver interview, or UCAELI proficiency assessment are strongly advised to attend. Students who have not been screened for TA but planning to are also invited to attend.

Please visit the ITA website, www.ita.uconn.edu for more information.

If you have any questions, please email Ana Colón at register-ucaeli@uconn.edu.

Important Information for Graduate Students Studying Outside the U.S.

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We are aware that travel to the US from some parts of the world is still difficult and that some of our international students may be considering whether to enroll in courses from their home country this fall. If the student will be engaged in research, their work may be subject to export control laws, which are federal regulations governing the sharing and use of certain information, technologies, and commodities overseas. I am writing to let you know that graduate students, whether domestic or international, who will be outside of the US for most or all of the semester and who anticipate enrolling in a course that is outside of the standard education abroad program content (e.g., GRAD 5950/6950/5999/6999, an independent study, or a departmental research course) should obtain approval before finalizing their fall enrollment. In some cases, export control review will be required for enrollment in these courses. Export control review can take several weeks—we advise that students plan with this timeline in mind. If a student proceeds without prior approval and export control review reveals a significant concern, they may need to withdraw from the course in question. If they are required to withdraw, there could be financial implications, including only a partial return of tuition according to the university refund schedule, a requirement to return a portion of any financial aid they received, or both.

To obtain approval, the student should contact graduatedean@uconn.edu with the following information:

  • Field of study
  • Proposed course enrollment (catalog number and course name)
  • Brief (one-two sentences only) summary of research topic
  • Country of citizenship
  • Country where courses will be taken/research conducted abroad
  • List of any special equipment/computer hardware/software that is not commercially available to be used while abroad

Remote Work for GAs and Tuition Remission

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Colleagues,

I am writing with guidance about graduate assistants working while outside the U.S.

Remote Work

GAs provide vital teaching and research service to the University, and some of this work might be possible remotely. GAs who are here in the U.S. are able to work remotely, provided they have supervisor approval and that the responsibilities of the position can be completed from the remote location. Last year, the University made a one-time exception to allow a limited number of GAs to work from outside the U.S. during 2020/2021 because of the exceptional hardship associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. I anticipate that the University will require all GAs to be in the United States to hold an appointment in Fall 2021 and beyond.

The employment, labor, and tax obligations to which GAs are subject when outside of the U.S. are those of the country from which they are working, even if they are working on behalf of an employer like UConn that is located in the U.S. In some cases, accepting a paycheck from UConn could expose an individual to personal liability and potentially significant consequences in the country where they reside. As a result, the University has determined that graduate students must be here in the U.S. in order to work as a GA and are expected to remain in the U.S. for the duration of their appointment. (Please remember that GAs have a right to 10 days off for a 1-semester appointment or 20 days off for an academic year appointment. With the approval of their GA supervisor, a GA could leave the country before the end of their Fall appointment and return after the beginning of their Spring appointment, treating the days outside the U.S. as time off.)

Deferring Admission

Incoming graduate students to whom departments offered a graduate assistantship in Fall 2021 and who are unlikely to be able to arrive by the start date of their appointment are strongly encouraged to defer admission to a later date or to take advantage of the tuition remission option described below. Students may request a deferral through the Accounts & Forms area of their Application Status page. The request will then be routed to the program for review and approval. Please consult The Graduate School (gradadmissions@uconn.edu) with any questions regarding the deferral process.

 

Tuition Remission

The University will allow any graduate students that would be graduate assistants in Fall 2021 and are unable to arrive in the U.S. to enroll in courses without a tuition charge. Students who received tuition remission last year will be eligible for tuition remission again. Departments who want to offer this option must make it available to all GAs who would have held an assistantship in Fall 2021 and are unable to come to the U.S., and they should provide The Graduate School with a list of those students (name and 7-digit Student ID) and a copy of the student’s GA offer letter at graduatedean@uconn.edu by August 15th. Students receiving tuition remission are still personally responsible for remitting their student fees according to the deadlines published by the Office of the Bursar.

If you have any questions, please send them to graduatedean@uconn.edu, and we will respond as quickly as possible.

Kent Holsinger

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Kent E. Holsinger
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School

3MT Competition 2021

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The Graduate School is excited to announce this year’s 3MT competition, to be held virtually on Thursday 12 August, 6-7pm (EDT) with a submission deadline of Friday July 30.

As you will note from the email below, we are offering graduate students the opportunity to attend short training sessions over the summer, to prepare for the competition; however, this year we are also adding an option for departments to have a custom virtual session specifically designed for your students. We would set up a time that would work for you and your interested graduate students and then tailor the content to your field / subject area.

If you are interested, please send me an email by the end of May so we can start working out specifics.

Please feel free to forward the information below to your graduate students or staff/faculty that might be interested in being a part of UConn’s competition!

Onwards!

Stuart

Stuart P. Duncan PhD DMA

Director of Fellowships, Outreach, and Programming

The Graduate School, University of Connecticut

Pronouns (He/Him & They/Them)