Announcements

Template for Annual Reviews for Doctoral Students

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As part of an ongoing effort to foster good graduate student mentoring and facilitate communication between graduate advisors and advisees, The Graduate School has developed a template for annual reviews for doctoral (and potentially other) students.  The purpose is to provide a tool that programs can use to: (1) allow students to report and reflect on their progress and accomplishments during the previous year and plan their activities and efforts for the coming year, and (2) aid major advisors in providing their graduate students with feedback on their progress to date and plans.   The template is attached, along with examples of similar forms currently being used by some departments (English, Marine Sciences, and Psychology).  The template draws from examples such as these, and incorporates feedback received from the Graduate Faculty Council and the Executive Committee.

Importantly, the template is designed to be customizable.  We anticipate that programs will modify it — adding, changing, or deleting items – to suit the specific needs of their programs.  Although use of this or any form is purely voluntary (i.e., there is no Graduate School requirement that annual reviews of this sort be conducted), we strongly urge programs to institute a process based on some version of a tool like this.

We are distributing this template now so that programs that want to do so can use it this academic year.  However, we view this as a “living document” that we will be revising as we receive feedback on it.  In addition, we will be developing guidance/tips on implementations suggestions and strategies that we will be posting on the TGS website, along with the template itself, over the coming months.

Download Template

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the template itself or its use, please reach out to us at kent.holsinger@uconn.edu or Kathleen.segerson@uconn.edu.

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

Kathleen Segerson
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
Associate Dean of The Graduate School

 

Strategic Plan Seeking Public Comment

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Research, scholarship, and creative activity are vitally important to the University of Connecticut, and excellence in these areas rests on a foundation of excellence in graduate and postdoctoral education. As the home for graduate and postdoctoral education at UConn, The Graduate School supports a thriving community of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars and oversees graduate programs in every academic discipline.

Over the past eight months staff of The Graduate School have developed a strategic plan that outlines our vision for the future of The Graduate School. The Executive Committee of The Graduate School, which consists of nine members of the graduate faculty, provided extensive comments on the plan as it was being developed.

We invite comments from all members of the UConn community on the draft of the strategic plan you find here. Comments received before 10 May will play a vital role in making final revisions before we adopt the plan in June.

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights.

grad.uconn.edu/strategic-plan

Coronavirus Relief Emergency Funding for Students

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The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA) was approved by Congress and includes support for higher education, including emergency grants for students facing expenses due to COVID-19.

The grants must be used for any component of the student’s cost of attendance or for emergency costs that arise due to coronavirus, such as tuition, food, housing, health care (including mental health care) or child care.

The funds are available to both U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens. To confirm eligibility, students will have to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to UConn.

The emergency funding will be awarded through financial aid and disbursing directly to students via their student account.  The grant will be passed through PeopleSoft and will not be applied to or used to offset any charge, debt, tuition, fees, or other balance in a student account, nor will it be encumbered in any manner by UConn.

For students enrolled in direct deposit, they will have access to the funds in approximately three business days from the date of disbursement. For those not enrolled in direct deposit, the Office of the Bursar will issue a check.

The application is available at the Office of Financial Aid’s website. Learn more about the CRRSAA Emergency funding and apply. If you have additional concerns or needs, let us know at the gradschool@uconn.edu or meet with members of our Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Affairs team.

Guidance for departments concerning GAs abroad in Fall 2021

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Colleagues,

I am writing to provide some guidance concerning GA appointments for Fall 2021. You may recall that our contract with graduate assistants require that incoming students be notified of appointments by April 1st and that continuing students be notified by June 15th. The contract includes a provision recognizing that in “exceptional circumstances” notification may come later than these dates. In making decisions about GA offers for next fall, please keep in mind that the University made a one-time exception to allow a limited number of GAs to work from outside the US 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. Please keep this in mind when making GA appointments for Fall 2021.

Kent Holsinger  

Apply for Graduation

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Greetings Graduate Students,

Are you graduating this semester?  Did you know you must apply for graduation online via your Student Administration account?  Did you know the deadline was by the end of the 4th week of the semester?

If you missed the deadline, please apply ASAP in order to not impact the conferral of your degree.  Summer candidates are asked to apply no later than March 25th to ensure their information makes the Commencement publication.

Click the following link for more information about Commencement.

Additional important dates and deadlines can be viewed on the Academic Calendar page.  Friday, April 23rd is the last day to submit paperwork for a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation to qualify for a Spring 2021 conferral date.

Visit Degree Audit’s website for directions and more information about applying for graduation, submitting required paperwork, and uploading your thesis or dissertation.  Consult your major advisor about what documentation needs to be submitted to The Registrar’s Office as a requirement for your degree.

All students are advised to review their transcript to ensure that it coincides with their plan of study. Any missing grades, documents, or discrepancies between a student’s plan of study and transcript can result in a delay of degree conferral or cancellation of degree candidacy.

UConn Health Graduate students can get information at the following link – UConn Health Commencement

Feel free to contact The Degree Audit office at degreeaudit@uconn.edu if you have additional questions.

BIPOC Student Support Report Seeking Public Comment

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Hello graduate faculty and staff,

Following the national incidents of racism and racial injustice in Summer 2020, The Graduate School has been reflecting, researching, and discussing how we can better serve our Black, Indigenous, and/or Person of Color (BIPOC) graduate students at the University of Connecticut. This process, undertaken with the assistance of our partners, graduate faculty and staff, graduate student organizations, and graduate students, has resulted in a report. The report outlines our process, our findings, and, most importantly, our priorities we will be working to address with the purpose of improving the experiences of BIPOC graduate students at UConn. 

To ensure these priorities represent the needs and desires of the graduate community at UConn, we are asking for feedback from our community members. Our report and feedback form will be available on our webpage until Friday, March 26th. We will then adjust our priorities based upon the feedback we receive and communicate the final priorities with the graduate community. We welcome feedback from all graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, staff, and alumni regardless of racial identity. 

grad.uconn.edu/bipoc_report_feedback/

If you have any questions, please reach out to Shay Hopley at shalyn.hopley@uconn.edu. 

Sincerely,

The Graduate School Team

Important Information: Spring 2021 Enrollment

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As the Spring semester gets closer, we wanted to provide some context on enrollment. The information below is relevant to both new and returning students. Please review carefully and reach out with any questions you may have. If you have not done so already, please be sure to enroll in classes prior to the start of the semester, which begins January 19.

Continuous enrollment is a requirement of all graduate programs. Students who will not be registering in coursework or research credits must register for a zero credit continuous registration course to maintain their active student status. Continuous registration courses include GRAD 5997, GRAD 5998, and GRAD 6998, as well as GRAD 5999 (Thesis Preparation) and GRAD 6999 (Dissertation Preparation). Full descriptions of the continuous registration courses can be found here. Enrollment in these sections should be determined before the first day of classes. There are financial implications when changing from being enrolled in credits to no credits as of the first day of classes. Changes from credits to a zero-credit placeholder cannot be made after the first day of classes.

Students who wish to cancel enrollment prior to the start of the semester or who attend class and then decide to withdraw from all their courses should notify The Graduate School (TGS) by completing an online Voluntary Separation Notification Form as soon as possible. The add/drop period that extends through the 10th day of classes (February 1, 2021) is only available to students who plan to be enrolled in credited coursework throughout the semester. A student who wishes to go down to zero credits or withdraw from their program completely will need assistance from The Graduate School and will be subject to the university refund schedule which will apply based on the date the student notifies TGS of the intent to withdraw via the online Voluntary Separation Notification process, not when they last attended classes. More information on voluntary separation can be found here.

Students who do not register for classes by the 10th day are automatically discontinued from their program. If the student then wishes to be enrolled after Day 10, the student will need to request reinstatement to their program, which is not guaranteed and incurs a $65 fee. Students should also be aware that classes with insufficient enrollment will be cancelled and will then be unavailable even if the student is reinstated.

Fee bills for graduate students are due January 15, 2021. Information about the UConn Payment Plan can be found here and information on Graduate Assistant Payroll Deductions can be found here.

The decision to enroll in research credits in a given semester should be made in conjunction with the student’s advisor. Doctoral students should register for GRAD 6950. Plan A Master’s students should register for GRAD 5950. All sections will show “Staff” (or similar) as the instructor. Through an automatic process later in the semester, students will be moved to a grade roster associated with their major advisor. Permission numbers are not needed for students to register for these research courses. If you attempt to register and receive an error, contact registrar@uconn.edu for assistance. Be sure to include your 7-digit student ID in all correspondence.

Additional Registration Information for Graduate Assistants:
Graduate Assistants (GAs) are required to be enrolled as full-time students (6 or more credits), as noted in their offer letter and The Graduate Catalog. Employment as a GA is a result of student status, therefore GAs are expected to be registered for a minimum of 6 credits before the start date of their spring semester employment (January 7, 2021). GAs who have not completed their registration for a minimum of six credits by their start date are not fulfilling one of the contingencies of employment and may be subject to termination from their assistantship. (GAs employed solely at UConn Health should follow the registration deadlines set by UCH.)

Please note, the tuition waiver will not post to a GA’s fee bill until the GA is registered for at least 6 credits. Therefore, if a student is not fully registered in a timely fashion, this can result in a Bursar hold on the student’s account that blocks enrollment and other services, as well as incur late fees.

The decision to enroll in research credits in a given semester should be made in conjunction with the student’s advisor. Doctoral students should register for GRAD 6950. Plan A Master’s students should register for GRAD 5950. GAs should NOT register for GRAD 6960 (Full-Time Doctoral Research) or GRAD 5960 (Full-Time Master’s Research). GRAD 6960 and 5960 are only 3 credits and will prevent the tuition waiver from populating if it is the only course the GA is registered for, as well as create duplicate fee charges.

Additional Registration Information for Provost’s Professional Interns:
Students who are employed as Provost’s Professional Interns are required to be enrolled in six or more credits, as noted in their offer letter. Employment as a Provost’s Professional Intern is a result of student status, therefore Provost’s Professional Interns are expected to be registered for a minimum of 6 credits before the start date of their spring semester employment (January 7, 2021). Provost’s Professional Interns receive a tuition scholarship for the duration of their appointment. Registration prior to the deadline allows The Graduate School to accurately process this tuition scholarship in a timely manner, avoiding late fees and holds on the student’s account that block enrollment and other services.

While Provost’s Professional Interns are eligible for a tuition scholarship upon meeting the six credit registration threshold, in order to be reported as a full-time student, Provost’s Professional Interns must be registered for nine credits. This may be an important consideration for international students or those with student loans in deferment.

If you are experiencing difficulty registering, or have any questions, please feel free to reach out to The Graduate School for assistance. Please include your 7-digit student ID number in all correspondence.

To register now, please click here.

GA Employment Outside the U.S. Spring 2021 Update

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Dear Graduate Students,

COVID-19 has placed enormous stress on all graduate students, and the travel restrictions associated with it have placed an especially large burden on international graduate students. Most international graduate students have remained here since the pandemic began, and may be isolated from not only your University communities, but also your friends and families in your home countries. We know these past seven months have been very difficult, and we want you to know that we are here to support you in the months ahead. Many of you are wondering about whether you should travel over the winter holidays and whether you can hold a graduate assistantship and perform the duties associated with it while you are outside the U.S. I am writing to you with information that I hope you will find useful as you make your plans.

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. GAs who are outside the United States, however are subject to the employment, labor, and tax obligations 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 other significant consequences in the country where they reside.

We continue to try to balance the University’s commitment to supporting our graduate students with our concern that some well-intentioned efforts could place students at risk in their home country. Therefore, GAs are expected to be in the U.S. by the start date of their Spring semester appointment and remain in the U.S. for the duration of that appointment. Remote employment taking place outside the United States must be approved in advance by The Graduate School, and will only be approved under extremely limited circumstances described in the following guidelines. These guidelines were developed in conjunction with the Office of the Provost, the Office of the General Counsel, and the Office of Global Affairs.

  • Graduate students who leave for winter break and who expect to hold graduate assistantships in Spring 2021 are expected to make every effort to arrive in the U.S. to begin the responsibilities of their Spring semester appointment (and no later than the semester start date of January 19, 2021). International students are advised to consult with ISSS about the likelihood of being able to return to the U.S. in time for Spring 2021 before making travel plans.
  • GAs will only be considered to work from abroad for Spring 2021 in the event that new travel restrictions or travel related circumstances that were not in place at the time of departure prevent them from returning to the U.S. Students may review current U.S. entry restrictions, and current global travel restrictions. The Graduate School will also consider changes to local travel conditions (i.e. flight cancellations, local lockdowns) when considering your emergent circumstances.
    • In the case of a GA who chooses to leave the country and is unable to return because of travel restrictions that prevent return, the department may request approval for work abroad, but approval will be subject to export control and grant restrictions. Approval will take at least several days and could take several weeks. You should understand that you may be placed on unpaid leave while the request is reviewed.
  • Prior approval to work remotely while abroad for Fall 2020 does not guarantee approval to work remotely while abroad in Spring 2021. A new request for each student must be submitted by the department and each request will be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Please be sure to consult your ISSS advisor with any questions you have about your visa status and for updates on travel restrictions to and from the U.S.

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

Decision on Fee Reductions for Graduate Students

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Dear UConn Graduate Students,

I am reaching out to provide information on a question regarding fee reductions for graduate students. Specifically, we have been asked to allow the fee reduction for online only students to apply to graduate students whose only in-person course is a graduate research course. In most cases, this situation occurs when a student has finished formal coursework and is completing research for a thesis or dissertation.

After considerable deliberations, we have shared with Graduate Student Senate (GSS) and Graduate Student Union leadership that we cannot extend this waiver for graduate students with research as their only in-person course.

We considered multiple factors in weighing this request. First, we started with the original motivation behind the fee reduction for entirely online courses. In large part, that was designed as a measure to promote safety and de-densify campus by providing a financial motivation for students to take online courses. Doing so also allowed us to open more in-person seats for students who preferred that option.

Second, we recognize that thesis and dissertation research for many of you will not occur on campus, but this has also been the case before COVID-19. Thus, a fee reduction for graduate students enrolled only in graduate research courses would not lead to any further de-densifying of campus. We also have to be mindful that honoring this waiver request would cost around $500,000. At a time when we are already experiencing cuts across the University from the impact of COVID-19, additional costs such as these would have further damaging consequences.

We understand the request that has been made to provide a fee reduction for graduate students whose only in-person course is a graduate research course, but making a change to graduate student fee structures associated with graduate research was not the intention of this waiver and we need to stand by the original intent. As a result of our multiple conversations about these issues I am going to work with Dean Holsinger and graduate student leaders over this next semester to evaluate graduate student fees and we will be in touch over this period with any changes we can consider making for the future.

Relatedly and as part of our conversations with GSS, we did develop the Graduate Students Emergency Fund that was announced last Thursday. It is an effort to help those of you whose plans to complete your degrees were delayed by COVID-19. Detailed information about the program and requirements are available here: https://grad.uconn.edu/graduate-students/emergency-fund/.

I recognize that addresses only part of the issue here, and want you to know that I welcome continued conversation on graduate student fees more broadly. I appreciate the advocacy of your graduate student leaders and look forward to working with them, as well as hearing from you on your concerns.

Sincerely,

Carl

Carl Lejuez

Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

COVID-19 testing for graduate students

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To the Graduate Student Community at Storrs and the Regional Campuses:

The Graduate School has been working closely with Student Health and Wellness (SHaW), Human Resources, the Office of the Provost, the Graduate Student Senate, and the Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees to develop the following plan for testing members of the graduate school whose work will require them to be on campus. What follows is a summary of those procedures. Please note: Graduate students at UConn Health should follow the procedures in place at UConn Health.

  • All graduate students who are expected to be regularly on campus (Storrs or any regional campus) in order to participate in in-person course work or to fulfill their duties as GAs (including those RAs who have already been working labs as part of the summer research ramp-up) will be provided access to COVID testing without cost.
  • Graduate students who have no regular duties or coursework that require them to be on campus will not be tested. They are permitted to come to campus occasionally for very brief  periods during the semester. In general, however, they are urged to stay off campus and arrange for virtual meetings with faculty advisors or other colleagues.
  • Testing will be done by Vault Health. Eligible graduate students will receive an email link to their UConn email along with detailed instructions for how to order a kit by mail for collecting their own samples, which should then be mailed directly back to Vault labs for testing.
  • Students who have already had a test within the 14 days prior to the start of classes (August 31st) may instead submit a test result to SHaW directly here.
  • Over the next several days the Graduate School will be working with Human Resources, Departments, and the Registrar in order to identify all graduate students who fall within these categories. Therefore, please note the following:
    • Given our need to have accurate information about students being on campus due to enrollment in in-person or hybrid courses, it is very important that all graduate students complete their course registrations for the Fall 2020 semester by August 17th.
  • Test results will be sent to the students and will also be shared with Student Health and Wellness (SHaW). No further action is necessary if test results are negative, and students may come to campus. For Storrs students who receive a positive test result, contact SHaW at (860)486-4700 or your primary care provider to obtain medical attention and instructions on how to self-isolate.  For regional campus students who test positive, contact your primary care provider to obtain medical attention and instructions.
    • Students who are taking in-person courses should contact their professors to make arrangements to continue their studies online.
    • GAs who test positive for COVID-19 are expected to initiate a report directly to HR and are also expected to self-quarantine as instructed by HR. (Vault/SHaW will NOT be sending those results to HR due to HIPPA privacy laws. GAs are expected to report their positive tests results to HR by sending a note to hr@uconn.edu).

Carl Lejuez, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Kent Holsinger, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School