Graduate School

Graduate School Bulletin

August 22, 2023

 

Table of contents

Click on a category name to view that section or click on a headline to read the full announcement.

Welcome to the Fall 2023 Semester!

Faculty and Staff

Admissions

Recruitment

Graduate Student Success

Opportunities for Graduate Students

Funding and Awards for Graduate Students

Upcoming Events and Deadlines

 

Welcome to the Fall 2023 Semester!

The Graduate School welcomes you to a new school year. If you are new faculty, the bulletin is your main source of new or upcoming information in the Graduate School. We wish you a great Fall 2023 semester and to finish 2023 successfully!

back to top

Faculty and Staff

Fall enrollment numbers:

    • 2049 completed applications
    • 1195 admitted graduate students
    • 700 grad students enrolled out of which 135 are international students

We appreciate each graduate program’s support with following the international graduate students’ hiring process and with encouraging students to arrive on time!

International students’ data (from all campuses) who checked in with Grad School on time has increased from last year. This year we have (as of today):

    • 129 international graduate students checked in with the Graduate School (this includes Olathe, distance programs and KSU continued master’s to PhD students).
    • 78 had no social security number but arrived on time by August 11.
    • 14 had a social security number.
    • 10 had no social security number and they checked in late after the August 11 arrival date

For detailed admission information for your college and academic program, please visit the Graduate Admission Funnel on the Office of Data, Assessment, and Institutional Research website.

back to top

The Graduate School invites you to join us on September 20th for our Know How session on Recruitment and Retention. In this session we will cover the initiatives launched in the past two years, the outcomes of these initiatives and engage in a conversation about the impact that graduate constituents have seen with faculty and students.

This Know How will be held from 11:30am – 1:00pm in Eisenhower 121 and via Zoom.
RSVP your attendance by September 18th.

For more information about this event, please contact Miranda Schremmer at mquint@ksu.edu.

back to top

We have made several enhancements and organizational changes to the Graduate School website that we hope our constituents (prospective students, current students, faculty, and staff) will find to be more engaging and easier to navigate.

    • Changes have primarily been made to our homepage and to the Admissions section of our website. The Admissions section has been streamlined with three main sections for prospective (exploring) students, applicants, and incoming students.
    • We have also made and continue to make some changes to the Student Success and Financial Support sections.
    • Please check your website for updates: Some of the pages in our site have moved to new locations. While we have created redirects (i.e., the old links will automatically redirect to the new links), we encourage you to review your department or program pages that include links to the Graduate School site, and update the links in your site.

back to top

On Wednesday, April 26, an e-mail went out to department heads and graduate program directors from the Graduate School asking to review a list of graduate faculty with expired memberships. The intent was to identify any faculty on the list that require a new nomination for associate graduate faculty membership and to provide an emergency approval for those teaching in the next semester.

We want to thank you for your positive response to this request and the promptness with which you identified these faculty members. Departments confirmed the statuses of 127 members out of the 234 identified, and 8 members were granted an extension to their Graduate Faculty Associate status through Fall 2023 in order to teach graduate courses and/or serve on supervisory committees.

Some departments still need to review the list. As a reminder, to receive an expedited emergency status, please complete the spreadsheet (accessible via the web, here) for the fall 2023 term. The emergency status is only active through the Fall 2023 semester and thus will not cover Spring 2024 courses or committees.

For any questions about membership status, please contact Timon Smock in the Graduate School at gradinfo@ksu.edu.

back to top

On August 21, the Graduate School distributed an e-newsletter to over 24,000 K-State Graduate School alumni. We distribute a newsletter 1-3 times a year to keep alumni informed about initiatives and successes in the Graduate School and among our graduate students and graduate faculty. Read the Fall 2023 newsletter.

back to top

September 18 New Graduate Faculty Orientation
September 20 Know How Session: Recruitment & Retention
September 28 New Graduate Faculty Orientation
October 4 Department Head Meeting
October 18 Graduate School Strategic Plan Brainstorm Session
November 15 Know How Session: Avoid Headaches, Grievances, & Issues
December 5 End of Semester Celebration

back to top

 

Admissions

For those who will receive a GTA, GRA, or GA appointment, be sure to upload the Assistantship Form in CollegeNET when making the program recommendation. Please also upload a copy of the assistantship offer letter, if completed, at that time.

back to top

The weekly report issued on the resources site lists applications currently awaiting a program recommendation. You may add comments or other information to the file on the Teams site. The reports are updated weekly.

back to top

 

Recruitment

The Career Center, Preprofessional Advising Center, and the Graduate School invite all Graduate Programs to participate in the Professional and Graduate School Fair on October 11, 2023, at the K-State Student Union from 12 PM to 4 PM. For more information, please contact the Career Center or visit the webpage.

back to top

The Graduate School is now accepting nominations to support up to five Donoghue Scholarships for incoming graduate students beginning a master’s or doctoral program in Spring 2024.

This scholarship program was initiated by Timothy Donoghue, former Graduate School dean, as a way to recruit top candidates throughout the United States to attend K-State’s graduate programs by offering graduate assistantship packages that are highly competitive.

Application deadline: October 1, 2023

For more information on eligibility, funding guidelines and to submit your application please visit the webpage.

Please direct questions about the Timothy Donoghue scholarship to Miranda Schremmer at donoghuescholarship@ksu.edu or to the Graduate School at or 785-532-6191.

back to top

The Admissions and Recruitment website has been updated to make it easier for prospective students to navigate it. The Attend a Webinar page has webinar and In-Person Recruitment Plans for Fall semester. It would be appreciated if you could direct prospective students to these events. In addition to the webinars and off-campus recruitment events, we will have a table in Union and in campus building to promote graduate programs. The schedule of these events will be forthcoming.

back to top

 

Graduate Student Success

On August 16, the Graduate School enjoyed welcoming and engaging with many new graduate students! Approximately 125 graduate students attended our in-person welcome session on and over 70 joined us for a Zoom offering. A recording of the session is available on the Graduate School Orientation page. Questions about the Graduate School’s orientation activities should be directed to Dr. Megan Miller at mmmiller@ksu.edu.

back to top

In the last month, the Graduate School launched a new initiative to facilitate graduate student enrollment for the fall semester. Weekly reports of continuing graduate students who were enrolled in the fall, did not graduate, and have not yet enrolled for the fall semester are available in Grad Resources. We communicated directly with these students in July, encouraging them to enroll prior to the start of the semester, and we sent a reminder to those still not enrolled on August 16.

    • Weekly summary of continuing graduate students not enrolled for fall:
      • July 25: over 560 Manhattan and Olathe campus continuing graduate students were not yet enrolled for the fall semester.
      • July 31: 459 not enrolled
      • August 7: 364 not enrolled
      • August 14: 280 not enrolled
      • August 21: 202 not enrolled

Graduate program directors are encouraged to review the August 21 report in Grad Resources to identify students in your program who have not enrolled and connect with them to make a plan for their continued degree progress. Note: the report does not update automatically, so students will still be included if they enrolled since the most recent report was produced.

Questions about this initiative may be directed to Dr. Miller at mmmiller@ksu.edu.

back to top

In the spring and summer 2023 semesters, many “Approval to Schedule Final Examination” forms arrived after the final examination had been completed. This form must arrive at the Graduate School for processing at least ten business days prior to the scheduled final examination. This means that students need to work with their supervisory committee’s several weeks before the exam date to submit the form to ensure it has enough time to route to all committee members for signature and arrive to the Graduate School on time.

back to top

Last week, information about new payment options was shared in K-State Today. Faculty and staff are encouraged to share this information with students who may need it. Questions about billing and payments should be directed to the Cashier’s Office, 532-6317, cashiers@ksu.edu.

back to top

 

Opportunities for Graduate Students

All new and continuing graduate students have many opportunities to learn about resources, support services, and opportunities for involvement at Week of Welcome activities happening at the Manhattan campus this week.

back to top

The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) offers a professional development series for faculty, staff, and graduate students every Wednesday at noon via Zoom. The TLC is invested in maximizing the excellence of the teaching and learning mission at Kansas State University. The professional development series will provide experiences, information, resources, and networking to help faculty, staff, and graduate students improve their craft in teaching, mentoring, and advising in many ways. The first event is this Wednesday, August 23, and will focus on “Sustainable Excellence in Teaching.” Learn more and attend.

back to top

Can literature reviews be fun? With AI tools such as Elicit and Research Rabbit, the answer is yes - provided that you use them appropriately and recognize their weaknesses. In this workshop hosted by K-State Libraries, you will learn to quickly and easily augment traditional discovery methods by visualizing relationships among articles, finding articles based on similarity, and summarizing and extracting information of interest. In addition to new skills, you will emerge with knowledge of strategies for finding additional AI-powered discovery engines. Learn about artificial intelligence tools that can help you with literature review. The workshop will be held August 23 at 2:00pm via Zoom. Learn more and register to attend.

back to top

 

Funding and Awards for Graduate Students

The Student Access Center has two openings for 12-month graduate assistants. The Student Access Center (SAC) serves the campus community by partnering with students, faculty, and staff to create accessible environments and provide academic and housing accommodations. The graduate assistant positions serve as a Program Assistant to arrange and provide academic accommodations and services for students with disabilities. Disabilities may include (but are not limited to) mobility, visual and hearing, medical conditions, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, psychological disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, and traumatic brain injuries. Graduate assistants will have an opportunity to learn about the role of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act and how offices like the SAC serve students. Applicants should email accesscenter@ksu.edu for more information.

back to top

Departments are invited to nominate outstanding graduate student teachers for the GSC Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence. This award recognizes one master’s student and one doctoral student who have excelled in teaching. Each award recipient receives a $500 scholarship from the Graduate Student Council and serves as K-State’s nominee for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award. MAGS award winners receive a $750 honorarium and are recognized at the MAGS annual meeting in the Spring.

    • September 29 is the deadline for departments to submit nominations. Each department may nominate one master’s student and one doctoral student. Departmental nominations will be reviewed by respective colleges to determine nominees to advance to the final selection process.
    • Note: While a teaching-in-action video is not required for the GSC teaching award, a video is required for the MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award. Graduate students who have strong engagement with students that could be well demonstrated by video may be especially competitive for this award.
    • Visit the award webpage for additional information and nomination instructions.

Questions about the award may be directed to Dr. Megan Miller, Assistant Director of Student Success, at mmmiller@ksu.edu, 532-6191.

back to top

This $20,000 competitive, merit-based award recognizes academic excellence and achievement by women in doctoral-level programs. The award provides partial support for study and research. Learn more.

back to top

 

Upcoming Events and Deadlines

August 23

TLC professional development event, “Sustainable Excellence in Teaching”, noon, Zoom

August 23

K-State Libraries Free AI Tools for Literature Review, 2:00pm, Zoom

August 30

TLC Teaching Chat, noon, Zoom

August 30

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Information session, 3:30pm, Zoom

September 1

GSC travel award application deadline for events that begin in November

September 5

Putting Together a Competitive NSF GRFP Application, 4:00pm, Zoom

September 8

Putting Together a Competitive NSF GRFP Application, noon, 247 Leadership Studies

September 11

Deadline for students to drop standard courses for 100% refund

September 12

Coffee with the Dean: Tips and tricks for your program of study and supervisory committee, noon, 121 Eisenhower Hall

September 15

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Writing Workshop, 12:30-2:00pm, 247 Leadership Studies and Zoom

September 18

Deadline for students to drop standard courses for 50% refund

September 19-21

All-University Career Fair

September 21

Identifying Graduate Research Fellowship Opportunities, 3:30pm, Zoom

September 25

Deadline for students to drop standard courses, no refund and no “W” on transcript

September 29

Deadline for departments to nominate grad students for GSC Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence

back to top