Graduate School

Graduate School Bulletin

April 16, 2024

 

Table of contents

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

 

Articles of interest

Faculty and Staff

Admissions

Alumni

Graduate Student Success

Opportunities for Graduate Students

Funding and awards for graduate students

Upcoming Events and Deadlines

 

Articles of interest

If you come across an article that would be of interest to other graduate programs, please send it to Miranda Schremmer Graduate School Program Administrator, at mquint@ksu.edu, to have the article featured in a future Bulletin!

 

Faculty and Staff

Dr. Phillip Payne to be new associate dean of the Graduate School

Phillip Payne, Associate Director for the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, or MTD, will be the new Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

Payne will begin his new Graduate School position part-time in June and transition to full-time in July.

He will serve in a strategic leadership role, and work with the vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, as well as with the academic units and the Graduate Council, in strategically advancing graduate education at K-State.

Read the K-State Today announcement for more information.

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Spring Strategic Planning Session to be held May 1

The Graduate School will host the Spring Strategic Planning Session on May 1, 2024, from 11:00am – 2:00 p.m. in the Flint Hills Room of the Student Union.

In this session, we will review, discuss and finalize the draft for the Graduate School Strategic Plan. This draft will be shared with the graduate constituents before the May session. The format will be similar to the session that was held in the Fall semester. Please visit the registration website to RSVP for the Planning Session by Friday, April 26 at 12pm.

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April Slate Showcase: The Progress of the Slate implementation

The April Slate Showcase will be held April 22 from 2:30 to 3:30 pm via Zoom. This session will cover the progress of Slate implementation as the new application and CRM for the graduate school.

As the contract with implementation partner, Carnegie, ends, this showcase will detail the progress made on the application, CRM, and the recruitment process for the graduate school.

Please RSVP for this session by April 18 at 5 pm.

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Graduate Council Election Results

The Graduate School announces the results of the Graduate Council elections. Please take a moment to congratulate those recently elected to the Graduate Council:

    • Applied Natural Sciences Academic Area
      Hulya Dogan, Professor, Grain Science and Industry
      Teng Yang, Teaching Assistant Professor, Applied and Interdisciplinary Studies
      Umut Yucel, Associate Professor, Animal Sciences and Industry
    • Arts and Humanities Academic Area
      Judy Gordon, Associate Professor, Architecture
      Susmita Rishi, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning
    • Basic Natural Sciences Academic Area
      Jun Li, University Distinguished Professor, Chemistry
    • Business and Education Academic Area
      Christy Craft, Professor, Special Education, Counseling, and Student Affairs
      Douglas Walker, Professor, Marketing
    • Mathematics and Engineering Sciences Academic Area
      Torben Amtoft, Associate Professor, Computer Science
      Ursula Emery-McClure, Teaching Professor, Architectural Engineering and Construction Science
      Mingjun Wei, Associate Professor, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
    • Social Sciences Academic Area
      Charles "Chip" Pickens, Associate Professor, Psychological Sciences

New members will begin their three-year terms fall semester 2024.

The role of the Graduate Council is to shape and advance graduate education at K-State. It is the chief legislative and policy-formulating body of the Graduate Faculty, and its members provide effective leadership in advocating graduate education and scholarship of the highest caliber. Graduate Council members are paramount to moving graduate education forward, to increase and strengthen its visibility in a strategic way.

The Graduate School would like to extend our appreciation to all members of the Graduate Council for their service with special acknowledgement to the following members whose terms end in May: Brooke Beyer, Jessica Canfield, Doris Carroll, Ignacio Ciampitti, Judy Gordon, Michael Higgins, Andrew Ivanov, Abbey Nutsch, Perla Reyes, Rustam Sadykov, and Glade Topham.

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RSVP by April 18 for the Graduate Student and Faculty Recognition Celebration

All K-State graduate faculty and graduate students are invited to the Graduate Student and Faculty Recognition Celebration, April 28, 5-7pm, College of Business Atrium. Sponsored by President Linton’s Office in partnership with the GSC and the Graduate School, we will celebrate graduate student and graduate faculty achievements of the 2023-2024 academic year. Heavy hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served. RSVP to attend by April 18.

View a list of 200 graduate students who have received awards and honors this year!

Event agenda:

    • 5:00 pm – Guests will arrive, enjoy food and beverage while networking
    • 5:45 pm – Remarks to recognize graduate student and graduate faculty awards and accomplishments
    • 6:10 pm – Remarks from Graduate Student Council Leadership, Dean Petrescu and President Linton
    • 6:25 pm – Trivia/prize giveaways led by President Linton and GSC leader
    • 7:00 pm – Celebration concludes

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Non-Hooding Faculty Commencement Participation

Faculty are invited to participate in the commencement ceremony on May 10, 2024, at 1pm. As it is customary, we reserved seats in section 6. Please fill out the Qualtrics survey to indicate your participation in the commencement ceremony. More information is available on the commencement website. For any questions about the ceremony, please contact Miranda Schremmer, mquint@ksu.edu.

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Hooding Faculty Commencement Participation

The Graduate School is in the process of collecting hooding information from all terminal degree candidates. Once the terminal degree candidate selects their hooding professor, the hooding professor will get a confirmation email from Qualtrics (candidates should have confirmed with you prior to filling out the survey). The deadline for collecting these responses is May 1st. The Graduate School will follow up with all hooding professors after the May 1st deadline. Questions about this process should be directed to Miranda Schremmer, mquint@ksu.edu.

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Graduate School Handbook Update: Admission Categories

Slate implementation has provided an opportunity to streamline our admission processes and align policies with practices. As a result of this work, the Graduate Council discussed our categories of admission and approved changes at their regular monthly meeting on March 5, 2024. Criteria for admission have not changed, we just label them differently to reflect practice. Additional language has been added to clarify the current admission policies for accelerated programs, credential-seeking students, and visiting students.

You will find the updated categories reflected in the 2024-2025 Handbook:

    • Degree seeking (master, doctoral, education specialist)
    • Special (accelerated program)
    • Credential seeing (graduate certificate or licensure preparedness)
    • Visiting (non-degree seeking)

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Update on GSC travel awards reimbursement process

Graduate students who are allocated a GSC travel award must follow one of two processes to receive reimbursement of travel expenses:

    1. Graduate students employed at K-State must submit a travel request in Concur BEFORE travel and submit an expense report in Concur AFTER travel. In the “comments” or “notes” section, they should indicate that they were allocated a GSC travel award and the amount of the award.
    2. Graduate students not employed at K-State should submit the GSC travel reimbursement form. If the GSC travel award is the student’s only source of support from K-State, they will submit all reimbursement materials to the GSC. If the student is receiving financial support for travel from their department or college, the Graduate School will provide GSC travel award funding information to the department or college accounting specialist.

Department and college staff who assist with travel expense processing should consult with Dr. Megan Miller (miller@ksu.edu) for GSC account information to apply the correct funding for graduate students who have been allocated a GSC travel award. Any Concur travel requests and expense reports that include GSC/Graduate School accounts will be routed to the Graduate School for approval.

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Upcoming Events and Deadlines

April 17 College of Business appreciation breakfast for CBA graduate students, 9:30 – 11:00 am, 2001 Business Building
April 17-19 Graduate School Alumni Fellow Visit
April 22 April Slate Showcase, 2:30 – 3:30pm, Zoom
April 28 Graduate Student and Faculty Celebration, 5:00 – 7:00 pm, College of Business atrium, register to attend by April 18.
May 1 Strategic Planning Brainstorming Session, 11am – 2pm, Flint Hills Room, Student Union
May 10 Graduate School Commencement Ceremony, Bramlage Coliseum
All Graduate School events and deadlines

Doctoral defenses

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Admissions

Slate CRM Implementation for Graduate School - Update

  • We are wrapping up the implementation portion of the contract with Carnegie. Our last meeting with them is scheduled for April 29th. From there we will continue to work on the process internally and transition our time with Carnegie to data integration.
  • Our current data integration work includes Slate to KSIS, CollegeNet to Slate, and Salesforce to Slate. We are moving our first batch of records into production from Salesforce!
  • The Graduate School Processing Team met with Dr. Lenhart for another long week of review. They updated the following forms: Pre-Review (reviewing an application before it goes to the department, this is new), Faculty Feedback, GPD Recommendation, Assistantship/Scholarships, and Graduate School Final Review. Special thanks to that group for hanging in there with Dr. Lenhart!
  • We provided a list of origin sources to be built by Carnegie. This lets us know how a student enters the system, such as submitting a Request for Information, Event Registration, Application, Test Scores, or Name Buy/Exchange. This helps us track our most successful sources to strategize recruitment efforts.
  • Previously we had anticipated launching the Summer 25 application in May but to give us time to continue working on the application, workflow, and data integration we decided to move that to June.

The current timeline is as follows:

    • Phase 1- Completed
      • Building Records, Forms, Events, and Communications
    • Phase 2- In Progress
      • The Application form developed
    • Phase 3- In Progress
      • Workflows designed
    • Recruitment Launch: April 22nd
    • Final Implementation meeting: April 29th
    • Application Launch: June 2024
    • Historical Data Migration into Slate by May 31st

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Slate Frequently Asked Questions

We have developed a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document to help departments implement Slate. You can find it in the Grad Resources Teams folder here.

The FAQ will be updated consistently as the Slate Showcase sessions occur. If your question is not covered by the FAQ, please submit it to Joe Horan (jphoran@ksu.edu), Graduate Admission Coordinator, or Dr. Micaela Lenhart (mlenhart@ksu.edu), Director of Strategic Initiatives for Enrollment Management Technology.

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Alumni

2024 Graduate School Alumni Fellow visiting April 17-19

This week, the Graduate School and the Alumni Association welcomes back to K-State Dr. Elizabeth Abraham, who is the 2024 Graduate School Alumni Fellow. Dr. Abraham earned a PhD in animal sciences from K-State in 1995. She currently serves as director of new product strategy at Corning Life Sciences. During her visit, Dr. Abraham will meet with graduate students and faculty to share her experiences and expertise within their careers. To learn more about Dr. Abraham’s successful career as a leader in stem cell research and medical device product development, visit the Alumni Association website to read her full bio.

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Graduate School Inaugural Advisory Board

The Graduate School has launched a new initiative to increase the visibility and value of Kansas State University graduate education. The inaugural advisory board consists of nine members. These members are:

    • Ms. RosaLee Sarachek
    • Dr. Doris Wright Carroll
    • Dr. Cheryl Grice
    • Dr. Jamie Ball
    • Dr. Mark Meyer (chair)
    • Dr. Mako Miller
    • Dr. Dan Yunk
    • Ms. Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins
    • Ms. Amy Button Renz

Each board member brings their own unique background and enthusiasm. You can learn more about these board members by visiting the Graduate School’s website. Dean Petrescu looks forward to working with each of these members to see how graduate education can better serve the community and how to educate the public about the value of advanced education.

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Graduate Student Success

K-State earns both master’s and doctoral regional teaching awards

Delaney Sullivan, master's student in English, and Endy Lopes Kailer, doctoral student in agronomy, were selected for the 2024 Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools, or MAGS, Excellence in Teaching Awards. As winners of the GSC Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence in Fall 2023, Sullivan and Kailer were nominated for the MAGS award by the Graduate School. They were selected for the award from a pool of nominations submitted by MAGS member institutions, which represent 14 states. Sullivan and Kailer each received a $750 honorarium in recognition of their outstanding teaching.

K-State has an excellent record with this award! This is the second time K-State has won both the master's and doctoral MAGS Excellence in Teaching Awards in the same year. The first time was in 2013. With Sullivan and Kailer's awards, K-State has had more award recipients than any other MAGS institution since the award began in 2012. Read the full news release recognizing Sullivan and Kailer.

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Eight graduate students recognized with awards from the Alumni Association

Eight graduate students who will graduate in 2024 have been selected for awards from the K-State Alumni Association. The awards recognize students for outstanding achievements in academics, leadership, and service.

    • Graduate Student Awards for outstanding academics and outstanding service and leadership.
      • For academics: Fan Liu, Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering
      • For leadership and service: Megan Bourns, Ph.D. candidate in agronomy
    • International Leadership Award
      • Nishadi Dodampe Mudiyanselage, master’s candidate in agronomy, Awissawella, Sri Lanka
      • Asmita Mahara, master’s candidate in biological and agricultural engineering, Kathmandu, Nepal
    • LGBTQ+ Leadership Award
      • Kirsten Ajax, master’s candidate in drama therapy
      • Brooklyn Fondaw, master’s candidate in marketing
    • The Robinson Family Multicultural Leadership Award
      • Deepesh Agarwal, doctoral candidate in electrical and computer engineering
    • The Tony Jurich Community Commitment and Leadership Award:
      • Janvi Aggarwal, master’s candidate in mass communications

Read more about the award recipients on the Alumni Association website.

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First-Generation Student Graduation Celebration

The First-generation Student Center (FGSC) invites graduate students who are first-generation students and are graduating in Spring or Summer 2024 to attend the First-Generation Student Graduation Celebration, May 10, 7:00-8:00 pm, in Forum Hall.

    • Who is first-gen? First-generation students are those whose neither parent nor guardian completed a four-year degree.
    • Registration – Graduate students who plan to attend need to register by April 26.
    • Green cords to wear to graduation as a symbol of the student’s first-generation identity and resilience will be handed out at the celebration. Graduate students are welcome to pick up a cord from Holtz Hall’s front desk April 29-May 9, 9am-4pm, to wear at Graduate School commencement on May 10.
    • For those who live outside of Manhattan and won’t be able to attend the celebration, a cord can be mailed to the student. They need to complete this form by April 22.

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Opportunities for Graduate Students

Final Grad Edge Leading Change workshop, April 18

The final Grad Edge Leading Change workshop of the semester will be held April 18, 3:30-4:30pm via Zoom. All graduate students are welcome to attend. The Sustainable Development Goals articulated by the United Nations recognize the interconnectedness and interdependence of humanity and our shared planet. With the focus on transforming systems to improve the human condition, there is a need for us to move beyond traditional heroic notions of leadership toward a more collective understanding. In this session, we will explore pathways for collective capacity building that create the conditions for systems change.

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Support for making progress on writing, Wildcats Write

At this time of the year, it is not uncommon for graduate students to feel challenged with making progress on writing. Sometimes, finding time and space to write is the hardest part of making progress. K-State's Writing Center is here to help students accomplish their writing goals! Graduate students are invited to join the Writing Center for an afternoon of productivity, April 19, 2-4pm, Room 122D of the English and Counseling Services Building. The Writing Center will provide a quiet space, light refreshments, and a supportive community of fellow writers for you to make progress on any writing project. Learn more about Wildcats Write and other resources and services available from the Writing Center.

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Funding and awards for graduate students

Nontraditional Student Scholarships for Women: Application deadline extended to April 17

The deadline for female nontraditional students to apply for scholarships from the local branch of the American Association of University Women has been extended through April 17. The scholarships are administered through the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. Up to three incentive scholarships of $1,000 each, in addition to one $1,500 award, are available for the 2024-2025 academic year.

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Upcoming Events and Deadlines

April 17

TLC seminar: Microaggressions, noon-1pm, Zoom

April 18

Grad Edge Leading Change Workshop: Leveraging Collective Leadership for Sustainable Development, 3:30-4:30pm, Zoom

April 18

Deadline to RSVP to attend the Graduate Student and Faculty Recognition Celebration, to be held 5:00-7:00 pm, College of Business Atrium April 28

April 22

Library and Your Research Workshop: Intro to Survey Design, 1:30-2:30pm, Zoom

April 24

TLC seminar – Stories in Action: Navigating Change through Teaching Narratives, noon-1pm, Zoom

April 28

Graduate Student and Faculty Recognition Celebration, 5:00-7:00 pm, College of Business Atrium

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