April 9, 2019 Events and Deadlines
This newsletter is distributed to department heads, graduate program directors, graduate program contact staff, and graduate faculty.
Graduate Program Directors
GO LIVE! Electronic Form Submission – Decisions Workflow
Graduate School student forms can now be submitted electronically via the student forms dashboard on the Graduate School website. Forms submitted electronically through the forms dashboard will be sent through an approval workflow using Decisions which is a business workflow and rule platform administered by the K-State Office of Mediated Education. Students, faculty and staff can access the forms dashboard by navigating to “Academics” on the Graduate School homepage and selecting the “Form Finder”. The direct URL for Graduate School forms is:https://www.k-state.edu/grad/academics/forms/
After opening the form finder page, click on “Electronic Form Submission” to get to
the forms dashboard. You will be required to log in/authenticate with your K-State
eID and password in order to access the forms dashboard:
These forms are not savable and must be completed and submitted in one session. Students
may want to use current forms available in WORD or PDF format as a worksheet to review
with their advisor or major professor and collect the information that must be entered
on the electronic form for submission. After filling out all required fields on the
electronic form and submitting it, the form is sent through the approval workflow
based on the committee members listed on the form.
Most forms will be routed to the major professor, committee members, and department head or graduate program director for review. Each of these individuals will receive an e-mail from <grad@k-state.edu> with a link to the form to be reviewed in Decisions. After clicking the link to the form, the reviewer must log in/authenticate with their K-State eID and password to open the form. The reviewer can either approve the form or return it to the student for suggested changes.
After all required committee member approvals are complete, the form will be forwarded to the Graduate School for final review and processing by the appropriate degree analyst. If approved, a copy of the final form will be e-mailed to the student, major professor and program contact/coordinator after graduate school processing is complete.
The Graduate School will conduct training sessions for graduate program directors and support staff in Eisenhower room 121 at the following times or by appointment if you cannot attend one of the scheduled times:
Thursday, April 11 – 9:00 am to 10:30 am
Monday, April 15 – 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
The training sessions are scheduled for 90 minutes but should not last longer than an hour with time for questions and testing if individuals would like to go through the form completion process.
Please send an e-mail to Scott Schlender <scottsch@ksu.edu> to register for the session you would like to attend. If none of the available sessions is convenient for you, you can contact Scott Schlender to request a separate training session. It may be helpful to bring a laptop or tablet to the training session to follow along with the form navigation.
2018-2019 Commerce Bank Distinguished Graduate Faculty
The Graduate School is pleased to recognize Dr. Kimberly Kirkpatrick, professor of Psychological Sciences as the 2018-2019 Commerce Bank Distinguished Graduate Faculty. Please save the following date for their upcoming lecture. Tuesday, April 23, 2019, 3:30 p.m. 4061 Business Building, Executive Conference Room.
Call for nominations: Distinguished Thesis and Distinguished Dissertation Awards
The Graduate School is now accepting nominations for the MAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Thesis Award and the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. This year’s award categories are 1) Biological/Life Sciences and 2) Fine Arts and Humanities. These awards serve to recognize theses and dissertations that make an unusually significant contribution to their field. Each graduate program may submit one nomination for the thesis award and one nomination for the dissertation award. Please visit the award webpages for more information. Nominations must be submitted to the Graduate School, 113-119 Eisenhower Hall, or via email to Megan Miller (mmmiller@ksu.edu) no later than 5:00 pm on May 3, 2019.
Faculty
New Graduate School Website Homepage
The Graduate School website homepage was recently updated to make this page easier to use and more attractive for prospective graduate students, which are the most frequent visitors of our website. The horizontal navigation at the top of the homepage has not changed, but you’ll see that the vertical menu that previously appeared on the homepage is no longer present. The following menu items that previously appeared at the top of the homepage are now in the banner at the bottom of the page: About Us, Events, Employment, Graduate School Staff. Our contact information and links to social media also appear at the bottom of the homepage. The design and structure of lower level pages within the Graduate School website have not changed. Please contact the Graduate School if you have questions or need assistance finding content (grad@ksu.edu, 532-6191).
Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecture Series and Student Poster Session
April 15, 4:00-6:00 pm, Frick Auditorium, Mosier Hall
All are invited to attend the K-State Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecture Series, which will feature Dr. Kristen Averyt, President of the Desert Research Institute. Dr. Averyt’s talk is titled, “Climate and the Energy-Water Nexus.” An abstract of Dr. Averyt’s talk and her biography are available on the K-State Sigma Xi website. The lecture will be followed by a reception and student poster session from 5:00-6:00 pm outside Frick Auditorium. Graduate and undergraduate students from any discipline are invited to share their research in the poster session. Students who would like to share a research poster should contact Dr. Saugata Datta (sdatta@ksu.edu).
Commerce Bank and WT Kemper Foundation Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award
The Graduate School is accepting nominations for the Commerce Bank Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award. The award honors current members of the graduate faculty who are recognized nationally and internationally for their outstanding scholarly achievements and for their contributions to graduate education at the university. Recipients of the award will receive an honorarium and will be recognized during the fall Graduate School commencement ceremony and during a public lecture to the campus community. The link provides information to be submitted as one Word or PDF file to dgf@k-state.edu by May 3, 2019.
Run, jog, walk, or stroll in the Grad Dash 5k
Celebrate the final weeks of the spring semester by participating in the Graduate Student Council’s Grad Dash 5k. Race day is Saturday, May 11 and will be held on the K-State campus. Registration fee is $18 for race participation and a t-shirt, but there also are options for race registration or t-shirt only. Registration and payment must be submitted by April 24 to secure a t-shirt. Event proceeds will support GSC initiatives and activities.
Graduate Students
Changes to Incomplete Grade Policy
As announced by the Office of Registrar, the Incomplete grade policy was recently modified to be effective for courses taken fall 2018 and later. In general, an incomplete grade earned in fall 2018 will convert to a grade of F during spring 2019 grade posting unless a grade change has occurred prior to that time. Some exceptions to this may include graduate research, theses, study abroad and some internship courses.
Occasionally, circumstances arise that necessitate students requesting a grade of incomplete be extended beyond the single semester after the incomplete was granted. Recent modifications to the Incomplete Grade Policy (University Handbook, F83) show how such an extension of an incomplete grade is initiated and processed.
- For incomplete grades earned fall 2018 or later, the responsibility for initiating the request for an extension will be placed on the student using a form available on the Office of the Registrar website.
- A student must first secure a signature from his or her advisor. The advisor's signature indicates an awareness of the student's desire to extend the incomplete. If the advisor is unavailable or the student has no assigned advisor, the student's dean's office must sign in lieu of the advisor.
- The student will then discuss the extension request with the instructor and if approved, secure the instructor's signature.
- The instructor will then submit the completed form to the Office of the Registrar for processing. The instructor should not submit the form without all required signatures.
- The deadline for submission of this form will be the Tuesday of final exam week.
BioKansas Professional Development Scholarships for Students and Post-Docs
BioKansas is offering Professional Development Scholarships for students and post-docs. The overall goal of the funds is to supplement traditional training with professional experiences. Funding can be used for event registration, travel costs, training, and other costs associated with a desired professional development experience (up to $750). The funds can be used for experiences students may not normally have access to like science policy workshops, startup boot camps, teaching conferences, etc. The application deadline is this Thursday, April 11, at midnight.
GSC Professional Development Seminar: Salary and Benefits Negotiation
April 11, 4:00-5:30 pm, Big 12 Room, K-State Student Union
This workshop will prepare graduate student to negotiate their starting salary when offered their first post-graduate school job, improve their lifelong earning potential, articulate their value, build confidence in their negotiation style, and sharpen their budgeting skills. The workshop will be led by Ms. Emily Koochel, Powercat Financial Peer Counselor IV and Ph.D. student in Human Ecology.
ETDR Walk-In Help Sessions
Graduate students who are planning to graduate in spring or summer 2019 and need assistance using the ETDR template or need assistance with formatting their ETDR are encouraged to attend a walk-in help session being held during the week of April 15 in the Seaton Hall Media Center, Room 1.
April 15, 3-5 pm
April 16, 6-8 pm
April 17, 10 am-noon
April 18, 6-8 pm
April 19, 1-5 pm
Graduate Student Writing Retreat Application Deadline Extended
The Writing Center and Graduate School are hosting the annual Graduate Student Writing Retreat May 20-24 and 28-29. The retreat provides graduate students time and space to write in a supportive atmosphere and promotes effective writing practices to boost the dissertation- and thesis-writing process. Applications will continue to be accepted through April 17, or until the retreat reaches capacity for participation.
