Graduate School Newsletter
February 8, 2022
Table of contents
Click on a category name to view that section, or click on a headline to read the full announcement.
Faculty and staff
- Attend DGF Lecture by Dr. Barbara Valent, February 28
- Attend the 3MT Competition
- Faculty Resource Page - Update
- February Brown Bag - Using the Graduate Student Annual Review Process to Support Graduate Students
- Find Doctoral Defenses and Add to Your Department's Calendar
- Graduate Faculty Round Tables
- Lessons Learned From Student Probation and Dashboard Initiatives
- Upcoming Events & Deadlines
Graduate Student Success
Opportunities for Graduate Students
- Grant Writing Workshop
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Innovation Festival’s Mechanisms of Disease Research and Recruitment Conference
Funding for Graduate Students
- Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship and Travel Awards in Molecular Biology
- University Distinguished Professors Excellence in Doctoral Studies Award
Upcoming Events and Deadlines
Faculty and Staff
Dr. Barbara Valent, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and 2021-2022 recipient of the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award will give a public lecture of her work on February 28th at 3:30pm in Leadership Studies Town Hall. All are welcome to join and we look forward to seeing you at the DGF lecture!
We are excited that 51 graduate students are registered for the 3MT competition and would like to share some stats on student registrations and their faculty mentors. We look forward to seeing you at the 3MT competitions on February 23, in the Union between 10am-5pm for the first round, and on March 1, 5:30pm in the Alumni Center for the final round. A detailed schedule for the first round is being finalized this week. Dr. Megan Miller is leading presentation prep sessions with the presenters on February 8, 9, 10, which have been communicated to presenters.
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- Students registrations
- 19 Agriculture (Ag Econ, Agron, Entom, Grain Sci, Hort)
- 10 Arts and Sciences (Art, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Music, Sociology, Stats)
- 10 Health and Human Sciences (Applied Family Sci, Couple and Family Therapy, Kinesiology)
- 6 Engineering (Bio and Ag, Electrical and Computer, Industrial)
- 3 Interdisciplinary (Genetics, Food Science, Lead Comm)
- 2 Education (Curriculum and Instruction, Teaching)
- 1 Vet Med (Pathobiology)
- Faculty representation
- 32 faculty with 1 student participating
- 8 faculty with 2 students participating
- 1 faculty with 3 students participating
- Students registrations
Interested in serving as a judge for the first round of competition? Sign-up here! Judges for the final competition will be Dr. Olivia Collins, assistant professor emerita at the Staley School of Leadership Studies; Michael Dodson, member of the Kansas House of Representatives; Mary Ice, K-State alum and advocate; Dr. David Rosowsky, KSU Vice President for Research. Per our previous announcement that the dean from the college with the most students participating will be invited to serve on the judging panel for the final competition, Dean Ernie Minton from the College of Agriculture will be invited to serve as a final round judge.
Guidelines for the implementation of the outside chairperson transfer of duties to major professor/co-major professor have been placed in the new Grad-Resources Microsoft Teams Group files which you should now have access to.
The February Brown Bag topic has been titled Using the Graduate Student Annual Review Process to Support Graduate Students. In this session, Dr. Megan Kennelly, Dr. Michael Veeman, and Dr. Jenny Bormann will talk about how strong of a tool the annual review is in building a positive grad student culture and to establishing a strong, positive, relationship between faculty and students. This brown bag will be held via zoom on February 22nd 11:30am - 1:00pm.
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- https://ksu.zoom.us/j/99919430807
- Meeting ID: 999 1943 0807
- Passcode: BrownBag
As the Graduate School processes approval forms for doctoral candidates to schedule their final exam, the defense is posted to the university calendar of events. You can view a calendar of doctoral defenses from the Graduate School website. Want to add a students’ defense to your departmental events calendar? Find the listing in the Doctoral Defense calendar and click on that listing. Make sure you are logged in to the calendar system (click the Log In button in the upper right, then select the option to Login with your school ID). After logging in, click on the purple “Request Event” button and complete the brief form to request the event be added to your departmental events calendar.
The Graduate School will conduct monthly round table discussions this semester on the roles of Graduate Faculty members in teaching, advising, and serving on dissertation committees, as well as in program development.
Those who were appointed to the graduate faculty within the last three years are especially encouraged to attend, though more experienced graduate faculty are welcome and may sign up to lead conversations.
Please fill the survey here to indicate interest and to sign up for the mailing list.
The Graduate School’s initiative for students on probation to develop a student success plan (in partnership with faculty in their program) has led to some important discoveries through responses and questions Dr. Miller has received from students. Some students are unaware they have failed a course or are unfamiliar with policies and procedures for retaking a course and having the grade replaced. Some students are several semesters into their program and have no major professor and no program of study on file, and some do not know who their grad program director is or who to work with for guidance if they do not have a major professor. Working with your students to identify a major professor and submit a program of study early (by the end of their second semester if enrolled full-time or by completion of 9 credit hours if part-time) will support their progress and success.
The milestones dashboard is a useful tool for programs to facilitate student success and address cases like those described above. We are glad to see growing interest from programs with using the milestones dashboard. The dashboard can help you monitor student progress, including whether or not students have submitted a program of study. Department heads, graduate program directors, and program staff persons have access to the dashboard. If you think you should have access but do not, or if you need guidance on using the dashboard, please contact Dr. Megan Miller (mmmiller@ksu.edu) for assistance.
| Feb 22 |
Graduate School Brown Bag: Using the Graduate Student Annual Review Process to Support Graduate Students Zoom: 11:30am-1:00pm |
| Feb 28 |
DGF Speaker Barbara Valent : Leadership Studies Town Hall: 3:30pm-4:30pm |
| Mar 1 |
Three Minute Thesis competition final round |
| Mar 22 |
Graduate School Brown Bag: Commencement Eisenhower 121/Zoom: 11:30am-1:00pm |
| Mar 23 |
Building GS Strategic Leadership Roles: A Town Hall Meeting Leadership Studies Town Hall: 2:00pm-4:00pm |
| Apr 19 |
Graduate School Brown Bag: Graduate Milestones Dashbaord Part III Eisenhower 121/Zoom: 11:30am-1:00pm |
| May 3 |
Commerce Bank & WT Kemper Foundation DGF Award Nominations Due |
| May 17 |
Graduate School Brown Bag: End of the Semester Social Eisenhower 121/Zoom: 11:30am-1:00pm |
| Apr 4-8 |
Graduate Student Appreciation Week |
Graduate Student Success
The Graduate School has received 503 applications for graduation for the Spring 2022 semester. Of those 503 applications, 69 have been completed by terminal degree seeking students. We look forward to celebrating with all of our graduates on May 13, 2022 at 1pm in Bramlage Coliseum.
Students planning to graduate in Spring 2022 are encouraged to use the Graduate School’s graduation and commencement checklists to ensure they complete all requirements by posted deadlines. April 15 is the deadline to complete all requirements for spring 2022 graduation, but students and faculty need to plan early in the semester to allow time for scheduling final exams, submitting forms to the Graduate School, and making final revisions to ETDRs. Additionally, there are other deadlines related to commencement. For example, March 1 is the deadline for students to complete the KSIS graduation application form for their name to be included in the commencement program booklet. If they miss this deadline but meet other deadlines, they may still graduate and participate in spring commencement, but their name will not appear in the program booklet until the fall.
Opportunities for Graduate Students
The Graduate Student Council is pleased to host the annual Grant Writing Workshop for graduate students and post-docs, with support from the Office of Research Development and other K-State staff. The workshop is scheduled for February 17, 1:00-5:00pm via Zoom. The session will be recorded and available to students who are unable to join the live session. More information is available on the GSC Professional Development webpage.
Graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduate researchers are invited to submit an abstract to present their research (orally or as a poster) to industry and academic leaders. This event will also provide valuable opportunities for students to explore and build connections for bioscience industry jobs. The early submission deadline is February 11, 2022. The conference will be August 4-6, 2022 in Kansas City. There will be no registration costs for undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs. Learn more about this conference.
Funding for Graduate Students
Applications are now being accepted for the Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship and Travel Awards in Molecular Biology. The deadline for applications is March 2, 2022.
The Sarachek Honors Fellowship provides an award of $17,600 to assist the recipient’s transition to the next stage of their career. In addition to the fellowship, up the three Sarachek Scientific Travel Awards of 1,000 each will be awarded.
Additional information, application instructions, and the application portal are available on the Graduate School’s website. Questions about this fellowship award can be directed to Miranda Schremmer, sarachek@ksu.edu.
Applications are now being accepted for the University Distinguished Professors Excellence in Doctoral Studies Award. The deadline for applications is May 3, 2022.
The University Distinguished Professors Excellence in Doctoral Studies Award recognizes exceptional achievement in doctoral studies. Applicants must demonstrate excellence in scholarship through publications and other accomplishments appropriate for their academic field.
Additional information, application instructions, and the application portal are available on the Graduate School’s website. Questions about this fellowship award can be directed to Miranda Schremmer, udp@ksu.edu.
Upcoming Events and Deadlines
| Feb 14 | |
| Feb 17 | |
| Feb 21 | |
| Feb 23 |
Three Minute Thesis competition first round |
| Feb 28 | |
| Mar 1 |
Three Minute Thesis competition final round |
| Mar 2 |
Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship and Travel Awards in Molecular Biology application due |
| Mar 11 | |
| Apr 4-8 |
Graduate Student Appreciation Week |
| May 3 |
University Distinguished Professors Excellence in Doctoral Studies Award applications due |