Graduate School Bulletin
July 25, 2023
We are less than 4 weeks away from the first day of the 2023-24 academic year, which begins on Monday, Aug. 21.
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
- Next Gen Draft Strategic plan - feedback needed
- Graduate School Forms Update & Training Video
- Student Form Submission Issue
- Graduate student evaluation survey: Response update and reminder
Recruitment
Opportunities for Graduate Students
Graduate Student Success
- New initiative: Graduate student re-enrollment report and communication
- Campus tours for incoming students
- Summer 2023 Graduate Certificate Completion
- GRA/GTA/GA Student Health Insurance enrollment open for fall
- ETDR Template Training Session
Funding for Graduate Students
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
- FBI Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit Opportunity
- Fulbright U.S. Student Program Award (Aug. 15 deadline)
- GSC travel award application deadline approaching
Upcoming Events and Deadlines
Faculty and Staff
The draft strategic plan was released for comments along with the new SEM operational excellence organizational framework.
Graduate education and research play a prominent role in the new strategic plan. In terms of graduate recruitment, Imperative 1 sets target goals: “Of the [30,000 students by 2030], approximately 4,400 graduate students pursuing their Master’s degrees at K-State, which we will work to significantly accelerate in becoming one of the region’s top universities for master’s programs, and approximately 2,250 graduate students pursuing their doctoral degrees at K-State, which we know will only continue to grow as we elevate our research enterprise and grow our graduate student population seeking master’s degrees.” Currently, our graduate student population is around 4,200 (total).
The current composition of the graduate student population can be found on the DAIRS website: https://www.k-state.edu/pa/data/student/studentfb/graddemo.pdf
I strongly encourage you to read the whole strategic plan and provide feedback. Your feedback will help with determining the best way to reach the University’s strategic goals and to develop an implementation plan.
Link to the Next-Gen K-State website: https://www.k-state.edu/next-gen/
Link to organizational framework update and FAQs:
https://www.k-state.edu/next-gen/related-initiatives/structure/phase-2/
If there is an interest to have a conversation about the draft strategic plan’s imperatives for graduate education, please let Dean Petrescu know at cpetrescu@ksu.edu
Graduate School student forms are now live in Softdocs Etrieve, K-State’s new enterprise electronic form and workflow solution. Softdocs/Etrieve provides more user-friendly access, easier processing and up-to-date tracking of approval status.
The Graduate School and our IT support staff recommend that all faculty and staff who have not yet received a notification to review a form, log into Softdocs Etrieve to ensure their account is active. The login requires eID/password authentication: https://ksu.etrieve.cloud/
Students and support staff/faculty who access Graduate School forms via our webpage are directed to the new forms in Softdocs Etrieve, and links to our forms on the Decisions platform are redirected to the Softdocs Etrieve forms.
The webpage for Graduate School forms remains the same (https://www.k-state.edu/grad/about/forms/) and individual form links will be directed to the Softdocs Etrieve forms.
The Division of Information Technology conducted and recorded a virtual training session that is now available via Teams Grad-Resources.
Students who are submitting the approval to schedule final examination form must have an approved program of study recorded in KSIS for the form to work properly. When the “approval form” is opened by a student (or proxy), supervisory committee information is pulled from KSIS to populate the form. If the POS and committee are not yet recorded in KSIS, the committee information cannot be pulled into the form for the workflow process.
Helpful Information
Some faculty & staff members report that they cannot see how to submit forms or take other actions. The action buttons are at the bottom of the form panel (section of window). The “approve” button appears in the lower left corner of the panel/window or at the bottom of the screen on a mobile device:
When a form is submitted by proxy on behalf of a student, the form is first routed to the student for their review/approval, so they are aware of the form submission. After the student approves the form, it is routed to the committee members and/or graduate program director as listed on the form.
All forms submitted via Softdocs/Etrieve can be accessed by the student and all listed reviewers on the form (supervisory committee members, graduate program director and program advisor). This allows a student to check the status of a form under review or view a completed/approved form. In order to view student forms, the student or form reviewers can click on the “activity” folder in Etrieve Central:
Questions and Support
For general form questions, please contact: Scott Schlender, Graduate School, 785-532-6191,
grad@ksu.edu.
To report a technical issue such as denied access, submit a ticket via the IT Service Portal or contact the IT Service Desk at (785) 532-7722.
Thirty-two graduate programs have completed the survey on the graduate student evaluation distributed on July 12. Survey responses will help the Graduate School understand how academic units are conducting the graduate student annual review of progress and to help us identify ways to better support graduate students and graduate faculty. We look forward to receiving additional responses by July 31.
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- Annual evaluation template – The Graduate School’s template for the graduate student annual evaluation is available in Grad Resources in Teams. View the template.
Recruitment
For those who have been reaching out regarding collaboration, it is much appreciated! The Graduate School and other graduate programs across K-State would like to collaborate on recruitment events for the 2023-2024 academic year. If your program is planning to attend events, please let us know so we can connect programs and collaborate. Please email Sarah Tortella at stortella@ksu.edu.
Opportunities for Graduate Students
Incoming graduate students may be in need of furniture as they get settled in Manhattan. Please share information with them about the upcoming Furniture Amnesty Day for an opportunity to obtain free furniture. Learn more about Furniture Amnesty Day on July 28, 8am-4pm, at City Park.
Graduate Student Success
In an effort to facilitate graduate student continuation and completion of graduate degree programs, the Graduate School has launched a new initiative to encourage continuing students to enroll for the upcoming semester. Nearly 600 Manhattan campus graduate students (who were enrolled in the spring semester and have not graduated) have not enrolled for the fall 2023 semester. These students have been contacted directly with an encouragement message to enroll. Additionally, a report of the students who have not enrolled was shared with graduate program directors. An up-to-date report will be available weekly in Grad Resources on Teams. The report and email communication to graduate students only includes Manhattan campus graduate students. K-State Global Campus is already conducting a re-enrollment campaign for online graduate students.
Questions about this report may be directed to Dr. Miller, at mmmiller@ksu.edu.
To help incoming graduate students get familiar with the K-State campus, the Graduate School is offering several tours over the next few weeks. Tours are led by our graduate student ambassadors, so new students can get acquainted with campus directly from an experienced K-State graduate student! Sign up for a tour.
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- July 28 - 10:00-11:30am
- July 31 - 10:00-11:30am
- August 2 - 10:00-11:30am
- August 7 - 10:00-11:30am
- August 9 - 1:00-2:30pm
- August 11 - 10:00-11:30am
- August 18 - 10:00-11:30am
Please work with students completing graduate certificates in summer 2023 to submit the graduate certificate completion form on or before July 28, 2023. This information is available in the Graduation and Commencement Checklist for Summer 2023. If you have questions about this process, please contact Angela Pfizenmaier, Lead Degree Analyst, akt@ksu.edu.
Graduate students appointed to a 0.5 FTE GRA/GTA/GA appointment are eligible to enroll in the in the GRA/GTA/GA plan option of the UnitedHealthcare Blanket Injury and Sickness Insurance Plan offered by the Kansas Board of Regents. Enrollment is currently open for Fall semester coverage (August 1-December 31). The appointment hiring process must be complete with Human Resources before the student enrolls in health insurance and they must be on appointment for a minimum of eight consecutive workweeks during that semester. Graduate students who had coverage in a previous term must enroll every fall, spring, and summer term that they are eligible and wish to have coverage. More information is available on the Human Resources website.
Graduate students who are writing a thesis, dissertation, or report are encouraged to attend this session for guidance on using the ETDR formatting templates. The session will be held via Zoom on July 28, from 1:00-2:30 pm. Use the “Join Stream” button in the event post to join the session.
Funding for Graduate Students
Applications are now being accepted for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). This is an excellent funding opportunity for full-time, research-based master’s and doctoral students.
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- Provides three years of support over a five-year fellowship period
- Must be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or national
- Applicants must be pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM education. The eligible fields of study are quite broad and include social science disciplines.
- First- and second-year graduate students, as well as undergraduate seniors and Bachelor's degree-holders interested in pursuing research-based graduate study in eligible disciplines may apply.
- Once a student enters a graduate degree program, they may apply only once.
- Please visit the solicitation webpage for more information about eligibility, application requirements, and application deadlines (Oct 16-20, depending on field of study).
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The Graduate School is collaborating with the Office of Research Development and with Beth Powers, Director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships to offer informational and preparation sessions to support students in the NSF GRFP application process. Please stay tuned for more information.
As a participant with the Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit’s (CFSRU) Visiting Scientist Program (VSP), you will have an opportunity to enhance your professional development and increase your research capabilities and contributions by participating in forensic research initiatives utilizing state-of-the-art equipment under the mentorship of CFSRU scientists. The VSP will expose you to a research environment in a high-security government facility and provides an opportunity to perform research in areas of interest unique to law enforcement and national security.
Apply Today! https://zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/FBI-CFSRU-2023
Program Website: https://orise.orau.gov/fbi/
Questions? Email FBIrpp@orau.org. Please list the reference code [FBI-CFSRU-2023] for this opportunity in the subject line of your email.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program award allows current and post-graduates the opportunity to study, research, or teach English in the fall of 2024. Fulbright seeks students who are U.S. citizens with strong GPAs, a great work ethic, and an interest in learning about other cultures. Fulbright required universities to evaluate students. K-State has an application deadline of August 15. Visit the program website to learn more, or contact Beth Powers (bethpowers@ksu.edu) Director, Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships, for guidance on the application process.
Graduate Student Council travel award applications are due August 1 for travel to professional events OR registration fees for virtual events that begin any time in October.
What if I’m still waiting for a response on my presentation submission? Students who plan to attend a conference and submitted a presentation but haven’t been notified yet if the presentation is accepted for the conference should still complete the GSC travel award application by August 1, and report that they plan to give a presentation. If allocated a travel award, the amount will be pending until the student submits documentation verifying that the presentation was accepted.
Upcoming Events and Deadlines
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August 1 |
GSC travel award application deadline for events that begin in October |
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August 14 |
ISSS orientation for new international students |
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August 16 |
Graduate School Welcome Session for New Graduate Students
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August 17 |
Orientation for new Graduate Teaching Assistants, 8:00am-12:00pm (organized by TLC) |
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Sept 1 |
GSC travel award application deadline for events that begin in November |