Graduate School

Graduate School Bulletin

June 27, 2023

 

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

Admissions

Recruitment

Graduate Student Success

Funding for Graduate Students

Upcoming Events and Deadlines

 

Faculty and Staff

The Graduate School is developing a university-wide recruitment strategy. Part of this effort is to collect information that helps prospective students better understand our graduate programs, their requirements, and their value.

 

Conversations with prospective students indicated that they are comparing graduate programs at various institutions, especially the curriculum covered. Improving the information in the Graduate Catalog will aid recruitment efforts and address the increased scrutiny of our university’s programs by state agencies. Furthermore, the graduate catalog is the definitive source of program requirements, thus clear statements will ensure that departments are on solid footing in responding to any student grievances.

The first phase of our effort is nearing completion. We began with the 32 program entries needing the most attention and are grateful for the incredibly positive response from faculty overseeing these programs. The Graduate School is implementing these updates during the summer. An additional 28 programs will be contacted in our second phase that involves programs needing smaller and targeted modifications.

If you are not contacted by the Graduate School but would still like to clarify a program entry, please reach out to Timon Smock (gradinfo@ksu.edu). Given that a clarification of curriculum process does not represent a curriculum change, your updated program’s information in the graduate catalog does not have to be approved by the Graduate Council or Faculty Senate. However, more substantial changes still require approval and must be addressed through the normal Curriculog process. Questions about this distinction can be directed to Dr. Michael Young (michaelyoung@ksu.edu), Faculty Associate in the Graduate School.

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University policy dictates that the instructor of a graduate course (numbered 600+) must be a member of the graduate faculty or have received targeted approval to teach specific graduate courses (see Graduate Handbook, Chapter 5).

Historically, verification of graduate faculty status and targeted approvals were regulated by departments or Global Campus. As the new data warehouse is implemented, the graduate faculty database will be integrated with KSIS to ensure that instructors of graduate courses have the appropriate status or approval before they can be assigned to teach a graduate course. Processes will be developed to address situations in which instructors are unknown or not yet employed at the time of scheduling.

The Graduate School encourages departments to begin the process of ensuring that graduate faculty status information is current to avoid any last-minute predicaments once the databases are fully integrated. This recommendation includes verifying that targeted approval to teach specific courses (e.g., for Associate Members) is up to date.

As the Graduate School works with the Registrar’s Office during this transition, we want to anticipate any issues that might impact the implementation and the timing of the rollout (which has yet to be determined). Questions and comments can be addressed to Dr. Michael Young (michaelyoung@ksu.edu), Faculty Associate in the Graduate School.

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The Graduate Council Assessment and Review Committee (GCARC) launched a revised process for this year’s mid-cycle review. Concurrent with this launch, the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) invited a consulting firm to advise them on many issues, one of which was the current annual review process. As a result of this consultation, KBOR is planning to revise the review process that will likely result in more frequent reviews rather than the 8-year cycle currently employed with mid-cycle checks.

We proceeded with our mid-cycle pilot with the understanding that this process may be a replacement for a more frequent full-cycle review while also eliminating mid-cycle review. The process encompassed 13 graduate programs within the College of Arts & Sciences. In addition to each program receiving their review, Dean Culbertson and Provost Taber received the complete package along with an executive summary created by the Graduate School.

The existing schedule for mid- and full-cycle program reviews has been suspended awaiting action by KBOR and university administration. There is no timetable for when those decisions will be finalized. Questions and comments can be addressed to Dr. Michael Young (michaelyoung@ksu.edu), Faculty Associate in the Graduate School.

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The report of Graduate Council activities from the Spring 2023 semester is available to department heads and graduate program directors in the Grad-Resources MS Teams folder. Please click here to access a .pdf of the report. A copy will also be sent out to all graduate faculty via the graduate faculty listserv.

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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 has received positive feedback from several faculty members regarding easier form access in SoftDocs/Etrieve compared to the previous Decisions platform.

Beginning May 30, students and support staff/faculty who access Graduate School forms via our webpage are directed to the new forms created in Softdocs Etrieve and links to our forms on the Decisions platform are redirected to the Softdocs Etrieve forms. The Decisions form workflow platform will remain active for 30 days to allow any forms that are currently in progress (submitted prior to May 30) to complete the approval workflow.

The webpage for Graduate School forms remains the same and individual form links will be directed to the Softdocs Etrieve forms.

Training Video

The Division of Information Technology conducted and recorded a virtual training session that is now available via Teams Grad-Resources:

New Form – Course Revalidation

The Graduate School has been working with the IT support team to release a new form in SoftDocs/Etrieve. The targeted date to release the Course Revalidation form is June 30, 2023.

Student Form Submission Issue

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 reported that they could not 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:

Softdoc

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.

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.

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Admissions

  • Using Application Fee Waivers

    Departments wishing to pay the application fee for graduate applicants may purchase fee waiver codes from the Graduate School. Purchased codes may be given to prospective students so that their application fee can be waived. Codes are available in any quantity, but if you plan to use several please order in batches. When purchasing, please indicate the quantity of degree-seeking Domestic ($65) and/or International ($75) applications codes that are required. Request should be sent to jphoran@ksu.edu.

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The Office of Enrollment Management and the Graduate School are at the preliminary stages of reviewing and developing the Graduate Application system Slate CRM. As we develop a more detailed timeline and strategy, we will update graduate programs of the progress and how this will impact the application process. For questions, please contact Joe Horan, jphoran@ksu.edu.

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The Board of Regents updated the tuition fees. Please be aware that this may impact, for the Fall 2024 term, the minimum amount of funds that an international graduate student must have in order to receive an I-20. This may impact the stipend amount provided as part of a graduate assistantship. Updates will be provided to us in August by the Office of Enrollment Management (EM). All I-20s issues after we receive the info from EM will have to be based on the new tuition and cost of living calculations. Currently, the I-20s issues for Spring 2024 are calculated at the AY 2022-23 rates. The I-20s for Fall 2024 will be issued after we received the updated information from Office of Enrollment Management.

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With the Manhattan airport closed through August, K-State has contracted with 5 Guys Transportation to provide free shuttle service to K-State international students from Kansas City International Airport to Manhattan.

    • The free shuttle service will be available July 12 to August 20, 2023.
    • This service is available only to international students (incoming and continuing)
    • International students must make their reservation using the unique reservation form for K-State: https://5gtkc.com/kstate/. If students make a reservation using the 5 Guys Transportation public reservation form, they will be responsible for the transportation fee.
    • International students who arrive after 8:00pm will need to schedule shuttle service for the next day and will be responsible for making their own lodging arrangements for the night. A list of hotels near the airport is available on the transportation reservation page.

For questions, please contact Alex Trout, Housing & Dining Services, hdsmoves@ksu.edu

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Recruitment

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.

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The Graduate School has begun reaching out to programs that still have students awaiting their application decision to help aid in the process of communicating with these prospective students and to begin building plans for future admissions cycles to best mitigate no-decision outcomes. Additionally, we will be sharing a live spreadsheet with GPDs and staff members to make notes to aid in communication including deferments and other status updates as needed. If you have any questions, please email Sarah Tortella at stortella@ksu.edu.

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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.

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Graduate Student Success

  • Recordings available from “Getting Started” sessions for new grad students

    The Graduate School’s “Getting Started in Grad” Zoom series for incoming graduate students concluded on June 21. The series included sessions on enrollment, billing, and making payments, as well as a session just for students with assistantship appointments. These sessions were well attended with over 70 students in attendance.

New this year was a session just for graduate students studying online or at K-State's Olathe or Salina campus and two offerings of a session for incoming international students to receive information and ask questions as they prepare for their move to the U.S. Attendance was not large for these sessions (25 or less), but the target audiences are a small portion of the incoming graduate student population.

Recordings of these sessions are available on the Graduate School’s Welcome and Orientation webpage. Questions may be directed to Dr. Megan Miller (mmmiller@ksu.edu, 532-6191).

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  • August Welcome and Orientation schedule

    In August, the Graduate School and other units will host welcome and orientation activities for new graduate students. Information about these activities is being sent directly to graduate students admitted for the summer and fall 2023 semesters. We know it is helpful for students to receive information from various sources, so we appreciate your help with sharing this information with students in your programs.

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    • beginning August 14 – New International Student Orientation (organized by ISSS)
    • August 16 – Graduate School Welcome Session (organized by the Graduate School)
    • 9:00-10:30am, Zoom offering
    • 2:00-4:00pm, in-person offering, 1088 College of Business Building
    • August 17 – Orientation for Graduate Teaching Assistants, 8:00am-12:00pm (organized by the Teaching and Learning Center)

Visit the Welcome and Orientation section of our website for more information. Questions may be directed to Dr. Megan Miller (mmmiller@ksu.edu, 532-6191).

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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 June 30, from 1:00-2:30 pm. Use the “Join Stream” button in the event post to join the session.

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Funding for Graduate Students

Graduate Student Council travel award applications are due July 1 for travel to professional events OR registration fees for virtual events that begin any time in September.

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 March 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.

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Upcoming Events and Deadlines

June 30

ETDR Template Training Session, 1:00-2:30pm, Zoom

July 1

GSC travel award application deadline for events that begin in September

August 1

GSC travel award application deadline for events that begin in October

August 14

ISSS orientation for new international students

August 16

Graduate School Welcome Session for New Graduate Students

  • 9:00-10:00am – Zoom offering
  • 2:00-4:00pm – in-person offering

August 17

Orientation for new Graduate Teaching Assistants, 8:00am-12:00pm (organized by TLC)

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