Graduate School

Graduate School Bulletin

September 19, 2023

 

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 – NEW!

Faculty and Staff

Admissions

Graduate Student Success

Opportunities for Graduate Students

Funding Opportunities for Graduate Students

Upcoming Events and Deadlines

 

Articles of interest – NEW!

Read about key reasons why mid-career faculty, especially women, are overwhelmed with service requests and learn how to say “no” more often, except for the amazing opportunities featured below. 😊 Read the article (NCFDD account required, see note below).

The Monday Motivator comes from the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD). K-State's institutional membership is sponsored by the Graduate School, Office of Institutional Effectiveness, the Office of Research Development, and the Office of Diversity. Membership is free to all K-State faculty, staff, and graduate students. Learn more about how to create your free NCFDD account.

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Faculty and Staff

Dr. Yong-Cheng Shi, professor of Grain Science and Industry, and Dr. Jeffrey Pickering, professor of political science, have been awarded the 2023-2024 Commerce Bank and W. T. Kemper Foundation Distinguished Graduate Faculty (DGF) Award. The award is made annually to faculty who have distinguished themselves nationally and internationally for excellence in research and graduate education. Recipients receive an honorarium and deliver a public lecture following selection for this award. Read the full news release recognizing this year’s award recipients.

Dr. Shi will give a public lecture of his work at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, in Town Hall at the Leadership Studies Building. Dr. Pickering will present his public lecture in the spring 2024 semester. The date and time are to be determined.

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The Graduate School’s first Know How of the Fall 2023 semester will be held Sept. 20. This Know How will focus on Graduate School recruitment and retention initiatives launched in the past two years and the outcomes of these initiatives. We will engage in a conversation about the impact that graduate constituents have seen with faculty and students. The Know How will be held from 11:30am – 1:00pm in Eisenhower 121 and via Zoom. Please register in advance if you plan to attend.

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The Graduate School’s student forms have been operating in Softdocs Etrieve for about three months. We would like to know what has been working well and what challenges you are having with the forms so that we may work with IT to identify solutions. Please take a few minutes to provide feedback in a brief, anonymous survey. We appreciate your responses by Sept. 26.

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Laurie E. McNeil, Bernard Gray distinguished professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will give a public lecture on “Changing the Climate in Science,” Oct. 13 at 9 a.m. Her lecture is part of the Distinguished Lectureship series hosted by K-State's chapter of Sigma Xi. McNeil will discuss the current status of women and minorities in STEM and what the scientific community can do to take advantage of their underused talent. The event will be held at the McVay Family Town Hall, Leadership Studies Building.

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The Graduate School and Graduate Student Council are calling for graduate students and faculty to participate in the annual Research and the State graduate student poster session on October 24. Graduate students from all disciplines are invited to present a poster of their graduate work. This is an excellent professional development experience for graduate students to develop their communication and presentation skills and promote their work. They will also have the chance to win scholarship awards and be selected to represent K-State at the Capitol Graduate Research Summit in spring 2024. Sept 25 is the deadline for students to register!

Faculty can also benefit from their students participating in Research and the State and other research forums. For the second year, the Graduate School will recognize outstanding graduate faculty with the Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. Award selection is based on student participation in the research forum events, as well as nominations from graduate students. Faculty, staff, and post-docs also are invited to serve as judges in the annual research forum events. Complete a brief volunteer form to express your interest.

Questions about Research and the State and other research forums may be directed to Dr. Megan Miller at mmmiller@ksu.edu.

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Below are updates based on our work with Carnegie. Carnegie is the company we are using to assist in the implementation.

Current Progress:

    • Fields and prompts were uploaded into production.
    • HTML was uploaded for one of our email templates and we provided the first round of feedback. Carnegie is helping us build the HTML for the second email template and initial feedback is being provided.
    • Two event types and communications have been uploaded to be built as templates. These will be copied to build additional templates for each campus. They are helping us build a webinar-style event and the graduate orientation.
    • Images and headers were uploaded and organized in the Grad Slate Library.
    • Campuses were surveyed on the information needed for the Slate dashboard. That feedback was provided to Carnegie to customize our dashboard while keeping the same feel as the undergrad dashboard.
    • Work began on creating a 10-email application generation drip campaign template.
    • Carnegie began building the request for information form. Conditional logic will be applied based on program, campus, and international status if an international student is eligible to apply for the program.
    • We are investigating the CollegeNet contract to determine how long we need that application system after the Slate application launches.
    • The current expectation is that we will launch the new Slate application for the Summer 25 term.

The current timeline is as follows:

    • Phase 1- Complete by November 6th
      • Record creation, emails, events, inquiries, staff assignments, interaction codes, permissions, and more
    • Phase 2- Complete by January 22nd
      • The Application
    • Phase 3- Complete by April 15th
      • Workflows
    • Final Implementation Call- April 29th
    • Historical Data Migration- May 31st

Please direct questions about Slate implementation for the Graduate School to Micaela Lenhart at mlenhart@ksu.edu.

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Graduate student forms can now be edited by the program advisor, major professor and program director during the approval workflow process. The program of study now allows editing of the course list as well as the supervisory committee. In order to edit courses, please scroll to the end of the course list and click the “Add Course” button. That will give you a blank course row to add a course and activate the “Remove Course” function on the course list to allow removal of any incorrect or unneeded courses on the list:

Courses

In order to edit the supervisory committee, please scroll to the end of the supervisory committee list and click the “Add Member” button. That will give you a blank committee member row to add a member and also activate the “Remove Committee Member” function on prior rows/members:

Softdoc Names

The program change form allows editing of courses to be added and/or dropped from an approved program of study and the committee change form allows editing of committee members to be added and/or dropped as well as change the committee member role if necessary. For the examination requests, the date time and place fields are editable but if a committee change is needed for the exam a committee change form must be submitted and processed prior to submission of the examination request.

If you have any questions about editing forms, please contact your designated degree analyst or Scott Schlender <grad@ksu.edu> in the Graduate School.

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:

Approve

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:

Image

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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September 20 Know How Session: Recruitment & Retention
September 28 New Graduate Faculty Orientation
September 29 Deadline for departments to nominate grad students for GSC Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence
October 4 Department Head Meeting
October 18 Graduate School Strategic Plan Brainstorm Session
November 15 Know How Session: Avoid Headaches, Grievances, & Issues
December 5 End of Semester Celebration

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Admissions

On Friday, September 22, 9pm PT, CollegeNET will perform scheduled maintenance that may continue for one or more hours. ApplyWeb® Forms Management, the ApplyWeb CRM (including Admit and Prospect), as well as all other ApplyWeb forms and services will be unavailable during this window.

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Graduate Student Success

For a student’s name to appear in the Fall 2023 printed commencement program, they must have their KSIS graduation application completed by October 1, 2023. See the Fall 2023 graduation and commencement checklists for all requirements and deadlines to be met for master’s and doctoral students to graduate this semester.

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Opportunities for Graduate Students

The All-University Career Fair (AUCF) will take place Sept. 19-21, from 11am-4pm, at Bramlage Coliseum. This is a valuable opportunity for K-State students to start their career journey and connect with potential employers. The Career Fair is not just for students going on the job market soon. Students who are early in their graduate career also are encouraged to attend to explore career possibilities and work on developing their networking skills. A full schedule and tips for career fair success are available on the K-State Career Center website.

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This webinar from the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) will cover: setting and prioritizing academic career goals, maintaining holistic well-being while in school, and creating an individualized plan for success. All K-State faculty, staff, and graduate students have free access to NCFDD. Create your free NCDFF account and then sign up for the webinar.

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Graduate students are invited to join this seminar on Sept. 21 at 3:30pm to learn about key funding opportunities from NSF, DoD, DoE, Hertz Foundation, and the American Association of University Women. Opportunities in the humanities and social sciences will also be addressed, and students will receive a demonstration on how to use funding search tools. This session is offered in partnership with the Office of Research Development and the Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships. Graduate students who attend will receive credit toward the GSC Professional Development Certificate. Students must register in advance to receive Zoom link.

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The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) is hosting a 14-day fall Writing Challenge 0ct. 9-22. The challenge will give participants an opportunity to experiment with daily writing and get their scholarly projects out to the public. Writing refers to any scholarly activity ranging from generating new ideas to polishing a near-complete project such as an article, grant proposal, exhibit, book chapter, etc. Participants can interact with other students and access the NCFDD’s “WriteNow” platform. K-State graduate students should first create their free NCFDD account and then register for the challenge. October 3 is the deadline to register.

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K-State's Office of First-Generation Students has several opportunities for supporting first-generation students (both undergrad and grad). First-generation students are those whom neither parent or guardian completed a four-year degree. Learn more about these programs and events.

    • Proud to be First scholarship: $500-$750 scholarship, application deadline is Sept. 24
    • Tri-Alpha First-Generation Honor Society: Opportunities to connect with other first-gen students and receive mentoring or serve as a mentor; must have completed at least 9 graduate credit hours and have at least a 3.5 GPA;
    • National First-Generation Student Celebration Week: November 6-11

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Funding Opportunities for Graduate Students

The Career Pathway for Early Childhood Care and Education and the Office of Educational Innovation and Evaluation (OEIE) are each seeking a graduate research assistants. Please see a full position announcement for details.

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Each department may nominate one master’s student and one doctoral student for the GSC Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence. Departmental nominations will be reviewed by respective colleges to determine nominees to advance to the final selection process. One master’s and one doctoral award recipient will be selected, and these award winners will be nominated for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award.

    • Note: While a teaching-in-action video is not required for the GSC teaching award, a video is required for the MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award. Graduate students who have strong engagement with students that could be well demonstrated by video may be especially competitive for this award.

Visit the award webpage for additional information and nomination instructions. Questions about the award may be directed to Dr. Megan Miller, Assistant Director of Student Success, at mmmiller@ksu.edu, 532-6191.

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The Graduate School is accepting applications for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences small grant program that provides funding to support graduate student research in eligible disciplines.

    • Grants will be up to $1,000 for direct research costs
    • Applicants who have a well-defined research plan that has been approved by their major professor/faculty supervising the research will be most competitive.
    • Priority application deadline: October 1, 2023. Application review will begin October 2, and applications will continue to be accepted until funds are exhausted.

Questions about the AHSS Small Grant may be directed to Dr. Miller at mmmiller@ksu.edu.

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Applications are now being accepted for the Parent Student Success Scholarship (formerly the Graduate Student Childcare scholarship). The scholarship aims to financially assist graduate students raising families who are burdened with childcare expenses and aid their degree progress. October 1 is the application deadline.

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The application deadline for the Community Energy Fellowship Program (CEFP) is Oct. 8, 2023. The CEFP sponsors candidates from diverse backgrounds to spend 18-months within state, local, and tribal governments to learn about and assist in implementing such initiatives and programs. Application guidelines can be found on the program website.

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The proposal deadline for the NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities solicitation is Nov. 1, 2023 at 6 p.m. EST (3 p.m. PST). This opportunity, which is up to $84,000 per year, will coincide with the start of the 2024 academic year. The grant will provide a $40,000 annual stipend, and offers support for onsite tenure at NASA Centers across the U.S. More information can be found here.

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Upcoming Events and Deadlines

September 19-21

All-University Career Fair

September 21

Identifying Graduate Research Fellowship Opportunities, 3:30pm, Zoom

September 24

Deadline to apply for Proud to be First Scholarship

September 25

Libraries workshop: Getting the Most Out of Google Scholar and Scopus, 1:30-2:30pm, Zoom

September 25

Registration deadline for Research and the State

September 25

Deadline for students to drop standard courses, no refund and no “W” on transcript

September 29

Deadline for departments to nominate grad students for GSC Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence

October 1

Priority application deadline for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Small grants

October 1

GSC travel award application deadline for events that begin in December

October 2

Libraries workshop: Starting your literature review in the sciences, 1:30-2:30pm, Zoom

October 4

GSC Prof Devel: Presenting Your Research to the Public in a Poster Session, 1:30-3:00pm, Wildcat Chamber, Union

October 9

Libraries workshop: Intro to survey design, 1:30-2:30pm, Zoom

October 24

Research and the State graduate student poster session, K-State Student Union

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