A fully integrated system that will allow GPDs to view, nominate, prioritize, and manage funding for students will go live in the coming weeks.
GPDs and staff are invited to a demo of the system Dec. 6, 1:30 – 2:45 p.m. in Cato Hall 248. Please RSVP to Amy Palmer to ensure seating is available.
Contact Julie Goodliffe if you have questions.
Students who have registered for spring classes have begun receiving their spring bills. Please review this information carefully as there are some significant changes that you should be aware of when talking to students. It is important for you to understand these changes to discuss with students if needed.
For details, please visit Niner Central.
The National Council on Undergraduate Research Conference is set for Kennesaw State University April 11-13. The NCUR Conference attracts more than 3,000 with research presentations on many disciplines.The U.S. Dept. of Commerce is sponsoring a free webinar Dec. 13 entitled Education Market Opportunities in Brazil and Colombia.
The webinar will include information on Salão do Estudante fairs coming to six major Brazilian cities in March. The events will include opportunities to meet high school counselors, agents and directors of Brazilian universities.
For more information and to register, please visit the DOC’s Exports site.
A recent survey of Graduate Program Directors assessing usage level and soliciting suggestions for improvement has been published.
The summary of results of the survey is available for download.
The Graduate School’s Veterans Scholarship, an $18,000 GPD-nominated grant, was recently named in honor of Commander F.M. (Mike) Reynolds, a Graduate School donor and brother of Associate Provost and Graduate School Dean Tom Reynolds.
Commander Reynolds retired from the U.S. Navy after more than 30 years of service. During the Vietnam War, he served as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Impervious, a minesweeper operating along the coast of South Vietnam and later in the Gulf of Tonkin. During his tour as C.O., Reynolds earned the nickname “Iron Mike” for his steadfast service, fearless dedication to duty, and unwavering leadership under the most arduous conditions of war.
“The University of North Carolina at Charlotte recognizes the many sacrifices our veterans made while serving our country,” Dean Reynolds said. “This scholarship was established to provide the opportunity for veterans to continue their higher education to become the next generation of public and private sector leaders committed to the service of others.”
The Reynolds Veteran’s Scholarship is open to military veterans from any branch of service and admitted to any master’s or doctoral degree program at UNC Charlotte.
In addition to the name change, the first year of this scholarship is service-free. In the second year, the student has the option to hold an assistantship (TA or RA) or continue with the service-free award.
Details on this and all other fellowship opportunities are available on the Graduate School’s Fellowships page.
A fully integrated system that will allow GPDs to view, nominate, prioritize, and manage funding for students will go live in the coming weeks.
GPDs and staff are invited to a demo of the system Dec. 6, 1:30 – 2:45 p.m. in Cato Hall 248. Please RSVP to Amy Palmer to ensure seating is available.
Contact Julie Goodliffe if you have questions.
The Thomas L. Reynolds Leadership Award program honoring excellence in graduate program administration will launch in spring 2019.
The award will be presented to a Graduate Program Director or Graduate Program Coordinator selected by a committee of Graduate School staff, Graduate Council, Graduate and Professional Student Government and previous winners.
In launching the award, Dean Reynolds said, “In addition to managing enrollment, Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators track and manage their students while implementing programs and services to promote their success. Doing this well deserves recognition and praise.”
The award will be made annually. The winner will receive $1000, an engraved plaque, and his or her name will be engraved on a perpetual trophy.
For more information on award criteria, please download the Information Sheet. To submit a nomination, please use the Reynolds Leadership Award Google Form.
Fellowship grants ranging to $18,000 plus tuition and health insurance are now available to new students – but a Graduate Program Director must nominate them.
Through Mar. 15, students nominated for one of several available fellowships will be contacted by the Graduate School and instructed to apply (if they haven’t already) in the NinerScholars portal. You may nominate a student by going to the NinerScholars student nomination portal.
View this Tutorial from Julie Goodliffe, Director of Funding and Fellowships, which explains the nomination process in NinerScholars.
| Fellowship Name | Total Offered | Deadline | New or Continuing | Degree Level | Academic Criteria | Citizenship | GPD Nominated |
| Commander F.M. (Mike) Reynolds Veterans Scholarship | $18,000 stipend, full tuition, health insurance and fees – 2 years | March 15, 2019 | New | Master’s or doctoral | GPA 3.0-4.0 | US | Yes |
| Herschel and Cornelia Everett Fellowship – Master’s | $10,000, in-state tuition | March 15, 2019 | New | Master’s | GPA 3.2-4.0 | US, preferably NC or SC resident | Yes |
| Herschel and Cornelia Everett Fellowship – Doctoral | $15,000, in-state tuition, health insurance | March 15, 2019 | New | Doctoral | GPA 3.2-4.0 | US, preferably NC or SC resident | Yes |
| Wayland H. Cato Fellowship | $18,000, tuition, fees, health insurance |
March 15, 2019 | New | Doctoral | GPA 3.0-4.0 | No restriction | Yes |
| William F. Kennedy Graduate Fellowship | $18,000, tuition, health insurance and fees | March 15, 2019 | New | Doctoral | GPA 3.0-4.0 | No restriction | Yes |
UNC Charlotte’s Research Integrity Office (RIO) now has a confidential web-based form available to submit reports of research misconduct.
Headed by Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Tom Reynolds, the RIO is responsible for investigating allegations of plagiarism, falsification, and fabrication of research materials.
“Fortunately, we see few cases of suspected misconduct,” Reynolds said. “And the ones we investigate we often can resolve without damaging the reputation of our researchers or hampering progress of the research. Still, we must be vigilant to avoid even the appearance of misconduct.”
University Policy 309 defines misconduct as fabricating or falsifying data, plagiarizing work, or failing to follow accepted practices in proposing, performing, reviewing or reporting on research.
Use the RIO form to submit questions about research misconduct or examples of misconduct that you have observed. Reports filed with the RIO are held in strict confidence.
Xueying Brown, Environmental Engineering, and Donna Goodenow, Biological Sciences, received honors as the top presenters in the Center for Graduate Life’s 2018 Three-Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition held at the Halton Reading Room of Atkins Library Nov. 9.
Visit the News on the Graduate School’s home page for details.
The Center for Graduate Life (CGL) will introduce a new course for graduate students who teach, or undergraduates who want to learn, to identify and build effective classroom practices.
Read the full story in the Graduate School‘s News section.
The NinerScholars Portal is now open for students to begin applying for scholarship for the 2019-20 academic year.
If your college or department has not completed the Scholarship Content Review Process, you’ll need to do so before the University Scholarship Office can open your application to students. Scholarship funds which currently do not have a sufficient balance to make a 2019-20 award, but receive the necessary funding to make an award before February 1, 2019, may still be opened in NinerScholars.
Please contact the University Scholarship Office (USO) if a scholarship that is currently closed to applications should be opened.
The USO will host a training session for the NinerScholars Administrator and Reviewer Portals in early February. The session will offer resources and in-depth training on current and new functionality in the portals. The system enhancements will streamline your application review, recipient selection, and award administration processes. All new and continuing scholarship administrators are encouraged to attend; more details will be made available in the coming month.
You may contact the USO at 704-687-5871 or by emailing scholarships@uncc.edu.
Graduate School graduate assistant Krystal Turner, MA, Counseling, recently participated in the annual conference of the Association of Play Therapy (APT) in Phoenix where she helped promote graduate education at UNC Charlotte and presented on the research project “Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) for Adoptive Families: Parents’ Lived Experiences.”
“We ran a booth to promote the UNC Charlotte Graduate School as well as the UNC Charlotte Multicultural Play Therapy Center,” Turner said.
Visit the Graduate School News page for the full story.
To replace the cancelled Graduate Education Summit, the Graduate School is offering a series of workshops addressing many of the topics that would have been covered at the Summit. Please register for each workshop.
Friday, October 26th Enrollment Management, Funding, and New Initiatives in Graduate Education
9:00 – 10:00 am Understanding Program Capacity and Developing Enrollment Projections
Location: Graduate School Conference Room, 248 Cato Hall
10:00 – 11:00 am Funding Strategies to Support Your Graduate Students
Location: Graduate School Conference Room, 248 Cato Hall
12:00 – 1:00 pm Overview of Graduate School organization, staffing and new initiatives
Location: The Center for Graduate Life, 268 Cone Center
Friday, November 2nd Recruitment Resources and Enrollment Management
9:30 – 10:30 am Recruitment Tools and Best Practices
Location: The Center for Graduate Life, 268 Cone Center
10:45 – 11:45 Understanding Program Capacity and Developing Projections
Location: The Center for Graduate Life, 268 Cone Center
Friday, November 9th Resources and Tools to Support Programs and Students
11:00 – 12:00 GPD Net, DegreeWorks reporting, Petition enhancements, Policy updates
Location: The Center for Graduate Life, 268 Cone Center
12:30 – 1:30 Repeat of Resource session
Monday, December 3rd Student Success and Recognition Initiatives
10:00 – 11:00 Doctoral Hooding, Professional Development, Fellowships and Awards
Location: The Center for Graduate Life, 268 Cone Center
UNC Charlotte graduate faculty and staff attended this year’s conference of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Oct. 11-13 in San Antonio.
The Diversity in STEM conference attracted more than 4000 students, faculty and speakers who participated in poster presentations, classes, mentoring and cultural activities.
UNC Charlotte was represented by (from left) Marianne Williford, graduate admissions counselor for the Graduate School, Dr. Yvette Huet, director for the UNC Charlotte ADVANCE Faculty Affairs Diversity Office and a professor of Kinesiology, and Lauren Slane, Bioinformatics graduate program coordinator.
Events such as these provide an excellent opportunity for program directors to recruit bright, motivated students to graduate programs at UNC Charlotte. Participants are typically from underrepresented minorities with strong academic potential. Graduate Admissions sends a representative to a select number of recruitment event and provides recruitment materials to faculty, staff and students who attend.
For recruiting tips, contacts and more information on this and other recruiting opportunities, visit GPDNet’s GPD News & Info page.
Graduate students will have an opportunity again this year to compact their thesis or dissertation into a powerful, three-minute presentation for a chance to win cash prizes and a trip to the Conference of Southern Graduate School’s annual meeting.
Through the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) program offered by the Center for Graduate Life (CGL), contestants vie for the most compelling presentation of research to an audience that may not share the same expertise. The 3MT competition originated at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2008 and has expanded worldwide.
Encourage students to register for the competition through Oct. 8 at the Center for Graduate Life.
Beginning November 12, students will begin receiving their spring bills. Please review the below information carefully as there are some significant changes that you should be aware of when talking to students.
Reason for the changes
For the past year, a committee from Academic Affairs and Business Affairs has reviewed barriers to student success and progression related to registration holds, cancellation processes, and payment plans.
On average, every semester, 845 students have their courses cancelled for non-payment during the first cancellation process, and only 56.8% of the students cancelled re-register for that term.
Based on survey results, data studies, comparison to other UNC system schools, and student feedback, the below changes will be made for the spring billing cycle in order to improve student retention.
Students will be notified of these changes in October. It is important for you to understand these changes to discuss with students if need be.
New spring bill due date: December 5
In past years, the bills for spring were due in the first week of January.
Beginning this year, the new spring bill due date is December 5.
We realize that moving the due date a few weeks earlier is a significant change, so we are providing students with advance notice of this change and giving them more time to make payments.
New payment plan splits amount due into 5 payments
Beginning with their spring bill, the optional payment plan divides their account balance into 5 payments.
This 5-payment plan allows students to pay smaller payments each month!
If students choose to sign up for the plan instead of paying their bill in full, they must do so by December 5 to avoid cancellation of classes.
A $55 setup fee is required when they opt-in to the plan.
This new 5-payment plan does NOT require a 10% down payment like the old plan.
The first payment for this plan is due December 31. The remaining payments are due Jan 31, Feb 28, Mar 31, and Apr 30.
Action date: December 5
By December 5, students need to either pay their balance in full or sign up for the payment plan.
At 11:59 p.m. on December 5, their classes will be cancelled if they haven’t paid their balance in full or signed up for a payment plan.
Faculty nominations of student candidates for the Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award will be accepted through Oct. 19.
The Master’s Thesis Award is presented annually to a student whose thesis makes an “unusually significant contribution” to their discipline. The award focuses on students who completed their master’s degree requirements and thesis between Fall 2016 and Summer 2018.
More information is on the Center for Graduate Life’s Graduate Student Competitions site.
Nominations for the prestigious First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal and Harshini V. de Silva Graduate Mentor faculty awards are being accepted until November.
Nominations for the de Silva award come from departmental chairs; nominations for the First Citizens Bank award may come from any UNC Charlotte faculty member.
Details on these faculty awards are located on the Graduate School’s Faculty Awards page.
