To provide accommodations during the spring 2021 semester, UNC Charlotte has expanded its withdrawal practices to allow students to withdraw with extenuating circumstances (WE) if they have personal issues that have negatively impacted their studies as a result of COVID-19. Graduate students should submit their withdrawal request directly to the Graduate School using the Graduate Academic Petition rather than through the Dean of Students portal. For more information on withdrawals, please visit the Graduate School website.
AUTHOR
Stanchina, Karla
Fall 2020 Graduation Stats
The Graduate School is pleased to announce the following statistics for fall 2020 graduation:
Doctoral Students – 52
Master’s Students – 495
Graduate Certificate Students – 262
Congratulations to our hard working faculty and staff for moving the class through during these difficult times.
Holistically Recruiting and Admitting Diverse Students
Hear from Dr. Steve Matson, former graduate dean at UNC Chapel Hill and ETS advisor where you’ll learn about the main principles of holistic admissions, as well as the various approaches you can adopt to make your process truly holistic. January 28th at 3:00 pm est.
Spring 2021 Residency Details
Students who want to be considered for North Carolina residency must complete an RDS application at www.NCresidency.org The deadline for spring 2021 decision is March 5, 2021. Out of state, non-resident students can direct their questions regarding Residency to:
Residency Determination Service (RDS)
Phone: 844-319-3640
Email: rdsinfo@ncresidency.org
Website: www.NCresidency.org
Welcome New Graduate Students
The Center for Graduate Life will be welcoming over 750 new students at New Graduate Student Orientation on Tuesday, January 19th at 4:30 est. Dean Reynolds will get the virtual session started followed by student led panels. More details can be found on the CGL’s website and if you haven’t already, please encourage your new students to attend.
Graduate Admissions Presents on Web Page Best Practice
Graduate School Manager of Communications Karla Stanchina, presented on web page/site best practice during a recent lunch and learn for GPDs. Stanchina, a specialist in digital communications and user experience design, discussed what should be on a graduate program web page, and how a GPD can easily manage their information using the University’s branded templates. Review the presentation and download materials in the GPDNet Communications Toolkit.
ISSO OPT Update
Categories: Admissions
The U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently conducted an audit of F-1 students working in the United States through the Optional Practice Training (OPT) program. OPT allows international students to work in their field of study after graduation for up to 12 months, with a possibility for a 24 month extension for those who earned STEM degrees.
ISSO reminds us of a few important points:
- ISSO encourages any current F-1 student who is interested in doing OPT after graduation to apply to do so;
- Any work opportunity undertaken while on OPT, must be related to a student’s field of study and for a bona fide employer;
- The OPT program has a robust reporting system, whereby students must report employer, employment, and address updates to the U.S. government via SEVP Portal accounts within 10 days of a change occurring. (Note: STEM OPT has additional reporting requirements). Students who experience difficulties with the Portal should contact ISSO;
- ISSO offers a number of opportunities for students to learn more about OPT, the application process, and responsibilities while on the program.
As a service, ISSO monitors all immigration-related announcements and proudly serves the UNC Charlotte international community with advising, programming, and referral services. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact them.
Dr. Lara Vetter Receives 2020 Reynolds Leadership Award
Categories: Student Affairs
Honoring her many contributions to student success and graduate program management, Lara Vetter was presented with the 2020 Reynolds Leadership Award in a ceremony last week. Although they couldn’t attend, several of her English master’s students offered praise to her tireless efforts in support of graduate education. Read more.Updated Withdrawal Practices for Fall 2020
Categories: Academic Affairs
To provide accommodations during the fall 2020 semester, UNC Charlotte has expanded its withdrawal practices to allow students to withdraw with extenuating circumstances (WE) if they have personal issues that have negatively impacted their studies as a result of COVID-19. Course withdrawals for this reason will not count against any institutional limits. Withdrawals prior to the deadline of November 3 are automatically converted to a WE. No additional documentation will be necessary. After November 3, students must submit a Graduate Academic Petition to the Graduate School. Please note that graduate students are not held to a withdrawal cap.
Funding for New Students Spring 2021
Categories: Student Funding
The Graduate School continues to navigate rapidly evolving conditions, including COVID-related consulate/embassy closures affecting the issuance of new visas, travel restrictions, and economic volatility, but will continue to try and support funding for new students admitted to the Spring 2021 as budget becomes available. As necessary, students may be placed on a funding waitlist.
If you are uncertain if funding is secured for a new Spring 2021 student, please check eGPS for details. Please feel free to attend one of our bi-weekly Question/Answer Drop-in Session with the Graduate School’s Funding Team. Visit the GPDNet Calendar for dates. And, as always, the Funding Team is available via email, virtual meet or phone.
Graduate School Forms Now Digital
The Graduate School is happy to announce the end of yet another paper-based system. Also known as the Doctoral Form Series, all Exam Reports, Committee Appointment, Proposal/Final Defense, ETD and Embargo forms will be transitioning to DocuSign, effective October 14. DocuSign, a University-supported digital system, allows for the secure collection of signatures and proper electronic routing. These forms can be accessed on the Graduate School Forms website. Scanned paper forms will still be accepted throughout the Spring 2021 semester however.
Important: In order to ensure proper routing, please make sure to only use the Graduate School’s Form Series and NOT a Form previously developed by an academic unit or otherwise. In addition, DocuSign’s routing system only recognizes UNC Charlotte NinerNet username email addresses and NOT alias email addresses (use format: jdoe@uncc.edu, NOT jane.doe@uncc.edu).
Please refer to the university’s FAQ website for more information about DocuSign.
International Student Impact of Chancellor's 9/22/2020 Announcement
The ISSO has fielded several inquiries related to the Chancellor’s recent announcement and its impact on international student enrollment. They offer some clarifications as follows:
Per Tarek Elshayeb, ISSO Director, “Based on our standing interpretation of the Fall 2020 SEVP-issued immigration guidance, newly admitted international students (excluding transfers and change of education level) who entered the U.S. before the Chancellor’s September 22nd announcement, and who meet both requirements below, remain in valid F-1 status.”
The requirements are:
- Pursuing a full course load (12 credits for undergrad and 9 credits for graduate) or have been approved for a Reduced Course Load; and
- Are enrolled in at least 1 course classified in Banner as either hybrid or completely in-person.
“As long as these students meet the criteria above, their immigration status will not be adversely affected if their courses classified as either “in-person” or “hybrid” remain fully online from October 1st to December 23rd in light of UNC Charlotte’s September 22nd announcement, adds Elshayeb. “These students will be able to fulfill the U.S. government’s Fall 2020 COVID-19 enrollment requirements and maintain their F-1 status.”
Additional questions can be sent to ISSO or found on their FAQs.
Graduate School Virtually Honors its Fellowship Recipients
Congratulations to the 2020 Graduate School Fellowship Award Recipients! We are so proud of you, your academic accomplishments, as well as your dedication and commitment in attaining your advanced degrees. We also want to say thank you to the generous donors who have the vision and foresight to give selflessly of their time and treasure in order to help our graduate students be successful. Your gifts also help support research that cannot be found anywhere else in the region and bring internationally recognized faculty to instruct our students on cutting edge issues. We couldn’t do this without you. Thank You!
Dean Tom Reynolds
Learn to Convert PDFs Into Dynamic Web Content
NC State’s second annual Extreme Makeover: PDF Edition will be held Monday, Sept. 21 to Friday, Oct. 16. This year, they are inviting other institutions of higher education to participate.
Sponsored by the NC State IT Accessibility Office, the event aims to make websites accessible by eliminating inaccessible portable document format (PDF) files, which can be a barrier to individuals with disabilities. Learn more and register by 9/14/2020 at NC State.
ISSO Assistance with New International Students
As a special exception due to COVID-19, the U.S. government is allowing international continuing students to pursue 100% of their coursework online for the fall 2020 semester. This exception has not been applied to newly admitted international students, who must register for and attend at least one class with an in-person component in order to maintain their legal status in the U.S.
The International Student Scholars Office is advising colleges and academic departments anticipating newly admitted international students, to consider ways to provide flexibility for these students to meet the in-person component requirement as soon after September 7th as possible. They recommend that academic departments consider the following strategies to incorporate an in-person component to a course:
- Independent study, topics or research courses with a limited number of in-person meetings;
- If a faculty member intends to teach a virtual course from an on-campus classroom setting, permitting a limited number of international students to participate in class in an appropriately socially distant manner for one or two sessions;
- Minimal faculty engagement in a laboratory setting.
For additional assistance, contact the staff at ISSO
GradEd Summit - September 2nd, 1-2 pm
Dean Tom Reynolds invites you to the 2020 Graduate Education Summit being held virtually September 2, 2020 at 1:00-2:00 pm. We hope you will join us as we prepare for the start of the academic year. Download Agenda.
Meeting ID: 999 5495 2753
Passcode: 963888
One tap mobile
+19292056099,,99954952753#,,,,
Dial by your location +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
Calendar Tips from Human Resources
Categories: Student Funding
Wonder when you should submit your eGA or EPAF to hire a student? Human Resources has provided Google calendars that you can add to your calendar, so you know when the deadlines are for them to approve by payroll deadlines.
For eGAs, the Graduate School must have the eGA by 4:00 pm on the day before the eGA deadline on HR’s calendar. Please follow the directions from HR to add the EPAF and eGA calendars to your Google calendar.
University Scholarship Office - Award Deadlines for Graduate Awards
Recently the University Scholarship Office announced that the award deadline for scholarships will be February 15th. Please note that this is the deadline for undergraduate awards. The Graduate School awards will have a later application deadline of March 30th. The few awards that require a nomination in order for a student to apply will have a nomination deadline of March 15th. All graduate awards will be offered before April 15th, which is National Signing Day. We will remind you of these deadlines when we begin promoting the awards this spring. For award information visit the Graduate School’s website.
Recruitment During a Crisis Forum
Categories: Admissions
Presented by The Chronicle of Higher Education, this virtual forum will looks at the challenges confronting admissions professionals as they seek to fill classes in 2020/21 and beyond. Wednesday, September 2, 2020 2:00 EST Register to attend
Delay of In Person Classes
UNC Charlotte will begin classes as scheduled on Monday, September 7, but will delay the start of in-person instruction of undergraduate and graduate classes for three weeks until Thursday, October 1.
Since the semester is still scheduled to begin on September 7, newly admitted F-1 students who plan to arrive in the U.S. MUST do so by September 10th at the latest and may use ISSO’s Support Letter for visa appointments and/or arrival at the port of entry. Graduate students who plan to arrive a few days after September 10th (but no later than September 15th), must obtain special permission from their academic Department Chair supporting their late arrival.
Please continue to stay informed through the NinerNationCares website. ISSO can assist with questions regarding international students.
