Academic Affairs

Beginning with the May Commencement, UNC Charlotte graduating doctoral students will be recognized in a separate ceremony, which will include hooding by their advisor.  This new Graduate Hooding Ceremony is May 10 at Halton Arena of the Student Activity Center.

The inaugural event will feature Chancellor Philip L. Dubois as keynote speaker.

“The hooding ceremony is in addition to and does not replace commencement,” said Dr. Tom Reynolds, dean of the Graduate School. “The ceremony is a special recognition of our doctoral students’ significant achievements.  The stand-alone event will place greater emphasis on each doctoral recipient.”

Doctoral candidates will receive details of the ceremony when they apply to graduate.

For more information, please visit the Commencement site.

See the following FAQs for assistance in responding to student questions on this change:

Q: Will I receive my diploma at the Hooding Ceremony or at Commencement?

1. Doctoral students will receive the Diploma at the Hooding ceremony as well as be hooded.

Q: Will I also be hooded at Commencement?

A: No, but you will walk across the stage and be recognized along with the other graduates at Commencement.

Q: Do I have to attend both in order to graduate?

A: No, but we hope you will take the opportunity to participate in both the Hooding ceremony and Commencement to allow us to celebrate your achievement.

The Center for Graduate Life is calling for nominations for the 2017-2018 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, one at the Doctoral level and one at the Master’s Level.

This faculty-nominated award is open to all GTAs who meet the following criteria:

1. The nominee must have demonstrated superior teaching skills while serving as a stand-alone instructor in the classroom or laboratory, or assisting the professor with teaching in the classroom or laboratory.
2. The nominee should have outstanding student evaluations.  If the program in which the nominee teaches does not collect student evaluations, the nominee must offer equivalent substitutions.  Nominees without student evaluations are unlikely to succeed in the award process.
3. The nominee should have original teaching materials that support his or her nomination.
4. The nominee must have had significant teaching responsibilities for at least two semesters.  The current semester may be counted.
5. Nominees must be enrolled full-time.
6. Nominees must be able to request a letter of recommendation from a faculty member who has worked closely with them in their teaching role.  This letter can be from the faculty member who nominated them.

Faculty supervisors of GTAs have been notified about the award as well. If there are any outstanding GTAs you’d like to see recognized, please submit a nomination, even if you are not the supervisor.

Nominations should be emailed to Judith Krauss at jkrauss@uncc.edu.  Nomination emails require only the nominee’s name, ID 800 number, email address, degree, and program. Dr. Krauss will contact the nominees directly and guide them through the rest of the application and submission process.

• The deadline for nominations is Friday February 9th. 

• Nominees will have until Friday March 2nd to submit their packets.

• The award ceremony will be held April 20th — mark your calendars!

Colleges and Academic Departments will not receive their catalog description sections for review in a Word document via email as they have in the past.  Instead, these edits must be processed via Curriculog.

• Changes to Degree Programs must be done via the Program Revision form.

• Changes to Courses must be done via the Course Revision form.

• Changes to College/Department descriptions must be done via the new Non-Curricular Catalog Section Revision form.

Instructions to preview and make edits to catalog sections pertaining to College/Department descriptions are available on the Faculty Governance website. Please note that at this time, only colleges and their respective academic departments should submit their description edits via this new Curriculog form.  Other campus departments will be given instructions via email at a later date on how to make changes to their non-curricular catalog content.

Deadlines for the 2018-2019 Catalogs

• 01/31/18 – All program and course proposals launched and approved by the Originator via Curriculog

• 03/31/18 – All college and academic department descriptive text launched and approved by the Originator via Curriculog

Monday, January 22, is Census Day – a most important milestone in the semester. It is critical that graduate faculty make certain that students :

• are officially enrolled and registered; and that those planning to graduate
• are registered for at least one class.

Students not officially enrolled but taking a class are benefitting from resources for which they are not paying. Students planning to graduate MUST be registered for at least one class in the term in which they wish to graduate; that could include GRAD 9999, GRAD 7999 or equivalent courses.

Please share this important information with you graduate faculty. For further information contact the Graduate School at 704-687-5503.

Master’s Graduates Melissa McLeod, Biology, and Jonathon Walker, Sociology, are the 2017-18 recipients of the Graduate School Outstanding Master’s Thesis Awards.

McLeod was recognized in the Life Sciences category for her thesis, The Role of Translesion Synthesis Polymerases REV1 and Pol eta in DNA Damage Response.

In the Social Science category, Jonathon Walker was honored for the thesis Redefining Belonging: The Boundaries of Religious Identity in Institutions and Everyday Life.

Sponsored by the Graduate School, this annual competition is open to UNC Charlotte master’s students and each year features different disciplines. This year’s competition included social sciences and life sciences disciplines. Awards were based on the clarity of style and presentation, scholarship, research methodology and contributions to the field or discipline.

Each recipient is awarded a $250 prize and an engraved plaque of recognition for achievement. 

With DegreeWorks poised for deployment throughout UNC Charlotte this year, key users in the Graduate School who got a head start using the system the past year recently shared their views and suggestions for enhancements.

Graduate Program Directors (GPDs) and staff were interviewed over the summer months to gain their thoughts on how to get more out of the audit and graduation clearance tool.  In all, 65 faculty and staff participated in the interviews.  The suggested improvements fall into five categories:

1. New reports on student progression, milestones and course demand to help in planning and keeping students on track
2. Enhancements to the system’s audit capabilities, such as time limits and ensuring C and I grades get noticed
3. Streamlining the petition process
4. DegreeWorks training
5. Improved search capabilities

Ideas for improvement will be prioritized based on greatest potential impact, and action plans will be built for the high priority needs.  More information on those plans will be shared soon.

“DegreeWorks has proven to increase transparency for students and advisors, while bringing graduation clearance into the 21^st century,” said Katherine Hall-Hertel, Associate Dean for Graduate Student Affairs and the Center for Graduate Life. “We appreciate those who took the time to provide their feedback on the experience to help us continuously improve DegreeWorks as an advising tool.”

More information can be found on the DegreeWorks home page and FAQs.  For other questions, please send them to degreeworks@uncc.edu .