The Graduate School congratulates the graduating class of May 2020. A special message from Graduate School Dean Tom Reynolds is available for download.
Home
May 7 Office Hours Recording Available
The Office Hours with the Graduate School webinar held May 7 was recorded and is available now for review.
Office Hours with the Graduate School – Revised!-20200507 1350-1
Thursday, May 7, 2020
8:34 am | (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Play recording (1 hr 15 mins)
Recording password: (This recording does not require a password.)
Update on Deferring Applications
Graduate Admissions has started to update applications for summer and fall 2020 admitted students who have made the request to defer their application to a future term. Updated applications will show up as a Ready for Review file in eGRAD. These files have a CV19 attribute and a note indicating that they were admitted for summer or fall 2020.
Ventureprise® Seeks Research Ideas
Ventureprise® is seeking research topics, such as a response to COVID-19, that can earn researchers up to $5,000.
Ventureprise® is UNC Charlotte’s innovation and entrepreneurship center serving the campus and Charlotte region as a center of excellence for evidence based entrepreneurship.
The Summer 2020 Ventureprise Launch National Science Foundation I-Corps virtual cohort is being formed now. The program provides UNC Charlotte faculty, staff and students with commercialization training and up to an initial $5,000 in NSF funding. The goal of the program is to identify potential commercial uses and prepare for more substantial commercialization funding opportunities.
The next stage is a six month $50,000 NSF I-Corps Teams grant. The cohort will begin May 13 (rolling applications, last day to submit is May 10). For more information and to apply, please visit Ventureprise®. For questions, please contact Laura Smailes, lsmailes@uncc.edu.
Join the Graduate School for a Live Update
Graduate School Dean Tom Reynolds and staff will host another Office Hours with the Graduate School virtual forum on May 7 to discuss academics, enrollment and applications issues stemming from COVID-19.
Agenda
- Announcements – Tom Reynolds
- Virtual Programming and Support for Students with a focus on student concerns – Jill Huerta
- Graduate Academic Petition Enhancements and Rollout Plan – Janet Morse
- Updates on Commencement (if available) – Katherine Hall-Hertel
- Fall 2020 Enrollment Update – Johnna Watson
- Application & Admission Update: Top 3 Questions – Kathy Giddings
- Funding Deferrals: Fall to Spring – Julie Goodliffe
- Q & A
The live session will begin May 7, 2020 at 10:00 am. The link below will be Live at that time. Remember, you must be logged into your NinerNet account to join a UNC Charlotte WebEx meeting.
If you’d like to receive a WebEx Calendar invite so you can add this Meeting to your Calendar, please email Karla Stanchina in the Graduate School and she’ll send you the invitation.
GPD Virtual Forum Addresses COVID-19 Policy Changes
Graduate School senior leadership hosted a virtual forum with GPDs Apr. 29 to discuss a number of COVID-19-driven policy adjustments and to respond to questions.
The forum was recorded and is available on WebEx.
Nominations Due for Dean's Dissertation Award
Have you nominated a student for the 2020 Dean’s Dissertation Award? The submission deadline for all supporting materials is May 29.
This year’s categories are Physical Sciences and Engineering, Social Sciences and Mathematics.
The nomination form and more information about the award can be found on the Graduate School Awards Gateway.
Clarification on Academic Probation and Suspension
The following is a clarification of an announcement on academic probation and suspension distributed in a NinerNotice April 27:
For GRADUATE Students only: All graduate students will have the option to select Pass/Unsatisfactory for each of their Spring 2020 courses. (Please note: No Credit (N) is not an option in the graduate grading scale.)
Graduate students are required to have a 3.0 GPA in their program of study in order to graduate. Unlike undergraduates, graduate students are suspended when they earn a grade of U or an unacceptable number of C grades. A student can select to have Pass replace a C grade this semester. Students who earn a U or an unacceptable amount of C grades will be suspended or terminated, as appropriate. This process will not change for spring.
Graduate students are advised to consult with their program director before making a grade change selection, if relevant.
A letter from Graduate School Dean Tom Reynolds is available for download.
Virtual Forum Planned for GPDs
Categories: Graduate School News
The Graduate School will host Office Hours with the Graduate School Apr. 29.
The virtual meeting will be hosted by Tom Reynolds and the senior staff of the Graduate School. It is intended to provide a forum for sharing information about Summer registration, options for admitted students and other matters GPDs and faculty are facing.
Agenda for the meeting includes:
- P/U grading option
- End of term processes
- Extensions and flexibility
- Graduation
- Admissions Update/Deferral Form and Processes
- GASP Funding for Spring 2020 (for fall students who defer admission)
- Summer and Fall 2020 Enrollments
- Remote/online option for new fall 2020 admits
The meeting will be available on WebEx from 10-11 a.m.
COVID-19 Update Provided to International Students
An informational update has been distributed to all admitted international students to ensure they have the latest information on how COVID-19 may affect enrollment.
Similar communications are being sent to admitted domestic students and incomplete/in progress applications.
A copy of the message to students is available for download.
Parental Leave Policy Updated
UNC Charlotte recently updated its policy on parental leave to keep pace with changing pressures faced by students, faculty and staff.
Read the full policy statement at Academic Affairs.
Keep an Eye on Your Enrollment
As a reminder, the Graduate School posts weekly application and enrollment reports to GPDNet allowing you to analyze and compare activity in your program. This is a helpful tool to guide your program in meeting targeted enrollment goals. You must be signed into your NinerNet account to download the reports. For questions, please contact Johnna Watson about enrollment reports, or Kathy Giddings for application reports.
ISSO to Host Virtual Town Hall on COVID-19 and Visa Regulations
The International Student and Scholar Office (ISSO) will host a WebEx Town Hall Apr. 27 to respond to questions about COVID-19 and visa and immigration regulations.
The session, scheduled from 3-4:40 p.m., will address travel, enrollment, employment (incl. OPT & CPT), and more. The content is intended for UNC Charlotte students and alumni on OPT & STEM OPT
Follow this link to WebEx to participate.
For more information and updates on COVID-19, please visit the ISSO website.
Kocherga Named to Argonne National Laboratory Program
Margaret Kocherga, Ph.D., Nanoscale Science, was selected to join Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), the entrepreneurship program at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory.
She will begin the two-year program in June. Her work through CRI will focus on the development of a single robust material to create higher-efficiency cost-effective OLEDS (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) used in digital displays.
Kocherga also won First Place in the Innovate Carolina 2020 Student Innovation Competition sponsored by the Product Development and Management Association. Margaret will receive a $750.00 cash prize for this award.
Read more at Ventureprise Launch.
Ventureprise Launch NSF I-Corps Summer 2020 Virtual Cohort
Have an idea or research finding that the National Science Foundation may be interested in funding? Have an idea in response to COVID-19 and the current situation? Want to receive up to $5000 for your research or business idea? Apply to participate in the Summer 2020 Ventureprise Launch National Science Foundation I-Corps virtual cohort. The program provides UNC Charlotte faculty, staff and students with commercialization training and up to an initial $5000 in NSF funding. The goal of the program is to identify potential commercial uses and prepare for more substantial commercialization funding opportunities. The next stage is a six month $50,000 NSF I-Corps Teams grant. The cohort will begin May 13 (rolling applications, last day to submit is May 8). A complete schedule and application form can be found on the NSF I-Corps webpage. Contact: Principle Investigator Devin Collins (7-8058).
Graduate Researcher Talks Epidemics on WFAE
Charlotte Talks: This Is Not Our First Pandemic
Note: the full interview is available from WFAE.
A stay-at-home order is in place. Medical equipment is hard to find. There’s an illness causing flu-like symptoms, and it spreads easily. The year is 1918.
Today’s coronavirus is not the first time North Carolina has experienced a pandemic. Just over 100 years ago the so-called Spanish flu ravaged the globe, killing roughly 13,000 in North Carolina, 675,000 in the United States and 50 million worldwide.
Today we consider the surprising parallels of the two pandemics, 100 years apart.
Charlotte’s population was 1/20th of what it is today, and technology has since evolved in unimaginable ways. But the similarities are striking: Movie theaters are closed but grocery stores remain open, children are home from school and boredom is creeping in. Some are anxious to reopen the economy, while health officials are cautious. In perhaps a harbinger of things to come, in 1919 some businesses sued the local board of health for keeping them from making a profit.
What do we have to learn from the 1918 influenza? How might it inform our response to COVID-19?
In 2018, Dr. Lauren Austin cautioned at the end of her dissertation: “We are at once both wholly unprepared and ideally situated for another influenza outbreak.”
GUEST
Dr. Lauren Austin, author of “Afraid to Breathe: Understanding North Carolina’s Experience of the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic at the State, Local, and Individual Levels”
Webinar: Why Diverse Teams are More Effective
Dr. Manuel Pérez-Quiñones, Professor in College of Computing and Informatics, will host an informal discussion about diversity and how you can learn to build and work effectively on diverse teams. The session is Apr. 24, 10 a.m.
Please visit the Center for Graduate Life to register.
Celebrate our most recent graduates with a video message
It’s been a challenging year for the Class of 2020, and University Communications would like to celebrate them in the safest and most meaningful way possible. We want to tell the Class of 2020 graduate story and we hope you’ll help us.
In ‘To the Class of 2020, From the Class of 2020’, we plan to create a thoughtful compilation of what graduating means for our May graduates, including voices of UNC Charlotte faculty and staff. Please consider submitting a personal video that includes words of encouragement for the Class of 2020. Use this webform for guidelines and to share submissions by the April 28 deadline.
We appreciate your participation, which will provide inspiration and much-needed encouragement to the Class of 2020 during this time.
Reynolds Graduate Leadership Award Goes to Vetter
Lara Vetter, professor of English, was selected to receive this year’s Thomas L. Reynolds Leadership Award for her contributions to student success and enrollment management.
Read more about Vetter’s accomplishments in Graduate School news.
