Due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, students may face issues when trying to finish the semester due to social distancing guidance and mandated closings (e.g., student teachers, interns, research activity having to be curtailed). Below please find some of the Graduate School’s updates concerning this subject:
Graduation Clearance
While the Graduate School has moved to working remotely, graduation pre-clearance activities continue. 1,439 Graduate students have applied to graduate for spring 2020. Currently, 101 doctoral, 1,017 masters, and 184 certificate students have been pre-cleared to graduate. Overall 93% of the students who applied to graduate have been pre-decisioned by our office. Please remember that we need milestone forms in order to clear students for graduation. Please scan or email the form to Aura Young – doctoral forms or Julie Green – thesis forms.
Placeholder Course
The Graduate School created a non-credit, placeholder course, which may be used by students who were planning to graduate in May but, due to closings, could not complete a course. If they take an incomplete, they may complete the work in the Fall semester, register for GRAD 6777 – no cost- and apply to graduate in December. This course is available by petition to the Graduate School and is only available for the Fall semester.
Dissertation, Thesis Deadlines Extended
Because of the disruption to schedules caused by the nationwide response to COVID-19, the deadlines for dissertations and theses have been extended.
Dissertation and thesis defense deadlines are now May 1. Submission deadline for both dissertations and theses is May 14.
Thesis and Disserations
The Graduate School will be very flexible regarding defenses. Committee chairs and students should agree on the best method for a given defense. ALL committee members must participate in the defense, whether in person or virtually. This flexibility extends to students who need to defend remotely.
It is the chair’s responsibility to ensure that all committee members sign-off on the final defense form. Scanned signatures are allowed and additional time will be extended so that a form can be signed by all members. When this is not possible, we will accept the defense form with the chair’s signature, accompanied by emails from each committee member stating their approval. Read more.
