June 14 email from the Graduate School regarding adviser and committee workflows

On June 14, the following message was sent by the Graduate School to plan level coordinators, DGSs, and college coordinators regarding the June 26 launch of new online workflows for adviser and committee assignments:

To: Directors of Graduate Studies, Plan Level Coordinators (DGS Assistants), and College Coordinators
From: Renae Faunce, Graduate Student Services and Progress
Re: Online forms for adviser and committee assignments will launch June 26

I am writing to give you advance notice of new processes that will soon be in effect for initiating adviser assignments for graduate students and committee assignments for graduate and professional students (including updates to existing information). On June 26, new online workflows will be available on the Graduate School's website that will streamline the process for assigning and/or updating adviser and committee information. These changes are consistent with the ongoing graduate education transformation and the improvement of student administrative processes.

Adviser assignments
The "Graduate Student Adviser Assignment" form will replace use of the Degree Program Form for updating adviser assignments for graduate students (this process does not apply to professional students). This form may only be used by plan level coordinators (i.e., DGS Assistants) and DGSs to make changes to adviser information. Staff may access the form by going to the forms page on the Graduate School's website and selecting the appropriate link, depending on their status.

Please note that ApplyYourself should continue to be used for initial or temporary adviser assignments as required by the (proposed) Master's Degree Performance Standards and Progress and Doctoral Degree Performance Standards and Progress policies.

Committee membership
Also on June 26, four new online workflows will be available for assigning or updating committee members for graduate and professional students. These workflows are for the following committee types:
Doctoral final examination
Doctoral preliminary oral examination
Master's final examination
Specialist certificate final examination

Students will be able to access these forms by going to the forms page on the Graduate School's website and selecting the appropriate link, depending on their status. Once they log in, students with existing committee assignments will see their current members listed and can use the form to request a change in membership.

All graduate and professional students will receive notification about these changes in the Graduate and Professional Student Update.

Changes to the Degree Program Form and elimination of the Thesis Proposal Form
When these workflows launch, a new Degree Program Form (also known as the Degree Program Transmittal) will also be available with an updated name: the Graduate Degree Plan. This form will no longer include the following: sections for assigning an adviser and committee; the transmittal page (i.e., instructions page); and the instructor name field previously included in the coursework section. Once these workflows are available, the Graduate Degree Plan should be used for any students who need to complete it for the first time or need to revise their plan. (Students with a Degree Program Form already on file do not need to complete a Graduate Degree Plan and can still use the new workflows to update their information.) The Thesis Proposal Form will also be retired as of June 26. This form was used to create doctoral final examination committees and will no longer be needed once these workflows launch.

Next week, I will send you some information I hope is helpful to you as you communicate with your faculty and instructors about these changes. I will not be emailing your faculty directly. Please forward this message to others as well. Finally, if you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Sincerely,

Renae Faunce
Coordinator, Graduate Student Services and Progress