UT Arlington Graduate Forum March 19, 2014 Noon – 2:00pm

1. UT Arlington Graduate Forum March 19, 2014 Noon – 2:00pm

2. Transition Overview Dr. Raymond “Joe” Jackson

3. New Organizational Chart

4. The Office of Graduate Studies no longer plays a role in in the following matters • Admissions • Maintenance of student records • Granting policy exceptions, including petitionable requests, grievances and student dismissal • Certification for degrees and graduation • Appointments of graduate advisors and supervising committees

5. Academic deans have nearly all decision making authority regarding graduate program practices Paperwork recording those decisions will be handled by the Admissions, Registration and Records (ARR) arm of Academic Analytics and Operations. • With the exception of graduation-related decisions, those decisions will not be evaluated by ARR. • ARR will process and record decisions.

6. Today we will hear about • Changes in admission processes • Changes in petition processing • Changes in graduation practices While the changes to be discussed have taken effect, other changes are coming that will continue to empower academic deans and programs to manage decision making affecting their units. Training will be provided as those additional changes come online.

7. Who will be making what decisions when look like when all these changes are complete? The landscape will look something like this…

8. Admissions

9. Petitions and Requests

10. Graduation

11. Grievances and Dismissal

12. Faculty Appointments

13. AAO Recruiting and Admissions will support recruiting and process admission documents. See http://blog.uta.edu/transition

14. AAO’s Office of Records and Registration will receive paperwork and make approved changes to enrolled student records

15. The Library will accept theses and dissertations • The submission process and paperwork requirements will be largely unchanged for now. • Thesis and Dissertation processing contact: Kristine Witkowski kwitkowski@uta.edu

16. The Office of Graduate Studies will • Help coordinate policy and advisory functions pertaining to graduate education. • Assist deans, advisors and staff in implementing policies and standards set by the UT Arlington, THECB and the UT System. • Help develop policies and resolve issues pertaining to graduate education. • Encourage adoption of best practices. • Support new program development and approval. • Participate in the assessment of graduate programs. • Provide programing to support academic and professional success of graduate students. • Represent the interests of UT Arlington’s graduate community in university, state and national arenas.

17. Next Steps • Continue to create new processes that will increase the scope of dean and departmental final decision making authority. • Provide deans and central administrators with tools and procedures to assess whether important policies and procedures are in consistent, efficient and appropriate manners. • Provide training to ensure graduate advisors have the resources needed to make appropriate decisions. • Create clear channels of communication between AAO, academic colleges and schools, and Graduate Studies for advisors and students providing updates and informational resources, e.g., http://blog.uta.edu/transition. (New policies and procedures, overview of the transition plan, AAO and Graduate Studies functions).

18. Changes to Graduate Admissions Overview by Janet Wehner Assistant Director for Graduate Admissions, Office of Admissions, Records and Registration

19. What’s Changed? • Contacting Graduate Admissions • Refer prospective students as follows: • Walk-ins: Prospective Student Center in the Office of University Recruitment, Davis Hall Rm 123 • Phone: 817-272-2090 • Email: graduate.school@uta.edu • Contact information for Graduate Advisors/Departments: • Alisa Johnson, Director Graduate Recruitment, X20708, alisa@uta.edu • Andrea Yen, Admissions Counselor ,X20381, andrea.yen@uta.edu • Refer applicants for graduate admissions as follows: • Walk-ins: Office of Admissions, Records and Registration, Davis Hall Rm 129 • Phone: 817-272-3372 • Email: graduate.school@uta.edu • Contact information for Graduate Advisors/Departments: • Janet Wehner • Assistant Director Graduate Admissions, X22380, Grad.admission@uta.edu • Graduate Admissions Mailing Address: • UT Arlington Graduate Admissions, Box 19167, 701 S Nedderman Dr. Davis Hall-Rm 332, Arlington TX 76019.

20. Accountability • Academic Deans are responsible for the final admission decision and compliance with Texas Education Code, Section 51.842. • Worksheet decisions should align with published program admission criteria. • Performance on the GRE or GMAT cannot be the sole criterion for denial. • Graduate Advisors are responsible for final completion of the worksheet. • Denial reasons should be noted on the worksheet to ensure the denial is not based solely on the applicants performance on the GRE or GMAT. • Add a justification remark to explain decisions that do not align with the programs published admission criteria. • Place a check mark beside the appropriate missing documents or conditions to be satisfied when granting provisional or probationary admission. • Review transcript data for applicants in “bachelor’s will” or “master’s will” status and admit in provisional status for the final bachelor’s or master’s transcript when appropriate.

21. What’s not changed? • Receipt and evaluation of transcripts • Receipt of test scores • Admission workflow • Issuance of I-20’s

22. What’s coming next? • Status changes • Auto Admit

23. Changes to Petitions Overview by Joslyn Krismer Director, Operations Support Division of Academic Analytics and Operations

24. What is a petition? Graduate students may request an exception to certain policies in the catalog. The mechanism for requesting these exceptions is the Petition

25. Petition Process OLD: Student>Graduate Advisor>Graduate Studies Committee Chair>Graduate Dean NEW: Student>Graduate Advisor>Graduate Studies Committee Chair>Academic Dean>(sometimes AAO)*

26. Petition processing – 3 systems Online form WebNow MyMav Petition help guide

27. Common petition types Requests to continue on probationary academic status Requests for a time extension to meet the terms of a provisional admission status Requests for a deadline extension for meeting graduation requirements (Petitions approved for late graduation applications do not mean the student’s information will be included inclusion in the commencement bulletin) Other petition types • Petitions requesting waiver of tuition, fees or parking tickets cannot be approved through the petition process.

28. Petition processing – best practices a. Be as consistent as possible in granting exceptions. b. Be aware of critical dates and plan accordingly. c. State expectations applying to the petitioner and consequences for not meeting them explicitly on the petition. d. If you feel the student should be allowed to continue on academic probation (see Common Petition Types “a” above), you may require or create an explicit plan of action that details how the student shall correct the problem. e. When petitions for allowing “old” course work to satisfy degree requirements, require or set an expected graduation date and specify what will occur if the student fails to graduate by that date

29. Who to ask? WebNow questions: Michelle Williams (mwilliam@uta.edu) Policy questions: Joe Jackson (jackson@uta.edu) Questions related to transition: Joslyn Krismer (krismer@uta.edu)

30. Changes to Graduation Overview by Tammy Shoemaker Assistant Registrar for Graduation Services Office of Admissions, Records and Registration

31. Application for Graduation • Graduation application available to graduation candidates through MyMav student self-service beginning Spring 2014 • Graduate students with 18 or more completed hours will be marked as eligible (Message: “You may submit an application for graduation. Check with your Graduate Advisor first.” • All messaging drives students to Graduate Advisor prior to submitting application for graduation

32. Benefits to Graduate Advisors, Supporting Staff and Faculty • Moves graduation application into MyMav; can sunset the two shadow systems currently used. • Advisors/staff who work with graduation can pull reports in real time, at any time they need; filterable by checkout status type, academic plan, application date, etc. • Advisors/staff who work with graduation can reference student communications in MyMav. • Advisors/staff who work with graduation can communicate with graduation counselors via MyMav comments

33. Graduation Resources • Tammy Shoemaker, Assistant Registrar, tammyshoemaker@uta.edu, 817/272-0846 • Websites: • Graduation: http://wweb.uta.edu/aao/recordsandregistration/content/student_services/graduation.aspx • Transition: http://blog.uta.edu/transition/

34. Q & A