Author: chameleo

Posted on

Call for Nominations – NDLTD ETD Awards – 2010

NDLTD Innovation & Leadership Awards

The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) consortium is pleased to announce the 2010 ETD Awards program. We invite all NDLTD members to nominate individuals they feel deserve the recognition!

The awards include several categories of appreciation.

  • The Innovative ETD Award recognizes student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of innovative software to create multimedia ETDs.
  • The Innovative Learning through ETDs Award a student whose professional life has been enhanced by the ETD process.
  • The ETD Leadership Award recognizes members of the university community whose leadership and vision has helped raise awareness of the benefits of ETDs and whose efforts have improved graduate education and research through the use of ETDs.

The awards will be presented at the ETD 2010 Symposium, to be held June 16 – 19, 2010 at the University of Texas, in Austin, Texas, USA.

Eligibility, Nomination Procedures and Evaluation Criteria

  • Nominations will be reviewed by a panel of ETD experts, including members of the NDLTD Board of Directors Awards Committee. Active members of the NDLTD Awards Committee are not eligible for nomination.
  • Winners are encouraged but not required to attend the ETD Symposium. We request that winners who cannot attend the Symposium record a video acceptance message (approximately 2 – 3 minutes) that can be presented at the Symposium Awards ceremony and distributed online, or provide an acceptance message in writing (500 words or less).
  • Nomination letters should include:
    • A brief description (1,000 words or less) of background information, detail of the merits of the work and justification for nomination.
    • Additional letters of support (i.e. from faculty, administration, students, Library or Graduate School Dean, Provost, etc.).
    • Complete contact information for both the nominator and nominee, including home and/or University postal and email addresses.
  • Examples of previous award winners, links to multimedia ETDs and acceptance speech videos are available at

    http://www.ndltd.org/community/awards/etd-awards.

  • Nominations must be sent by email to ETD Awards Committee Co-chair John Hagen (West Virginia University) at John.Hagen@mail.wvu.edu.
  • Deadline for Nominations: February 15, 2010

Specific Awards Category Information and Requirements

Innovative ETD Award

ETDs submitted for this award must represent student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of ETDs. This award recognizes innovative use of software to create "cutting edge" ETDs. The application and integration of renderings, photos, data sets, software code and other multimedia objects that are included in the document will be considered as part of the innovation of the work.

  • An ETD can be nominated by an administrator, faculty member, librarian or student (self-nomination). The nominator and the nominee’s University should be affiliated with the NDLTD.
  • Each NDLTD member may submit up to 2 nominees; self-nominations are not included in the institutional count.
  • The nomination for these awards should include links to the archived work, along with a brief statement about how the work uses technology to enhance the presentation of research.
  • ETD nominations may be in PDF and/or open (non-PDF) formats. Submissions of PDF formats should include hyper-linking and/or the source URL to any included supplementary multimedia material.
  • The ETD must be distributed online as open access.
  • The ETD should have been approved for graduation during the 2009 calendar year (January through December 2009), although we will consider nominations from previous years as well.
  • There may be up to two winners.
  • Each winner will receive $1,000.*

Innovative Learning through ETDs Award

A student whose professional life has been enhanced by the ETD process (not to include the value of the degree earned) will be recognized.

  • Self-nomination is appropriate for this award.
  • The nomination for this award should include a short essay (1,000 words or less) describing the student’s ETD experience and how it improved/changed their graduate experience and their professional life.
  • The ETD may still be in-process or already completed at the time of nomination.
  • There is no time limit on when the ETD may have been completed.
  • There may be up to two winners.
  • Each winner will receive $1,000.*

ETD Leadership Award

This is open to individuals whose leadership and vision has helped raise awareness of the benefits of ETDs and whose efforts have improved graduate education through the use of ETDs. Letters of nomination should include details about the individual’s ETD related activities and how the nominee’s leadership has made significant advances in the area of ETDs at the local, regional, national or international levels.

  • Nominations should be submitted by the nominee’s supervisor or related University administrator.
  • The nominee’s institution must be affiliated as an NDLTD member university.
  • There may be up to two winners.
  • Each winner will receive international honorary recognition.

*I.R.S regulations require the NDLTD to report all award amounts distributed; citizens of the United States must provide a valid Social Security number to receive award distributions. Winners must agree to the conditions set forth in the eligibility requirements listed here and NDLTD policy. Winners must also agree to make acceptance / acknowledgments materials available to the NDLTD for the purpose of international promotions.

For more information visit:  http://www.ndltd.org/community/awards/call-for-nominations-ndltd-etd-awards-2010

Posted on

HBCU Connect Lunch

HBCU Connect Lunch
The Graduate School Office of Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives is hosting a lunch on Thursday, December 8, 2009, for HBCU graduates. Have lunch, meet and greet fellow HBCU grads and faculty and visit with the Graduate School deans. This is also an opportunity to share ideas and discuss issues relating to the African American community at Virginia Tech.

When: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Where: Graduate Life Center – Room B
Time: 11:30 – 1:00 P.M.

For more information, contact Jane Rorrer
Coordinator of Graduate Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives
#115 Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown
Phone: 540/231-2494 • E-mail: jrorrer@vt.edu

Posted on

Winter Break Closure

The Graduate School’s offices in Blacksburg will be closed from Thursday, December 24, 2009 through Sunday,  January 3, 2010 for the winter break. Normal business hours will resume at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, January 4, 2010. The public areas of the Graduate Life C enter, including the computer lab, will remain accessible to current graduate students with a valid Hokie Passport.

Posted on

Call for Graduate Student Award Nominations

The Graduate School would like to encourage nominations for the following student awards:

  • Outstanding Dissertation– two awards, one in math/science/engineering and one in social sciences/business/humanities,  $1000
  • Graduate Student Teaching Excellence– $1000
  • Graduate Student Service Excellence– $1000
  • Graduate Man and Woman of the Year- $500
  • Outstanding Graduate Student– one master’s and one doctoral student per college, $500
  • Outstanding Interdisciplinary Program Student– $500

All students will be recognized during the Graduate Education Week banquet in March as well as receive a plaque/certificate and monetary award. More information about criteria and process for nomination can be found on our web page at: http://www.graduateschool.vt.edu/academics/honors_awards/graduate_awards/

 

The deadline for the first four awards listed above is February 5 while the last two are due by February 19, 2009.

Posted on

Call for Proposals – Institutional Plan for Graduate Degrees

The Graduate School calls for new degree proposals for inclusion on the Institutional Plan for Graduate Degrees (IPGD). The IPGD comprises a list of degree programs approved internally for development to begin during the 2010-11 academic year. The intention is that these programs would be implemented no later than Fall 2013. We anticipate that colleges will review and select from proposals generated by their academic units. We would like to receive the college-approved proposals by December
15th so we can finalize the 2010-11 update to the IPGD by the end of the Spring 2010
semester.

Please provide the following information (in two or fewer pages) for degree programs
you wish to have considered for inclusion on the plan:
  Need and demand for the degree
  Target audience
  Graduate courses (existing and proposed) underpinning the degree
  Conformity with the VT Strategic Plan, particularly with regard to research emphasis and interdisciplinary nature
  Source of financial support
  Anticipated implementation date

The proposed degrees currently listed on the wish list will be considered for pre-approval in this review cycle. Please review the current “wish list”  and indicate those proposals that should be removed from consideration.

Guidelines and the current IPGD are available from Rosemary Blieszner, rmb@vt.edu. Please send proposals to Rosemary Blieszner, Associate Dean, Graduate School (237 GLC, 0325, 1-5645) by December 15, 2009.

Posted on

Diplomas – New Delivery Method

The Graduate School has joined with their vendor, The Michael Sutter Company, to have diplomas mailed from the company directly to our  graduates. 

Previously, the Graduate School ordered diplomas from the company, then had them shipped back to Blacksburg for packaging and mailing.  We are now able to provide faster service to our graduates.  Students will receive an email notifying them  that their diploma has been shipped, which will be within 2-3 business days from the time our order has been placed.  In addition to this new service, graduates will receive a larger diploma (11x 14).

Note:  BMES/BMVS diplomas are still ordered through the Office of the University Registrar and their normal time frame will remain at 4-6 weeks.

Posted on

Admissions

We would like to invite all graduate program directors and graduate program coordinators to our Admissions Summit to be held on Wednesday, November 4th at 3:00pm in Room F of the GLC.

The role of this meeting is for us to review the various admissions tools that are available through the Graduate School and to share information about the Online Application, transcript review, test scores, admissions recommendations through the Online Admissions Analysis tool, and decision deadlines.

Come join the conversation.

Graduate Admissions Summit
Sponsored by Graduate Admissions & Academic Progress
Room F, GLC
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
3:00-4:30 pm

  1. Overview of the online application via CollegeNet and available resources
  2. Transcript review, gpa calculations, and test scores
  3. Making recommendations for admission through the Online Admissions Analysis Tool
  4. Decision Deadlines
  5. Discussion of any questions, concerns, or suggestions related to the process
Posted on

Request for Information for CSVP program

In the interest of increasing the numbers of graduate students from underrepresented groups here at Virginia Tech, we have created the Coordinated School Visit Program (CSVP) which provides an opportunity for Virginia Tech faculty to: (1) network across disciplines, colleges, and universities; (2) unify various disjointed faculty or department efforts to connect to HBCUs, other minority-serving institutions, and high schools; (3) maximize the number of underrepresented student recruits to the university per year; (4) provide a pipeline of quality undergraduate and graduate students to assist faculty in research projects; (5) fulfill certain requirements outlined by external grantors and funding agencies in regard to research team composition and collaboration; and (6) foment a structured, multiyear program in which the administration can become invested, with possible external funding.

The purpose of the CSVP is four-fold: (1) to increase the overall number of applications from students who identify as members of underrepresented groups; (2) to specifically target promising students from underrepresented groups; (3) to implement effective retention strategies to integrate these students into the Virginia Tech community; and (4) to establish and maintain strong connections with other diverse universities and potentially, high schools.

Here is where you come in. In order for us to plan a more effective trip to universities for recruitment purposes, we would like to collect information about existing collaborations between VT and other institutions in the region.

Please complete the survey available at online, feel free to pass the link of this survey to someone else and feel free to fill out more than one if you feel there is lots of information to provide. This information will help us better plan our CSVP visits.

The link is:
https://survey.vt.edu/survey/entry.jsp?id=1256046874979