Would you like to acknowledge outstanding accomplishments of an alumnus from your master’s or doctoral graduate program? The Graduate School and the Alumni Association select the Distinguished Graduate Alumni Achievement Award recipient each year from those nominated. We will accept one nomination per department until March 26, 2010. The nomination requires submission of two letters and the nominee’s full vita. Submissions in the form of pdf files are preferred over paper submissions and should be emailed to grads@vt.edu. For the full instructions see http://www.graduateschool.vt.edu/alumni/award.html for description, link to nomination form, and address to submit. The award winner will be invited to be acknowledged at the Spring Commencement ceremony. His or her lodging at the Inn will be paid by the Graduate School. Contact Pat Goodrich with any questions: 540/231-4558
Ethics Bowl 2010
Graduate students are invited to register by Friday, Feb 26, for the 3rd annual Ethics Bowl organized by the Graduate School. The ethics bowl provides an opportunity for students to test their sense of ethics, communication and critical thinking skills through considering, discussing and resolving case-study based ethical dilemmas with fellow students and faculty . The event will take place on Tuesday, March 2, 3:00-4:30pm in the GLC Multipurpose Room.
Students may sign up as a team of 3-4, or as an individual and be assigned to a team by the organizers. Teams may include current VT students, faculty or staff, but team leaders must be graduate students. Register here.
Call for Abstracts for GSA Research Symposium
Graduate students are invited to submit abstracts for the 26th Annual GSA Research Symposium that will be held on March 24 in the Graduate Life Center, and the GLC Plaza. Students from the National Capital Region may participate through video-Conferencing. The submission deadline is February 26.
$9500 in prizes will be awarded! The keynote speaker is 2007 Nobel Laureate Dr. Andrew Weaver, a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Visit the symposium website for more information. If you have questions, please contact the GSA Research Symposium Chair, Ganesh Balasubramanian.
Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Degree programs
Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Degree programs
Request for proposals
In accordance with the recent approval of new policy to take effect for Fall 2010 for the accelerated undergraduate/graduate degree programs, “each graduate degree program wishing to offer one or more accelerated undergraduate/graduate degree programs must submit a written description of their program to the
In order to allow enough time to admit and enroll students for Fall 2010, the proposals will need to be submitted to the
- Accelerated program(s) you wish to offer
- Graduate degrees included – master’s or doctoral degrees or both
- Admission criteria and application materials required, including but not necessarily limited to student status, minimum GPA requirement, statement of motivation and career objectives, student’s experience and qualifications as reflected in a résumé, a portfolio and/or letters of reference
- the number of credits to be double counted towards undergraduate and graduate degrees
- Process for identifying potential students and faculty advisors, and mentoring during program
- Tentative listing of courses that the department expects to be used for graduate plans of study for students in the program
- Other conditions or aspects of the proposed program as appropriate
Consistent with
- Students must be accepted into the program prior to the beginning of the semester in which they would enroll in courses to be used on the accelerated program. Students qualifying for the program must be in the last 12 months of their undergraduate degree
- A maximum of 12 credits of graded coursework may be used in the program
- No more than six credits double counted may be at the 4000 level; all others must be offered for graduate credit
- A grade of B or higher must be earned in each course to be double counted
- Courses must not be taken pass-fail if a graded option is available
During the spring semester, the
Please submit your proposal(s) to the Dean of the
Please contact the Dean or Associate Deans if you have questions or need assistance in this process. Toward that end, we have scheduled a meeting on February 17th from 8:30 – 10:00 in GLC. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to attend.
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Commission on Graduate Studies and Policies
Resolution 2009-10A
Resolution for Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Degree Programs
Whereas, the most talented, highest-achieving students are sufficiently prepared, toward the ends of their undergraduate degree programs, to enroll in graduate courses and are well qualified to pursue graduate study, and
Whereas, a significant number of academic units have developed or may someday develop accelerated undergraduate graduate degree programs (henceforth collectively designated UG/G programs) for the purpose of encouraging their best undergraduates to pursue graduate study and enabling them to enter the professional workplace sooner, and
Whereas, several UG/G programs have evolved and are presently available to students; however their admission procedures and operating policies are so diverse that collective administrative oversight to ensure quality and fairness across all such programs has become intractable, therefore be it
Resolved, that beginning in the Fall Semester of 2010, the
1) the confirmed availability and willingness of a faculty member to serve as the student’s initial advisor for the proposed UG/G program, and
2) a tentative listing of courses that the student will take that are generally found suitable for use on a graduate Plan of Study, and
3) a minimum GPA of 3.3, and be it
Resolved, that the academic unit administering the graduate portion of a UG/G program may establish additional admission criteria, including but not necessarily limited to student status, GPA (above the university minimum of 3.3), motivation, career objectives, the student’s experience as reflected in a CV, a portfolio, and/or letters of reference, and be it
Resolved, that admission into a UG/G program must be granted, by the
Resolved, that some courses taken before completion of the undergraduate degree (and applied toward that degree) may be applied also toward the graduate degree of a UG/G program, subject to the following regulations:
1) At most twelve credits may be used,
2) All courses used must be numbered at the 4000 or higher
3) Courses must be taken during the final twelve months of the undergraduate degree,
4) No more than six credits used may be at the 4000 level,
5) A grade of B or higher must be earned in each course used,
6) Courses to be used must not be taken pass-fail if a graded option is available, and be it
Resolved, that each graduate degree program wishing to offer one or more UG/G programs shall submit a written description of their program to the
Signatures on Graduate School forms
The Graduate School requires signatures from students, committee members, department heads and/or graduate program faculty, and graduate program coordinators on forms submitted to us.
Our preference is to have an original signature. However, we understand that there may be times when faculty are not available (out of town, without technological access, sick, etc.) to provide an original signature. In those cases, we can always accept a fax (540/231-2039) or scanned version of the form with the corresponding signature. Signatures can come in on individual form pages, multiple form pages (which we will combine to make one packet of forms) or all on one form. Please follow-up these submissions with the original signature version, if possible.
When a person is completely out of reach or unable to provide a signature through these alternate means, then the faculty member can give permission for another person (the committee chair, the graduate program faculty, the department head, or the graduate program coordinator) to sign on their behalf via email. Please provide a copy of the email with the signed documents submitted to the Graduate School.
The ONLY case where we can NOT accept a substitute signature with permission is on the ETD Approval Form. This form must have the signature(s) from the corresponding committee members to be valid. Again, these signatures can be sent to us on an individual basis, on multiple form pages, or all on one form with a follow-up submission of the original at a later time.
Knowing and understanding the processes and expectations we have for signatures should enable your students and faculty to obtain the necessary signatures quicker and with less stress.
Please share this information with those in your department who serve on committees or who may be asked to sign a form.
Graduate Student Award Nominations Deadline Feb 5
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
The deadline for the first four awards listed above is February 5 while the last two are due by February 19, 2009.
Upcoming ETD Speaker Series-The Review Process
Please join us at 7pm on March 24th, 2010, to hear Graduate School staff discuss items that are checked when reviewing your submitted ETD as well as the timeline of the submission process. As always, you will have the opportunity to ask questions.
GLC Room F; 7-8:30pm; March 24, 2010
Upcoming ETD Speaker Series-Copyright
Please join us at 7pm on February 18th, 2010, to hear Gail McMillan discuss copyright, permissions and representing other author’s works in your ETD. As always, you will have the opportunity to ask questions.
GLC Room F; 7-8:30pm; February 18, 2010
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
- 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
Preview Weekend
The 15th annual Graduate Preview Weekend is scheduled for February 18-21, 2010. Prospective students, please contact your future department to ask to be nominated to attend this event. Nominations to be submitted at www.graduateschool.vt.edu/preview_weekend.