September 2025 Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators Newsletter

General Announcements

Graduate Council Elections and Dates

Thank you to all who agreed to be nominated for one of the Graduate Council Executive positions. During the August 25th meeting, the following GC Executive Council was elected:

Chair: Tom Raedeke, College of Health and Human Performance

Vice Chair: Julie Linder, College of Nursing

Members at Large: Sandra Warren, College of Education; Michael Dingfelder, Thomas Harriot College of Arts & Sciences; Jean-Luc Scemama, Thomas Harriot College of Arts & Sciences; Ian Hines, College of Allied Health Sciences

All Graduate Council and Graduate Council Executive Committee meetings are open. Please feel free to contact Tania Alvarez for a calendar invite. You can review all the meeting dates and times on our Council & Committees website.

Graduate School Job Openings

Two Graduate School positions are now posted for applications. Thank you for sharing far & wide!

Assistant Dean for Graduate Admissions and Enrollment Management

Administrative Support Specialist – Contributing

Graduate Program Directors Handbook

It’s time for an overhaul of the GPD Handbook (PDF). Please spend some time with the handbook this month and share your feedback with Kathy Cox whenever you want or wait for our request for feedback via survey.

Student Services and Support

Leave of Absence Policy & Process

The revised Leave of Absence (LOA) policy is now published in the 2025-2026 catalog and represents a major change to our graduate students taking time off. A new website is being been created with the information needed to understand the policy and the complexities of an LOA. It is expected that GPDs will review the website with their students when they meet to discuss the terms of the LOA. A link to the request form will be on the website. A few reminders: Before the GPD approves a Leave of Absence, you must confirm (1) the student does not have any holds; we cannot put students on LOA with unresolved holds, (2) the student is not on probation, (3) the student is requesting 2 semesters or less, not including summers.

Assigning Advisors in Banner

Thank you for the outstanding work you are doing on assigning advisors in Banner shortly after they are admitted! As of the first day of classes, there was only 1 student within an advisor in the system!  THANK YOU!  We hope to have an update for you on the progress we are making on automatic assignment of advisors in Banner. Remember, this will automatically assign the graduate program advisor to the student a few days after they are admitted. Your program can than change the advisor if you would like, but the student will have an advisor populated shortly after admission.

Admissions

Accepting or Declining Offers

We need your help encouraging your newly admitted students to accept or decline their offer. Please contact them after your admission decision to remind them to accept or decline the offer in the portal. If they email you that they have decided not to attend, please forward that email to Theresa Cartwright at cartwrightt@ecu.edu. We can close out their application if we have written documentation from the student that they are not going to come to ECU. If the students decline their offers, they will not be on the Newly Admitted Not Yet Registered list and we won’t have to ask you about their registration.

Events

Lunch & Learns

Faculty/Staff Lunch & Learns have been scheduled! Please review our flyer and register for the ones that interest you today! Remember, these are open to all faculty & staff – so please encourage new faculty to join us on 9/2/2025 for the 3MT session. They can learn all about this event and how to help their students participate. Faculty/Staff Lunch & Learn Flyer (PDF)

Thesis-Dissertation Boot Camp

Our next Thesis-Dissertation Boot Camp is Thursday & Friday, September 18 & 19. Each day is 9:00 – 3:00 with over 3 hours of focused writing time for your students. All sessions are virtual and students should register by September 17.  Register for Boot Camp

GPDC and Graduate Council Monthly Meetings

The Gradate Program Directors & Coordinators Meetings and Graduate Council meetings are scheduled and the dates are listed on our Council & Committees website. These are open meetings, so all faculty and staff are welcome to attend.

Graduate & Professional Student Senate (GPSS)

The Grad School has resumed advising of GPSS and we are currently helping four new board members get organized. Please help your students become active in their advocacy organization! GPSS plans to have events and work with the Graduate School on advancing many graduate student issues and concerns. Please encourage your students to join The Pirate Experience so they can then link with GPSS and become aware of the activities.

Beyond Graduate School & Beyond the Professoriate

Please inform your new master’s and doctoral students of our two new virtual career training platforms: Beyond Graduate School (BGS) and Beyond the Professoriate (BTP). With our new subscription, your students (Master’s students: BGS; Doc students BTP) will be able to enjoy educational sessions, information, and more! Please encourage all of your students to activate their FREE account in the appropriate portal.