October 2025 Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators Newsletter

Published Sep 29, 2025 by
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General Announcements

Welcome Susan Eckert!

Susan Eckert is our new Assistant Director for Graduate Retention and Success. We are excited to increase our retention efforts along with professional development options for students. Susan will help increase use of ECU CONNECT at the graduate level along with several other retention and success projects. You can reach her at eckerts25@ecu.edu.

GPDC Monthly Meeting & New Graduate Program Representatives Orientation – September 29

If you are new to working as a Graduate Program Director or Coordinator or a new administrative assistant responsible for graduate education tasks, please join us at our New GPD Orientation on Monday, September 29 at 2:00 PM in Room 249 of the Main Campus Student Center. Please Register in Advance for the New Graduate Program Directors & Coordinators Orientation portion of the meeting.

Following the orientation, we will have a networking mixer with Graduate Council (also in Room 249) and we will start our monthly GPDC meeting at 3:45 PM.

Events will be streamed, but we will not have 2-way communication. If you can’t attend in person, please listen through the stream and we will be back online in October on Teams.

Graduate & Professional School Fair

Help us recruit! Please share the Graduate & Professional School Fair link with your undergraduate students and encourage your graduate teaching assistants to mention it to their students, as well. This event will be held on the lawn outside of the Main Campus Student Center on October 29 from 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM. There will be many resources at this fair so we hope you will help us spread the word.

It’s Almost Award Season!

We are updating our award information on the website and will soon be formally announcing the three awards where we need nominations: Mentor Award, Thesis/Dissertation Award, and our new GTA Award. Keep an eye on the Grad school awards website and an upcoming announcement from Dean Jackson.

Student Services and Support

Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) – Registration is Open!

If your students would like to participate in the 3MT competition, please have them review our website and register to participate by October 22nd! The 3MT Competition Registration Link is on our 3MT Competition website where they will also find rules, workshops to help prepare, and more!

Please ask your faculty to allow their Monday afternoon classes to attend the competition (November 3rd, 1:00 – 5:00 PM). We want to increase the size of the audience for our student participants.

Graduation Regalia Information – For Pick-Up and Purchases

The ECU Commencement website has been updated to include the current information to rent or purchase caps & gowns for the December 19th ceremonies. Undergraduate & master’s students can pick up caps & gowns starting October 8 during Grad Fair. There is no cost for the traditional caps & gowns (black) that graduate students wear. Master’s students do need to purchase a hood if they want one. There are options for DE students to have it mailed but that is not open yet. Doctoral students can rent caps & gowns for a cost or they can purchase caps & gowns through the Oak Hill store. Refer your doctoral students to the website and the bookstore if they have regalia questions.

ECU CONNECT

The Office for Faculty Excellence and the Office for Student Success have partnered to provide faculty with several sessions to increase their knowledge and skills for ECU Connect. Please share the ECU Connect page to encourage your faculty colleagues to attend and to use ECU Connect.

Leave of Absence – Form and Website

The new Leave of Absence policy and the link to the request form are now on the Grad School website. Direct your students to the Forms page. On the Forms page, they should then look under the Students – Online forms heading for the Leave of Absence (LOA) link.

Reminders: The LOA should be a planned, short-term temporary leave from enrollment. The deadline to submit is the last day of add/drop for any given term (5th day of classes in Fall/Spring and 2nd day of classes in Summer). Students should not fill out the form until they have discussed an LOA with their GPD and the terms of the LOA are clear and the student understands the complications that may occur (i.e., student loans).

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.

Change of Term Deadlines

  • To change a term backwards (e.g., from Fall to Summer) – Deadline is the first day of class
  • To change a term forwards (e.g., from Fall to Spring) – Deadline 3 business days before Census Day
  • For Summer term changes (both forward and backward) – Deadline is first day of class

Events

Lunch & Learns

Faculty/Staff Lunch & Learns have been scheduled. Please register for the ones that interest you today (click on the date)! All faculty and staff are welcome so please share with your entire faculty and staff in your units.

All sessions begin at noon!

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 GPSS has been active and planning great events for your students. 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. We will soon have a website for these portals with more information.