Student Services
Student Services provides guidance, resources, and support that help students navigate academic requirements and successfully progress toward graduation.
Every graduate student’s journey is unique, and this office helps them succeed at every stage, from enrollment to graduation. The team works closely with faculty and campus partners to uphold academic standards, resolve issues, and support timely degree completion. They oversee graduate policies to ensure fairness and consistency, monitor academic progress, and guide students through special circumstances such as leave of absence or withdrawal requests. The office also coordinates the doctoral hooding ceremony and certifies degrees, ensuring a positive experience for graduate students across the university.
In addition to supporting students, the office serves as a resource for graduate faculty and program staff. The team assists with the interpretation and application of graduate policies, ensuring they are understood and followed consistently across academic units. They also facilitate training sessions for program directors, sharing key information and best practices to enhance graduate advising. Together, these efforts strengthen the graduate experience and uphold academic excellence across the university.
Graduate Program Directors Webcourse and Workshop Series
Graduate Student Services launched two key initiatives to better support program directors. These resources are designed to strengthen the knowledge of those serving in the role and provide a solid foundation for new program directors. Promoting consistency in graduate advising across programs remains a central goal.
The first initiative, a webcourse launched in December 2024, houses essential information and training materials to help program directors succeed. The course includes four self-paced modules:
Module 1 – Welcome:
Offers an overview of the program director role and its connection with the College of Graduate Studies. A welcome message from Interim Dean John Weishampel is also featured.
Module 2 – General Resources:
Covers the key tools, technologies, systems, and reports that program directors use to manage student records.
Module 3 – Graduate Program Director Responsibilities:
Details the role’s primary responsibilities and outlines the services program directors provide to both prospective and current students.
Module 4 – Peer Connections:
Enables program directors to connect with peers and graduate studies staff through the Webcourse Discussion Forum and Graduate Program Directors Team chat.
Because the course is designed to meet the evolving needs of program directors, feedback is welcome and will help shape future content. As of the end of the 2024–2025 academic year, more than 50 individuals were enrolled.
The second initiative, a workshop series, will launch in the 2025–2026 academic year. The workshops aim to foster connections among program directors and provide guidance from graduate studies staff on frequently encountered topics critical to the role. To identify relevant topics, current program directors were surveyed about their interests and needs. The virtual workshops will occur monthly and cover:
- The Role of the Graduate Program Director
- Graduate Admissions and Slate
- Graduate Funding
- Graduate Curriculum
- Thesis and Dissertation
Feedback from participants will be used to enhance future sessions.
Enhancing Graduate Student Services Web Content
Graduate Student Services updated its website content to better support graduate students. The revisions focused on improving clarity and accessibility so students can quickly find the information they need to navigate their degree programs.
Graduate Appeals/Petitions
During the 2024-2025 academic year, 15 graduate appeal meetings were held with 126 graduate students petitioning. (See charts below)
2024-2025 Graduate Appeal Petitions Submitted
| Academic Term | Summer 2024 | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GSP30D | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| GSP7YR | 13 | 11 | 23 | 47 |
| GSP9MA | 2 | 4 | 5 | 11 |
| GSPCAT | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| GSPCER | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| GSPOTH | 8 | 23 | 28 | 59 |
| Total Number of Petitions | 23 | 42 | 61 | 126 |
GSP9MA: More than the allowable hours of transfer work into a master’s program
GSPCAT: Reverting to old catalog year
GSPCER: Graduate certificate course substitution
GSPOTH: Other
2024-2025 Graduate Appeals Committee Meetings Held
| Academic Term | Summer 2024 | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 2 | 5 | 54 | 11 |
Commencement
Across 13 commencement ceremonies, Student Services planned hooding ceremonies for doctoral candidates:
148 in Summer 2024
76 in Fall 2024
118 in Spring 2025
From Summer 2024 through Spring 2025, a total of
3,609 graduate degrees and certificates were awarded.
2024-2025 Degrees Awarded
| Academic Term | Summer 2024 | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doctoral | 182 | 85 | 133 | 400 |
| Master’s | 597 | 936 | 1,308 | 2,841 |
| Certificates | 113 | 102 | 137 | 352 |
| Specialist | 1 | 0 | 15 | 16 |
| Total | 847 | 1,115 | 1,461 | 3,423 |