MEMORANDUM


Date:   May 28, 2009

To:     Graduate students, coordinators and staff

Cc:     Graduate deans, department chairs and graduate faculty

From:   Dr. Henry T. Frierson
        Associate Vice President and Dean of the Graduate School

Re:     Changes in Graduate School policies starting Summer term 2009


As for every UF unit, the Graduate School has had to make adjustments to staffing and workflow because of budgetary constraints. The number of staff who work most closely with academic units and graduate students has decreased by almost 50%. Yet the numbers of graduate students and degree applicants continue to increase.  

Given those circumstances, under the current conditions we no longer have the staff to work with individual exceptions regarding compliance with the stated policies and deadlines. 

Therefore, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY (Summer 2009):
 
DEADLINES: 

1. The Graduate School will be required to enforce STRICT adherence to all deadlines published in the Graduate Catalog. Academic units have the responsibility to ensure that their students, faculty, and staff members know the deadlines, and meet their respective obligations accordingly. 

2. Students are ultimately responsible for making sure all requirements for their degree have been met by the deadlines.

3. All students who do not meet the deadlines will have to register for a subsequent term. 

4. See section below for changes to eligibility criteria for Clear Prior status. 

Note: Please see the link to Graduate School Catalog for the deadlines: 
http://gradschool.ufl.edu/catalog/current-catalog/catalog-academic-calendar.html#summer
 
CLEAR PRIOR: 

1. Clear Prior permits students to be exempt from registration for the term in which the degree will be awarded.

2. The ONLY students who may be considered as eligible for the exemption are Thesis/Dissertation students, i.e. students who are required to submit a thesis or dissertation through the Graduate School Editorial Office. 

   These students must meet all published deadlines of the current semester except for final editorial clearance. 

   There must be an extraordinary reason that a student fails to complete final thesis or dissertation clearance with the Graduate School Editorial Office by the published deadline (e.g., Summer 2009 deadline = Wednesday, July 29). ***Inability of committees to meet, staff error in submitting online information, or the student's wish to avoid registration payment are NOT extraordinary reasons.***  

3. New Clear Prior criteria: http://gradschool.ufl.edu/pdf-files/clear-prior.pdf 

Please note critical information for: 

Thesis students: http://gradschool.ufl.edu/pdf-files/checklist-thesis.pdf 
  
Dissertation students: http://gradschool.ufl.edu/pdf-files/checklist-dissertation.pdf 

The following are recent changes in graduate council policy and/or graduate school procedures that may affect graduation eligibility:

1. Change to supervisory committee members physical presence for examinations:  

   http://lists.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0903&L=GRADCOORD-L&P=R167

2. Enhancements to GIMS for staff use (see point #4 of this listserv posting):

   http://lists.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0901&L=GRADSEC-L&P=R275

3. Drop/add procedures for current semester:
 
   http://lists.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0901&L=GRADCOORD-L&P=R369

4. Enhancements to GIMS for students to review their own record:
   
   http://gradschool.ufl.edu/downloads/gims-display-students.pdf 

Thank you for working with your students, staff and graduate faculty to review and comply with Graduate Council policies, and graduate school procedures and deadlines.

The Graduate School
University of Florida
http://gradschool.ufl.edu