General Information and Best Practices for DGSs and DGAs

This general information and best practices guide was developed in large part from the 2009-10 annual DGS/DGA faculty retreat discussion. It also includes advice from the Graduate School and other offices on campus who work on graduate student needs. If there are suggestions or clarifications to the information presented here, please be in touch with the Graduate School.

• Information for Directors of Graduate Studies
• Information for Directors of Graduate Admissions

Benefits and Personal Considerations for Both the DGS and DGA Roles

DGSs and DGAs will often be more experienced faculty within the graduate program. Many (but not all) programs provide some type of incentive for faculty serving in administrative roles, such as course release time or salary supplements (flat amount or percentage of salary). Such responsibilities are sometimes considered in performance reviews.

Establishing a percentage of time expected to devote to these responsibilities, as balanced with your own research and teaching, is common. The percentage of time will fluctuate depending on the time of year and students' needs.

If course releases are provided in your program, consider the best timing for the release depending on your own program's cycle of activities. For example, the fall may be busy with new students and checkpoint meetings and the spring may be busier with admissions activities.

Understand critical times for these responsibilities so that you can plan for some administratively-heavy weeks, especially near the beginning and end of semesters.

Directors of Graduate Studies

Role of a DGS

• Serve as the primary resource for graduate students concerning academic and other requirements and campus resources. Cultivate a climate that encourages students to ask questions and discuss personal situations as appropriate.
• Serve as the authorizer for various graduate student decisions and functions, including:
  • signatory on Graduate School forms, e.g., leaves of absence, extensions, transfers of course credit, reinstatements, readmissions, applications to graduate
  • signatory on University forms, e.g., withdrawals, course drop/adds, course changes/additions/deletions
  • approval of student committee makeup, including any fixed term graduate faculty
  • nominate applicants and act as signatory for University fellowships and funding (both fellowships and funding for enrolled students as well as recruitment fellowships offered in conjunction with graduate admissions activities)
• Lead efforts to revise, maintain, and evaluate the academic requirements and standards of the graduate degree programs. Often this will include coordinating a graduate affairs or advisory committee with program faculty and graduate student representatives. This role may also involve maintaining an internal graduate program handbook or guidelines.
• Responsible for the initial response to most graduate student situations, including grade appeals, grievances, or mentoring/advising issues.
• Monitor student progression through key milestones, such as comprehensive exams and proposal defenses. Ensure adherence to University and Graduate School guidelines such as time to degree limits, continuous enrollment, and grade change deadlines.
• Coordinate the efforts of multiple area/specialty directors (unique to specific programs), including serving as a resource on policies and procedures.
• Coordinate efforts to encourage students to apply for external funding and grants, in conjunction with students' primary advisors. Encourage faculty mentoring in grant writing. Serve as a resource for students regarding available funding sources and resources to assist them in identifying funding opportunities and with grant writing.
• Support professional development activities for graduate students, including program-specific activities as well spreading the word about University/Graduate School activities. Identify ways to coordinate or assist with career planning at the program level, extending into tracking career placements and alumni affairs.
• Work closely with the program student services manager or registrar on policies and procedures to ensure consistency.
• Ensure that graduate students are financially supported through service assistantships within the program or in other areas of the University, or through internal or external nonservice fellowships. Encourage faculty mentoring and information sharing to facilitate full funding of all graduate students in your program.
• Coordinate graduate student selection processes for identifying students to be nominated for Graduate School fellowships and awards with limited nominations. Nominate enrolled students for fellowships and awards and applicants for recruitment fellowships. Use the Fellowships and Funding Handbook as a key resource for policy and process information.
• Coordinate the graduate program's tuition remission allocation and submission of students to be offered tuition remission and in-state tuition benefits.
• Serve as a program resource for information on graduate student residency for tuition purposes. Encourage students who can achieve in-state residency to make timely application for state residency status.
• Serve as a resource for information on health insurance and other benefits, such as maternity/paternity leave policies and procedures.
• Serve as a knowledge base about campus services. Examples include the Graduate School, Campus Health Services, Counseling and Wellness, Disability Services, the Dean of Students Office, ITS, University Libraries, Graduate Funding Information Center, the Office of International Student and Scholar Services, and the Center for Faculty Excellence.
• Serve as the program's liaison to the Graduate School for policy clarification, special or unique situations, and general inquiries. Use the Graduate Handbook as a key resource for policy and process information.
• Depending on the graduate program's structure, additional responsibilities may include allocation of teaching assistantships, budget oversight for the graduate program, ensuring compliance with funding agency requirements, program review activities, TA training oversight, and alumni affairs.

Best Practices

• Strive to maintain balance between your role as a student support resource and your role in protecting the integrity of your graduate degree. In most situations student needs, faculty demands, and overall program requirements will be in alignment.
• The DGS does not work in isolation. Most programs have a graduate affairs or advisory committee that assists with difficult issues, appeals, or exception requests. Involve graduate students in these committees when appropriate to secure feedback from all perspectives.
• Feel comfortable consulting other DGSs and staff in the Graduate School about unusual situations. There are many campus resources and most situations need not be handled alone.
• Communicate with your program's graduate faculty and staff regularly, and rely on them to provide input on student progress and to engage with their students. Solid advising and routine feedback is essential for students to make continued progress. The entire program must be involved in these efforts, especially when dealing with below standard performance.
• Consider individual meetings with each graduate student at the beginning of each academic year to maintain connections, check in on progress, and identify any issues. Share relevant information with other graduate faculty. Consider recording notes of these meetings, as they represent a continuous assessment of progress as part of the students' records.
• Consider exit interviews with graduate students or exit surveys to identify areas of strength and opportunity for the program. Implement suggested changes accordingly.

Directors of Graduate Admissions

Role of a DGA

• Coordinate the applicant review and recruitment efforts for your graduate degree programs.
• Establish a working admissions group of faculty, staff, and students, as appropriate, to assist with setting priorities for recruitment, identifying common decision criteria, reviewing applications, ensuring the diversity of incoming students, making admissions decisions, and recruiting prospective students.
• Serve as the first point of contact for the majority of inquiries from prospective students. Rely on your colleagues — faculty, staff and graduate students — to address some queries, but be prepared to spend your own time recruiting the program's top candidates.
• Plan recruitment events as desired, including interview events and ad hoc site visits by prospective students. Be mindful of the special considerations necessary to recruit a diverse, high quality pool of students. Be mindful of how travel constraints, including international travel and financial costs, may impact the program's plans.
• Recognize that visiting UNC-Chapel Hill has often positively impacted applicants' decisions about accepting admission here. Recent surveys found that the “friendliness” of faculty, staff and students, as well as the local area cost of living, are considered very important to applicants considering offers of admission from various universities.
• Be aware of and use the resources offered by the Graduate School and the University in assisting with recruiting graduate students of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, such as travel funding and meeting with students of similar backgrounds/interests while visiting campus. Assist faculty and applicants in accessing these resources as they recruit candidates to your program.
• Oversee and maintain all recruitment materials, both online and print materials.
• Ensure that graduate students will be financially supported if admitted through service assistantships within the program or in other areas of the University, or through internal or external nonservice fellowships. Encourage faculty mentoring and information sharing to facilitate full funding of all graduate students in your program.
• Coordinate communications with applicants, including funding offers, to ensure the most competitive offers possible, including assurance of multiple years of funding, if possible. Stay aware of funding offers provided by graduate program peers to ensure competiveness for the best students.
• Coordinate graduate applicant selection processes for identifying students to be nominated for Graduate School recruitment fellowships and assistantships. Nominate selected applicants for recruitment fellowships. Use the Fellowships and Funding Handbook as a key resource for policy and process information.
• Coordinate the efforts of multiple area/specialty directors (unique to specific programs), including serving as a resource on policies and procedures.
• Work closely with the program student services manager or registrar on policies and procedures to ensure consistency.
• Serve as the program's liaison to the Graduate School for policy clarification, special or unique situations, and general inquiries. Use the Graduate Handbook as a key resource for policy and process information.

Best Practices

• The DGA does not work in isolation. Most programs have a graduate admissions committee that assists with the coordination and review of all applicants.
• Consider ways your program can recruit from various target audiences, including under-represented populations. Utilize the Graduate School's assistance in this area whenever possible.
• Target online materials and your program website for frequent updates. Strong websites can answer many questions for applicants, but most importantly, they are the primary recruitment tool for today's prospective students.
• Establish your program's and discipline's priorities for standardized aspects of applications. How much weight will the GRE scores and undergraduate GPA hold? How will you value professional or research experience? Engage your faculty in these discussions to establish common benchmarks for the admissions committee to use.
• Help engage prospective students with current graduate students and faculty whose research areas are good matches. These individuals will be able to sell the program and identify if the candidate is a good fit. Student ambassadors are critical to a successful recruitment program. In fact, students tell us that their interactions with other students may be one of the most important aspects of recruiting new students.
• Consider purchasing recruitment lists from national services, such as ETS where you can buy a list of anyone who took a GRE subject area test in your field.
• Current graduate students can participate in the admissions committee and selection process. They can receive access to the system for the recruiting year only (i.e., so they do not see information on their own cohort).
• Consider various formats for interview weekends or recruitment visits. Possibilities include multiday visits, short and local events such as dinner, or informal events at faculty homes. Keep budget constraints in mind when planning events, both your own program budget and what you are expecting the candidates to cover.
• When making a financial recruitment pitch, do not forget to include information about the local cost of living (housing and transportation) and job opportunities for following family members. Chapel Hill/RTP performs well on these measures. Many times our stipends may not match peer offers, but when the full picture is taken into consideration, we can be quite competitive.
• International student recruitment and admissions is a complicated process. Rely on key offices, such as the Graduate School and Office of International Student and Scholar Services, for clarification on questions.
• Consider surveying your admits who did not choose to enroll in your program. While your response rates may be small, any information gathered may aid in improving your admissions and recruitment processes in future years.