Dear graduate faculty,

We hope that this message finds you safe, healthy, and embracing resilience during the multiple crises that define this moment. As a Minority Serving Institution and UNLV Rebels, our campus community prides itself on our diversity and celebrates difference and inclusivity as our strengths. We are open to new ideas; we embrace change as a catalyst to a brighter tomorrow; and we provide allegiance, safe haven, helpful services, and proactive accommodations to lift up our graduate faculty, staff, and Grad Rebels, during good times and bad. We will grow, learn, and create a new normal together.

As part of our commitment to keep you informed of new policies, processes, and deadlines to support students' continued academic success despite the pandemic, economic crisis, and social injustice, please note the following:

Our COVID-19 accommodations for faculty, staff, students, and GAs will continue.

As you know, UNLV has made the S/U grading option available to students for the Spring 2020 semester. The petition to change the grading basis for any or all Spring 2020 courses, except for modular courses that ended before March 16, 2020, is available in the Grad Rebel Gateway. The deadline to submit petitions is this Friday, June 5 at 5 p.m. Learn more.

To encourage students to proceed with graduation, the Graduate College has extended Summer 2020 graduation deadlines. Please find the extended deadlines on our COVID-19 webpage, under the Current Students accordion, then under the Completing Your Degree section.

Per President Meana, the initial phase of campus reopening includes restarting approved research activities. Please visit Research and Economic Development’s webpage to review documents outlining UNLV’s phased approach to restarting research and scholarly activities. Also, if you haven’t yet been in touch with your graduate students about continuing or restarting their research/scholarship/creative activities we ask that you please reach out and do so now. We are receiving lots of questions from students about when and how they can get back to their scholarly work and we are directing them to reach out to you, their mentors, advisors, and graduate coordinators for specific plans.

Like instructional faculty, the university will accommodate remote work for graduate assistants who are in high-risk groups for COVID-19, who live with someone in a high-risk category, or who have family care responsibilities as a result of the pandemic crisis. More information and a process to manage this will follow soon.

In response to some faculty questions regarding whether graduate assistants qualify for Unemployment Insurance, the answer is that neither the Graduate College nor the University controls this nor is there such a status in Workday. Anyone may apply for unemployment on their own through the standard channels. It is the Unemployment Office at the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation that will determine if any applicant, GA or otherwise, qualifies for benefits. Questions about this should be directed to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation as there is no one on campus who can answer these questions.

The UNLV Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) has shared the following information regarding F-1 students from Brazil: At this time, F-1 students will not be admitted to the United States if they have been in Brazil in the preceding 14 days from attempted entry. If students don’t currently have an I-20 or if they have an initial I-20 to start a program, they cannot enter the U.S. at this time and their I-20 will be deferred if it’s possible when the fall semester begins and if UNLV has in-person classes for them to take. If students currently have an active I-20 record, OISS might be able to keep the status active while students take remote coursework in the fall. If students have an active I-20 and are out of the country, they are encouraged to contact their OISS Advisor to discuss the possibility of remote coursework or other options.

The Graduate College Leadership & Professional Development Academy, and other campus offices, are continuing to offer remote workshops throughout the summer to support graduate student online instruction, as well as professional and career development. Find information about them on our Workshops Calendar.

As part of our 2019-20 strategic planning process, we set out to establish a Graduate Student Advisory Council, which will work with the Graduate Council and the Graduate College to ensure the inclusion of a diverse group of graduate students in important initiatives to realize our mission, as well as a joint faculty-student Committee on Graduate Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity. Both of these groups will commence in the fall semester. If you would like to serve on the latter, please send a brief statement explaining your interest to graduate.dean@unlv.edu by July 6, 2020.

I will be staying in touch more this summer than usual as it is important to me to transparently share information, plans, and decisions in order to keep you in the loop. Now and throughout the entire summer, we are here to help you address any regular questions or special issues that may arise. Please feel free to reach out with questions or if we can help in any way. Any COVID-19 issues, questions, suggestions, or concerns should be sent to me at graduate.dean@unlv.edu.

Thank you again, for everything. I wish you a healthy, happy, productive, and safe start of your summer. We will weather these times together.