Dear deans, chairs, and graduate coordinators,

I hope this message finds you well despite our challenging circumstances. Given the fluidity of our situation, we have several updates to share with all of you regarding graduate students and graduate education.

Summer Updates
  • June 1 was the extended deadline to allocate recruitment funds to your new admits for Fall 2020. Please note that any unspent recruitment funds have now been rolled into our COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund. Since March 25, the Graduate College has awarded 160 emergency retention grants totaling more than $182,000; however, due to budget constraints, I regret to tell you that our ability to award these grants is extremely limited for the time being. We sincerely apologize and are doing outreach to prospective donors to help support our students facing the greatest need in the months ahead.

  • As was offered in Spring 2020, UNLV will make the “S/U” grading option available to all students for the Summer 2020 semester. Instructors will submit final course letter grades for Summer 2020 courses, as usual, after each summer session. Once letter grades have been posted in MyUNLV after each session, students will be able to submit a petition to change the grading basis to S/U for completed Summer 2020 courses. This form, which will be available in the Grad Rebel Gateway, will be accepted starting on July 15 for Summer Sessions I and II, and Aug. 19 for Summer Session III. All Summer S/U requests must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Sept. 8, 2020. Learn more on the Graduate College COVID-19 webpage (under Information for Graduate Faculty & Staff -- Keep Students Enrolled & Keep Progressing).

  • Per UNLV’s Restarting Research Plan, it is up to each faculty member to propose safe guidelines to resume their research, including that of their graduate students. Once plans are approved, research may resume. We are encouraging students to work with their advisor, graduate coordinator, or chair to get additional information about resumption plans for their specific research, scholarship, or creative activity. As you know, it is very important that graduate students can safely return to their research or it will have a number of negative consequences including slower student progression, delayed graduation, GA funding challenges, and the likelihood of an increased debt burden on our students. While not all types of research can safely resume yet, many faculty have already submitted plans and restarted their research, including that of their graduate students. Please encourage your graduate faculty to review the Restarting Research Plan and work on both their own plans and plans for their graduate students, as soon as is practicable and safe for them to do so. As discussed at Graduate Council, please note that this may mean running labs for more hours a day (or even all 24 hours) to stagger access, and to engage other creative solutions to ensure safety. Where access to space or resources is limited, I encourage you to give priority to more advanced students.
Fall Semester Information
  • At this point, the Graduate College plans to reopen our Welcome Center and have a limited staff on campus beginning on Aug. 10. We hope to reopen the Gateway Graduate Commons on Aug. 24. Both dates are subject to change, depending on the COVID-19 situation and prevailing NSHE and UNLV guidance.

  • The Office of the Registrar has emailed all students regarding the shift of several Fall 2020 courses originally intended for in-person instruction to remote instruction. Students are encouraged to regularly review their schedule in MyUNLV for updates to mode of instruction. Students can also visit the Fall 2020 FAQs webpage for guidance on the upcoming semester.

  • UNLV has prepared a gradual, staged approach to resume on-campus operations that includes implementing procedures to maintain social distancing and mitigate risk. The university is undertaking enhanced cleaning with EPA-approved disinfectants that are effective against COVID-19, has installed additional hand sanitizers across campus, requires everyone on campus to wear a face covering, and more. We invite you to watch this "Rebels Make Masks Happen" video before you visit campus and encourage your students, faculty, and staff to do so as well. At this point, the fall semester will be a mix of in-person and remote instruction. Classes with more than 50 students will be remote or hybrid. On-campus classes will be de-densified and held in classrooms that are at 50% capacity and allow at least 6’ between people to ensure physical distancing.

  • For classes held on campus: there may be some graduate students who need the course but cannot come to campus due to issues related to COVID-19 (elevated health risks, childcare issues, etc.). We encourage graduate faculty to work with these students and provide them opportunities to participate in the class in a synchronous remote way (i.e. join class and participate via Skype or Zoom on a computer or device in the classroom), or to offer a hybrid, hyflex, or other model of the professor’s choice to include these remote graduate students whenever possible.

  • We distributed emails to international students and to deans, chairs, and graduate coordinators last Friday regarding the July 6 U.S. Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) guidance on enrollment requirements for F-1 visa students planning to study at U.S. universities this fall. The guidance was then rescinded and we sent this message on Tuesday. At the moment, this is good news for our current F-1 students; but it also means that as of now, our new, incoming F-1 students will not be allowed into the U.S. for the fall semester. This is incredibly disappointing and disconcerting. Impacted students may enroll entirely remotely from outside the U.S., though. Keep in mind, however, that students outside the U.S. who do not have a visa and social security number may not receive payment from UNLV, so these students may not be GAs.

  • Please remember that a log of our email messages can be found on our Graduate College COVID-19 updates webpage, along with specific information in different sections for faculty/staff, prospective students, current students, and international students.
We will be sending a separate email to you and all GA supervisors shortly. Please keep an eye out for it as we have even more information to share regarding graduate assistants. Thanks!

As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns. We remain committed to assisting and supporting you and your students during these unprecedented times.

Take care and be well,
Kate Korgan, Ph.D.
Dean, UNLV Graduate College
UNLV is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504 institution. All qualified applicants to the Graduate College, and admitted students, will receive equal consideration without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or covered US veteran status.
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