Dear Grad Rebel,

Congratulations on nearing the end of your program! In light of current events, and in an effort to be especially supportive of graduating students and their faculty advisors during this challenging time, the Graduate College is making some changes to support your continued progress and timely degree completion. These include all the following:

EXTENDED SPRING 2020 DEADLINES
Please work with your advisory committee to determine your appropriate timeline; your faculty may require you to follow the original deadlines, or they may opt for extended deadlines.

If you have applied for summer 2020 graduation but now wish to have your application moved to spring 2020 in light of these extensions, please email us at grad.rpc@unlv.edu.

Deadline to defend your thesis, dissertation, or doctoral project:
Original date: Monday, April 13, 2020 --> New date: Friday, May 1, 2020

Last day to submit the complete and properly formatted copy of your thesis or dissertation to the Graduate College for final format review; culminating experience results forms for students completing a thesis, dissertation, or doctoral project also must be submitted to the Graduate College by this date:
Original date: Monday, April 20, 2020 --> New date: Friday, May 8, 2020

Last day to submit thesis/dissertation format revisions to the Graduate College. All final, properly formatted theses, dissertations, and doctoral projects must be submitted to the Graduate College via email by the end of the day. Please see the Thesis/Dissertation Format Review page for more details or request an online Thesis/Dissertation formatting consultation during our T/D office hours every Tuesday and Thursday from 12-2 p.m. Email gradrebel@unlv.edu at least 48 hours in advance to schedule a time.
Original date: Monday, May 4, 2020 --> New date: Friday, May 22, 2020

Last day for electronic submission of final thesis/dissertation/doctoral project (with formatting pre-approved by the Graduate College) to ProQuest:
Original Date: Monday, May 11, 2020 --> New date: Friday, May 29, 2020

Also, please note that if you utilize these later deadlines, your name may not make it into the spring commencement program; however, we are committed to ensuring that you are recognized in some capacity and are looking into options.

ONLINE THESIS & DISSERTATION DEFENSES
The Graduate College does not anticipate any changes to thesis/dissertation office hours, which are currently held remotely on Tuesday/Thursday from 12-2 p.m. Email gradrebel@unlv.edu at least 48 hours in advance to schedule a time to meet via Skype.

Students must work with their advisory committees to determine appropriate timelines for their defenses. Given current events, the Graduate College will support committees and students who wish to conduct remote defenses, in-person defenses, or hybrid defenses.

If any committee members or the defending student is participating in a defense remotely, programs must utilize UNLV’s WebEx online meeting platform and share the call-in and link information to ensure there is a public component of their defense. The WebEx meeting information for the defense will also need to be sent to gradrebel@unlv.edu when announcing the date/time of the defense.

Students who have a unlv.edu email address will be able to set up their own WebEx room. If not, we advise that students work with a member of their committee to set up a WebEx room for the remote-enabled defense. If this is not possible, please email gradrebel@unlv.edu for assistance.

COMPREHENSIVE, PRELIMINARY, DEPARTMENT EXAMS, AND CULMINATING EXPERIENCES
The RPC team will continue to send individual degree check emails to students as they apply for graduation. We defer to individual academic departments to work with faculty to determine whether rescheduling or moving comprehensive, preliminary, or other exams/culminating activities online is appropriate. We advise that any changes to these activities be applied uniformly to students graduating in a single term in a fair and equitable manner. Finally, we strongly encourage faculty and graduate programs to support students’ continued progression and timely completion, despite the changes to campus operations.

Please visit and review our new webpage where we will continually update information regarding accommodations to support graduate student success during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Please email us at grad.rpc@unlv.edu with any questions about graduation deadlines, or at gradcollege@unlv.edu for any other questions about our COVID-19 accommodations or related matters. We’re here to help! Please take care and be well.

Sincerely,
Your Graduate College RPC Team