GPD LEAD
Leadership Enhancement for Graduate Program Directors
GPD LEAD is a professional development and support program for Graduate Program Directors and staff offered by The Graduate School. Workshops and discussion sessions offered twice monthly during the academic year on a variety of topics of common concern run by the Graduate School in collaboration with a variety of offices on campus.
The objectives of GPD LEAD include:
- Dissemination of key policies and procedures governing graduate education
- Skill building in leading and evaluating graduate programs and graduate student success
- Community building, support and practical advice from peers on managing the challenges of graduate education in your program
- Best practices in admissions, annual reviews, mentoring, and fostering cultures of excellence and inclusivity.
Spring 2023 Schedule
All meetings are 12:30 - 2:00 pm
Remaining GPD LEAD meetings will be on Zoom
Zoom sessions will be recorded and all resources from sessions will be available in the One Drive folder. If you need access to the folder please email grad-communications [at] grad [dot] umass [dot] edu.
Friday April 7. Strategies for Supporting Master’s Students
Shana Passonno, Director, Office of Professional Development
As the 2021 Campus Climate survey motivates discussions about students’ sense of belonging and connection, the Office of Professional Development (OPD) considers how student engagement influences such feelings. Have you been struggling to get students to participate in interactive online activities or attend in person programs? Well, OPD has! To explore student engagement as a strategy for skill and community building, OPD piloted an in-person, cohort-based Career Working Group (CWG) for International Masters students during the 2023 winter session. Observations from this pilot program offer potential insights for improving feelings of belonging and program satisfaction.
Register Here: Strategies for Supporting Master’s Students
Friday April 21. Best Practices for Your Handbook
Kate Woodmansee, Senior Associate Registrar, Graduate School, Beth Jakob, Associate Dean Student Success, Graduate School, Rebecca Ready, Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Tips from the Graduate School on what should be in your graduate program handbook and why. There will be examples and time to ask questions.
Register Here: Best Practices for Your Handbook
Friday May 5. Supporting Students for Both Academic and Non-Academic Careers
Johanna Yunker, Associate Director for Higher Ed Careers, Office of Professional Development, Graduate School
Students who have no idea what comes next are not rushing to graduate. Luckily, faculty can dramatically impact graduate students’ awareness and confidence in their career prospects. In this session, we’ll consider some of the ways (big and small) that GPDs can support graduate students in their career exploration and applications, as well as examine some examples of departmental policies designed to support students’ career aspirations.
Register Here: Supporting Students for Both Academic and Non-Academic Careers
Friday February 17. International Students: Visas, Enrollment requirements, OPT programs, Housing advice
Ken Reade, Director of International Student & Scholar Services, International Programs Office
International graduate students at UMass come from 107 different countries and are more than 30% of the entire Graduate School enrollment, with some graduate programs having an even higher percentage of international students. Are you up to date on the regulations that govern their matriculation? What do your students need to know if they want to stay in the US after they have graduated? Ken Reade, Director of International Student and Scholar Services will go over the staffing and services that the International Program Office provides to students. Bring your questions. There will be plenty of time for Q & A.
- The international student process: admission, visa documents, US consular process, arrival
- Maintaining F-1 immigration status: full-time enrollment, reduced course load exemptions
- Employment: Curricular Practical Training (CPT) & Optional Practical Training (OPT); other employment visa options after UMass
- IPO programming and outreach
- Q & A
Register Here: Session has passed
Friday March 24. Beyond Recruitment: The Value of First Year/Professional Seminars
Michele Cooke, Associate Department Head, Geosciences, Jacqueline Urla, Dean, Graduate School
Experience shows that first year seminars are a useful means of introducing graduate students to their department’s degree program requirements, unveiling the ‘hidden curriculum’, and building many of the foundational skills required for graduate work – all of which contribute to student success, retention, and a more cohesive department culture. For this workshop, Michele Cooke (Geosciences) will present the research that she and colleagues have done on the value of “first year” seminars, in particular for promoting DEI goals of inclusion. We will share syllabi for year-long and semester-long first year seminars oriented to STEM and non-STEM graduate programs and discuss our experiences teaching them.
Register Here: Session has passed
Fall 2022 Schedule
Friday, Sept. 30: Graduate Admissions
Associate Dean Wilmore Webley, Lindsay DeSantis, Director of Admissions
This session will review what you need to know as GPDs and administrative coordinators about Grad School processes of admissions. We will also talk about application fee waivers, how to introduce more holistic evaluations of applicants and the advantages this has for increasing underrepresented students in your program.
Session has passed.
Friday, Oct. 14: Graduate Student Funding Sources
Heidi Bauer-Class, Associate Director, Katie Mooney, Director of Student Assistantships, Sheilagh Hanley, Director of Finance and Administration
This workshop will give you an overview of the sources of internal funding for graduate students offered by the Graduate School, the workshops we offer to help students write successful proposals, and what you can do as GPD to enhance the success and experience of students who receive prestigious external fellowships.
Session has passed.
Friday Oct. 28. Annual Reviews, dismissals, SOL
Kate Woodmansee, Senior Associate Registrar, Associate Dean Beth Jakob, guest GPD
In this GPD LEAD session we will discuss the value that a formalized annual review process has both for students and for your program.
Annual reviews help identify problems and stumbling blocks so remedies can be taken early. They can be a time for building a stronger sense of cohesion among faculty and grad students.
We will discuss some of the criteria to keep in mind in organizing an annual graduate review and have some examples from the highly successful review process used by Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.
We will also review Graduate School policies and answer questions about requests for extensions of the Statute of Limitation, Withdrawals, and best practices to follow in academic dismissals.
Session has passed.
Friday Nov. 18. Grad Students as Employees/Title IX updates
Jocelyn Tedisky, Assistant Provost for Academic Labor Relations, Jules Purnell, Equal Opportunity Office
This workshop has critical information for both current and new GPDs. The dual roles of graduate students as both students and employees can create some confusion. Assistant Provost Tedisky will help parse some of this out, and also review essential features of the GEO contract. The second part of the workshop will be dedicated to informing you of updates to Title IX reporting and answering questions you may have about your reporting responsibilities as GPD.
Session has passed.
Friday Dec 2. Data gathering on your graduate program.
Krisztina Filep, Director Operational Analytics
Discussions around the data available to departments, specific to graduate students, and how it can be used for a variety of purposes (reporting, accreditation, strategic planning, etc.). The session will include training to familiarize you with the university’s dashboards to support data-driven decision-making, as well as guidance for equity-minded sense-making and analysis. After attending, you will have access to detailed dashboards about the university.
Session has passed.
Note that all GPDs are required to complete FERPA and Flagship Analytics trainings. Please complete FERPA before the session if possible. The session will serve as Flagship Analytics training and an opportunity for a refresh or asking questions if you are already trained. You can visit the University Analytics and Institutional Research website for more on trainings or email oir [at] oirp [dot] umass [dot] edu.
If you missed any of the Fall sessions and need access to the resource folder, please contact grad-communications [at] grad [dot] umass [dot] edu.
