Dear Colleagues,
The Graduate College is dedicated to serving our graduate students and programs efficiently and effectively. As graduate education changes over time, we, too, must sometimes make changes to our operations in order to meet the needs of our graduate community and are continually exploring ways to best serve our campus.
It is for this reason that we are announcing some upcoming changes.
The Graduate College Business and Fellowship Processing Office will be separated into two distinct units – the Graduate College Business Office and the Graduate College Fellowship Office – to allow each unit to focus exclusively on its assigned mission.
As part of this transition, Ken Vickery has been appointed Assistant Dean for Fellowships and will oversee the Fellowship Office. Some of you may know Ken through our External Fellowships unit, which helps graduate students pursue external grants and fellowships, and his work managing the Graduate College’s internal fellowship and grant competitions. In his new role, Ken will also oversee fellowship processing in addition to his current duties.
This past spring, we rolled out our new electronic fellowship processing system, which has many benefits, but there are components of that system, as well as components of our communications with departments and fellows, that warrant reassessment. Therefore, we are also launching a comprehensive review of the operations through which fellowship appointments are managed here in the Graduate College. During that review, we will seek input from departments and other relevant units, with the goal of fellowship processing and communications that maximize quality, speed, and transparency. I have asked Ken to oversee this review, with assistance from senior leadership in the Graduate College.
Over the next few months, Ken will be engaging with individuals and groups from across campus to gather feedback and recommendations, and I look forward to implementing the solutions that we arrive at through this engagement.
The Graduate College celebrates the many fellowship awardees that we have on our campus, and we aim to make improvements that will simplify fellowship administration for faculty and staff and enhance the fellowship experience for students.
Sincerely,
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko,
Dean of the Graduate College
