Announcements

Join fellow graduate students for informative, casual meetings and hear the latest news and updates from the graduate student perspective.  Snacks will be handed out at the end of each meeting. All graduate students are welcome and encouraged to attend. Full details available on the Comet Calendar.  

Since its founding as a student organization in 2018, GSA has advocated for the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) to be included in the standard compensation package for all graduate student teaching assistants, research assistants, and graduate assistants (TA/RA/GAs). We are excited to announce a major success for graduate students at UTD: as of the Fall 2022 semester, all fully-enrolled UTD TAs, RAs, and GAs will be offered SHIP as part of their standard compensation package.

Thank you to all of those who shared testimony with GSA—we took your messages directly to President Benson and Vice President Martin—and thanks to those who took independent initiative to advocate for better conditions in their schools.

Please see the letter from Provost Musselman sent out March 1 to learn more about this change in policy. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please send them to GSA using our confidential survey link – utd.link/askGSA – to help us collate a list of FAQs that can help guide final decision making for the policy change as well as establish a page of FAQs for graduate students to reference.

April 17, 2021:

The Graduate Student Assembly passed amendments to the Constitution officially on April 17, 2021. The amendments were passed with 100% approval from the GSA Leadership. Updated Constitution is available here.

A summary of some of the key proposed amendments are as follow:

1) Specified all Leadership roles are considered voluntary and receive no monetary compensation.
2) Addition of GSA Working Groups, Programs, and Initiatives section.
3) Merging GSA Committees to become GSA Auxiliary Committees.
4) Removal and Resignation from Office procedure modified to require 5-day notice to respondent and 5-day notice before the final vote.

April 3, 2021:

The Graduate Student Assembly passed amendments to the Constitution officially on April 3, 2021. The amendments were passed with 93% approval from the 58% of voting members that participated.

A summary of some of the key proposed amendments are as follows:

• Article III. Membership
  • Removal of voting members clause. All members of GSA (i.e. all currently enrolled UT Dallas graduate students) allowed to vote on appropriate matters.
• Article IV. Administration:
  • Clarifying responsibilities of GSA Executive Board and School Representatives and addition of new role, Vice President of Programming & Vice President for Leadership Coordination & Oversight. 
  • Inclusion of School Representatives election by graduate students, similar to Executive Board elections.
  • Adding language for steps for resignation or removal from office.
• Article VII. Non-GSA Committees
  • Formal addition of rules for nomination process that was established in Fall 2020.
• Article VIII. Amendments
  • Amendment approval done by 2/3 vote of GSA Leadership.

If there are any concerns, please reach out to us via https://utd.link/askGSA.

The Office of Graduate Education (OGE) and Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) hosted five live Q&A sessions for graduate students who might have questions regarding pass/fail exceptions for graduate students.  

Important Links:

• Pass/Fail Grading Policy 
• Electing P/F in Orion 
• University FAQ 
• Graduate Courses Not Eligible for Pass/Fail 

Presentation and live session recordings:

• Presentation (Updated Apr 21)
• Session 5 Recording (Apr 21)
• Session 4 Recording (Apr 20)
• Session 3 Recording (Jan 12)
• Session 2 Recording (Dec. 9)
• Session 1 Recording (Dec. 8)

Still have questions?

• General Questions? Email the Office of Graduate Education
• Specific Questions? Contact your academic department (and please be patient)

April 6, 2021:

On April 6, 2021 a memo was shared with faculty regarding increased presence of on-site laboratory personnel by the UT Dallas Vice-President for Research. The on-site presence of each laboratory group has now transitioned to a 75% simultaneous occupancy level. Assuming continued decreases in the COVID-19 case numbers in the Dallas Fort Worth Area combined with growing percentages of vaccinated individuals in Collin and Dallas Counties, the administration is tentatively planning for restoration to 100% on-site activity in mid to late May. Until further notice, the on-site safety precautions will follow the guidance from the CDC including but not limited to: participation in training, online daily health check, use of the Laboratory Reservation system, wearing face coverings in the laboratory and nearby common spaces, and social distancing. Read the memo here.

If there are any concerns, please reach out to us via https://utd.link/askGSA.

March 22, 2021:

Graduate Student Assembly denounces acts of racism, hate, and violence against Asian and Pacific Islander people. The increase in hate incidents since the beginning of the pandemic against Asian and Pacific Islander people as well as the murders of 8 individuals, 6 of whom were Asian-identifying, last week are clear evidence that racism, discrimination, and intolerance are still present within the US. We mourn the loss of these individuals and support our fellow graduate students of the Asian and Pacific Islander community. We all must do our part to prevent hateful actions on our campus, within our community, and throughout the US.

If you are in need of help, please check out the resources provided by various offices on campus including the Student Counseling Center, the Institutional Compliance, Equity, and Title IX Initiatives, and the campus police. GSA is always here for our fellow graduate students, so please reach out us via https://utd.link/askGSA if you ever need anything.

Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) and the Office of Research hosted a Research Continuity Town Hall on March 10, 2021 to respond to questions and concerns submitted by graduate students via the Graduate Research Experience Survey. This survey was intended for graduate students to provide their feedback on university research continuity efforts and COVID-19 resources by the Office of Research. This town hall had representatives from The Office of Research, The Office of Graduate Education, Emergency Management & Continuity Planning, COVID-19 Health Screening and Training Program, and GSA.

Click here to access the Town Hall recording

We have also compiled together a list of questions or concerns received from the survey data, which were asked during the Town Hall. While you might not see the exact question you submitted, you will find similar questions addressing them. The below document also provides appropriate links of the offices you can reach out to for further concerns.

Click here to access the document with list of questions and links

Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) conducted two surveys in Spring 2021 to determine both the research and teaching experiences of graduate students during COVID-19. The summarized data of the Research Experience Survey was shared with the Office of Research and used to come up with solutions to common problems faced. The summarized data of the Teaching Experience Survey was shared with the Provost and Committee on Effective Teaching and similarly used to find solutions to persistent issues faced by students.

Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) has been working since its founding to advocate for an increase in graduate student stipends as well as a decrease in the cost of the student health insurance plan (SHIP). In Spring 2020, two surveys were launched to gain information about PhD stipends and graduate student health insurance. Both were quite successful and we received over 350 responses and 750 responses, respectively. The findings from these surveys were presented to Academic Senate in January 2021. The presentation was well received by the over 100 faculty, staff, and administration in attendance, and we plan to continue discussing this topic in that setting as well as with key administration. Additionally, we have also met with President Benson in December 2020 to discuss this topic and and with Provost Musselman in February 2021. After discussions, we came up with the following suggestions:

1. Compare average UTD stipend to similarly ranked institutions nationwide
2. Compare stipend of specific departments to similarly ranked institutions nationwide
3. Investigate solutions other universities, both within and outside UT System, have implemented to lower or cover costs of graduate student health insurance

We are actively investigating suggestions 1 and 3, however, we hope to be able to tackle suggestion 2 in the future once we can have a larger support team look into this more time-intensive analysis. Unfortunately, policy like this cannot change overnight or sometimes even in a semester, so we cannot guarantee a set date when this change will happen, but we do commit to continuing to push until we see the change. Please continue to check this site as well as attend our general meetings to hear the updates.