From the Assistant Vice President / OGCS Director

It has been a very busy Fall semester and I am pleased to share some of the many updates, events, and exciting news from the Office of Graduate Continuing Studies. 

Our second quarterly newsletter highlights many of the things OGCS has been involved with and working on with the cooperation of so many colleagues and departments across campus. 

I want to focus my remarks on the extraordinary work of the Graduate Council this past Fall. Below is the charge of Graduate Council: 

The Graduate Council, chaired by the assistant vice president and director for graduate and continuing studies and appointed jointly by the graduate and college deans, is comprised of program directors from each graduate program and the college deans, or their designees. The Graduate Council evaluates feedback, generates proposals for improvement in graduate programs, and formulates policy recommendations in areas such as admissions, academic standards, program assessment and evaluation, accreditation issues, faculty teaching loads and compensation, program promotion, and curriculum development. 

This Fall Graduate Council has also benefitted by the addition of two new ex-officio member, Alisha Miles, Executive Director of the Library, and Fernando Nolasco, Coordinator of Graduate Business Programs. The collaborative work of Graduate Council has resulted in the unanimous endorsement of four new proposed policies. 

The Grade Forgiveness Policy will allow eligible graduate students to repeat one course under “grade forgiveness.” The University Dual Undergraduate Enrollment Policy provides general guidelines for individual colleges to develop opportunities for qualified undergraduate students to enroll in appropriate graduate courses. Based on this university-wide policy, the College of Arts and Letters developed a dual undergraduate enrollment policy for their college. And finally, the Definition of Graduate Level Courses proposal clarifies the designation of graduate courses as 500-level or higher. 

All four proposals were recently approved by the Academic Standards committee and will be presented at the February Faculty Senate meeting.   

Graduate Council has also endorsed the guaranteed admission pathway for qualified UT undergraduates into the Master of Physician Assistant Medicine program, and the guaranteed admissions proposal with Edward Waters University for specific graduate programs. Both proposals have been approved by the Admissions Policy Committee. 

The Council is continuing to work on other important matters including a Graduate Academic Integrity Policy, Graduate Medical Withdraw and Readmissions Policy, providing health services and academic support for graduate students, and establishing a resource and support system for graduate program directors. 

I want to thank all the members of Graduate Council for their dedication and hard work this past semester. I look forward to continuing our good work this semester. 

ART GOON

Assistant Vice President / Director of Graduate and Continuing Studies

OGCS Team Updates

Maria Quillen

Maria Quillen is the new graduate international student admission counselor. She will be supporting recruitment and admission application processing of new graduate international students. Maria previously served as the director of ESL at the university. 

Cameron Sacco

Cameron Sacco is a UT undergraduate alum and was a member of the UT hockey team. He is the graduate admissions counselor responsible for the Executive DBA, Executive MBA, MS in Entrepreneurship and MS in Cybersecurity programs. 

Shannon O'Brien

Shannon O’Brien brings to UT her experience as a research specialist with Marketing Science Institute that serves business schools around the world. She is the graduate admissions counselor for the MA in Professional Communication, MA in Social and Emerging Media, and the Non-Profit Management program. 

Genoa Gibson

Gen Gibson returned to the university after earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UT. She brings a wealth of public relations, effective communication, and project management experience as the OGCS and Graduate Admissions administrative assistant. 

Candice Chan

Candice Chan has joined UT as the university's first Director of International Student Enrollment. She will be working with key offices across campus to continue to provide support and services for undergraduate and graduate students. Candice assumes a key leadership position in the Enrollment Management Division and her office is located in OGCS. We are pleased to welcome Candice to UT.

Increased Enrollments in Winter and Graduate Spring Terms

The University saw a significant increase in students registered for the 2023 Winter Intersession. The 2023 Winter Intersession enrollment included 453 undergraduate and 203 graduate students for a total of 656 students. That compares to 317 undergraduates and 204 graduates for a total 521 students enrolled in Winter Intersession 2022. The increase represents a 38% increase compared to last year.  

The strong enrollment is partly attributed to the increase in online courses offered during the intersession. The ability to take UT courses in the winter term while still being able to return home for the holiday break was very attractive to many UT students. 

The University also saw an increase in Spring graduate enrollments. At the Spring census date 785 graduate students were enrolled in the regular Spring 2023 term along with an additional 99 students enrolled in the Master of Physician Assistant Medicine (PAM) and the Non-Profit Management (NPM) programs for a total of 884 graduate students. In Spring 2022, 751 graduate students were enrolled in the regular term along with 99 PAM and NPM students for a total of 850 total graduate students.  

The increase is attributed to enrolling more new graduate students for the Spring term. Spring 2022 saw 172 new graduate students enroll compared to 208 in Spring 2023 (a 20.9% increase). Total graduate student enrollment in Spring 2023 increased 4.0% (884 vs. 850). 

New Opportunities for UT

The University is pleased to announce two new programs designed to provide seamless pathways for UT undergraduate students to smoothly transition into a graduate degree.

UT undergraduate communication majors now have the unique option to enroll in the MS in Instructional Design and Technology (MS-IDT) program while completing their undergraduate degree. The 4+1 MS in Instructional Design and Technology program allow undergraduate communication majors to take two graduate courses during their senior year and then complete the master’s degree program in just one additional year.

The selective Master of Physician Assistant Medicine (MPAM) has attracted more than 2,000 application each year and enrolls only 48 new students into its program annually. Now qualified UT undergraduates have an advantage. 

Under the Master of Physician Assistant Medicine Guaranteed Admissions program, the top five eligible candidates who earn a UT undergraduate degree will automatically be admitted. UT students will not have to apply and compete against the 2,000 external candidates if they meet the guaranteed admissions requirements. Students can major in any undergraduate degree as long as they complete the prerequisite courses and satisfy the other requirements.

The 4+1 MS-IDT pathway is the sixth accelerated degree program at the University, and the MPAM guaranteed admission is the 10^th such program.

Grad Students Enjoy Family Weekend

Successful Fall Recruitment Events

Increased interest in UT graduate programs were evident based on the attendance at various Fall recruitment events.

The staple of the different opportunities for prospective students to learn more about UT graduate programs remain the monthly virtual information sessions. This Fall 479 prospective students attended one of 67 virtual information fairs hosted by OGCS. Information fairs are presented for each of the graduate degree programs at least four times during the semester. Special sessions that included meeting the program directors were particularly well attended.

OGCS hosted the on-campus Fall Graduate Open House in the Crescent Room of the Vaughn Center on December 14th. This evening event provided the opportunity for about 100 prospective graduate students to meet with individual graduate program directors, graduate program advisors, and graduate admissions counselors. Representatives from the Financial Aid Office and Military Veteran Benefits and Academic Records were also available to answer student questions. 

Instant Decision for 4+1 MEd Curriculum and Instruction Students

OGCS Hosts Minority and First-Gen Students 

OGCS partnered this Fall with the Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement (CARE) at Florida State University (FSU) to host a Discover UT Graduate Programs Day on October 20th. 

CARE operates to provide equity and access to students with identities traditionally underrepresented in higher education who are enrolled at FSU. CARE serves as partner for these students in navigating barriers that exist for them based on educational and socioeconomic circumstances.

Twenty FSU students met with graduate admissions counselors about UT graduate programs. They also toured the facilities of several graduate programs and interacted with current UT graduate students. The two institutions plan to make this a regular event each Fall.

 UT Supports Entrepreneur Event and Develop Guaranteed Admission

The University was a major sponsor of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO) Annual Global Conference held in Chicago on October 28th-30^th. CEO is the premier entrepreneurship network with chapters on university campuses across North America and beyond. CEO currently supports entrepreneurship in over 250 chapters in all 50 states and worldwide.

Its vision is to serve more than 400 colleges and universities helping students achieve their entrepreneurial dreams and goals. CEO provides student entrepreneurs with opportunities, events, chapter activities and conferences to help start businesses. CEO’s headquarters is located on The University of Tampa campus in the Lowth Entrepreneurial Center.

In addition to providing information about UT’s MS in Entrepreneurship and other graduate Business programs at the annual conference, information about the newly signed CEO/UT Guaranteed Admissions agreement was shared with prospective student and faculty representatives. Under the agreement qualified students from all domestic and international CEO member universities can gain seamless entry into the MS in Entrepreneurship program.

The 2022 Tampa Bay INNO Fire Awards

The Tampa Bay INNO hosted its annual Fire Awards on November 2^nd. INNO was established in 2019 by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Since that time, they have been covering, connecting and catalyzing the region's ecosystem, producing digital media, events and intelligence about the entrepreneurs, executives, startups, businesses, trends and topics that are shaping the present and future of Tampa Bay's economy.

The Fire Awards annually honors “new companies setting the ecosystem ablaze in a number of categories including EdTech, startup supporters and cybersecurity.” This year Tampa Bay INNO honored 35 companies at their event.

Cameron Sacco, UT’s graduate admissions counselor for the MS in Entrepreneurship and MS in Cybersecurity programs, was one of the featured speakers at the event. It provided him to the opportunity to speak about the university’s graduate programs and to congratulate the honorees.

UTampa Online Updates

UT Summer 2023 programs will provide students a variety of options to continue their academic progression at UT. There will be over 470 sections offered this summer comprised of undergraduate and graduate courses. Students can find courses to suit their needs, such as: in person, online, hybrid, and zoom courses. Students can register for summer courses starting February 27th.

To find out more, visit the website: Summer Session | University of Tampa (ut.edu)

UTO is proud to announce that we have met a major milestone in online course development. In the past year we have collaborated with just over 70 UT faculty colleagues to develop 90 online courses. It’s a tremendous achievement for both UT faculty and UTO team members.

On another high note, in Fall 2022, UTO held its first annual luncheon aptly titled UTO Annual Trailblazers Luncheon in recognition of our faculty colleagues’ dedication to quality online teaching. We set out to pay tribute to our colleagues who worked diligently to design, develop, and teach online courses at UT. During the luncheon, our colleagues summarized and shared thoughts about their experiences as well as their students’ experiences while teaching their online courses in Summer 2022. We learned of teaching strategies that worked and the ones that were challenging. No doubt, with the success of this event, UTO hopes to make this an annual Fall event to continue to celebrate our online teaching faculty colleagues.

UTAMPA Luncheon

MASEM Hooding

December 2022

MAPC Hooding

December 2022

COB Hooding

December 2022

Happy OGCS Halloween

October 2022

IDT Networking Event

2022

ENS Hooding

December 2022