Summer/Fall CRN Glitch Fixed

Our long programmatic nightmare  is over.  If I’ve already said you have a class, then you don’t need to write me.  I’m going to be transferring your registrations off my tracking sheet and into Raiderlink today.  The following table is FYI so you can double check your registration next week. I’m going to try to get the official webpages updates with CRN’s today, but they’ll ultimately reflect the following list, anyway.  These official pages are, in case you’ve forgotten,  as follows:

Summer: http://www.english.ttu.edu/tcr/Grad_Courses/GradSummer2010.asp

Fall: http://www.english.ttu.edu/tcr/Grad_Courses/GradFall2010.asp

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Summer on-campus

Eaton, 5383, sec 001, CRN 30204

May workshop

5365, Rice, D21, X21                        23149/23189

5388, Carter, D21, X21                    23304/23306

5375, Kimball, D21,X21                   23257/23265

Summerlong online:

5365, Lang, D22 and X22                30230/30231

5377, Cargile Cook, D21, X21        23272/23277

5365, Baehr, D23, x23                     30232/30233

5377, Carter/Baake, D22, X22       23274/23281

5386, Zdenek, D21, X21                 23294/23297

5386, Booher, D22, X22                  30205/30206

5390, Kemp, D21, X21                     23323/23330

Fall on-campus (all section 001 except the second section of 5060)

5060 Kemp, sec 001, 15494

5060, Rice, sec 002, 15502

5377 Still 15293

5361 Kemp 24313

5363 Cargile Cook 15059

5371 Booher 15203

5368 Carter 24314

5376 Baehr 15286

5384 Zdenek 15358

5387 Baehr 24320

Fall online

5363 Rickly D21/x21,        15066/23802

5361 Rice D21/x21,          23800/23801

5368 Carter D21/x21,      24315/24316

5371 Baake D21/x21,      15206/23804

5379 Eaton D21/x21       26581/26582

5377 Still, D21/x21,         15298/23817

5390 Lang, d21/x21,       18850/18851

Spring Grad Notes

Dear Grad Students,

I hope you had a pleasant Christmas and that your vacation is relaxing. If you find yourself sitting around with nothing to do, I’d like for you to take a look at the university’s official spring calendar at http://www.depts.ttu.edu/officialpublications/calendar/09-10calendar/09-10detailed.php#Spring

For everyone, dates that matter are
Jan 29 — last day to drop
Mar 24 — last day to declare a course to be pass-fail (rather than a grade)
March 13-21 — spring break
April 5-20 — early registration for summer and fall

For those of you who intend to graduate:
Jan 29 — last day to file intent to graduate form with grad school
march 3 — last day for doctoral students to file a dissertation defense notification form
March 25 — last day for thesis and dissertation defenses
April 2 — deadline to submit final thesis/dissertation to grad school
April 21– last day to submit comprehensive exam reports for master’s students (that means we’ll have portfolios due before spring break to allow the faculty committee time to evaluate and give feedback)

Please plan accordingly by looking at your own calendar and by engaging your faculty WELL in advance of these deadlines. Just because the last day to defend is 3/25 doesn’t mean that ALL defenses may take place on that day. One committee member may serve on multiple committees and there’s only so many defenses you hold in one day.

In preparation for spring advising, f2f doctoral students will meet with their faculty committees in late Feb or early March for their annual reviews, and you can pick your classes at that point. (online PhD’s will do this in May) All students should look at the summer and fall openings in Jan/Feb, and talk with me and/or your committee in March so that you can have your permits in place when registration opens.

Please look at your spring feebills and registrations — we’re still experiencing glitches due to Banner, and if you see something odd, please let me or Christy know. Don’t panic because we’ll surely fix it. Pay your bills timely and don’t get dropped and we’ll correct amounts as we learn about them. Those of you taking distance sections (d21/22 and x21/22 are more likely to have fee problems, but those of you in 001’s and working for the department are more likely to see glitches with waivers of various sorts. We’ll sort these things out as we learn of them.

Looking ahead, we’ll host the online phd May workshop May 16 – May 29, and you’re all encouraged to meet these online students if you’re in town and you’re also invited to come hear our invited guests, Jeanne Fahnestock on May 20, and Michael Hughes on May 27.

That is all — enjoy your break and don’t forget to eat some black-eyes peas for New Year’s Day.

Paying, Registering, Browsers

With our old system, you would have seen a bill the minute you register. It appears that under our new system, a bill doesn’t generate until the semester is almost complete (summer 2 is almost done), so I anticipate bills posting very soon.

If you have not registered for a course for which you’ve been given a permit, please go ahead and register yourself — there’s no point in waiting.

Once bills generate, you’ll get some type of message to your TTU email account (so watch for that), and once the bills generate, you’ll see a bill by logging onto “my TECH”/”raider link”. You will be able to pay your bill online as well.

One other thing to note is that you may need to use Firefox as you internet browser instead of Internet Explorer, because for some reason, the new version of IE doesn’t work with our system, and you wouldn’t be able to pay your bill online.

Variable Credit

Under our new registration system, you have to be very careful to monitor the number of units you are actually registered for when you sign up for a variable-credit course like 5000, 7000, or 8000.

Regardless of whether this course requires a permit or not (because the permit doesn’t specify the number of credits for a variable-credit course), when you first register (or are registered), you’ll automatically receive a registration for 1.0 credits of your chosen course.

You still need to click on that “1.0”, which will bring up a separate window in the registration portal, and this is where you can modify the number of hours. Although the interface allows you to choose tenths and hundredths of credits, please don’t do this — positive integers are the only appropriate response. (By the way, it’s the same process for your adviser — there is no shortcut for any of us.)

When you’ve changed your variable credit, double-check your list of semester registrations to verify that the number is correct.

Registration and Section Numbers

ENGL 5000 Professional Development
This course is used for MATC portfolio preparation and for any student taking coursework who needs extra hours in order to maintain 3 hours in order to keep their financial aid, student loans, teaching assistantship, or research assistantship. Sign up for local instructor’s section number for variable credit. Sec. 11=Borshuk, for example.

ENGL 5300 Independent Study
Online students register for section D21 (Texas residents) or D31 (non-Texas residents), regardless of the instructor. Local students sign up for the instructor’s section (Grass, Carter, Dragga, for example).

ENGL 5378 Internship
All online students register for section D21 or D31, regardless of the internship instructor of record. Local students sign up for the instructor’s section.

ENGL 7000 Research
English 7000 is used for preparation for qualifying exams, and online students may register for section 027 (Carter) or 009 (Dragga) for 3 hours (reducible to 1 hour by student petition for extraordinary circumstances).

ENGL 8000 Dissertation Hours
All online students register for section D21 or D31, regardless of their dissertation director. Local students sign up for the instructor’s section.

All dissertation students (online and on-campus) register for ENGL 8000 at a level of 3 units fall, 3 units spring, and 1-3 units in the summer term of their choice. More hours may be taken, as 8000 is a variable-credit course — a student might be ready to graduate and still lacks 5 units, for example. In the semester of graduation, they will register for at least 3 hours. This policy is in accordance with the graduate school’s requirements. (In all but the graduation semester, long semester hour requirements may be reducible to 1 hour by student petition for extraordinary circumstances.)

Registration Procedures for Spring 09

Dear graduate students,

If I have given you a permit for a course, please go into raiderlink (raiderlink.ttu.edu) and register yourself. IF it’s a variable-credit course (like 5000, 6000, 7000, or 8000), you need to make sure you’ve picked the right number of credits (3 in most cases, but 6 or 9 in others). You will need to know the CRN of the course, as I believe the system does not tell you which courses you have permission to take (go figure). All spring courses are listed, along with CRN’s, at http://www.english.ttu.edu/tcr/Grad_Courses/grad_courses_spring09.asp

If we have had a mis-communication, don’t panic – there is plenty of time for registration. We’re using a new campus-wide system, and it’s going to take time before we become more efficient. Please keep track of fee bills, fee waivers, residency status, full-time status, financial aid, and other official items, as they’re all being managed by this new system. If we need to write memos to Student Business Services, the Registrar, Financial Aid, or any other office, we’ll do it as problems become apparent to us.