 But good afternoon. My name is Mallory Martin Ferguson and I serve as the director for the graduate student and program consultation services office, also known as G specs. And we are here to kind of present information related to rack and resources and information about emergency funding for you today. I would like to introduce your your role in particular in relation to the office. Yes, hi everybody I'm Jamia Barrett. I am the conflict resolution and academic relations specialist for the graduate student program consultation services office. So I do a variety of things. Hopefully you all feel comfortable reaching out to us and maybe we'll meet one on one, or maybe in a group setting depending on what workshops you may be a part of so I'm excited to get to know you all and present this information. Excellent. Thank you. So to start, we wanted to just get a sense of kind of where people were at in thinking about this type of information that we're offering in this session today but also your thoughts as you approach your first kind of year of graduate school. So let me see sorry here folks. Get back to my slideshow. I wanted to get my. Let me stop sharing for a second my zoom poll was kind of not working so segue poll questions. I'll do that now without sharing the presentation, because it's not necessarily relevant. But we wanted to ask in particular kind of what folks were thinking about or as they were approaching graduate school what are some things that are kind of on your mind and let me see. We have a lot of polls loaded in here so I want to make sure that I get the correct information here. Okay. So let's see. I don't know folks may be able to answer this but the next poll will be open for you to answer so one of the things that we wanted to ask about was as you think about graduate school kind of entering into this new space, which are some areas that you are excited about so we have a lot of people moving to a new place, learning new things and advancing your research. Generally, when we have asked this of people, we get answers all across the board that meeting new people is really excited I'm excited about moving to a new place being at a different institution perhaps being in a different country, when I'm approaching you know kind of this different aspect of my study, but then also advancing my research that could be kind of something that's really exciting or something that could be a little bit nerve wracking on where you are and kind of your current experiences so that's kind of an example of the question that first one. I think was just a little bit of a blip so I'm going to launch now the second question, which is, as you think about graduate school, what are the areas that you're nervous about so here you'll see some of those same answers right. Meeting new people moving to a new place learning new things and advancing my research. So some of the things that folks might be excited about conversely could also be things that you're nervous about and I'll give people just a minute to kind of answer for themselves. What might be that area, in particular that they're nervous about about 90% of people participated which is awesome. I'll just give it five more seconds. All right, fantastic. So let's see the results. So what people shared our folks able to see this thumbs up or a emoji reaction or comment thank you I got a thumbs up. So this is what we got from the group as you think about graduate school what are the areas you are nervous about meeting new people moving to a new place, kind of, you know, similar although moving to a new place takes, you know, kind of precedence here in kind of that numerical breakdown, advancing my research, maybe not necessarily learning new things you all are graduate students this is your kind of bread and butter so to speak this is the work that you do is kind of that innovation that research and that learning. So learning new things might not be a worry, but it's really about meeting new people moving to a new place learning maybe new things kind of in that place and that's what we're hoping to really offer and share with you today is what are some of those kind of resources and information in this new place University of Michigan that you could access so I have one more question here I want to ask folks. So if you were to occur run into, you know, or a problem or to occur. During the course of your academic study could be personally or academically, where might you go, where might you go to kind of resolve or seek support for that situation. Would you go to your advisor, would you go to your department chair or program staff. Perhaps a family member friend or other support, or maybe some campus resources that you're kind of gathering information about or you're learning about kind of as you explore some of the grad school 101 resources. Awesome I'll give people. Again another 10 seconds or 80% of the people present have participated. Okay, I'll end it there. Here's what the group kind of collectively said is that primarily your advisor might be the person that you initially go to or go to first. If you encountered a problem, whether academic or personal and graduate school, you may also rely on your network of family and friends that might be a network that you have in Michigan are developing in Michigan are relying on you know maybe from a distance. So campus resources, of course, at which Michigan there is, you know, kind of a litany of resources, it's just maybe finding, you know, the right one for you at that right time. But then maybe also department chair or program staff. I hope for you today is to really get a sense of all of these areas and entities are places you can go for support and help this office in particular the graduate student and program consultation services office can be that first place to say I want to talk to my advisor about this but I'm not sure how, or here's what's happening for me like what do you think I should do or what are some resources that would be kind of the most helpful because graduate school is exciting. It is nerve wracking and it's wonderful that you're here to be a part of it. That's why there are some support resources that we have developed to assist kind of in your in your work moving forward so thank you for the patients with the polling questions, and I'll pass it now over to So what does she specs what does our office do so we do student support equity and staff consultations and resolution services right, but to be a little bit more specific we provided neutral and safe environment to talk. We listen to concerns and complaints of students, as well as we refer individuals to appropriate campus resources, we mediate conflicts and we advocate for a fair process. So we do advise on university policy and procedure, and that kind of goes back into our faculty and staff consultation. So we do service students but we also do assist programs so we do a lot of consultation on university policy and our procedures. So, how can you contact us. So you can contact us if you have a problem or a conflict involving the university. You do not know where to go to resolve it, as well as you can feel your concerns are not being heard so if you're going across different, maybe departments or areas, and you feel your concerns aren't being heard. You can always come to us, as well as if you need information about policies and procedures that are affecting. Another situation is if you need help to resolve remediated dispute with faculty or administrative staff. And then lastly, if you believe your rights have been violated, or you've not been given due process. So, some further examples we wanted to offer related to that, because it can be helpful to hear information. Oh, there's this office I can go to hear some of the things they can assist with. But having not yet maybe been in graduate school at this level or at Michigan, there might be some context that would be helpful to provide and so we thought it was important to let you know, generally what are some examples that come their way to I think that's why I and myself to kind of help address. So people mentioned their advisor is maybe being like the point person they would go to if there was an issue or concern. And sometimes the issue or concern maybe related to that advisor or a PI in a lab that you're working, not necessarily negative or harmful but there just might be some miscommunication, there might be lack of feedback too much feedback, or unclear expectations as you're kind of navigating this new and emerging relationship. It could also be related to mentoring concerns feeling like you have really great intellectual mentoring that you have really strong connection to the research, but maybe you have questions about like what to do next for professional development, if you're a master student, what are going to be some of the next steps for me in my career as a PhD student approaching, you know their defense what are some things I should be thinking about what are conferences and areas I should have been, you know, mindful of attending, maybe earlier on in my in my career. So those are all types of different maybe relationship concerns that may come up. Academic progress or coursework concerns. If it ever kind of comes to your attention that maybe there's some milestones or some benchmarks or there's just questions around reaching those milestones seeking some support in reaching those milestones. Those are times that you can reach out not only to your advisor and department but certainly G specs to kind of talk through progress and coursework concerns. So we recognize that not all graduate students maybe are in lab settings and that different kind of disciplines have different kind of group settings and, you know, even research expectations. But the lab can be really interesting place one because it's bringing together a lot of different people in kind of a smaller space, doing maybe very distinct projects, but all working together under kind of one advisor or mentor and so that can just bring up some dynamics as a new person entering the lab or as someone leaves the lab. Those can all kind of shift and change. Or you may have problems or concerns with safety or protocols and so those would be things that maybe we could consult and talk about problem solve a way to enter into the conversation or give you some insight and information around kind of, you know, university and academic policy around some of those concerns where can you report a concern, or can you report a concern anonymously, etc. Access to an eligibility for emergency funding we'll talk about this a lot more later, but we do consult with students who are kind of experiencing maybe financial issues or concerns and are in need of some funds and so we would be able to talk with you about how to access the Rackham emergency fund, what would be maybe helpful framing for your application or if there's kind of a larger need for funding that falls outside of the scope of Rackham how can we help connect you to other university resources in an effort to kind of get some of those needs met for you. And of course, maybe not lastly but ever present is just working to help address mental or physical health concerns and our mental health and well being graduate school as I mentioned is exciting and potentially nerve wracking and with it can come just some different stressors that you're navigating some different skills that you're wanting to develop in navigating this different environment. And if you have questions about those resources or how to kind of advocate for further support or to even understand that support. This would be a great place to kind of, you know, reach out to and do some initial kind of conversation. So now specifically we wanted to talk then about the relevant rack and resources and kind of their intersection with the G specs office in particular so I'll turn it over to Jamiah to talk more specifically about the emergency funds. Alright, so as raccoon graduate students, you do have access to the raccoon emergency funds. So an award can go up to $2,500 for eligible expenses. We do have a website so you can kind of look at the criteria. So if you're wondering or just curious. You can always explore it for yourself as master students you're eligible for one award throughout your time in your program as PhD students you're eligible for two awards throughout your time within your program. Jamiah would you be able to maybe offer like an example of an award or an application that is typically seen or submitted. Yes. So a good, I will say we've seen a number of applications because of weather conditions so I know earlier this spring semester earlier summer. There were incidents where the weather conditions may be caused loss of electricity. So therefore students like refrigerators or out of commission, maybe they needed a generator. Things are the sort where they needed support or needed to replenish their supplies. They can always ask for emergency funds why because obviously students don't plan for natural disasters. So this is an emergency, another good example of an emergency that comes through our applications are unexpected dental bills or things that weren't planned for. So of course it does require that you upload a budget, as well as possible any receipts or documentation for the need for those awards. But most of the time it's just an opportunity for students to express. Hey, an emergency has happened. This is why I need this support. This is what the support will be going to. Perfect. Another area in which we do kind of some direct, you know, resource work and problem solving with students is related to accommodations for graduate student employees with disabilities I should say that is something that is kind of a designated of our office. The reason I differentiate between student employees and students is that you may be both depending upon your role and what is kind of currently happening for you in your program. So if there is a need for an academic accommodation, typically that's thought of as an accommodation in the classroom, you're entering into the classroom and there's a barrier right that needs to kind of be addressed, or there's a timing issue with the academic condition you may have anything related to kind of your your classroom work, especially initially as a first or second year graduate student would typically be addressed with SSD and that is the services. Excuse me for students with disabilities office on campus. I apologize. I apologize for what I did and I typically do. And my voice is feeling it. So SSD is a great kind of resource and entity to kind of reach out to in that regard. If as a student then you find yourself also having an employment term right or an employment contract, typically for our graduate student instructors GSIs or GSSAs. These are things that could be formally requested and sought out through rack through this office there's an online form in which you submit, give information about the condition, the nature of the disability and the requested accommodations. That then kind of comes to me in my role as the resolution officer, and we work in collaboration with your program and maybe even faculty of instruction to implement those reasonable accommodations. The same applies to GSRAs, even though GSRAs don't fall in the same kind of contract category for employment. As GSIs and GSSAs we kind of treat that student employment position in the same vein and so the process is maintained to kind of request those through rack them. Because a GSI role can change term to term, your condition might not change or the nature of your impairment or disability may not change. But because the role does change we do ask that student employees submit an accommodation request term by term so in the fall and in the winter, just to make sure that we're having the most accurate and helpful information for that reasonable accommodation. More about that can be found on our website, the forms, the information and then of course you can always consult with Jamiah or myself about that in particular not only for maybe the academic accommodations, you know, liaising with SSD but also for the employment accommodations. So the two other areas of resources that we wanted to make sure that were mentioned today are about leave of absence and then also parental accommodation. So the leave of absence policy this is particularly relevant for PhD students. RACM does have a continuous enrollment policy and so unless you're on a leave of absence, you need to be enrolled in classes. That's not the case for master students and so stepping away from study for master students is much more of a departmental and advising conversation. But if you ever find yourself kind of considering that as a master student, no please reach out either to us or to your program to kind of talk through the implications of that. But for our PhD students the leave of absence policies are related to kind of forge from areas, a personal leave, a medical leave, family necessity or dependent care leave and then military service. Each of these kind of start out as a term, and then the medical family necessity or certainly the military service, you know can kind of be extended into future terms, depending upon, you know, kind of the need to be away from study. There's an online kind of system where students can request a leave of absence. They seek out departmental kind of approval and awareness of that leave. And then for the medical leave in particular supplemental medical documentation is required just to ensure that there's been a healthcare provider who has kind of signed off and agreed that stepping away from study would be recommended for a student. The medical leave of absence carries forward your student health insurance coverage if you, you know, would like to do so you can decline to have that happen, but generally well out on a medical leave, having your healthcare coverage is really important. So that's something that kind of carries forward on that is a little bit unique and different than the personal leaves and the family necessity and military service. The leave of absence is really stepping away from study so there's no expectation for any academic work during that time. And then when you feel you know ready to return or have you know gotten your needs met in other ways, requesting to return to active study and working with your program for that kind of reentry plan. Anytime you have a question about that want to explore the implications of that are just thinking like this is good to have in the future if and when things come up. Again, please keep that in mind to consult or problem solve with us around. And then lastly, the parental accommodation policy is something that the G specs office kind of overseas. This is not a leave, but it is an accommodation period for reduced academic expectations. So if you find yourself either as a birth parent or partner or an adoptive parent or partner, you would be eligible for six to eight weeks of that reduced academic expectation. That would need to be again a form filled out submitted to rack them signed off on by your program. And for the leaves and also the parental accommodation policy, we ensure that that time is added back to your degree so it extends your time to degree, and we have kind of a notation system to do that internally so that students get worried like, if I have to take this time away if I step away I'm going to, you know, be kind of further accelerated on my time to degree and that's not the case you get that time back, because we recognize that you were away. Doing other things right that you stepped away from those studies or had reduced expectation for study during that time. The parents of partners, as kind of rack them students would be eligible for that parental accommodation kind of policy component. And again questions concerns, you can talk to your advisor department G specs is always here to be a sounding board as well. Alright, so talking about some workshop offerings. So we have a couple of workshops that we offer, and that are available for you all. So we have navigating difficult conversations. So as you're going into your graduate career, you're going to come across a couple of situations where you're going to stop you're going to be stumped maybe you're going to be wondering how can I have this really difficult conversation. So we offer this workshop as an opportunity for you to be able to kind of navigate some of those difficult conversations and use some really good suggestions on how to connect. Secondly, we have our shop called communicating across difference. So goal being, you recognize and you're able to acknowledge the differences that you're having with the people around you, but you want to still be able to appreciate appreciation for those differences and put the emphasis on being able to communicate well. And then we have listening circle conversations. A good example of a listening circle is just an opportunity where staff members from our office will facilitate students being able to have a safe space to communicate with one another share their concerns, whether it's specific to their program, Michigan, I mean some of you all might be commuting or moving to a whole brand new place right some of you all mentioned it in your poll. So it's good to have peers that you can speak with, and people that you can feel comfortable talking with. So our office is willing and has done a number of different facilitations of listening circle conversations. And then we have our virtual office hours. So thanks to our fall semester, we offer virtual office hours on Mondays and Wednesdays through the term. So normally they're about an hour long. You can always sign up to meet with us individually get on our calendars. But if it's last minute and you're like hey, I need to talk to someone you can always stop by our virtual office hours, and you can find the link in times on the weekly rack of student newsletter. So that was us in a nutshell very comprehensive and quick presentation. Here's how you can reach out to us so there is this Rackham G specs email that kind of goes to the office itself. My information is included there as is Jamia's. What I'll do here is stop the share and then what I'm going to add to the chat is just the link also that we have on our web page on the rack of website that you can submit what we call an intake form or request a meeting with us. And so the virtual office hours are a great way, stopping by in person if you're here, you know for fall welcome I just want to get a sense of the rack of building and where our office is you're always more than welcome to do that. Sometimes like as a need arises or something kind of pops up during your time as a graduate student, you can always know that the rack and web page is a place to just say like I'm going to just reach out, submit this intake form let folks know what I'm wanting to talk about sometimes that might work for me, and then one of our staff will work to be in touch with you, you know within 24 hours if not, if not sooner. I'm going to stop there and then see kind of what's coming in on the chat or if there's questions or just kind of things that you're left with as a result of some of the information and resources that Jamia and I have presented. Okay, nothing in the chat. The group is still pondering. Actually, I think there is. There is the question of for the leave of absence. Have you had students apply to take care of aging parents. So, now. Yes, yes. So that would be family necessity or dependent care leave of absence, absolutely. Depending on the nature of the care that would be I think a conversation with us around kind of coverage right does that person living with you are you leaving to care for that person in another place. Absolutely for that type of leave medical documentation is not required, but a rationale so to say I'm leaving to care for this person for this reason is really kind of the only information that's needed but absolutely folks have stepped away to take care of that. That's a reality I think of where we may be in our lives and with our family situation. Yeah. I see another one about a financial advisor on campus. And I would say generally know, however, there's lots of people who have some financial knowledge and information who could be a benefit to you. When it comes to rack up there's the rack and finance and fellowships team so if there's questions related to kind of any funding that you're receiving directly from rack up a fellowship term, or just general like scholarship and fellowship fees, that would be kind of a great, great resource. The Office of Financial Aid has kind of, you know, financial counselors available to talk through the aid and loan process for students. It can be kind of a good first start to kind of talk through what is the financial concern or issue. And then there's this great resource on campus, called the Center for Education of Women CEW plus they work with many more than just, you know, female identified students that's where the plus kind of comes in, but they do offer some financial counseling and financial wellness workshops of one of which I think Jamiah is kind of collaborating on to do a presentation in the fall. So those are some few resources that would kind of work to maybe address some financial questions but there's not kind of a role necessarily of a financial advisor maybe in the way that you're thinking about. Okay, perfect. I have a question about the Rackham newsletter and I'm going to attempt to answer this question but Paul, Kylie and Danielle, I'll defer to you. That's something that I think upon your arrival and matriculation you are automatically signed up for. It comes out every Friday and it will have information about kind of news from Rackham students. There are things to look forward to as far as events and then information about ongoing scholarship and fellowship opportunities so I don't think that there's any action that you need to do for that. But it is something that you can have a look out for on Fridays, when the term begins. And just to add to that the newsletter you're automatically loaded into that, and you will start getting updates in August. So you might miss a couple right now I just had a conversation communications team about it so they don't typically start the cycle for new students until the second week of August so sit tight it will be there. Anything else that's kind of coming to mind general kind of thoughts reactions, or kind of comments about Rackham resources or the rule that our office can help play to support you during your time. Perfect. So there was a question about PhD stipend taxes. I'll have to ask that question I don't have it on the top of my head. But if you wanted to email with me kind of specifically we could kind of work to gap event information for you. And then there was another question about any health care related disputes that may arise with a health care provider, I would say it might depend upon the nature of the dispute. So there is the benefits office at the university right that helps oversee kind of the grad care coordination and benefits itself. And then there's also us our university health service office which is where the majority of students, maybe get some of their care access and services based on the health fee that you pay. They both have staff who can service primary contacts if there's insurance questions, or kind of concerns or disputes related to maybe health care need or a resulting bill or explanation of benefits, etc. Okay. Well, you have our information, we look forward to emailing with you, if and at all helpful at any point in the future. We hope to see folks at fall welcome here in a few short weeks, we'll have a table and so if you want to stop by and say hi, we would very much appreciate that congratulations on your upcoming graduate career at the University of Michigan we're so thrilled that you are here. Thank you. Okay. All right, well thanks everybody, Paul Danielle Kylie alternative to if there's any housekeeping things but we appreciate your time and attention. All right, thanks everyone a couple housekeeping items number one question in the room about this recording this recording will go to our communications team and it'll take one to two weeks to process sometimes a lot sooner but that's just the timeline so look forward in the grad school one on one portal for those who are in grad school one on one you will get the recording any resources. You need with it also Kylie put in the chat the the registrate not registration the evaluation link to this session please fill it out. We love to get feedback about this session about future sessions are grad school one on one for based on the input you get we get from students. So please take a moment to help us out and fill it out. Thank you so much, and we will see you at our next grad school one on one session.