GRAD Connect New Student Q&A: Fellowships

Will give you a kiss.

I'm already.

Background.

I can't understand. I don't know how to.

What message tips on the computer down?

Are you in the waiting room?

Who?

Is that better?

I guess.

Antonio screen open. Turn the computer off one over 2.

So I can't see anything on the computer.

Just press the little button, but the light is.

The out.

Don't forget to switch it back on.

OK.

This is.

Hello.

How are you?

Good, how about you?

Good as she meant to load the PowerPoint before we talked, but.

OK, will you go ahead? I'm I'm doing something else.

Alright, well let me back let me back out. I'm gonna actually just back out for a second and then.

I will load the PowerPoint and it will take me a problem in it.

OK, no worries, I'm here.

With it

Alright, oh power. Apparently I can keep talking while I'm doing that, alright?

Cool.

How How do I do that?

You're asking Maine?

No, I'm talking to myself here.

Do you anticipate the full term being affected by kovid?

I'm done.

Now it can be totally gone by then.

He's a He's not sorry.

He's not that you can ask him.

Yeah alright.

How's it feel like to study at the University of Alabama, the environment, social life and others?

Yeah, it sucks. Don't come here.

Hang on.

Did I not rename that hold on a second?

Can't put a virtual background on this one, can you?

So you might be able to. I got her.

I had a quick look in the settings, couldn't find anything but.

Yeah.

Alright, Here we go.

Said

So you're doing a PowerPoint presentation first.

Yeah.

Right?

Control slides.

How the hell I might have to set this up later? I can't remember how the hell I did this.

Unless you do need to back out and do it for you.

Sign in or broadcast.

Oh, hang on, here we go after I found it is in a different place.

Update.

All right?

Yeah, there's a settings tab. Would some of this stuff in all right there we go.

I can see the settings tab so OK.

So.

I've uploaded that.

Want to do that?

Yeah, that's not married. That's good.

The last blank screen.

Alright, I'm back.

They are.

Can you can you see, like uh?

I don't see any other. Well, the.

Oh yeah, you might have to refresh or something like that.

Thank you.

Or even turn off broadcast video and turn it back on.

OK, hang up.

And there we are. I can see you and the slides.

Excellent yeah, so hopefully you should see slides changing.

I I have the operators view.

OK, but you can see different slides on the screen.

OK, I can see that the next slide that's coming at the bottom.

All right?

Yeah excellent OK good yeah so so basically you know we're going to be in here. I've got a short intro script that Jacob and Britney wrote for me.

It's quite funny, uh?

And then I'll step through the PowerPoint.

Actually I've got to update that slide. That's a different group of people now. Alright will do that.

Well, Abby Kelley, there you go.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm gonna talk briefly about stuff we've done associated with COVID-19.

OK.

Uh, hang on this is the wrong damn slide is the wrong power point. This is why this is wrong.

Sure.

Good good. Have you got 2 hours to get ready?

What?

This.

Hey, that's OK. We're just getting that it works.

This is why we do this.

Absolutely right.

Alright, let's replace.

Hold on, let me bring in an you PowerPoint.

Choose file.

Update.

Did you pick up the check Jan?

Yeah, OK.

Yeah.

Listen to that one.

Well, both checks OK.

Well, I'm going to turn off my bra.

OK.

Reconnect.

Do you think this is the right one?

Alright, well we're working on the principle here. OK, yeah, yeah.

Goodnight

OK, that's that's. I mean, that's a big question also.

They cover all that is.

Thank you we got a time limit here.

Yeah OK alright.

Soon if I start prattling on and on.

All right?

Where it says chat all questions gotcha.

Shins panel.

OK.

OK, cool.

Looks so far if you can just get the right slide show of course.

What?

Yes, I don't actually need to see it, really do I?

All right?

OK.

So I could, yeah it could be over fairly quickly.

Yeah yeah no.

So this is, this is just one of the many wonderful functions within slide.

Yeah.

I need to have a look at this.

Well, the the the only thing that well that's one thing that worries me is that we seem to be making this work so well. Are any of us going to go back to campus?

And this this is actually more accessible for students rather than having to come traipse across campus will come onto campus, to visit us in our offices. So yeah, now it, it looks pretty good.

Yeah, yeah.

Not.

Looks good, looks good all right.

I'll sign on about what 10 minutes before 2:00 o'clock.

And make sure it make sure you can see Maine.

Alright, I'll see you there.

Bye bye.

Can you hear me?

But he went away.

Hang on, let me go to press the right buttons.

Can you hear me?

I can can you hear Maine?

Yes, you keep changing shape though.

Changing shape.

Make screen thing doing this.

Now I'm on the same shape as always, I'm afraid.

No change there, so.

You are really quite soon. For a moment there your whole picture like this.

I think I let me try and see if I can recreate that hang on.

PowerPoint is up and on the system.

Ready OK?

Yeah, uh.

It does look like we already have a participant in. I'm not sure if they can hear us yet, so we should probably behave ourselves.

I need to go in.

And set up.

The.

Did you?

How that would go?

I'm going to change.

Let's see, I'm a moderator.

You are now not a moderator.

It is.

Oh OK, how does disappeared?

Hannah is there. Hannah Edwards in there.

Yes.

Back there we go, you disappeared. I just did everything, went blank.

Yeah, I actually need to take, uh?

I need to make sure Hannah is not a moderate are now as well, so I'm gonna change some thoughts. Something here quickly.

Every time you change something, my end collapses here so.

Yes, I know, sorry about that. I'm gonna.

Now you've gone so.

I'm back.

And I'm back as well. There you go, how's that?

All right?

Hang on.

Where's my phone?

He's bringing.

Hello.

Yep.

It.

It's the principle of Central High School.

Your pitch in trouble again I.

Now it's a if you wanted to Zoom Zoom, Uh, a a Chrome laptop.

For your student.

Yeah.

OK, I think we're pretty well fixed up here. Thank you, but not thought.

Alright, so I see. So Hannah is sort of in law. Let's see her if you can hear us.

Uh, click on broadcast video.

If you can't hear us, I'm just not talking to anyone.

Yeah, so do we want? Yeah we want to get the students involved in this process.

So, uh.

Yeah.

Ah.

Every time you do something, it just kicks me out so.

OK.

That wasn't Maine.

So on the on the left hand panel, do you have participants and two other tabs or one tab?

One tab.

OK Alright good, what's it? What's the tab?

Chat.

OK, good, so that is where the question should appear once I approve them.

OK.

At least, that's the goal.

Alright, let me bring up my intro document.

Ah.

Yeah, not sure what happened to Hannah.

How's John doing?

Oh

Too bad she had. Sisters are an essential service provider with maternity stuff. Breast pump for the hospital so she has to open or not open but she has to be available for appointments three afternoons a week. Django's down to help her Monday.

Wednesday and Friday. So she is there this afternoon.

What's up?

Otherwise, she is running her class for her 17 three year olds from here.

Yeah.

Cute.

Hello.

Have you been watching? Yeah, OK. Have you learned anything you?

Uh, your crap it puzzles.

All right?

No, not quite, not quite there. The kids. It's really enjoying it, so that's good.

So I saw Hanna Jump back in.

Uh, again Hannah. Or if you are.

Listening select broadcast video.

Bingo.

Hawaii.

She had say, Hannah.

Hi.

I was what I could see. You sort of coming in and out and then not appearing.

Yeah, I have kind of bad Internet right now so I kept refreshing it.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for joining us. The main reason I wanted you in here is just so you can see sort of get an idea for how these work because a couple of weeks you know it's possible that you next week or so we might have you even helping out. Run one of these.

OK, yeah.

So I thought just having you see one would really help.

Yeah, sounds great.

How are you doing?

Yeah, well, because everybody else.

Yeah.

A lot of transitioning, but hang in there.

We're all learning to be flexible.

Yep, Yep.

It's crazy.

Yeah, yeah.

Alright, let me make sure I've got my Word document here.

Got that fair.

Alright, so that set up.

So I think the participants can come in right at.

Uh, right at 2:00 o'clock.

One minute and 17 sixteen. 1514 seconds ago.

Yes, exactly.

We only had about 12 people signed up for this, so I don't know how many people actually turn up.

Rule of thumb is if 12 people turn up about half of them will.

Will actually.

Sign on.

But that's OK if we can only help a couple people, that's that's good.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Better than nothing.

No.

Exactly.

Well no one can accused of not being here to help.

Yeah.

39 seconds.

Yeah.

Exciting.

Nerve wracking.

Yeah, so Hannah I've got a short intro then we've got a PowerPoint. It will go through and it will be so fairly self explanatory and then we'll open up for questions.

OK.

But as soon as it opens up, I'm going to put a note in the chat that.

What was my keyboard is my keyboard?

That will start about 1 one or two minutes past.

Drop the flooding in.

Yes.

Can you see my cat? My message?

Excellent.

Yeah.

At 9.9, participants includes the three of us.

It.

10 now.

I think so, yes.

OK, we're doing well.

Yes.

Did you see my slide page?

Yes.

Yeah.

That's OK.

Cortana I forgot to add new to the intro slide, I apologize.

It's stuck on the second slide. It hasn't gone back to the.

Did that unstick it?

No not, I'll leave it has little roll forward once you start.

Yeah.

OK.

Close my email silence my phone.

All right?

OK, let's get started. Oh, welcome to the University of Alabama Graduate Schools Live Fellowship Q&A.

With thrilled by the responses we've received from your and we look forward to answering your questions about Graduate School fellowships.

I do want to let you know that the Graduate School is committed to providing the best possible support and services to all of our students, especially during the COVID-19 prices.

Journeys uncertain times. We work hard to remain flexible as the situation develops.

Today, myself and two other members of the Graduate School team are here to respond to your questions about fellowships.

We hope to address your concerns transparently and thoroughly.

However, before we begin.

Let me introduce ourselves.

So let's say we have three people in total. We have Hannah Edwards, who is one of our great Graduate School employees.

Uh.

So she is joining us and will may be able to answer the question specifically about the campus. I could see a couple of camper.

Questions about that.

Uh John Chambers is joining us as well. John has worked in the grad school for most two decades. Is our director of administration.

John deals with all things financial. He's also.

The person who will help you with the final submission of your thesis or dissertation. So one thing we've learned is it's very important to keep John on your good side.

John holster represents Santa Claus at Christmas.

My name is Andrew Goodliffe. I am the associate Dean of the grad school. In this role, I'm responsible for the recruitment, admissions, and scholarship fellowships. So obviously this is more the fellowship part of my responsibility is more relevant to this.

I've worked in the grad school since 2012, but I came to the University of Alabama as a professor in 2004.

Now you're probably gonna notice that John and myself really don't have southern accents.

So we broke originally from the UK, so Hannah is actually the US representative in this team.

Yeah.

Before we before we start a little bit of housekeeping.

First, we're going to go through a small number of slides. These slides will give an overview of some of the important points. Also going to address some of the pre submitted questions in these slides.

In a Q&A that follows up, don't be shy. This is your opportunity to answer or ask any questions that we have not addressed.

So let me move on to.

The next slide.

So if you're anything like our students on campus, uh, you're very concerned about the implications of the coded 19 crisis.

The important thing in Grad School is we're really learning to be very, very flexible. We've been doing a lot to accommodate our more recent applicants. Things like waving test scores for people who replied since this crisis started.

Uh, for my current students we are accommodating, uh, all of the forms that students have to fill in online and our transition to working remotely is actually being being quite smooth, were largely operating as normal, so if there are questions, don't hesitate to email ours or coolers.

Uh, as you as you probably know, also, uh, classes right now are being taught in remotely.

Also, after summer one classes which is for the semester basically in June are being taught remotely. We don't know about summer 2, which is basically the semester taught in July. So that's up in the air.

Um?

We are when it comes to thinking about four 2020. We are hoping, hoping hoping that everything is back on campus.

Uh, so you know that is that is not dearest hope we won't be back on campus. Those of you who are familiar with our campus know how beautiful is and know how much we must miss.

Campus.

We have been getting a lot of questions regarding.

Is my fellowship secure? Is there a chance that my funding will be rescinded?

We have had assurances from our Provost that incoming students are the number one priority. There are no plans whatsoever to rescind any fellowships, so we hope you can come here to actually get that fellowship.

Uh, as always, you know things may change beyond that control. Please do know that right now the plan is to move forward with your fellowship.

Uh, as currently planned.

All right?

So hopefully you can see the next slide, which is how do they fellowship work?

So I want to briefly describe to what it means to be on a fellowship.

One of the important things with these fellowships is that there is no service expectation, so we are giving you this fellowship because you are among our very, very top applicants.

And we want to give you money to support your studies.

So we don't expect you to a server that EA or anything like that on this fellowship.

Now.

Amongst the people who on the cool you probably have a variety of different fellowships, are most common. Fellowship is the Grand Council Fellowship, and then we also have the National Alumni Fellowship and the McNair fellowship.

The G, CF or Great Council Fellowship and the Na National Alumni Association Fellowship.

Are mostly one year fellowships.

Uh, there are some of you who will have what we call capstone fellowships.

So those capstone fellowships are actually five year offers of support were grad school supports you on a fellowship for years, 1, three, and five.

And the your Department supports you on an assistantship for years two and four.

Some of you on me regular Grand Council Fellowships will also have been afforded what we call FTP or Fellowship Enhancement Partnership.

So that means we've added a supplement to your fellowship.

For those of you in PhD programs, the supplement will actually continue for a total of four years.

And your Department.

I've actually made a commitment to an assistantship in year 2.

So this is kind of complicated, but I do want you to go in and look closely at your fellowship mode, 'cause we've tried our best to kind of layout. Exactly how this will work for each of you and I do want to let you know that your Department also have copies of these fellowship letters, but if they do have any doubt, just refer them to myself or John.

So based on the questions that I got, there were also a lot of questions about how is an assistantship different to a fellowship.

So as I mentioned, a fellowship has no service requirement.

We don't know you're not expected to teach or anything like that.

The an assistantship. In contrast, you're actually we actually expect some sort of service back from you, so that could be helping teach a couple of classes. It could be helping a professor do research in a lab.

So those are two very very different things.

We're very happy that those of you who have a fellowship have a fellowship, because that actually frees up a lot of your time to study more classes to get going on your research, etc. Whatever may be applicable.

For those people who haven't assistantship, they don't necessarily have that luxury, because they're going to have to be working on teaching. So it's a great privilege to have a fellowship.

One question I did have was, is it possible to have an assistantship and Fellowship at the same time? This is something we really. It's really not very common. We really don't encourage it because again, the goal of the fellowship is to free up your time to do great things.

You know?

Do that cutting edge research, uh?

If you do end up having an assistantship In addition to the fellowship, there are some caps on salary and so there is a point where the amount of the fellowship does start to decrease as well. So really you know, we do hope that you know just just on the fellowship and.

You know that is that is really what you concentrate on. All right? I am going to hand the next slide to Mr Chambers and he's going to describe to you how the fellowship is paid to you.

OK, thanks Andy. Um, the the way the fellowship is paid is spread over the period of the award was and he said most of them are academic year or 12 months awards. Some Department asked us to spread them over a 12 month period to help match the way they pay their assistant chips in their Department so that people are kind of.

There's no differentiation there in terms of how people are getting their money for the fellowship payments themselves, they're paid to you at the end of each month. At the end of each calendar month, we process them around about the 25th 26th day of the month. In theory, that is then paid to your student account.

And that gives you a couple of days. Till then, move those phones from your student account to direct deposit to a bank account and give you access to them before the end of the month so you can go and pay your bills. Are your rent keep everybody happy.

Uh, it's as I indicated, it's paid to you through your student account.

That is one of the other differences, and he was talking about differences between a fellowship in assistantship an assistantship is paid like wages and salary, and his painting you through the payroll system as opposed to your student account.

The only problem with that is the potential problem is because it's pay through your student account. If you have any outstanding charges on your student account. If you have been parking your car illegally and getting a parking ticket, or if you have been stealing books from the library, you might see some charges on your student account. Those charges will be taken off any of those funds, but before their paid to you.

Um?

And that's that's basically, it is paid to each month. Uh, the first month is usually the end of August, the first month of the academic year. So that means your last month's paycheck will be end of April in the following calendar year.

Suddenly I'm the University offers its own student health insurance plan which can be purchased by any student undergrad or grad. It can be purchased for each semester. It can be purchased for an academic year or it can be purchased for a whole 12 month period and basically the plans run from August through December from January through to May, April, May.