[Bgsa] Will the new rules about In Absentia Registration affect you?

[Carla Essenberg]

Dear fellow graduate students,

You should all have received an email last week, forwarded by Melissa
Gomez, about a change to the research leave of absence and in absentia
registration policy – see below.  This change in policy could have a
big effect on students doing research off campus during term time –
possibly positive for those working out of state and probably quite
negative for those working in state.

I wrote to Linda Scott to find out what options were available for
people doing research in California, and she said that although the
Office of the President would like Grad. Division to stop allowing
research leaves of absence (which would mean those students would just
have to pay the full fees), Graduate Division is still discussing the
rule change with them and currently is handling these situations on a
case by case basis.  She said that any student wishing to do research
off campus but in California during a term should speak with the
graduate advisor the term before, so that they could discuss the
situation with Grad. Division.

Given that the rules are still under discussion, I think it may still
be possible to influence the final decision about this.  Therefore, I
would be grateful if you could let me know if:

1) You are likely to be affected by this rule change.

and/or

2) You might be interested in trying to do something to influence this
decision, such as helping draft a letter to the Office of the
President or Graduate Division.

I shall look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,

Carla



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Melissa Gomez <melissa.gomez at ucr.edu>
Date: Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 4:20 PM
Subject: In Absentia Registration-New Regulations
To:


Dear EEOB Faculty and Graduate Students,

This message regarding new regulations of In Absentia registration was
sent by Graduate Division:


The Office of the President has approved a drastic reduction in the
cost of In Absentia Registration.  For those of you who are unfamiliar
with it, In Absentia Registration is a form of registration available
to graduate students undertaking course work or research related to
their degree programs outside of the state of California.  Previously
students registered in this status had only $140 from their fees
removed.  Now, students registered In Absentia are only assessed the
health insurance fees and 15% of the University Educational and
Registration Fees.  This means a domestic student assessed resident
fees would pay a total of $1039.80 for Fall Quarter.  Students are
also assessed non-resident tuition and/or professional school fees if
applicable.

What's new?  Graduate students will now be allowed to receive
fellowship awards and be paid as a GSR.  They may not hold a teaching
title.   UCOP has asked that we forgo using research leaves of absence
with the institution of this new policy.

The criteria is as follows: the research or course work must be of a
nature that makes it necessary to be completed outside of the state of
California for at least one full academic term; the work away from the
UCR campus is directly related to the student's degree program; the
work involves only indirect supervision (correspondence or review of
written work) from UCR faculty during the in absentia period; and the
work involves no significant collaboration with UCR faculty during the
in absentia  period.  Master's student must have completed one year of
course work by the time the in absentia period begins and can use it
for a maximum of three quarters.  Ph.D. students must be advanced to
candidacy and may use in absentia for a total of 6 quarters.

If you have questions, please contact Linda Scott at x2-3387 or Karen
Smith at x2-3315.

Melissa L. Gomez
Graduate Student Affairs Officer
University of California, Riverside
Biological Sciences Graduate Student Affairs Center
EEOB and Plant Pathology Graduate Programs and the Dept. of Nematology
Phone (951) 827-5913
Fax (951) 827-5517
melissa.gomez at ucr.edu


-- 
Carla Essenberg
PhD Candidate
Department of Biology
University of California, Riverside