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Spring Evaluations (Doctoral and MFA students only)

Spring Evaluations (Doctoral and MFA students only)

Owned by Norienne Saign
Last updated: Jan 30, 2025
4 min read

The Spring Evaluation is a requirement set by Graduate Council and overseen by GEPA. The evaluation serves as documentation of the student's progress in the graduate program. Evaluations are an important tool for students and their faculty advisors in assessing student progress and in providing suggestions for the students’ successful completion of the program. Graduate Council policy states: "This evaluation will indicate: the degree to which students are, over-all, progressing satisfactorily in their studies; their strengths and weaknesses as students and, where applicable, as teaching and/or research assistants. These evaluations should contain cogent and clear advice to students."

Spring evaluations are always due at the end of Spring quarter.

The Spring Evaluation tool is accessed by staff through GEPA’s Student Database or by faculty through the Faculty Spring Evaluation tool (graduate students access it through the Graduate Student Portal).

For additional information on Spring Evaluation policy and to link to the online evaluation tool, please see our webpage here.

See PDF below for an overview document of the process for routing the evaluations and some helpful hints.

FAQs 

All doctoral and MFA students are required to have an evaluation completed by the end of each Spring quarter. The tool is generally opened in late March/early April.

Spring evaluations need to be completed by the end of each Spring quarter. For students who are on leave in Spring quarter, the evaluation needs to be completed by the end of Fall quarter.

Both faculty and the student are required to provide input on and sign (via SSO) the evaluation.

For students who have not advanced to candidacy, 2 signatures are required: 1) the student’s advisor or faculty designate (chair/vice chair/director of graduate studies); 2) the student.

For students who have advanced to candidacy, 5 signatures are required: 1) the student’s advisor/committee chair; 2) a committee member; 3) another committee member; 4) the department chair/vice chair; 5) the student.  

It is strongly recommended to complete an evaluation to document the student’s status and plans.

This depends on when the leave of absence starts and ends. 

  • If the leave is for the entire academic year (Fall, Winter, and Spring), no evaluation is required. 

  • If the leave is for Spring only (or for Winter and Spring), an evaluation is due at the end of the student’s return in Fall. A hold will be placed on the student's registration in November to prevent Winter enrollment.  (*Note: if the leave is extended through Fall, the evaluation will be due in the subsequent Spring)

Please contact Graduate Academic Affairs for any other specific scenarios. 

  • A student who has advanced to candidacy in Winter, Spring, or prior to the first day of Fall quarter instruction is exempt (advancement paperwork must have been received by GEPA). 

  • A student on a leave of absence in Spring quarter will need to submit an evaluation by the end of Fall quarter.

  • A student on a leave of absence in Spring quarter and the following Fall quarter will be exempt.

It is strongly recommended to complete an evaluation to document the progress and expectations. This is particularly important if and when the plans change.

If you have an evaluation that has been returned because it is missing the department/program chair’s signature, see below for the steps needed to route the evaluation back to the program chair.

  1. Make sure the “Sign” box is checked in the Department Chair section

  2. In the Evaluation Status section at the bottom, click on the "Route to Evaluation Committee" box

  3. Click the "Save Form" button

  4. Click on the "Route to Student" box

  5. Click the "Save Form" button

Since the student has already signed, the evaluation will automatically route to the chair’s queue. 

 

You can add or delete your department chair/vice chair as needed. Simply access the “Manage Users” tab in the tool to modify your users.

This is the same process as described on the Student Database page under the “Adding a Department User” section.

Click on the arrow that appears to the right of the student/faculty name at the bottom of the evaluation form. This will route the form back to the person to allow edits. The answers provided previously will
be retained.

For the student, go to the “Evaluation Status” section at the bottom of the page and click on the arrow to the right of the “Route to Student for Signature.” If you hover over the arrow it says “Return for edits.”

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For the faculty, the arrow appears to the right of the faculty name along the right margin.

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