This manual summarizes the procedures for graduate students in the Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation at Northern Arizona University. Questions which may arise concerning program matters discussed in this manual should be directed to the Graduate Program Coordinator of the Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation.
The official Northern Arizona University General Catalog, NAU Graduate Catalog, and the NAU Student Handbook also govern students in the Graduate Program in Rural Geography. Students are subject to all of the guidelines and regulations set forth in these official publications, in their editions covering the year in which the student enters the Graduate Program in Rural Geography.
The Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Rural Geography. The student's M.A. Committee and its Chair oversee the conduct of each graduate student in the department. Many decisions on a student's progress in the program are subject to approval also by the Graduate College. In most cases, the Geography Department submits the forms necessary for such approval, once the student has provided the required information or documents to the Department, as described later in this manual.
Graduate students in Rural Geography are professionals in training. As such, they must respect all federal and state guidelines and laws pertaining to privacy, confidentiality, and conflicts of interest; and to ethical standards of study and research.
1. Admission Requirements (These guidelines are presented in the application packet mailed to all students and, therefore, are not repeated here.)
2. Admissions Standing All graduate students are admitted to the Rural Geography M.A. program in one of three possible categories of standing:
Graduate Regular Standing. Regular Graduate Standing is full admittance to the program. The Department gives its strongest consideration for Regular Standing to applicants who meet the following criteria:
Graduate Provisional Standing. Applicants who have deficiencies in any of the areas of the requirements for Regular standing (above), may be considered for admission to "Provisional" Graduate Standing. Applicants admitted to Provisional standing must address their deficiencies within their first year of full-time (or equivalent) study. Students with Provisional standing must be admitted to Regular Graduate Standing by the start of their second year of full-time study to continue in the program. In all other respects, students with provisional status are treated in the same manner as those with regular status.
Students who do not have an undergraduate degree from a geography department or program will be placed on provisional status. In most instances, such students will be able to make up the geography course work requirement through one semester (12 credit hours) or less of undergraduate course work. These course work deficiencies, however, need not be completed prior to enrollment in graduate courses.
Graduate Non-Degree Standing. Applicants who do not meet the minimum requirements for either Regular or Provisional standing, OR those who choose to not apply directly to the Rural Geography M.A. program, but who still meet the Graduate College's minimum requirements for graduate study, may be considered for admission with "Non-Degree" Graduate Standing. This last standing also is available to students who, from the start of their graduate career, choose not to pursue a formal degree. The Geography Department is not involved in the granting of the status, only the Graduate is. Due to limited resources, non-degree standing students are not advised nor supported by the Geography Department. Policies on shifting from Non-Degree Standing to Provisional or Regular Graduate Standing are discussed below.
3. Changes in Graduate Standing A student admitted only to Provisional Graduate Standing is automatically changed to Regular standing upon satisfactory completion of all deficiencies. In addition, to qualify for this change in standing, the student must maintain a minimum grade of B in all course work taken to remedy deficiencies, and must achieve a minimum overall GPA of 3.0 in the Graduate Program while in Provisional standing. The Graduate College inquires of the Rural Geography Graduate Program Coordinator each semester of the status of all Provisional students. The Coordinator checks the status then notifies the Graduate College of any changes. Since human error is possible, it is advisable that the student notify the Graduate Program Coordinator when they feel they have met their requirements.
A student admitted to Non-Degree Graduate Standing also may apply for Provisional or Regular standing. To qualify for this change in standing, the student must go through the Geography Department's formal application process for admission to the Rural Geography M.A. program. In addition, the student must apply to the Graduate College to have their standing changed. This may involve submission of all undergraduate transcripts, as well.
4. Changing from another NAU Graduate Degree Program Students transferring to the Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation from another graduate program at Northern Arizona University must follow the same procedure as a non-degree standing student.
Applicants changing from Non-Degree Standing or transferring from another NAU graduate program may apply no more than twelve (12) credit hours of graduate course work taken in Non-Degree standing towards the student's Rural Geography degree. The total number (up to 12) that will be accepted is determined by the student's academic advisor, with approval of the Department chair, the Graduate College, and possibly the entire Geography Department. A petition form for this is available from the Graduate College.
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Unless you are paying full out-of-state tuition, your time at NAU is subsidized by the citizens of the state of Arizona. It is the intention of the policies cited in this document to ensure that you take the personal responsibility to progress through the M.A. in Rural Geography program in a timely and efficient manner.
1. Advisors Each student works with a formally identified Academic Advisor, who oversees the student's entire program. Beginning Spring 1996 semester, all new students will have already identified the academic advisor that they wish to work under. Both the student and the advisor must sign an agreement form before the student's application for admission will be evaluated. New students will be expected to meet with their academic advisor at the earliest possible convenience. The academic advisor will also serve as the Chair of the student's thesis committee. New students who have a academic advisor must also meet at least once upon their arrival with the Graduate Program Coordinator. Once a faculty advisor is designated for a student, the student is strongly discouraged from changing without good cause. A petition made in the form of a letter to the Geography Department is required to change the academic advisor, and must be approved by the Geography Faculty.
Each student is required to meet at least twice each semester with the academic advisor (once at the beginning and once at the end of the semester). In addition, each student is required the arrange a meeting of his or her committee at least once each semester, beginning in the second semester of full-time attendance at NAU. If the student is not attending full-time, then some other arrangements may be made in consultation with the academic advisor. It is the student's responsibility to arrange these meetings. FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE REQUIREMENTS ARE GROUNDS FOR (1) A FACULTY MEMBER RESIGNING AS THE STUDENT'S THESIS CHAIR, AND (2) ADMINISTRATIVE DISMISSAL FROM NAU BY THE GRADUATE COLLEGE.
The student's academic advisor serves as the student's first line of support when any problems arise over procedural matters within the student's graduate program. Problems not resolved at this level come to the Graduate Program Coordinator or Department Chair, who may elect to bring the situation before the faculty as a whole. Should the Department not solve a problem in a manner satisfactory to the student, the student should refer to the official University guidelines in the NAU Student Handbook for further options.
Faculty occasionally go on leave from the university, for example during a sabbatical or research leave. If the student's academic advisor or a member of the student's M.A. Committee plans to be on leave during a crucial part of the student's degree work, such as during completion of the thesis, the student must make prior arrangements with his or her academic advisor to ensure continuity of advisement.
2. Program of Study Form The academic advisor and/or Graduate Program Coordinator assists the student during the first semester in the program to draw up a statement of the student's intended Program of Study. (There is a form for this purpose available from the Department.) This statement sets forth the student's general goals within the program, areas of topical interest (including the minor program), and a schedule for completing the requirements for the degree. This statement may be revised as needed during the student's program to serve as a continuing guide and focus of communication between student and academic advisor.
With the assistance of the student's academic advisor, the student is required to update their Program of Study form within the first two weeks of each semester that classes are taken at Northern Arizona University. This original form is filed in the student's official department file and must be kept current of any changes (adds/drops/withdrawals) during the semester. A second copy is maintained in a separate file that is available to all faculty members for purposes of tracking each student's progress. These Program of Study forms are reviewed by the entire department faculty on a regular basis.
FAILURE TO SATISFACTORILY PROGRESS ALONG A PLANNED PROGRAM OF STUDY IS GROUNDS FOR (1) A FACULTY MEMBER RESIGNING AS THE STUDENT'S THESIS CHAIR, AND (2) ADMINISTRATIVE DISMISSAL FROM NAU BY THE GRADUATE COLLEGE.
3. Registration New and Continuing graduate students must register for classes in consultation with their academic advisor. Continuing students are strongly encouraged to use the Early Registration procedures available, as described in each semester's Class Schedule. Opportunities for new students to register early are increasingly being made available through the Graduate College. Otherwise, all students must register during the arena registration period, which takes place the week before the beginning of instruction for each semester. New students, and any other students who have not enrolled for over a year, cannot register until they have been officially admitted or readmitted to the program.
All registrations require special forms, which must be signed by the student's academic advisor. Regular registration (including Early registration) requires one kind of form. Students seeking to change courses ("Drop/Add") or to register late must use other special forms, and may need to obtain additional approvals as indicated on those forms. (Advisor signatures are not required on Add/Drop forms.) The necessary forms are provided in the Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation's main office.
Along with the university registration form, students must submit a Change of Advisor/Major form (blue) the first time they register, and anytime after if they change their academic advisor. Although the purple registration form also asks for the Major and Advisor codes, these forms cannot be used to change the currently designated advisor in the university's computer.
4. Full-time Study NAU considers students to be "full-time" when they carry at least nine semester hours of credit. Federal laws governing many kinds of financial aid, including graduate assistantships, require the student to be enrolled full-time to maintain their eligibility. Audited courses do not count towards the requirement of full-time enrollment. Graduate Assistantships require that the student take a minimum of 9 hours of courses, all of which can be directly applied to the degree program. For summer assistantships, the student is required to take 4 hours of courses in either the 10-week summer session, or in each of the shorter summer sessions. A graduate student may take a maximum of 16 credit hours in one semester. Special "course overload" forms must be approved by the student's academic advisor to take more than 16 credit hours in one semester (or 6 credit hours in one summer session). NOTE that Graduate Assistants (R.A.s and T.A.s) may take no more than 12 hours in one semester.
The Department and the University recognize that some circumstances may preclude full-time study. Student's are expected to maintain at least one credit hour of registration at NAU every semester that they are in the M.A. program. Failure to do this without an authorized leave of absence will result in an automatic dropping from the program by the Graduate College. Forms are available for registering without having to be on campus.
Students must take at least one credit hour of thesis in the semester which they defend the thesis. If the written thesis is not completed in the semester of defense, the NAU Graduate College requires that the student register for a minimum of one credit hour of thesis in the semester that the thesis is completed, and final graduation is awarded.
Students must also register for at least one credit hour in any semester or summer session that they expect to receive advising or use any facilities on the NAU campus. Depending on the level of NAU involvement, the student may be required to register for more than one credit hour.
5. Leaves of Absence Students who will be away from the Department without enrolling for a semester or longer must request permission for a Leave of Absence from the Graduate College in writing at least one month prior to departure. Without permission for a Leave of Absence, a student not enrolled for a regular semester or longer must apply to the Graduate College for re-admission when he/she returns to the program. A letter requesting re-admission to the Department is also required. At the Department's discretion, the student may be required to resubmit the Department application materials, as well. Re-admission is not automatic and may be denied by the Department.
6. The M.A. Committee Early in the second of full-time study at NAU, each student must form a M.A. Committee to oversee their thesis research. Once a student has formed a Committee, the Chair and members of this committee becomes the student's academic advisors through to graduation. The M.A. Committee Chair is the student's official academic advisor for purposes of registration approvals and related advisement matters. However, all students must still obtain the written approval of the Graduate Program Coordinator and the Department Chair on all formal procedural matters, such as petitioning to transfer credit hours from another school, or as described throughout this Program Guide. The Graduate Program Coordinator is always available to answer questions on procedural matters pertaining the student's degree.
Forming a Committee. Each student is admitted to the M.A. in Rural Geography program with an academic advisor, based upon an agreement form signed by the academic advisor and the student. In addition, the Graduate Program Coordinator serves as an advisor on the technical aspects of navigating through the degree process. The Chair of the committee is normally the academic advisor originally assigned to the student. The student should then consult with the Committee Chair and with other faculty to identify prospective faculty or other professionals to serve on the full committee. This must be done by the beginning of the student's second semester in residence. In addition, the student must consult with the Graduate Program Coordinator, who must also approve the Committee. M.A. Committees consist of a minimum of three persons, including the Committee Chair, who must be a Geography faculty member. At least one half of the Committee members must have regular, continuing faculty status in the Department of Geography. One or more of the Committee members may be a part-time faculty, or faculty from another department or university. The Graduate College may allow non-faculty members to sit on a thesis committee. Such a person, however, must hold at least a Masters degree and the student must show just cause for having them on the committee. The student must obtain the approval of the their academic advisor/Committee Chair and the Graduate Program Coordinator before inviting other faculty to be members of the Committee.
The Graduate College requires each student to submit a formal request for a M.A. Committee to both the Department and the Graduate College for approval. A Department Graduate Committee Recommendation form is available for this purpose from the Graduate Program Coordinator. Upon obtaining the verbal consent of the prospective Chair and Committee members, the student must obtain their signatures, as well as those of the Graduate Program Coordinator and the Department Chair. At its discretion, the full faculty of the Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation may also review Committee composition. Once all of the signatures are secured, the Graduate Program Coordinator will forward the recommendation to the Graduate College for final approval. A M.A. Committee is not considered approved until the Graduate College returns its authorization to the Department. Changes to the M.A. Committee's composition required approval of the committee, followed by a memo to that affect from the Committee Chair to the Graduate College.
The student must arrange a formal meeting with his or her graduate committee by the middle of the second semester in residence. In addition, the student must arrange a formal thesis committee meeting each semester that he or she is registered full-time at NAU. Students who are not in residence or full-time must make some other arrangement through their academic advisor. FAILURE TO TAKE THESE ACTIONS IS GROUNDS FOR DISMISSAL FROM THE PROGRAM.
7. Financial Assistance and Graduate Assistantships Students desiring financial assistance of any kind should inquire about these opportunities as early as possible. The Department and Graduate College offer several opportunities for Financial Aid, primarily in the form of Graduate Assistantships, Work-Study, and Tuition Waiver Scholarships. Graduate Assistantships may be for either research or teaching assistance to faculty. Graduate Assistantships also provide non-resident student with a waiver of non-resident tuition fees. Resident tuition fees are not automatically waived for Graduate Assistants.
It is the policy of the Department that graduate assistantships are re-evaluated each year, and there is no guarantee that a student who is awarded an assistantship one year will continue with an assistantship into the next. This is primarily because the Department's funding for graduate assistantship changes from year to year.
Tuition Waiver Scholarships (both for residents and non-residents) are offered by the Graduate College based upon the Department's recommendation. They are very limited and competitive.
Part-time, temporary, occasional, or summer employment are sometimes available. These types of employment are often offered through the university and may be treated as a Graduate Assistantship, except that the student is working outside of the department. Non-paying internships and volunteer positions may also be available for those students desiring to gain skills leading to employment. Other than Tuition Waiver Scholarships, financial aid for graduate students is primarily limited to student loans and work study positions. Information on these opportunities is available from the Office of Student Financial Aid. The address is NAU Box 4108, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, phone: 928/523-4951.
The Office of Rural Resource Management and Planning (ORRMP) often has research assistants available for geography students, as does the Forestry Department. Students should regularly check the Geography and Forestry Bulletin Boards on the first floor of our building.
Graduate students who wish to work in the department are also encouraged to apply for College Work-Study through the Office of Student Financial Aid. Students are asked to do so, so that the Department can compete for the funds available and thereby extend the funding abilities of the Department to the greatest numbers of students.
Applications for Assistantships and tuition waivers from resident students must be received by March 1 for priority consideration for the Fall Semester of the same year. Acceptance of a Graduate Assistantship or a scholarship may affect a student's eligibility for federal financial aid. A student applying or approved for federal financial aid should consult a counselor in the Office of Student Financial Aid before accepting an Assistantship.
A student awarded a Graduate Assistantship in the Department must appear for work at the times designated in their expectation agreement/contract. Otherwise, the student will forfeit the assistantship. Exceptions are granted only if requested in writing and approved by the academic advisor supervising the assistantship. Research assistants are on a 45 day probationary period. Teaching assistants are on a one-semester probationary period. At the end of the probationary period, the students progress will be evaluated and a decision to extend or withdraw the assistantship will be made.
The amount of work-time required of a student awarded a Full Assistantship is 20 hours per week for the period beginning one week prior to the start of classes each semester and ending at the end of the week of final examinations (unless otherwise indicated in the student's contract.) Assistantships with smaller stipends are also awarded; these require fewer work hours per week. Most geography assistantships are only 10 hours a week. The scheduling of the contracted hours of work for each Assistantship will be negotiated between the faculty member supervising the Assistantship and the student.
If the student wishes to find another position to work up to 20 hours a week on campus, they must receive written permission from the Graduate Dean (by way of a recommendation from the Graduate Program Coordinator.) NAU will not allow students to work more than 20 hours on campus while they are taking classes. Additional hours can be worked during vacation periods, with the Graduate Dean's permission.
Please be aware that most Forestry graduate assistants, with whom many of you will share office space, receive a higher salary than those in Geography. The reason for this is a federal grant program that provides large sums of money specifically to forestry graduate schools across the U.S. No such program exists for geography. (Forestry faculty also teach about 1/3 fewer courses than Geography faculty due, in part, to this same federal program.) On the other hand, there are many graduate programs in the U.S. that provide no assistantships for their students.
Work-Study and Assistantships are also awarded by other programs on campus. It is the student's responsibility to explore these possibilities through the appropriate offices on campus. The Department does not administer any of these programs, but students is asked to notify the Graduate Program Coordinator whenever they are working on campus outside of the Geography Department. A list of other University units where graduate assistantship are available for qualified geography students is available from the Graduate College.
8. Directed Study Directed Graduate Study may be undertaken through any one of the following courses:
GGR 608 Fieldwork Experience (1-12) Special Fee
GGR 685 Graduate Research (1-6) [pass/fail only]
GGR 697 Independent Study (1-3) [graded only]
GGR 699 Thesis (1-6)
These non-classroom courses involve direct supervision of a student's work by a faculty member in an area of the supervisor's expertise. The NAU Graduate College requires a minimum of 24 classroom hours for a Masters degree. Therefore, in a 36 hour Masters program, such as Rural Geography, students could apply a maximum of 12 hours from the courses listed above, including Thesis. (You may take more than 12 hours, but the excess would not apply to the degree.) Since six hours of thesis are already required in Rural Geography, only six additional hours from GGR 608, 685, and 697 may be applied to the degree.
A student wishing to pursue Directed Study must arrange with a specific faculty member to supervise the work. Students may not normally take a Directed Study course when the subject matter is covered in a regularly scheduled course. A student wishing to pursue Directed Study must also:
9. Grade Requirements The Graduate College maintains strict policies on the minimum cumulative GPA necessary for graduation with any degree, and on the number of semester hours for which the student may receive a grade of C without forfeiting her or his degree status. These policies are set forth in the Graduate Catalog. Courses in which the student receives a grade below "C" will not count toward the 36 credit hours required for the graduate degree. They may, however, with approval of the student's academic advisor, count toward meeting degree content requirements--in which case the student need not repeat the same course over. In addition, only two courses with a grade of "C" may count towards the required 36 credit hours. GRADUATE STUDENTS WHO RECEIVE A GRADE OF "C" IN 10 CREDIT HOURS OF COURSES WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE FROM THE GRADUATE COLLEGE AND THE M.A. IN RURAL GEOGRAPHY PROGRAM. GRADUATE STUDENTS WHOSE GPA FALLS BELOW 3.0 FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE SEMESTERS WILL ALSO BE REMOVED.
Graduate Assistants have an additional burden. THE NAU GRADUATE COLLEGE WILL NOT ALLOW AN ASSISTANTSHIP TO CONTINUE IF THE STUDENT RECEIVES A GRADE OF "C" OR BELOW IN ANY CLASS. Graduate Assistants must also maintain 9 hours of courses that may be applied directly to the degree program while they are on an assistantship (except for Summer when the requirement is 4 credit hours.)
10. Incomplete Grades Faculty may give the grade of Incomplete only for the reasons stated in the Graduate Catalog. The 1994 Graduate Catalog also specifies that the student must complete the course work in question within one year following the end of the semester in which the course was originally taken. (Note that previous Catalogs placed this limit at one semester instead of one year.) An Incomplete not erased during this grace period will automatically change to a Permanent Incomplete in the student's record unless the instructor turns in a grade based on the student's work to date.
The university requires that a student who takes an Incomplete draw up a written agreement with the instructor stating what work is required to complete the course within the Graduate College's time limit, at the expiration of which the instructor will turn in a grade. The agreement should specify the grade the student would receive based on the work already completed, and is placed in the student's file. An Incomplete Grade Agreement Form is available from the department. Students are strongly advised to avoid an incomplete grade, as the lack of completed credit hours may jeopardize their eligibility for current and/or future assistantships and other forms of financial assistance administered by the Department.
Certain courses may carry the grade of IP (in progress). These include Thesis, Independent Study, Directed Reading, and Internship. IP grades may extend beyond the time limitations place on Incomplete grades.
11. Semester Review The Departmental faculty hold an Semester Review of all graduate students, to evaluate the progress of individual students and the effectiveness of the Rural Geography program overall. This review is held at the beginning of each semester. The faculty review each student's record for the past year, based largely on the Program of Study Form and input from the student's academic advisor, and evaluate whether the student is making satisfactory progress. In instances where the student is not making satisfactory progress, either the students committee or the faculty as a whole may offer recommendations to the student to allow him or her to remedy the situation. Such recommendations are based on a timetable of reasonable expectations for completion of the M.A. program. STUDENTS WHO FAIL TO COMPLY WITH ADVISORY DECISIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT'S SEMESTER REVIEW MAY BE SUBJECT TO DISMISSAL FROM THE RURAL GEOGRAPHY PROGRAM.
12. Petitions and Appeals A petition is a written request to the Department Faculty for approval of a course of action which departs from the requirements set forth in this Guide. For example, a student may petition for permission to waive a required core course for some reason. Before filing a petition, the student should meet with her or his academic advisor to discuss whether a petition would be an appropriate action. If it appears appropriate, the student then petitions the Department Chair to examine the requirement in question and consider any alternatives proposed by the student for meeting that requirement.
The student seeking to submit a petition should prepare a written request for consideration, together with any additional documentation deemed necessary, under the supervision of his or her academic advisor and other members of the M.A. Committee as needed. The petition is then submitted to the Graduate Program Coordinator who circulates it to the entire Departmental faculty. The petition will then be discussed at the next Departmental faculty meeting, where a recommendation for disposition of the petition will be made and voted on by the Departmental faculty. This recommendation and a report of the faculty vote are placed in the student's file, with a copy provided to the student and to her or his academic advisor.
Graduate College Petitions. Petitions may also be made to the Graduate College. The most common type of Graduate College petition is to transfer graduate credit from another institution. The general guidelines to qualify for this are (1) the course work must not have applied toward another degree awarded to the student, (2) the course work must be acceptable as graduate credit at the school where it was awarded, (3) you must have received either an A or B in the classes, and (4) the course work must have been completed within the six year time period that the degree at NAU will be awarded. The course and petition form must also be approved by the student's academic advisor, the Graduate Program Coordinator and/or the Department Chair. The maximum number of credit hours that may be transferred is 9 (25% of the total of 36 hours required) for students beginning Fall 1994 and after.
The second most common type of Graduate College petition is a request to extend the six year time period limit within which the degree must be completed. Hopefully no one will have to do this.
Appeals. An appeal is a written request by the student that the faculty reconsider or review a decision that affects the student's status in the graduate program. A student who intends to submit an appeal should consult first with her or his academic advisor and members of the M.A. Committee and, when necessary, with the Department Chair. The student should also become acquainted with the procedures involved in appealing to extra-Departmental authority outlined in the Graduate Catalog. A student who feels it is necessary to seek redress from a decision is strongly urged to exhaust Departmental procedures before turning to extra-Departmental offices.
The student seeking to submit an appeal works with her or his academic advisor and members of the M.A. Committee to prepare a written request together with such documentation as is deemed necessary. The appeal is then submitted to the Department Chair who circulates it to the entire Departmental faculty. At the next Departmental faculty meeting, the Department Chair appoints a committee to investigate the merits of the appeal. This committee prepares a report on the merits of the appeal, and makes a written recommendation for disposition of the case to be voted on by the Departmental faculty. This recommendation and a report of the faculty vote are placed in the student's file, with a copy provided to the student and to her or his academic advisor.
13. Miscellaneous
Office Space. Graduate office carrels are available on a priority basis. Funded students (those holding a Graduate Assistantship, or the equivalent) have first priority for desks. Within this group, those who have been at NAU for longer periods have higher priority. All other students have lower priority, with those who have been at NAU the shortest time having the lowest. Desks are assigned at the beginning of each academic year by the Forestry Department Graduate Coordinator, Dr. Bruce Fox. This is often done at the Forestry College graduate student meeting held the week before classes start.
Graduate students also qualify for library carrels, again on a priority basis. Contact the library administration office to apply.
Keys and Building Passes. All currently enrolled geography graduate students can receive a Building key and a Graduate Student Office/Lounge key, upon request. In addition, you should request an after-hours building pass. All of these items may be obtained from Inez Light in the Forestry Dean's Office. The after-hours building pass must be accompanied by your student I.D. card to be valid. Never prop open the door to a lab or the building after hours!
Graduate Computer Lab & Other Lab. You will be assigned a secret code that will unlock the door to the Graduate Computer Lab when it is locked after hours. The Graduate Computer Lab contains 20 Pentium computers, a scanner, word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, and statistics software, a laser printer, 12 PC-ARC/INFO keys, CARL (library catalog), and Email access. Email accounts on the university's VAX can be obtained through the Computing Services Department. Alternatively, you can get an account on the Forestry School's workstation network. See Tim Bohn, whose office is near the entrance to the lab, for a workstation account and any questions on the Grad student lab.
The GIS Lab is also available for graduate student research projects. Among other things, it contains workstation ARC/INFO, AutoCAD, Arc/Cad, Census Tiger and Summary Tape File (data) CD ROMs, a slide scanner, and digitizing tablets. See Steve Andariese if you need a Sun workstation account, and Drs. Lee Dexter and Alan Lew for access to the PC workstations.
For other labs, see the following people:
Dr. Joy Mast................Dendrochronology Lab
Dr. Stan Swarts.............Darkroom facilities
Dr. Len Berlin..............Remote Sensing Lab
Chris Holmberg (or Chip)....Wood Shop
Grad Student Photo Board & Other Bulletin Boards. See Chris Holmberg to get your photo taken so it can be posted on the Grad Student Photo Board, located on the middle floor, south side of the building.
We highly recommend that you regularly check the several student Bulletin Boards in the building. In the Geography Office (Paula's office) there is a small bulletin board for Rural Geography student messages only. Check this whenever you get your mail. Downstairs you should look at both the Geography and Forestry Bulletin Boards. Assistantships and other job and grant opportunities available to Geography students are posted on both of these bulletin boards. The Parks and Recreation Management Board, across from the Forestry Board, is also worth checking for students with that interest.
Graduate Funding Newsletter and IRIS. This newsletter is published irregularly by the Graduate College. It lists research grant opportunities. These are posted when they come out. The latest issue can be obtained from the Graduate College. The Office of Grant and Contract Services will run a search of grant opportunities on their IRIS system at no charge to graduate students.
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Students are eligible to graduate upon completing all degree requirements as set forth in the Graduate Catalog, including satisfactory completion of all course work, oral defense examination, and thesis requirements including submission of all required written work to the Graduate College.
Students do not automatically graduate from the M.A. program upon completing all degree requirements. Instead, each student must formally apply for graduation, using an official form available from the Graduate College. The student must attach several items to this application form for graduation, specifically:
The application for graduation must be approved and authorized by the student's academic advisor and by the Department Chair. Next, but before submitting the application to the Graduate College, the student takes the authorized form to the university Business office, to pay a graduation fee. The student then submits the completed application to the Graduate College.
Commencement ceremonies for all graduating students are held twice a year on the Friday of the week of Final Exams for the Fall and Spring Semesters.
The Master of Arts in Rural Geography degree is only offered under the Graduate School's Thesis Plan. Students seeking the Master of Arts degree in Rural Geography at Northern Arizona University must complete a minimum of 36 credit hours of formal course work. These 36 credit hours are subject to several restrictions which are additional to several Graduate College restrictions, set forth in the Graduate Catalog:
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To change or waive a core required course, the student must petition the entire department. This must be done through the student's academic advisor and should consists of a letter of explanation and any supporting materials. (See "petitions" in section 12 of this document.)
Note that each student must also pass a Departmental thesis defense examination, also students should note that STA 570 (a graduate-level introduction to statistics) is required for GGR 582 (Quantitative Techniques in Geography), and physical geography is a prerequisite for advanced physical geography.
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The Master's Thesis must be an original piece of work, and should contain description, analysis, and interpretation of a body of geographic information collected by the student from documentary sources or through field or laboratory research. The thesis should demonstrate the student's ability to complete a full cycle of problem formulation, method formulation, research, and evaluation under the direction of the M.A. Committee. The scope and duration of the thesis project will depend both on the student's research interests and on a reasonable schedule for the completion of the degree.
As discussed in Part II of this guide, the student should begin to form an M.A. Committee to oversee their thesis research as soon as possible during their first year of enrollment. The student also should have a fully authorized Committee in place by the beginning of the second regular semester of residence, by which time the student should also have completed the at least 18 hours of required formal course work. The student should then prepare a written thesis proposal for approval by the M.A. Committee, including a schedule for carrying out the research and completing the thesis. The student should then proceed immediately to the research, and should notify the M.A. Committee of any changes in schedule or other significant difficulties that may arise.
Upon completing the thesis, the student must satisfactorily defend it as a part of an oral Thesis Defense examination given by the entire M.A. Committee. The thesis defense normally involves the oral presentation of the thesis, followed by questions and discussion. Master's Thesis examinations are open to all Department faculty members, and may be open to other members of the university community, at the discretion of the student's M.A. Committee Chair. The student's performance in the examination is evaluated by (and only by) the M.A. Committee.
A student will be recommended for the M.A. degree only if the members of the Committee judge both the thesis and the performance on the defense to be satisfactory. A favorable vote of at least two thirds (2/3) of the Committee is necessary to approve the thesis and the student's performance on the defense.
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