Welcome from the Dean, Spring-Summer 2025
OXFORD, Miss.—From a new website launch to a record-breaking Giving Day, the spring semester brought exciting growth and connection to the Graduate School. In this edition, Dean Annette Kluck reflects on recent milestones—including alumni visits, faculty awards, and new career development tools—while celebrating the achievements of our graduate students and sharing stories from across our community.
Greetings Graduates, Students, Colleagues, and Friends of the Graduate School,
I hope this newsletter finds you enjoying time with loved ones as we transition into summer. The spring semester brought a lot of exciting changes to the Graduate School. For example, our new website is live thanks to the dedicated efforts of Dr. Spiroff, her graduate assistant, and staff in the Marketing and Communications office. We hope you enjoy the more modern feel and responsiveness to device differences (check it out on a phone and a computer).
I was fortunate to have lunch with a few of our alums in March in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. The graduates who joined me spanned decades in terms of their time on our campus, with some having graduated from the Graduate School in the 1970s and one being a 2024 graduate. I so enjoyed the chance to meet these graduates, many for the first time, and learn about the role the UM Graduate School played in their professional lives.
Another new development is our institutional subscription to Beyond the Professoriate and Beyond Graduate School. These two web platforms provide a wealth of resources for current graduate students, recent graduates, employees, and others with university technology log-in credentials. The platforms focus on career readiness resources. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in learning more.
We also experienced our most successful Giving Day ever in the Graduate School. With the help of many faculty and alums, we raised $20,000 for the Graduate School. Donations supported several causes, including our McNair and IMAGE programs, the Cole-Eftink Fellows, and travel awards for graduate students. These gifts were especially critical this year as we ran out of funds to support graduate student travel early in the academic year. I cannot sufficiently convey my gratitude to the faculty who led the effort to raise funds for graduate student travel. They and the donors made a big difference for our students (if you are interested in giving to the Graduate School, please visit the UM Foundation’s website and select the Graduate School for a list of funds).
As we ended the spring term, we recognized two faculty members for their long-term and valuable contributions to our institution and their support of graduate students. This year, we honored Dr. Jay Watson with the Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring and Dr. Jaime Harker with the Donald R. Cole Excellence in Promoting Inclusiveness in Graduate Education Award. Our winners, who were selected at the beginning of April, were announced at the final faculty meeting of the year to celebrate their impressive contributions.
This edition features our annual commencement celebrations as in prior spring/summer newsletters. Next, we proudly share stories about many of our graduate students. Learn about the Image in Research competition and meet our finalists. You will also read about outstanding doctoral students who represent our institution well as they publish important research in their fields and meet some graduate students (and an alum) whose path to graduate study followed leadership in Greek life organizations. Finally, we round out this edition with a story about the work of our Graduate Student Council.
We wish you a lovely summer. Hotty Toddy!
Annette S. Kluck, Ph.D.
Dean of the Graduate School