SPEA USA Call-Out--TODAY!

Please join SPEA USA for their semester-opening call-out meeting at 7:30 in the Undergraduate Lounge in SPEA. Learn about upcoming opportunities and get to know your fellow SPEAons.

Walk In Hours: First Week of the Semester

The first week of the spring semester, Walk In Hours will be:

Monday through Friday, 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. Admitted students and students seeking SPEA minors and certificates only.

After the first week of the semester, normal Walk In Hours will resume:

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 1-3 p.m. Admitted students and students seeking SPEA minors and certificates only.

Pre-SPEA students: Please contact the UPO about Pre-Admissions Advising! We're very sorry, but we cannot accomodate pre-SPEA students during walk-in hours. To give your questions the attention they deserve, please reserve a space in one of our Pre-Admissions Advising sessions.

V450 Change, IT Policy and E-Government and Tech Policy

There has been a change to a V450 course for spring--second eight weeks E-Government and Tech Policy, originally at 3 credit hours, will now be taught as a 1.5 credit hour class. It will be taught at the same time as first eight-week V450 course IT Policy, making the two a great companion pair of classes to equal the three credit hour requirement. If this change affects your schedule, please feel free to come to SPEA Walk-In Advising next week-9-11 and 1-3 every day.

Heads Up! First Day of Classes!

In last summer’s orientation materials (a planner, for students, and a guide for parents) FYE mistakenly noted Tuesday, January 11 as the first day of classes for the spring term (instead of Monday, January 10). The mistake was discovered mid-term in the fall and FYE sent multiple mass e-mails to both students and parents to correct this error – and they included this update on their regular website and on the FYMe website.

So, if you have heard that the first day of classes isn't til Tuesday...sorry, but no such luck. See you back in classes on Monday the 10th!

Winter Break Office Hours

Safe travels and enjoy your time away from school! Here in the SPEA UPO, we will observe normal office hours, open from 8-5 daily if you need to call to make an appointment or check into anything. However, we will be short-staffed as our employees take time to spend with family, so please be patient with us if your call is not answered or an email not immediately returned.

We will NOT have walk-in hours over the break. We will have limited appointments available; all advising over break will be by appointment only. We have phone appointments available if you can't wait to return to Bloomington to resolve an issue.

We will be closed:

December 24--closed for the Christmas holiday
December 31--closed for the New Year's holiday

The first week of classes of the spring semester will be walk-ins only.

Commencement...Graduation...What's the Difference?

Around this time of year, we start to get a lot of questions about graduation and Commencement. We've just asked you to apply for spring and summer graduation, and December gradution is right around the corner! But many inquiries confuse something--the Commencement ceremony is not quite the same thing is graduating.

Let’s separate two thing out—there’s official graduation (the university conferring a degree and you receiving a diploma) and there’s Commencement. Graduation is certified after final grades are in, and, I know this seems odd, after the Commencement ceremony. This means that you walk in Commencement before you have officially graduated--and even means that, sometimes, if a requisite course is failed or is incomplete, a student may walk in Commencement but not actually graduate. Students sign up for Commencement in good faith that they will graduate, and we certainly have students who are short in the end because of transfer credits, failing grades, and internships not being completed—but this is all after Commencement. In short--just because you walk in Commencement doesn't mean you've graduated. Yet.

One more thing--your official graduation date isn't the date you walk in Commencement. It's the date your degree is conferred, so for summer graduates, this is particularly significant. If you finish your coursework in August, you graduate in August--even if you walk in May (which is very normal and many of our students do this).

To add one more wrinkle, in addition to the University Commencement Ceremony, SPEA holds its own private Recognition Ceremony each May to honor our graduates. If you run into any confusion when it comes time to graduate--or commence!--please don't hesitate to contact us, or to contact the Office of Universtiy Ceremonies, which handles IU Commencement.

Thanksgiving Break

This Week: Walk-ins are cancelled for the Thanksgiving holiday (affecting Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, November 23, 24, and 25). Safe travels, and enjoy your turkey!

We will have limited appointments available through Wednesday, but the office will be closed on Thursday and Friday (November 25 and 26).