June
12, 2007
Dear Incoming Graduate
Student,
Welcome to the
Orientation. As
a new graduate student you are required to participate in the department
orientation program that will take place on August 23, 24, and 27. In addition,
incoming TAs and all PhD students regardless of an assignment are required to
attend the University TA orientation on August 27. International students are
required by International Education Services (
http://www.international.umd.edu/sparkplug/common/images/ies/ORschedfront_back0708.pdf
Within your welcome packet,
you will find a copy of the 2007 Geography Department Graduate Student
Orientation schedule along with other materials that we think you will find
useful. The orientation program will include an overview of the program, an introduction
to faculty, and other activities to introduce you to the department.
Academic advising is mandatory for all graduate students prior to registering for fall
classes. You will be able to meet with your advisor beginning August 23th.
If you have not done so yet, please send the department a copy of your resume,
a CV, or a summary of your activities so that your advisor can get to know you
before you arrive. The department will initially assign you an advisor, and if
you would like to communicate with your advisor over the summer, please feel
free to contact Bob Crossgrove at crossgro@umd.edu
and he will facilitate contact between you and your advisor.
Registration
for classes will occur during the orientation process and after graduate
advising. Your advisor will help you determine which classes will be best for
your course of study and then you will register on-line. However, you will be
pre-registered for at least one credit before orientation begins so that you
will be entered and active in the University system. This credit will be your
fall orientation course that you will take with Department Chair Dr. John
Townshend.
University Account IDs and passwords are required to access most online University
services (registration, parking permits, emails accounts, etc). Accounts can be
created following your acceptance to the University using the following link
and instructions: https://www.oit.umd.edu/new/student.html.
Following creation of an ID and password, you will be able to activate your
accounts. It is advised that you apply for your accounts prior to orientation
as these accounts can take a few days to be activated. The mail@umd.edu account
creates your email account and the Glue account allows you access to the open
lab in the Geography Department.
Parking permits
are required for most areas around campus. Permits may be obtained from the
campus Parking Office in Parking Garage 2. The cost of an annual commuter
permit is approximately $205.00. Please refer to http://www.transportation.umd.edu/parking/studentpermit.html
for more information regarding parking.
*** Note: You may register
for a parking permit online using the campus interactive web service Testudo at
www.testudo.umd.edu. We STRONGLY urge
you to register for a permit as soon as possible since permits are limited.
Permits may be picked up during orientation or mailed to your home address. The
closest parking lot to LeFrak is lot 1.
If you require assistance
with locating housing, we recommend that you contact the Campus Housing Offices (on campus housing: 301-314-2100 and off
campus housing: 301-314-3645). For more information about Off Campus Housing go
to: www.och.umd.edu. Also, please see the enclosed
Housing Information Sheet. You should start soon, as there are a limited number
of reasonably priced places near campus.
Once again, please remember
that it is a mandatory departmental policy to attend the Graduate Student
Orientation. If you have a conflict that you think may preclude you from
attending all or part of the orientation, please contact one of us as soon as
possible.
Listed below are some campus
websites we think might also be useful:
Department of Geography www.geog.umd.edu
For information about faculty,
research, course offerings, and much more.
Faculty, staff, and students also have access to intra-departmental
administrative information, forms, and resources at the intranet site: http://www.geog.umd.edu/localweb/howto/newhowto/.
You can enter this site with username “local” and password
“geog”.
UMD Graduate School www.gradschool.umd.edu, http://www.union.umd.edu/GSI
Sites provide information on
social and administrative aspects of the
Student Web Services www.testudo.umd.edu
For links to registration,
grades, student records, financial services and more.
Campus Services www.testudo.umd.edu/CampusServices.html
For links to all university
services including transportation, parking, housing, library, etc.
International Education
Services http://www.international.umd.edu/ies/
For international student
orientation and information.
Off Campus Housing http://www.och.umd.edu/
For information on off-campus
housing.
Office of Information Technology http://www.oit.umd.edu/
For links to computing and
communications resources including email access and user accounts. Specifics on new student accounts can be
found at http://www.helpdesk.umd.edu/topics/getting_started/#4001.
Mentors
Each of you will be assigned
to a graduate student mentor who will be available via email during the summer
to answer whatever other questions you may have about beginning your graduate
program at UMD. You will receive an email shortly informing you of who your
mentor will be and how you can get in touch with him/her.
If you have any questions
about orientation or your transition, please feel free to contact any one of us
or your mentors with your questions. You may also address administrative
matters to Bob Crossgrove at
Have a great summer!
Sincerely, the 2007 Graduate
Orientation Coordinators,
Richard Russo Liz
Hoy
rarusso@umd.edu elizabeth.hoy@gmail.com
Jackie Waite Alex
Schmid
jwaite@umd.edu ajschmid@umd.edu
Geography Ph.D. Students Geography
Masters Students