Your emails can reflect your connection to the university with an Illinois-branded email signature. Check out graduate student email signature templates on the brand website along with detailed instructions on how to incorporate the signature into your emails.

To assist evening campus commuters during the winter, the Parking Department will implement the following enforcement policy: effective Nov. 3, 2024, through March 9, 2025, all university rental lots posted for enforcement from 6 a.m.-5 p.m. (M-F) will be open for general public parking beginning at 4 p.m. All street meters and 24-hour parking rental areas will continue to be enforced as posted.

November 15 is the last day the last day for doctoral students to complete their Final Examination (thesis defense) for December 2024 degree conferral. Students should request their Final Exam Committee via Graduate College Student Portal at least one week prior to the date of the exam. Have questions about final doctoral examinations? Click here for an advising appointment!

November 15 is also the last day to withdraw from ALL semester courses without a grade of W. To withdraw from the term, students need to complete a Withdrawal/Cancellation Form and obtain their department's signature. International students must obtain a signature from ISSS. Students are encouraged to discuss these decisions with their adviser and/or program. Students enrolled in non-standard part of term courses should refer to their graduate program for deadline information. Have questions about registration deadlines or submitting Withdrawal form? Click here for an advising appointment!

November 15 is the last day to drop a semester course without a grade of W. To drop a course, students must submit a Late Registration Change request to the Graduate College Student Portal. Students are encouraged to discuss these decisions with their adviser and/or program. Students enrolled in non-standard part of term courses should refer to their graduate program for deadline information. Have questions about registration deadlines or submitting a Late Registration Change form? Click here for an advising appointment!

November 15 is the last day to elect the credit/no-credit grading option for a semester course or change from the credit/no-credit option to a letter grade. Please consult with your program before choosing this option, because course and department restrictions may apply. Students should submit a Credit/No Credit form via the Graduate College Student Portal. Students enrolled in non-standard part of term courses should refer to their graduate program for deadline information. Questions about submitting a Credit/No Credit form? Click here for an advising appointment!

November 3 is the last day to apply for December 2024 graduation via Self-Service. Have questions about adding yourself to the degree list? Click here for an advising appointment!

The Ilinois Student Council is partnering with International Education and the Jeffries Center to provide students with information and resources for a safe winter. Choose from an array of free winter clothes, have some hot cocoa, and socialize with ISC and other campus groups!

Plan your legacy with confidence. Join us on Zoom November 7, 2024, to learn essential concepts of asset management across the life span. Build, protect, and leave your nest egg for future generations. Registration required.

Fulbright-Hays fellowships fund students who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents to conduct dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies. Allowable projects focus on one or more countries in Africa, E Asia, SE Asia & the Pacific Islands, S Asia, the Near East, Central & Eastern Europe & Eurasia, and the Western Hemisphere (excluding the U.S. & its territories). The campus application deadline is January 6. All students considering applying should attend the virtual info session. For details, visit the Fulbright-Hays listing in Fellowship Finder.

Are you a student engaged in service within the community? We CU reimburses Illinois students for costs associated with service! Examples of eligible items include: travel costs, printing and postage, supplies and materials, and trainings needed to complete service work. Students can receive up to $199 each semester. Just be sure to keep your receipts, then complete the We CU Student Recognition Form, submit the Mini-grants Approval Form, and get reimbursed!

The Beckman Institute is offering three interdisciplinary postdoctoral fellowship programs: the Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Beckman-Brown Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Cancer Center at Illinois-Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship. Fill out one common application to be considered for all three programs. The application deadline is 5 p.m. CST Monday, Nov. 25, 2024.

If you are a doctoral student planning to deposit your dissertation for August graduation, get a head start by taking your exit surveys now! These surveys will only take a few minutes for you to complete, and (if you take them before you submit your document to the Thesis Office) it will make the deposit process move much more quickly. You can learn more about these surveys on the Thesis Office website. Remember – you cannot deposit your dissertation until the Thesis Office receives notification that you have completed these surveys.

The Title Page! In years of reviewing theses, we've noticed that the title page is where mistakes often slip in. Download a title page template and view our examples on the Graduate College website. We'll even do a pre-check of your title page if you submit it through the title page submission system. This can save a lot of time as you prepare to deposit your thesis.

The Writers Workshop will provide tips for writing concise and professional resumes and cover letters. You’ll review common structure, purpose, audience expectations, and strategies for creating a set of application materials that complement each other. We encourage you to bring a current job ad and questions about your current in-progress materials!

This workshop introduces the basics of Miro, a virtual whiteboard tool used across industries to create and collaborate. Learn SCD’s best practices for using Miro to organize research, facilitate remote work, and create collaborative environments for student projects. We’ll share examples from our work and provide templates and tips to help you start using Miro for instruction or research.

Join a collaborative group that will help you figure out what matters to you and offer support as you explore new paths that align with your values, skills, and interests. This 3-week group will involve hands-on exercises and rich conversation designed to guide you in claiming agency in your next steps. Open to grad students and postdocs in any field whose work involves humanistic inquiry. Learn more and register here.

Join GradSWE for a fun and informative session on creating top-notch figures with MATLAB! In this workshop, you'll gain the skills to design clear, legible, and simple figures that stand out in academic and professional publications. We’ll explore how to customize figures to fit your specific needs, automate tasks to save time, and learn easy ways to modify and export your work. Plus, we'll share extra tools and resources to help spark creativity and streamline your figure-making process. Lunch is provided—just bring your own drink and get ready for an exciting session!  

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is an open access digital library of more than 59 million pages. Focused on biodiversity literature, it includes many rare materials containing the original descriptions of plants and animals. The historic, artistic, and scientific materials are useful across a wide range of disciplines. Attendees will learn to search the BHL catalog as well as the stunning collection of public domain images in Flickr.

Join us weekly to work on your projects! Our hybrid writing group provides grad students with dedicated time to make progress on any writing project in a supportive atmosphere. Each meeting consists of a short goal-setting conversation, quiet writing time, and a concluding reflection and wrap-up. You only need to register once with your U of I email to receive weekly email reminders all semester! 

This interactive workshop will use practical applications of two AI tools—Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity AI. These tools support your research process, offering intelligent assistance with brainstorming, refining ideas, finding sources, and enhancing your writing development. While AI can provide invaluable support, it won’t replace your critical thinking or authorship; it will not do your academic work. Instead, you will learn how to use these tools to efficiently gather insights, structure arguments, and streamline your research workflow while honestly maintaining academic integrity.

This session introduces the podcasting equipment and technology available to our campus community from the libraries. In addition to familiarizing ourselves with the equipment for recording, we will cover some beginning recording and audio editing techniques, particularly within the software Audacity.

Interested in event planning and leadership experience? The Center for Writing Studies (CWS) invites graduate students across campus to join the planning committee for the 2025 Gesa E. Kirsch Graduate Student Symposium! This signature event features a keynote address from CWS alumni, workshops, and panels showcasing graduate work-in-progress. Shape the symposium, collaborate with peers, and gain experience in event planning and leadership! If you're interested or have any questions, please reach out to Assistant Director Dan Zhang at danz3@illinois.edu. Please express your interest by Nov. 15.

The 16th Annual College of Education Graduate Student Conference "Education in the 21st Century: Designing a More Inclusive Future” will occur on on March 6 & 7 and we are currently accepting abstract submissions! Graduate students are encouraged to submit their abstracts by Tuesday, December 3, 2024, at 11:59 PM CT. For detailed submission guidelines, please visit our Graduate Student Conference website. Should you have any additional questions, please contact us at gsc@education.illinois.edu.

ISSS will host the highly demanded Chinese Names training during International Education Week from noon to 1 p.m. on Nov. 18. This virtual training is open to all students, faculty and staff who would like to learn the native pronunciation of Chinese names as well as be culturally informed on the background and significance of these names. Register here: https://go.illinois.edu/ChineseNamesFall2024.

Rest Lab, a creative, experimental space that invites resting with intention, returns for its sixth iteration. In the museum, Rest Lab has occupied spaces that otherwise would remain empty as they “rest” between exhibitions. Through restful looking and engaging with rest tools, a reading nook, and a response wall, the Rest Lab exhibition invites visitors to rest in the ways that feel best to you. The Rest Lab exhibition reception on November 14 from 5 to 7 pm will feature refreshments and artmaking, and visitors will have the opportunity to try out Squeeze Chair in the gallery.

Backed by the magnificent 17-piece Carnegie Hall Big Band, Great American Songbook ambassador Michael Feinstein honors his long-time friend, the legendary Tony Bennett. This powerful musical tribute will feature many of Bennett’s iconic hits, including “Because of You,” “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” “Stranger in Paradise,” and many more.

The young Elizabethan courtier Orlando wanders the world in search of a muse until he unexpectedly awakens as a woman at the turn of the 18th century. Virginia Woolf’s magical novel, poetically adapted by Sarah Ruhl for the stage, embarks on a theatrical and imaginative journey of self-discovery through 400 years of history. Performances Fri-Sa Nov 1-2 and Wed-Sat Nov 6-9.

Discover what you can do in the SCD Labs or learn a new skill with our Maker Workshops. These activities will get you started with a variety of media, tools, and design skills to help you on your creative journey. Upcoming workshops include: painting, pumpkin laser-carving, and papercrafts.

Krannert Center Student Association invites all students to a GAME NIGHT on Wednesday, November 6 in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts lobby at Stage 5. There will be free cookies, snacks, and beverages as well as fun board games to play as a way to destress post-election and mid-semester. Come by anytime between 7pm and 8:30pm.

Attend this onsite workshop at NCSA to learn how to use OpenACC API compiler directives to quickly develop GPU-capable codes using standard languages and compilers. Knowledge of either C or Fortran programming is required. Hands-on exercises will use Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s Bridges-2 computing platform. 

The Education Justice Project's Policy & Research Team is hosting a research group meeting on Nov. 11, 3 to 4pm CT via Zoom. Join us to from Andrea DaViera about her current research, “Defund the police, save lives? Testing for links between police funding and police shootings against civilians.” All are welcome! You do not need to be an EJP member to attend.

Join us for Writing in Engineering, an installment of online series Writing in the Disciplines. Hosted by the DRSP and the Writers Workshop, this series connects doctoral students with faculty, journal editors, and publishers to discuss writing styles and skills. Featuring panelists Dr. Scott M. Olson (Civil & Environmental Engineering) and Dr. Naira Hovakimyan (Mechanical Science & Engineering).

The Certainty Trap (September 2024) refers to the contempt that arises from an unwillingness or inability to: consider the possibility that we might be wrong or might not be right in the way we think; consider the downsides to our preferred policy; make our principles, values, and assumptions clear and explicit; or allow those principles, values, and assumptions to be challenged or criticized. 

While November is nationally recognized as Native American Heritage Month, it is also National Scholarship Month. National Scholarship Month raises awareness of the vital role scholarships play in reducing student loan debt and expanding access to higher education. The Native American House at Illinois will deliver a month-long program series around the theme, “Supporting Equitable Outcomes for Native Students in Higher Education.” Click on the following link for more information: https://nah.illinois.edu/events/native-american-heritage-month

Tired of eating the same things over and over again? Spices and herbs are a great way to help enhance your food and make your typical home-cooked dishes more flavorful. There are thousands of different spices and herbs found in various regions all over the world. However, there are gaps in awareness and utilization of specific spices, especially in healthcare settings. Join us for a presentation that will expand your knowledge of spices/herbs from around the world and explore how these spices and herbs might be incorporated into your diet. Presenter: Haeley Peters

This Thursday! Jani Penttinen, CEO, Bitmagic.  Besides demonstrating how Bitmagic's software uses AI to enable fast and easy creation of game components, Jani will discuss the very latest developments in the fast-evolving world of generative AI in gaming, how to benefit from GenAI in career development, and GenAI copyright issues.  

Peaceworks on Campus is an effort to regain the narrative about Israel and Palestine on campus today. The work is focused on future policymakers on college campuses. To counteract the toxic, polarized environment their campuses have become, Mr. Nidal Foqaha (Director General of the Palestinian Peace Coalition/Geneva Initiative) and Tehila Wenger (Deputy Director of the Geneva Initiative in Israel), peacemakers, will come to campus with a new forward looking narrative.

How to govern the oceans has become a major political, environmental, and economic challenge. From the South China Sea to the Arctic Ocean and the deep seabed, questions about how humans use the oceans have become increasingly salient. The Poseidon Project explores the origins, history, and evolution of freedom of the seas and considers what role it will play in the future of ocean governance. David Bosco is Executive Associate Dean and HLS Professor at Indiana University's Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies and will give a lecture about this topic.

Join us at Riggs Beer Company at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, to hear Dr. Eric Morgan discuss science communication strategies, the difficulties involved in translating complex ideas to diverse audiences, and potential solutions. Hope to see you there!

Professor Bob Morrissey joins us in the RBML to showcase the John Eliot Bible, published in 1663, and discuss how this unusual text can be used to examine American origin stories, as well as histories of historical interpretation and practice in our land-grant institution. Come take a look at RBML’s copy of this exceedingly rare book!

“From Reel to Ritual: Worldmaking through Cinéritual in African Diasporic Film” — This multimedia presentation explores the practice of cinéritual by African diaspora women and non-binary filmmakers. Guzman defines cinéritual as an experimental genre of film that Black creatives have developed with the aim of opening up spaces for sacred knowledge, community, memory, history, and healing. Sharing clips from her own film work and practice of cinéritual, she reveals a multi-sensory world of remembrance, collaboration, and action.

In this talk, Richard T. Rodríguez will discuss his recent book A Kiss Across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad, which explores the relationship between British post-punk musicians and their U.S. Latine audiences since the 1980s. Melding memoir with cultural criticism, Rodríguez spotlights a host of influential bands and performers whose music and styles hold significant sway on generations of fans enthused by their matchlessly pleasurable and political reverberations.

McKinley Health Center serves on-campus students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

The University of Illinois Counseling Center provides mental health counseling and well-being education for students. 

If you or a student you know may need support with their basic needs or financial stressors, please reach out.