Dear international EPD students,

For those who couldn’t attend the meeting yesterday with the OAA and OSA deans, and who didn’t receive the Whatsapp update from our PAs, here are a few key take-aways from the meeting:

We won’t hear from the Provost’s Office about our revised STEM-designation proposal before early September because they are now swamped, coordinating school year start-up activities for the entire university. We think our revised proposal (submitted in early August to address their response to our initial proposal) is strong, but there is no guarantee that it will be approved. The officials involved are very aware of our timing concerns.  

Since we won’t have a decision before course registration begins, any student who would prefer the certainty of being in an already-approved STEM-designated program is welcome to switch to IFEP/DAQA or EE/DAQA. IF this is of interest, please consider the following:

-- Both IFEP/DAQA and EE/DAQA require that either (1) you have taken the 6400/6401 econ course sequence with at least a B- grade, OR (2) you have taken the 6300/6301 econ course sequence and received an A grade.

-- If you want STEM designation for either of these program combinations, you can’t double-count concentration and DAQA courses.

-- To get into some required courses for IFEP or EE, you may need to be already registered in the concentration.  Therefore, if you want to switch into IFEP or EE, it would be wise to fill out the concentration declaration/change form on the OSA website as soon as possible this week – TODAY, if you’re a peer advisor who wants to early register this Friday. Then email Dean Garza (utg1) in OSA, providing your UNI, and he will expedite the change of concentration.

-- Check the required courses for IFEP/DAQA and EE/DAQA to see if you can fit in all of the requirements in the coming year. Keep in mind that if your EPD focus area is either economic or sustainable (now renamed environmental), some focus area courses you’ve already taken may be on the focus area or elective list for IFEP or EE – check those lists on their webpages.

-- Email your advising dean to let them know if you are planning to switch concentrations. They may also have advice on how to best fit in all of your requirements this year. If you have specific questions about a concentration’s requirements (after checking their webpage), the concentration manager or PAs will probably give you the fastest response.

-- If we get a positive decision on our STEM-designation proposal before the end of the drop/add period, and you want to switch back to EPD, we will work with the OSA deans to help you with this.

-- In any event, we suggest you apply to EPD’s fall Methods course before the Sept. 1 deadline.   We will be happy to accommodate you in the course and the EPD workshop even if you switch to IFEP or EE.

If you prefer to stay in EPD and hope for a positive decision on our STEM-designation proposal (for EPD/DAQA), it makes sense to start fulfilling the DAQA requirements (if you aren’t already in DAQA).  The deans are aware that there is likely to be higher demand for DAQA courses this year, especially Quant II.  If there is a long waitlist for Quant II this fall, they will expand the available seats for Quant II in the spring.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Ilona (iv2105) or me (em419).

Best wishes,
Jenny McGill
Co-Director, EPD