For Chairs and Directors
Administrative tools and resources for department chairs and directors
Stay Up to Date
Keep up with the most important, recurring reports and deadlines throughout the year.
Key Contacts
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Ventress Hall Administrators
662-915-7178 -
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College of Liberal Arts Department Contacts
View Contact List -
Have a Data Request?
Members of the campus community can request university data reports from IREP (Institutional Research, Effectiveness and Planning) and there is a request form on their website. Within the CLA Dean's office, Wayne Shaw can also provide data support for our CLA administrators.
CLA Data Request Form -
Have a Request for the College PR Team?
Tell us about your upcoming event or announcement—we are available for writing, photography, and design requests, and more. Let us help you publicize about the outstanding people and programs in the College of Liberal Arts
College PR Team
Meet Some of Our Chairs and Directors
Biology
Classics
African American Studies
Political Science
Southern Studies
Economics
Music
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Modern Languages
Gender Studies
Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs
The University of Mississippi and the College of Liberal Arts are committed to the success of our faculty and staff. We hope these resources guide you through programs that our office manages: tenure and promotion, sabbatical, quadrennial review, service on UM standing committees, academic program review, and more. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Donald L Dyer
Associate Dean for Faculty & Academic Affairs and Distinguished Professor of Modern Languages
CLA Governance
The Curriculum and Policy Committee approves all academic catalog changes for the College of Liberal Arts. Here are the minutes and indices for those monthly meetings.
Visit the documents in our Box folder to see the committee bylaws, instructions on completing the Academic Council Workflow forms, and basic deadlines. To make the next year's academic catalog, changes must be submitted to the College C&P for its January meeting agenda.
Contact Carmen Riggan (carmen@olemiss.edu) regarding curriculum changes for the College of Liberal Arts.
Faculty Policies and Procedures
- Sabbatical Leave Application Form 2024-2025 (Posted 7/13/2023)
- Sabbatical Leave Process Memo from Provost Office
- Sabbatical Leave Recommendation for the Chair
- Sabbatical Leave Application Instructions
- Sabbatical Leave Report Form for 2023-2024 (save form then fill out)
- Chair’s Evaluation of Sabbatical Report for Sabbaticals Taken During Fall 2023, Spring 2024, AY 2023-24 (save form then fill out)
Teaching and Student Resources
Academic Advising Information
Student of Concern
- Check out the student support programs with the UMatter group.
- If there is a student concern, please complete the “Care Form.”
Students Support Resources
Timeline
- January 10 - Deadline for incoming freshmen to complete UM Special Programs and Scholarship Application
- March 1 - Foundation provides info to Dean's office about endowment payouts
- End of first week of March - deadline for entering scholarships
- March 10-15 - Financial Aid mails the financial aid letter to students
- May 1 - check if selected students registered for orientation. cancel and re-award if possible
Financial Aid will want the scholarship recipients entered in the online system by the end of the first week of March. Recognize that any requests to the Office of Financial Aid for lists of eligible students will take time to fulfill, so send Financial Aid your requests just after January 10. The Foundation provides endowment payout information around March 1 to the College Dean’s office. It takes about a week of solid work for us to provide the updates to the departments. We give informal guidance for making decisions.
If the scholarship requires the recipient to have financial need, then you must have Financial Aid run the list of eligible students. The Dean’s office (Holly, Annabelle) can provide the general UM scholarship application from those students who completed it. Financial Aid’s information will indicate high, medium, or low financial need only.
If the scholarship does not require financial need, then the list of eligible students can be run by someone who has SAP access to student records. Wayne Shaw can do this in the CLA.
How to make the decision?
Once you have the information on eligible students, a faculty/staff committee of at least 3 individuals must make the recommendation. Keep records of all significant communications that are part of the process.
- Keep notes to explain how the decision is made to priority rank the short list of possible recipients. Verify that the criteria used to make the decision match the MOA/MOU for the scholarship. Keep the communication to generate the list, the list itself, and meeting notes for the ranking decision.
- Select 5-6 students in priority order for every scholarship that is given to incoming students. Therefore, you can move down the list if students decide to not attend UM or change their major.
- Send your list of possible recipients to Financial Aid and ask if their financial aid packages can “accept” another scholarship and the amount.
- Once the decisions are made, you’ll enter in the online Financial Aid form via MyOleMiss. See section below about how to make that award.
- Contact the student that you have selected. You can request a sample letter from the Dean's office. Be sure to ask for the thank-you note, give them any criteria for keeping the scholarship if applicable.
- By May 1, I would ask Orientation staff if your 5-6 students on the priority list have completed the orientation registration. You want to know if they are planning to attend. If the top student has not registered for orientation, then contact the student to ask about their plans. If the student says that they are not, then complete the online form to withdraw aid and move down the list to the next person who plans to attend UM.
Scholarships awarded to current students
In mid-spring semester, you’ll want to start the process of awarding current student scholarships so that the process can be completely finished before the end of the semester or at least before the end of May. We recommend that scholarships are awarded/entered in Financial Aid in the spring for the next academic year so students know how to plan their finances for the next year.
- Some departments use an application to get the list of eligible students.
- Others have financial need criteria and thus require Financial Aid to generate the list of eligible students.
- Others use hours/GPA maybe combined with faculty nomination from the list.
- If current recipients can retain the scholarship under certain considerations, then you’ll want to double check their graduation status, GPA, financial need, etc.
- Be sure to record the process and all communications and decisions along the way. Have a short list of alternates.
- Send the list to Financial Aid to verify they can still accept the scholarship into their package.
- Contact the student with the conditional scholarship offer. Tell the student that the scholarship will not be formally submitted into the online Financial Aid system until two things happen:
- End of the semester and you check their grades.
- Thank you letter/card from the student to the donor/family must be delivered to you.
- Provide information about the person honored by the scholarship so that it connects the student with donor/honoree of the scholarship.
- Once you have checked their semester grades and have the thank-you note from the student, then you can award the scholarship in the MyOleMiss system.
- Write your own letter of thank you to the donor as a cover letter and put both your letter and the thank-you notes from the student(s) in the mail.
Documentation for the Scholarship Process
In either a paper or electronic folder, please keep the following documents.
- MOA/MOU for the scholarship. Any communication made at the time of the creation or since then providing any guidance about the awarding process. Contact the Dean’s office (Patty, Holly) if you need a copy of a MOA/MOU.
- Financial information provided by the Dean’s office regarding the endowment or funds and the payout available.
- Communication requesting eligibility lists and the lists generated.
- Communication with the committee and notes from the decision meeting.
- Communication with Financial Aid to double check selected students for ability to accept the scholarship.
- Communication with the student.
- Copies of thank-you notes/letters to donor/family.
- Copy of the email confirmation sheet of the scholarship award from Financial Aid.
How to award the scholarship in the myOleMiss system
▸ STEP ONE
In myOleMiss, bring up the “Department Scholarship Form” page. Before you start, make sure you have the student’s ID number and the Aid ID number for the scholarship from Financial Aid.
You’ll enter your office phone number and click the appropriate menu option—probably “Enter New Aid”. Hit next.
▸ STEP TWO
Another list of options will pop up at the bottom. Usually you’ll be doing one of the first two—individual student awards or awarding multiple students the same scholarship at the same amount.
▸ STEP THREE
On the next page, you’ll hit “search” to identify the student for the award. You’ll need their student ID number.
After identifying the student, you'll be on the scholarship award page. Be sure you are clicking the award for the correct academic year. You’ll usually select the term as “fall/spring.” Enter the Aid ID number and the account and award name automatically pops up, which is convenient. Enter the scholarship amount.
Then you’ll have a summary and confirmation page before you hit submit.
▸ STEP FOUR
Within a few minutes you should receive an email confirmation sheet.
Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities
The College of Liberal Arts supports programs that foster faculty research and creative activity, including
- INSPiRED program for large, multi-disciplinary research teams/center.
- Faculty Grant programs
- CLA Humanities Hub
Visit the Research Initiatives webpage for more information.
The College of Liberals is committed to a strong support system for research and creative scholarship. This includes a robust pre-award support system that includes grant prospecting, certified research administrators, and program coordination for research and creative projects.
Once an award is granted, CLA is there to help with management. We can support rebudgets, no-cost extensions, and reporting.
Visit the External Award Support webpage for more information.
The College of Liberal Arts requires a Travel Authorization form for any university-related travel, for any reason. This CLA policy by the Dean overrides that of the Office of Procurement. See this explanation as well as other travel-related policies and resources on our travel website.
The College of Liberal Arts recognizes outstanding faculty for their research, scholarship, and creative activities. We are proud of our alumni who recognize the importance of this work for the disciplines and our communities.
- Mike L. Edmonds New Scholar Award
- CLA Award for Research & Creative Achievement in the Humanities
- Hensley Family Senior Professor Research Award in the Fine and Performing Arts
- Sanford and Susan Thomas Senior Professor Research Award in the Social Sciences
- Melinda and Ben Yarbrough, M.D., Senior Professor Award for the Natural Sciences