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Current Grad Students Newsletter

Graduate Student News

The Graduate@Carleton newsletter is typically distributed every Thursday morning. The next newsletter will be available on April 15. If you have any questions, please email us at: fgpa_newsletter@carleton.ca.


Don't Forget to Vote

The election of candidates for the next Executive of the Graduate Students’ Association is your opportunity to vote for candidates that will represent you through the 2021-22 academic year. The GSA Executive Committee represents 4,000 graduate students at Carleton. Members meet regularly with the administration, Graduate Studies and other groups in service of graduate students. The Executive also plans and collaborates on a variety of  events and campaigns throughout the year. Voting will take place on April 9 and 10. Please visit the GSA’s website for detailed information.


Need Someone to Talk To?

Are you feeling stressed out? Anxious? Overwhelmed? Thanks to COVID, it has been a particularly difficult year. Click here for a list of mental health resources. There is also a virtual café for graduate students every Monday morning from 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. EST. The final session will be held on April 26. For registration, please email: magdageorgescu@cunet.carleton.ca


Grow Your Co-Curricular Record

All Carleton students are eligible to add CSAS Learning and Writing Certificates to their Co-Curricular Record (CCR). As you navigate university life, become equipped with learning and mental health support and resources you can use by completing the Non-Credit Student Success Certificate. Check out the requirements as well as an additional eight certificates by visiting the CSAS website. If you have any questions, contact CSAS by email.


TA Workshops

Teaching Assistants may be interested in attending the following virtual sessions on Zoom. For meeting details, please email Helen Roumeliotis.

  • Wrapping up the Semester: Today, Thursday, April 8, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Eastern time US & Canada) Drop in for a chat or with any questions as we approach the end of winter term and discuss how to stay focused at home.
  • Drop in session: Wednesday, April 14, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. (Eastern time US & Canada) Have any questions or concerns? Are you finding it hard to feel motivated from home? This session is the place to be.
  • How’s Your Grading Going?: Tuesday, April 27, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. (Eastern time US & Canada) Drop in for a chat on time management, working from home, offering helpful feedback, and hear from other TAs about their marking experiences.

Awards Update

If you have been notified that you have won an OGS, and you originally filled in a paper submission, you need to fill in this acceptance form and return to leslie.main@carleton.ca asap. If you submitted your application online and received a successful result, the acceptance form will be located in your Carleton Central application.

Here are announcement dates for the Tri-Council award recipients:

  • NSERC PhD:  Should have been notified around the end of March
  • CGS Master’s (all):  You should have found out on April 1 through the portal. If you are successful, you need to fill out this acceptance form and send to leslie.main@carleton.ca asap.
  • SSHRC and CIHR PhDs:  End of April

SVPEC is Looking for a Grad Student Representative

The Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Committee (SVPEC) is currently accepting applications to fill the position of Graduate Student representative. Candidates should be committed to ending gender-based violence, and have knowledge of intersectional and feminist frameworks. This position requires a commitment of approximately two hours per month. SVPEC is responsible for assessing and making recommendations about the sufficiency of Carleton’s sexual violence policy, and the effectiveness of current programs to combat sexual violence on campus. To find out more, please visit this website. Expressions of interest will be accepted until April 30, and should be submitted to Amal.Elmi@carleton.ca.


Information for International Students

Join the ISSO throughout the month of April for Immigration Q&A sessions and the All About Post-Graduation Work Permits workshop. Find out more.

Students planning on travelling to Canada in the coming weeks and months are advised to read the ISSO’s news post on travel guidance and recommendations.

For other information, please check out updates on the ISSO website:


Want to Try Your Hand at Writing?

The Conversation is continuing to look for PhD students to write articles. Click here to see what topics the editors are looking for this week.

All graduate students may want to try writing for The Artifice, an online magazine that covers a wide spectrum of art forms. Click here for details.


Final Reminder - Presidential Reappointment

On February 4, the Carleton Board of Governors launched a process to consider the reappointment of President and Vice-Chancellor, Benoit-Antoine Bacon. To fulfill the reappointment guidelines, a 13-person advisory committee was assembled and met on March 26. The advisory committee is seeking feedback from the Carleton community.  Please submit your comments by April 15.


TAs - Find Out About Brightspace

Brightspace by D2L is now available. This new learning management system will replace cuLearn in May 2021, coinciding with the launch of the summer term. More information for Teaching Assistants is available on this site.


Carleton Partners in Major National Project to Rebuild First Nations Governance

The Rebuilding First Nations Governance project is a grassroots initiative supported by a $2.5-million grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and is affiliated with the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation. Over the next six years, the project will work with Indigenous communities to research issues they have selected as important to achieving their self-governance goals.

Read the Story →


Grad Research: Understanding the Autistic University Student Experience

Jacquie Ballantine, a PhD candidate from the School of Linguistics and Language Studies, is focusing her research on how autistic students experience being, learning and communicating at university.

Read More →


Grad Research: Understanding Autistic People’s Privacy and Safety Online

Jessica Rocheleau, a PhD student in Cognitive Science is focusing her research on understanding autistic people’s privacy and safety online.

Read More →


Carleton Alumni Company Sifting Through COVID-19 Data for Major Health Clients

Alumnus Peter Blenis, fellow Carleton Computer Science alumnus Ian Stefanison and Jonathan Barker, have been on an entrepreneurial journey together. Having worked together previously, they have now co-founded another company called Evidence Partners that has become highly successful.

Read More →


Impact of Delayed Health Care for Non-COVID-19 Patients

While the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada continues to climb, the number of preventable casualties from non-COVID-19 patients is more difficult to calculate. Mehdi Ammi, a professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration, is a health economist and health policy researcher. He looks at the causal relationship between the organization and funding of health systems, access to high-quality, low-cost health care and population health.

Read More →


COVID-19 Information

To access FAQs about how Carleton is coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, click here. For questions concerning current graduate studentsclick here. To view FAQs for prospective graduate studentsclick here. International graduate students, please check out FAQs on the ISSO website.

Click here for more information about Carleton’s COVID-19 Reporting System for all students and employees.

Getting ready to file your 2020 Income Tax return? Check out the latest information from the Canada Revenue Agency about what expenses employees can claim due to the pandemic.


Important Dates and Deadlines

You need to apply by April 9 for the new Carleton University Student Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Research Award, which provides funding (from $10,000 to $15,000) to participate in research projects that use EDI-informed considerations and reflect upon diversity and identity in substantial or significant ways.

Cognitive Science Graduate Students! Registration for this year’s April 9 Carleton Cognitive Science Graduate Conference is now open. Please use the link to register for the event (for free). More details are on the department website.

April 14

  • Last day to pay any remaining balance on your Student Account to avoid a hold on access to marks through Carleton Central and the release of transcripts and other official documents. An account balance may delay summer 2021 course selection.
  • Winter term ends.
  • Classes follow a Friday schedule.
  • Last day of winter term and fall/winter classes.
  • Last day for academic withdrawal from winter term and fall/winter courses.

April 15 is the deadline to apply to be an “out-of-priority” TA for the Spring/Summer term.

Carleton University’s Graduate Legal Studies Association will be hosting the 14th annual Graduate Legal Studies Conference on Thursday, May 13. This interdisciplinary conference offers graduate studies across disciplines an opportunity to present past, present or future research while developing conference skills at the beginning of their careers. We invite and encourage graduate students from all programs to submit paper abstracts by Friday, April 16. Please visit this website for more information:

TAs are strongly encouraged to apply for a Leave From Duties before the summer term begins.(access form via Carleton Central).

The date for graduate students to electronically submit their final thesis copy to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs has been extended to May 31. If you have not done so by this date, you will not be eligible to graduate in June and will have to register for the Summer 2021 term.

The summer OSAP application deadline is Saturday, June 26. Learn more by clicking here.

For a complete list of all official academic and financial dates and deadlines, please go to the Registrar’s websiteFor all financial matters, go to Student Accounts.


FAQ Updates

There have been no updates to the prospective or current grad students FAQs over the past week. However, the FAQs for the university were recently updated.