Dear grad students, Hope you and your loved ones are doing well. As you know, all the milestone forms can now be electronically submitted on the college website. The exception is the signature sheet for the thesis/dissertation/capstone. The college is in the process of developing an electronic form to support the approval of the thesis/dissertation that won't require the student to obtain hard signatures. It is likely this form will be available for use by the end of the week. Your dissertation/thesis/project defense/proposal has to be online now. Following is a helpful student-facing presentation on how to defend remotely with Zoom that was recently put together by a newly minted PhD at Duke: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ktdFVX0gBVErixR1wWZeguPTw6HQmf_zwPEUYVmuVqc/edit#heading=h.ko6ehvqto5v8. Please ask all clarifying questions of your committee chair, committee members, or the Directors of Graduate Studies at least 3 business days prior to the proposal/defense meeting. We strongly recommend the web-conferencing platforms such as WebEx, Zoom, Skype, etc. Please ensure prior to the meeting that the committee chair and members are comfortable with the chosen web-conferencing platform. The University supports WebEx, and all GSU faculty and students have a dedicated account linked with their Campus ID. External members can also access WebEx if they are invited to attend a meeting. Electronic signatures are acceptable during this time if it is not possible to obtain written signatures. If electronic signatures are not possible to obtain, email confirmations from committee members confirming the approved documents are acceptable. The College currently has no plans to adjust deadlines associated with the graduation/milestone clearance process. Please know that our department’s graduate team has been working, and will continue to work, to ensure students continue to progress through our program while normal University operations are interrupted. We are here to answer any questions you have about our graduate program operations during this uncertain time. If we do not have answers to your specific questions at the department-level, we will consult with the College and University administrators to address your concerns. Take care! -- Yingshu Li, Ph.D. Professor Director of Graduate Studies Department of Computer Science Georgia State University URL: www.cs.gsu.edu/yli