Welcome!

These pages are designed to facilitate the progress of doctoral learners enrolled in the “Pre-Cohort” Ph.D. Program in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Arts and Sciences, Clinical Psychology, Educational Leadership/Systems, Psychology, Organizational Behavior/Development, or Public Policy/Administration.

The Ph.D. program has a long tradition of producing high quality scholarship in a unique structure that values diversity, creativity, and social relevance. The comprehensive academic and administrative information presented here is meant to assist learners in navigating their Ph.D. journey.

Union Institute & University Pre-Cohort learners who withdraw from the program prior to completion of the doctorate may be eligible to petition for the Master of Arts degree offered through UI&U’s MA Online option.  Learners must meet MA admission requirements.  Course histories will be reviewed on an individual basis in order to determine eligibility.  Please contact the dean for additional information.

Staff Contacts
When you have questions and concerns, it’s always best to try to get to the appropriate staff person.

• Dr. Patricia Brewer serves as Dean.
• Dr. Carol Barrett manages Phase 2 of the Dean’s Review Process.
• Dr. Shannon Smith has responsibility for all enrollment concerns and Phase 3 of the Dean’s Review.
• Shay McFarland provides direct service to learners, answering questions about registration, learner records, and scheduling meetings.

So that the dean’s office may serve you efficiently, we encourage you to use electronic communication whenever possible:

• Use your “myunion.edu” email account to contact the dean’s office, and check your “myunion.edu” email often. By university policy, we are required to route all emails to that address.
• For questions and concerns, please send emails to PhDProgramRep@myunion.edu and a member of the staff will follow up.
• Faxes should be sent to 513-487-1087. Please do not use any other fax number to send documents to the pre-cohort office.

Pre-Cohort Closure and Future Registrations
As you know, Union Institute & University’s Pre-Cohort Ph.D. Program has been in teach-out mode for a number of years: that is, the program has not accepted new learners since 2006, and will close for good on December 31, 2012. This date necessitates earlier deadlines for milestone achievements; specifically:

• By March 31, 2012, all learners must have held the program review meeting AND submitted all post-meeting documents, including the final PDE.
• To meet the March 31, 2012 deadline, all learners are encouraged to have held their program review meeting no later than February 15, 2012.
• To hold a program review meeting by February 15, 2012, a learner must have submitted pre-meeting documents and a request to schedule a program review meeting 60 days prior: that is, by December 15, 2011.

These deadlines have significant implications for any future registrations:

• Because all degree credits must be completed at the time of the program review meeting approval, no learner will be permitted to register for credit-bearing courses (e.g., RSCH 900 PDE DISSERTATON) for any term after 2011 8F (December 1 start).
• Any learners who register for (or have registered for) credits-bearing course(s) after 2011 8B (August 1 start) will need to have their credits completed and their program review meeting approved before the end of their term of registration (i.e., by February 14, 2012).
• The only registration permitted after 2011 8F (beginning with 2012 7A) is PCX 799 Program Extension for 0.0 credits, or, in exceptional cases, CEX 799 Course Extension 0.0 credits.
  • PCX 799 Program Extension is reserved for learners whose meetings have been approved.
  • CEX 799 Course Extension is reserved for learners completing Incomplete credit-bearing work from a prior term. Any learner not in PCX 799 by February 15, 2012, risks dismissal from the program for failure to meet the necessary deadlines to have a chance to complete the degree before December 31, 2012.

Please direct all questions about registration to Shannon Smith at shannon.smith@myunion.edu, or contact the dean’s office by dialing 1-800-861-6400.

Registration & Tuition Reminder
Please remember that you must be a registered learner to receive academic services from the university. This includes everybody on your committee as well as everybody in the administrative offices for the Pre-Cohort program. For this reason, it is essential that you register on time and maintain continuous registration.

Tuition is due on the first day of the term for which you are registering. You may pay in full on or by that date, or you may choose a deferred payment plan which allows for equal monthly payments after factoring in any financial aid you receive.

You can pay your tuition via check, credit card, or wire transfer. The easiest way to pay is by logging on to Campus Web and making an online credit card payment. To log in, you will need your learner ID and your password (usually the last four digits of your social security number; you can change your password once you are logged in).

Scheduling Meetings (Certification & Program Review) & Committee Travel
Remember, when scheduling your meetings, that all required documents must be received in the dean's office at least 60 days in advance of your scheduled meeting date. In addition, as of January 1 2009 only one committee member (preferably the first core) will be approved to travel to learner meetings.

Note from UMI/ProQuest
In the past it has taken approximately 3 months for learners' PDEs to appear in the ProQuest database. Currently UMI/ProQuest is experiencing a delay of up to six months. If you are searching for your PDE on ProQuest but cannot find it, you are most likely in queue for publication. If you have any questions, please direct them to ProQuest.

Closure of Pre-Cohort Ph.D. Program
All Pre-Cohort Ph.D. learners should have received the recent memo from Provost Rich Hansen. This is a follow up to the provost’s memo from January 2009 regarding the closure of the Pre-Cohort program. As a reminder: The Pre-Cohort Ph.D. Program is in “teach out” mode, which means that no new learners are being admitted to the program. Learners who have withdrawn from the program and intend to return have a very limited timeframe in which to do so. Current learners who are actively registered or are in “GI” status also have a limited timeframe in which to complete their PDEs and graduate.

The program is scheduled to end December 31, 2012. No extensions or document reviews can extend beyond that date. This means learners must complete both the PDE and the graduation review of the PDE with final dean’s approval by December 31, 2012.

• Last date to be formally certified and still be eligible to submit the final PDE to the dean's office for review: September 30, 2011
• Last possible date for submitting the final PDE to the dean's office for review: March 31, 2012

If you delay submission of documents until the last possible deadline you will not have the opportunity to submit reiterative drafts in the dean's review process. If your documents need revisions that you are not able to complete in time, you will not be granted your degree. For this reason we encourage all learners to focus on completing both their CDPs and their PDEs as quickly as is possible without sacrificing academic rigor or quality.

The university will not issue any waivers or exemptions to the December 2012 exit date.