Student Resources and Forms

Whenever possible, submit all forms electronically to gradstudy@cnu.edu. If necessary, you may instead deliver hard copies to the Graduate Studies Office in Trible Library 243.

Preparation for Graduation

Intent to Graduate

Registration

Change Requests

Petition for Policy Exception or Reinstatement

Thesis Preparation

Degree Completion Checklists

Intent to Graduate

Submit your intent to graduate by the dates listed below:

Graduation Date	Due Date (All due dates are preceding graduation date)
May	September 13
August	January 31
December	January 31

Intent to Graduate

Oral Defense of Thesis

Students must submit copies of the thesis to thesis committee members 10 days prior to the requested defense date. Recommended changes to the thesis by the thesis committee members must be made prior to submission for thesis format review by the Office of Graduate Studies.

Thesis Format Review and Final Copy

Graduation Date	Thesis Format Review	Final Copy Due to Graduate Office
December 2024	November 29, 2024	December 6, 2024
May 2025	April 18, 2025	April 25, 2025
August 2025	July 18, 2025	July 25, 2025

To qualify for financial aid, a student must satisfy all of the following conditions. More detailed information is available from the Office of Financial Aid.

Admission as a degree-seeking graduate student
Enrollment on at least a half-time basis; some programs may require full-time enrollment
Good academic standing
Making satisfactory academic progress

Graduate Assistantships

Graduate assistantships are available during the academic year for 10 to 12 qualified students when financial resources are available. Responsibilities may include research, administration or teaching.

Assistantships offer students the opportunity to enrich and enhance their expertise and gain additional experience in his/her chosen profession. Assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis.

The length of time a graduate student may receive an assistantship is a combination of four semesters in a two-year period and may include a tuition and fee waiver.

Employment outside of the assistantship requires the approval of the director of graduate studies. Students accepting a graduate assistantship must indicate their compliance with university privacy regulations by signing the Confidentiality / Privacy Statement of Agreement.

Criteria

The degree-seeking graduate student must be enrolled as a full-time student taking a minimum of nine credit hours in the semester of the award and each subsequent semester while serving as a graduate assistant.

How to Apply

Contact the graduate program coordinator for the graduate program you wish to assist for a Graduate Assistantship Application.

Resources

Student Feedback

Christopher Newport University is committed to addressing all student complaints. In all cases, students are advised to put their concerns in writing and provide documentation of the events that led to the complaint.

Type	Contact
Academic Complaints	Dr. Robert Colvin Vice Provost rcolvin@cnu.edu (757) 594-7050
Non-Academic Complaints	Pat McDermott Director of Planning and Budget mcdermot@cnu.edu (757) 594-8420
Discrimination or Harassment	Katie Wellbrock Interim Title IX Coordinator katherine.wellbrock@cnu.edu (757) 594-8819

Congratulations on successfully defending your thesis. It is now time to upload your thesis to ProQuest so that the world can view your thesis. This is a required step in your Master of Science with thesis degree.

Create a ProQuest account
LINK https://www.etdadmin.com/cnu
Enter your information in the box below. Make sure to enter an email that you an access.
After creating your account, you should receive an email from ETD Administrator within a minute. Click on the confirm your account link. If you do not see an email within a minute, check your spam or junk folder.
Click on the red Create or continue with submission button.
Choose Christopher Newport University, then fill out the rest of the choices. At the bottom of each page, choose Save and Continue. If you exit in the middle, what you have entered so far will be saved.

Publishing Options

Traditional vs Open Access
Traditional is free and allows you to publish in journals that disallow openly published material. Everyone who searches for topics related to your thesis will find your abstract, name, and a ProQuest link. Universities that have access to ProQuest will be able to view your thesis at no charge. Open Access allows anybody to view the text of your thesis at no charge to the viewer. You, the author, will need to pay $95 for this service.
"I want major search engines to discover my work."
We recommend that you click yes for this. There is no charge for either option.
"I want my work to be available in ProQuest as soon as it is published."
We strongly recommend that you click yes. The reason to click no is if you have a patent or publication pending that precludes prior disclosure of your work. Most journals do not consider publication on ProQuest as a previous publication. Check your specific journal, or talk to you advisor about this. If you choose No, you must indicate in the text box why you are delaying publication. If you click no, this will need to be approved by Graduate Studies.
Read and accept the Traditional Publishing Agreement.
Enter your contact information. Use your permanent contact information.
Enter your thesis details including pasting the text of your abstract.
Upload a pdf of your thesis. ProQuest will check to see that your pdf file matches their format. You should probably answer No to "Do you have any copyright permission documents to submit?"
It is unlikely that you will have supplementary documents; all information should be in your thesis. If you have no Supplemental Files, click Save and Continue at the bottom of the page.
If you have special notes to send to gradstudy@cnu.edu, you may do that in the Notes to Administrator page. Otherwise, leave this blank.
On the Register U.S. Copyright, we recommend that you click No for both of these.
On the Order Copies page, you may order copies for your own personal use if you would like. Note that ProQuest is not one of the binderies accepted for your required departmental binding. If you do not want any personal copies through ProQuest, choose Decline - do not order at the bottom of the page. If you would like a bound copy for your personal use, you may order it through the approved binderies or through ProQuest.
Click Submit Dissertation/Thesis.
Once you complete the process, this document will be sent to gradstudy@cnu.edu for approval. Once it is approved, you will receive an email from ETD Administrator indicating that.

Binding your thesis

You may use any of the binderies below to bind your thesis. You must bind one copy, and have it sent to:

Division of Graduate Studies
Library 243
Christopher Newport University
1 Avenue of the Arts
Newport News, Va 23606

This copy will go to your department. You will not receive your diploma until the Office of Graduate Studies has a paid receipt from one of the binderies below.

Binding specifications

Your thesis must have the following format:

Cover material: fabric hard cover
Cover color: medium blue
Cover lettering: gold
Front cover: title, author
Spine: title, author, year of degree
Type of paper: acid-free, archival quality
Type of printing: black and white, color pages allowed for figures and tables

Binding vendors

You may have your thesis bound at any one of the approved vendors below using the specifications above. If you find a different vendor, you may email to the Office of Graduate Studies at gradstudy@cnu.edu with

evidence that the bindery is able to use the specifications above
the bindery’s web page

The Office of Graduate Studies will evaluate the bindery and respond within 3 weeks of your request. Please take this extra time for approval into account when planning your thesis defense date.

*You must use one of the binderies below unless you have prior approval to use a different vendor.