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For Current MPIA students

Click here to view MPIA Capstone Options

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(v. Dec 2021)

This checklist helps you plan for your final semester as an MPIA student.

Week 1 

Week 2-4 

  • Write up a 200-300 word abstract and share with your advisor.  

  • Contact members of your committee, including one outside (non-GIA) member. 

  • Review your plan of study with your advisor and circulate it for signatures using DocuSign.

Week 10 

Week 12 

  • Contact Elia A. (elia@vt.edu) to set up the defense with the Graduate School (grad@vt.edu). 

Week 14

  • Circulate drafts to the committee for review and feedback. 

Week 16 

  • Complete the defense! 

  • Make any final changes needed to the documents.

View a PDF version of this information here.

The Graduate Honor Code:

The Graduate Honor Code establishes a standard of academic integrity and demands a firm adherence to a set of values. It is founded on the concept of honesty with respect to the intellectual efforts of oneself and others.

All graduate students, while being affiliated with Virginia Tech, must abide by the standards described in the GHS Constitution.

Graduate students, by accepting admission, subscribe to and become governed by the Graduate Honor Code and acknowledge the right of the University to establish policies and procedures and to take disciplinary action (including suspension or expulsion) when such action is warranted.

Complaints about professional misconduct:

Complaints about professional misconduct (integrity and civility) are concerns of both the targets of those complaints and of the department. As such, they are not appropriate topics of informal discussion alone. Students giving voice to complaints of misconduct should, in a timely fashion, initiate processes in which the department and the targets of the complaints would have opportunities to respond. Students can initiate such processes by sharing complaints with departmental or university authorities, as listed below.

Relevant offices include:

  • GIA program chair — discussion of concerns about graduate student integrity and civility within the department, all of which remain in confidence other than sexual harassment/assault, mention of which must result in a phone call to the Human Resources Title IX coordinators, as noted below.
  • SPIA chair — discussion of concerns about faculty conduct, all of which remain in confidence other than sexual harassment/assault, mention of which must result in a phone call to HR Title IX, as noted below.
  • Graduate Student Ombuds — discussion of any concerns related to treatment by others, including officials, in the university, all of which remain in confidence other than sexual harassment/assault, mention of which must result in a phone call to Human Resources Office, Title IX
  • Dean of Students Office — reports of concerns about student conduct, including disruption, threats, incivility, and harassment
  • Graduate Honor System — reports of violations of academic integrity.

For confidential discussions of issues of civility, you may contact:

  • The Women’s Center’s Counseling staff (concerns about gendered conduct, sexual assault, sexual harassment)
  • Cook Counseling Center
MPIA Graduate Handbook