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How to get started as a new member in our department

This page gives step-by-step instructions for international graduate students. We have separate instructions for domestic graduate students, faculty, staff, and undergraduate students, as well as a list of all dates and deadlines.

Questions? You can answer many questions by looking through our department website: use the navigational links at the top of each page, or the search box in the upper right corner. If you cannot locate an answer, please contact Christa L King [Math 109 (Dept Head Office), (520) 621-2868, cking@math.arizona.edu] or Denise Ingram [Math 115 (Business Office), (520) 621-2562, dingram@math.arizona.edu], either of whom will direct you to the appropriate person.

Corrections? If you discover mistakes or misleading information in the step-by-step instructions on this page, please take a moment to improve the experience for others by sending your comments/corrections to Tina M Deemer [Math 209, (520) 621-4765, deemer@math.arizona.edu]. Thanks!

Things to do right away (before arriving on campus):

  1. Print out this webpage (the one you're looking at right now) so that you can cross off each step as it is completed.
  2. Sign and return your offer letter, if you have not already done so.
  3. Print out the following new employee documents and complete them. Send completed documents to Sandy Sutton, Department of Mathematics, 617 N. Santa Rita Ave., Tucson, AZ 85721. The required paperwork must be received by 10 Aug 2009.
  4. By now you should have received your Admissions Packet in the mail. If you have not yet received it, please contact your Graduate Coordinator:
  5. Complete all visa-related paperwork in your Admissions Packet.
  6. Provide proof of immunization to Campus Health (as explained in your Admissions Packet). See the Campus Health Immunization Requirements webpage for more information.
  7. You should have received a Student Identification Number (SID) when you got accepted to the university. Using your SID, obtain a UA NetID at https://netid.arizona.edu/. Your UA NetID is your personal identifier for a number of online services at the University of Arizona. Some of the services requiring a NetID include University computing accounts (email.arizona.edu, u.arizona.edu, etc.), web applications (StudentLink, WebRoster, etc.), University site-licensed software, and University computer labs.
  8. Go to GATO On-line Registration to register for Graduate Assistant Teacher Orientation (GATO), a mandatory one-day orientation program, designed to acquaint first-time TAs at the University of Arizona with Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) teaching requirements. You can read more GATO at the University Teaching Center (UTC) GATO website.
  9. If English is not your native language, you should have already taken the TOEFL as part of admissions. If you have been informed that your UA admission is pending an “Institutional TOEFL”, meaning you need to take a UA-only version of the TOEFL here at the UA to complete the admission, please see the CESL TOEFL page to learn more and register.
  10. Your admissions packet should have contained a registration password for International Student Orientation. Use that password to register at the bottom of the International Student Orientation Program page.
  11. For Mathematics grad students: By 1 Jul 2009, read the invitation to the Integration Workshop, decide whether you will participate, and follow the instructions on that page to let us know your decision.
  12. Prepare your travel/relocation plans. You will need to appear personally on campus for payroll identification no later than 17 Aug 2009 (we encourage you to appear during the prior week, if possible), and mandatory department meetings and workshops might start as early as 5 Aug 2009 (depending on whether you're teaching, are an international student, are participating in the integration workshop, or are taking the qualifying exams early). Consult the department calendar of start-of-semester meetings and workshops to guide your planning. Additional meetings (or changed meeting times due to unavoidable last-minute changes in teaching assignments) might require your availability on campus at any time between 17 Aug 2009 and the start of classes on 24 Aug 2009. In general, in preparing your plans, be sure to allow yourself enough time to settle housing and other relocation matters prior to your first commitment on the calendar. (See the bottom of this page for housing-related resources.)
  13. Contact your Graduate Coordinator to provide the following information, if you have not already provided it:
    • Current contact information (address, phone, e-mail)
    • Date of arrival on campus
  14. By 15 Jul 2009 (or, for late hires, within 2 weeks of when we receive your signed offer letter), you should receive an e-mail from our department, sent to the e-mail address you provided in the previous step, with information on your new math department e-mail address and network account, and instructions on how to access that e-mail or forward it elsewhere. Subsequent math department communications will be sent to your new math department e-mail address. Note that the University will send all official e-mail to your NetID-based address, whereas our Department communicates using your math department e-mail address; we suggest you configure your University NetID-based e-mail to forward to your math department e-mail (or vice versa), unless you prefer keeping two separate addresses and checking both on a regular basis.
  15. For Mathematics grad students: Start to familiarize yourself with the information on the Mathematics Graduate Program website, in particular:
    You also might want to see the list of incoming students.
  16. You can begin accessing your Bursar's account balance through StudentLink on 21 Jul 2009. You probably won't see an accurate balance until a few days before classes start, but this is a good time to go to StudentLink and try to access your balance, and also familiarize yourself with the other things you can access in StudentLink.
  17. If you are going to be teaching, and you have not already received a teaching assignment, please contact Tina M Deemer [Math 209, (520) 621-4765, deemer@math.arizona.edu].
  18. If you are going to be teaching, prior to the first day of classes on 24 Aug 2009, you will need to be familiar with the contents of the Math Department Instructor Resource Handbook, which covers departmental and university policies and procedures relating to teaching at the UA. (The web link goes to a protected intranet page. Follow the instructions on the resulting “access denied” to configure your web browser for proxy access using your math department network account. If the steps are too technical or you don't have access to a computer on which you can carry out the steps, you can wait to read the Instructor Resource Handbook until you arrive in Tucson.)
  19. If you are going to be teaching, go to TATO On-line Registration to register for Teaching Assistant Training Online (TATO), a mandatory web-based training module. Follow the instructions there for logging in to complete the TATO modules. You can read about TATO.
  20. If you are going to be teaching, and if English is not your native language, you must pass an online test of spoken English. You can either pass the TOEFL iBT with a score of at least 26, or the UofA-based online T-BEST with a score of at least 7. (You might have already taken the TOEFL iBT to meet your original TOEFL application requirement. But if you took the paper-based TOEFL, your choice now is to take the TOEFL iBT or the UofA T-BEST. More information on the T-BEST should be available soon at http://grad.arizona.edu/ta/, under “International TAs”.
  21. Print a UA map to bring with you to campus. You will need to go to various buildings on campus other than the Math Building.

Things to do once you arrive on campus:

  1. No later than 17 Aug 2009 (but preferably during the prior week, or even as soon as you are settled in Tucson), visit your Graduate Coordinator to introduce yourself and to sign your Notice of Appointment:
    • Math Graduate Coordinator: Sandy Sutton, Room 206 in the Math Building.

    Your Graduate Coordinator will give you information on your office assignment (you will share an office with other graduate students) and your mailbox assignment, and schedule an appointment to meet with the Associate Head for your program (or another suitable advisor) to confirm your program of study and your selection of first-year courses.
  2. No later than 17 Aug 2009 (but preferably during the prior week, or even as soon as you are settled in Tucson), bring your passport to the Math Department Business Office, Room 117 in the Math Building. If this step occurs after 17 Aug 2009, the university might withhold your pay for the in-between days. Therefore we encourage you to take care of this step at your earliest convenience.
  3. Obtain a CatCard (UA Photo Identification Card) by going to the CatCard Office in the Student Union. Be sure to take a government-issued photo I.D. with you.
  4. Bring your CatCard to the Math Department Head Office, Room 109 in the Math Building, to obtain your office assignment and key card, and to have your photo taken for the department photo directory.
  5. Go to the University Key Desk (show location on campus map snippet) to obtain office keys. You will need to take your CatCard and your key card with you. This office is located far from the Math Building, so you may want to use the CatTran shuttle service.
  6. If you need a parking permit, go to Parking & Transportation Services in the Parking Office Building with your SID and your CatCard to arrange for one.
  7. If you will be riding a bicycle to campus, you can read about options for bicycle registration and parking.
  8. Attend all relevant Math Department Meetings (for additional start-of-semester activities that might apply to you, check the start-of-semester calendar):
    • For advanced graduate students taking the qualifying exams prior to their first semester here, the Math Qualifying Exams run 5 Aug 2009 – 7 Aug 2009.
    • For Mathematics graduate students, the Integration Workshop runs 7 Aug 2009 – 11 Aug 2009.
    • The University International Graduate Student Orientation runs 12 Aug 2009 – 13 Aug 2009.
    • If you will be teaching, Department TA Training runs 13 Aug 2009 – 17 Aug 2009. University GATO runs 20 Aug 2009.
    • Math Department New Employee Orientation on 18 Aug 2009, 9 AM in Math Building, Room 501. At this meeting, you will be introduced to key personnel in the department, go on a tour of our offices, and receive information about payroll, mailboxes, textbooks, office supplies, copy requests, etc.
    • Math Department Computing Orientation on 21 Aug 2009, 11 AM in Math Building, Room 101. At this meeting, you will be given information about computing resources, options, and support.
    • Course Meetings on Aug 18–20. All lower-level multi-section courses have initial course meetings on one of these days. These meetings are mandatory for those teaching the courses.
    • Other mandatory meetings that might get scheduled between 17 Aug 2009 and the start of classes on 24 Aug 2009, which would be announced by math department e-mail.
  9. As soon as you have completed the International Student Orientation, use StudentLink to register for classes. For Mathematics graduate students, please review Selecting your first-year classes; if you have questions, please contact your Graduate Coordinator Sandra L Sutton [Math 206 (Grad Office), (520) 621-2068, sutton@math.arizona.edu].
  10. You should have been signed up for health insurance during the International Student Orientation. If this has not yet taken place, you might be able to sign up using StudentLink. For more information about the options, please visit the Campus Health Service webpages.
  11. If you are going to be teaching, go to webroster.arizona.edu and log on using your UA NetID to obtain class rosters for the course(s) you are scheduled to teach.
  12. If you are going to be teaching, read the Math Department Instructor Resource Handbook (if you have not already done so). If the Handbook web link takes you to an “access denied” page, follow the instructions on that page to rectify the situation.
  13. Although you could begin accessing your Bursar's account balance through StudentLink on 21 Jul 2009, the balance due might change a few times in the weeks and days leading up to the start of classes. Depending on your residence status and your level of support from the department and university (e.g., whether you are teaching, receiving out-of-state tuition coverage, receiving health insurance reimbursement, etc.), the balance due will be reduced accordingly, but often not until the third week after the payment deadline on 24 Aug 2009. If your portion of the balance is not paid in full by this deadline, you will be assessed a $50 late penalty (even if your portion of the balance due was as little as $1). Your Graduate Coordinator can inform you which amounts will be covered for you, so that you can calculate your portion of the balance. You can also consult the Bursar Tuition Rates tables. After subtracting the amounts that will get covered for you, there will always be some miscellaneous fees remaining for you to pay, and you must pay these by the deadline to avoid the late penalty.
  14. Classes start on 24 Aug 2009.

Other Important Information/Websites:

Contacts in the Math Department:

Payroll and BenefitsAnnette Hornpayroll@math.arizona.edu
Business Office (travel, reimbursements, etc.) business-office@math.arizona.edu
Computing-related issues  system@math.arizona.edu
Teaching-related issuesTina Deemerdeemer@math.arizona.edu
Academic Support ServicesJerrie Biebersteinacademic-office@math.arizona.edu
General Questions and VISA issuesChrista Kingcking@math.arizona.edu
Math Graduate Program CoordinatorSandy Suttongrad-office@math.arizona.edu
Math Graduate Program HeadProf Tom Kennedytgk@math.arizona.edu
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