Skip to main content
Eberly College of Arts & Sciences Department of Geology and Geography
Visit WVU Request Info Apply Now

Section D. Department and Computer Information

Geology Graduate Handbook

9 Department of Geology and Geography, Brooks Hall

9.1 Department Administration

Our department is fortunate to have some wonderfully efficient, resourceful, and kind staff. The staff who will be most helpful to you are:

  • Abraham Johnson handles all payroll and other accounting duties for the department. He is also the keeper of the van schedule and keys.
  • Hope Stewart who is an expert on all graduate deadlines and policies. She also keeps the schedule for the use of rooms in Brooks, and she keeps the schedule of TA proctoring (more about that later). Hope can be found in the dept. office.
  • Ms. Tara Robbins who is in charge of undergraduate advising.

The department maintains files for each student. Your file will include the following information: Offer Letter, signed Plan(s) of Study, Annual Review, Milestone Forms. To see your file, contact Hope Stewart.

9.2 Department Communication

The only way the faculty and staff may have to contact you is through your WVU Mix email.  CHECK YOUR MIX EMAIL EVERY DAY! If we send you an email to your Mix account, we will assume you received it that day.  If you do not check your Mix email every day, you will most certainly miss important announcements, opportunities, and deadlines from the department.

You should also check your department mailbox regularly. If you need to sign paperwork for the dept. (e.g., reimbursement checks, annual appointment letters) that’s where the paperwork will be put.

9.3 Graduate Student Representation on Departmental Committees

Two geology graduate students, one masters, and one PhD student, serve as graduate student representatives at Departmental faculty meetings and are elected via the Geo Grad Group. You can learn a lot doing this, can provide feedback to faculty on student issues, and it’s especially useful for people considering academic careers.

9.4 Brooks Hall

Building Emergencies: The department is in a usually very safe and well-running building. But, from time to time, there may be things that come up that need attention. Personal safety should always take priority. If you need help during the day, call the main office at 304-293-5603 or call 911 if there is an injury or emergency. For most building problems, you should call the main office during the day or 304-293-HELP (304-293-4357) after hours. This will ring into WVU Police, and they can then contact the correct people to take care of the problem.

Building Access, Outer Doors to Brooks :You will have 24/7 access to Brooks Hall as a graduate student in our department. The building unlocks itself at 6:00 am Monday through Friday. It locks itself at 9 pm on Monday through Thursday and at 6:00 pm on Friday. It normally remains locked on weekends; however, at times, there are special classes or events going on so the building may be unlocked on weekends. If the building is locked, you can gain access by swiping your ID card at the card reader near each entrance. You should hear a click and see “access granted” on the display as the doors unlock.

Office and Lab locks: The offices, teaching labs, and computer labs are set up with electronic card access locks. These locks work with your ID card. To use the locks, insert your card with the black stripe toward the door and your photo facing you. During normal office hours (M-F 7:30 am – 5 pm), you should get a green light on the card reader and the door will click, and you can open it. If you get an immediate red light, it means you do not have access to that room. If you get a delayed red light (approximately 6 seconds after swiping your card), your card was not read properly.

By default, you will have access to all computer labs and teaching labs controlled by the Geology & Geography Department, the student honor society room, the staff/faculty break room, the mail/copier room, the student advising rooms, and your office. The doors lock automatically when closed, so make sure you have your ID card before leaving your office. You may want to make it a habit to wear it on a lanyard or keep it in your pocket when at Brooks.

After office hours and on the weekends, you will need your PIN to unlock your office and other doors in Brooks. Your PIN is the last 4 digits of your ID number. When you insert and remove your ID card into the lock reader, you will see a red and green light and then you should enter your PIN into the keypad. The light will turn to green only, and you will be able to open the door.

Note that during normal weekday hours many teaching and computer lab doors remain unlocked after the first person of the day comes in. Doors will lock automatically at 5 pm. If you are teaching a class in a room or have need to access any other rooms that have electronic locks, access can be granted with approval from your advisor or another faculty member.

Please make sure your door is locked and closed when you leave. Security of your belongings is only as good as a locked door.

Building Issue?  If you notice something is not working the way it should (computer, printer, door lock etc. or building issues such as a leak or broken faucet), please let the G&G IT office or main office know. Many times students are the first to experience these issues, and it helps greatly to be made aware of any problems early on.

9.5 Brooks Hall Computer Labs

Computer Labs: These rooms, and the equipment in them, represent a professional suite of labs. Conduct, behavior, and the use of these facilities must reflect similar standards.

Failure to comply with these standards will result in disbarment from the labs, irrespective of the impact this will have on your coursework or research work.

The computing facilities are to be used for research or teaching -related work. These rooms are not to be used as a study hall or break room. No games, file-sharing applications, instant message utilities, etc. are to be loaded or played on any of these computers.

The local drives on the PCs will be periodically purged. Do not store any of your work on the drives; there will be no guarantees it will be there the next day. Either store your work on a removable USB drive, or on your network drive on your Windows network account.

No food or drink is permitted in any of the computer rooms.

You will normally have unrestricted access to computer labs 415, 416, 419, 420, and 425 when they are not in use for teaching. The primary use of the pc labs is teaching. Posted by the lab door will be a schedule when the lab will be available for general use. At those times, you need to vacate the lab. As additional classes are scheduled, the availability of the pc labs will change.

Printing. The department has printer on the 3rd floor networked as the Blue Print group, but it is only available for essential teaching-related usage. Talk to Hope on how to set it up.

E-Mail. The department does not provide email accounts. You will use your MIX account. It is important to check your MIX email at least once per day. This is the only way faculty and staff may have to communicate with you. If you do not miss an important MIX email from faculty or staff, we will not know it, and you may miss important deadlines! Check your MIX email every day. Check your MIX email every day. Check you MIX email every day.

There are mailing lists that include the entire departments or subsets of it. They are:  

Wireless Access. WVU supports wireless access around most of the campus. See the ITS Wireless Support webpage for more information on this service and the locations where wireless can be used as well as instructions for connecting your devices to the network.

Personal Computers. Many students have personal laptops they prefer to use. Depending on the operating system installed and whether they connect via network cable or wireless will determine what resources are available to them. Connecting via the wireless networks will not allow access to your network drives or the printers (per WVU IT Security).

Virus Software. Before you either connect to the wireless or wired networks, you should have up-to-date virus software installed. WVU and this department take steps to prevent the spread of computer viruses, but it still happens. As a student, you can install the WVU copy of ant-virus and firewall software free of charge. WVU-owned computers are required to run SOPHOS anti-virus. SOPHOS is available for free to WVU students.

Backing up your computer . Although the dept. network files are backed up regularly, be sure to back up your own computer regularly as well! An external hard drive can save you a lot of time. You can also sign into Google Drive with your mix account and have unlimited storage on Google. Learn more on ITS help page  MIX Gmail FAQ

Two-factor Identification . WVU now requires two-factor authentication for logging into your WVU account. Learn how to Enroll in Okta Verify

Office computers . Graduate students will be provided with a computer at their assigned desk. These computers are intended for basic needs and may not be able to handle all of the specialized software you may need in your research. If you need higher end computers and software, you may need to access these in the computer labs or your advisor’s research lab.

Problems? If you experience IT issues, please email ECASITHelp@mail.wvu.edu

9.6 Additional G&G Information

Department Vans. As part of your TA duties, or otherwise as a grad student, you may be asked to drive a van.

The Geology and Geography Department owns two vans that we use for field trips and other departmental business. Only faculty members are directly authorized to use and reserve vans. Reservations must be made through GOOGLE calendar by the faculty sponsor. Mr. Abraham Johnson is in charge of keeping and distributing the van keys, gas credit cards, and van schedules. Additional procedures for using the gas credit cards will be provided to you when you pick up the keys and cards.

The vans are normally kept in Lot 7 (across Beechurst from Brooks). If you use a van, please make sure it is returned with a full tank of gas, clean (on the inside) and keys are returned to the office staff. If you note any problems with a van, please record it on the van activity logs in the office and report it to the office staff.

WVU and Geology Links

WVU Graduate Catalog

Geology in the WVU Graduate Catalog

WVU Carruth Center for Psychological and Psychiatric Services. Graduate school can be a challenging time on many levels - if you need some outside support, please contact these folks. They can be a tremendous help.

Many of the forms you’ll need during your degree – and links to a few other uses sites – can be found on the Geology webpage  Graduate Forms and Resources