Krista Haynes fixes problems.
As the director of graduate students services at UGA, she makes sure that people and departments comply with Graduate School policy.
Think of her office as the referees of graduate education. They ensure that graduate students know about and adhere to policies that affect progress toward degree completion. When something is out of order, they work to get the students or department back on the right track.
They also keep a close eye on official policies, checking to make sure that they effectively service students, departments, colleges and schools.
“My staff and I are facilitators. We try not to make exceptions to policies unless it’s warranted by some exceptional situation. But when we see a lot of that happening, then we say ‘Maybe this needs to change. Maybe we need to look at whether this is a viable policy in its current form.’ So we ask ourselves if it would be a better policy to support graduate education if we changed this or tweaked that,” Haynes said.
“That has certainly happened over the years—quite a bit. Dean Maureen Grasso has been very open to that. If we think something will make it easier for students or will help us know more about what’s going on with students, we change and develop ways to help. So it works both ways.”
Those shifts have created more drop/add days for graduate students, the graduate student listserv, a pregnancy, adoption and childbirth policy for graduate students and more. She also works with administrators to ensure that new programs meet appropriate criteria.
“I work with the dean’s office on proposals for new graduate programs. I review all of those. I look at them from a policy standpoint—did they get the admissions information in correctly, did they have a program of study that meets Graduate School standards, that sort of thing,” she said.
Haynes came to UGA after working at a nursing home. She enjoyed the work, but a desire to serve a younger population drove her to take a low-level job at the Graduate School. One year later, an administrative position opened up and Haynes moved up.
“I had the lowest position when I first came in, but I’ve been an administrator for 10 years of my 11 years here,” she said. “I decided I wanted to work with students, so I took a pay cut to come in at a low-level position that was available at that time. I thought that I’d really like to be of service to a younger portion of the population, so this really went along with the goals I had.”
After helping so many others obtain a graduate degree, Haynes decided to back for a master’s degree. So in 2002, she became not only an administrator of the Graduate School, but also a client.
“I’ve always loved the idea of education. I’ve always felt it was extremely important for people to get as much knowledge as they could and to be with other people. Those relationships that we develop in the process of education are important,” she said.
She chose to pursue a master’s in adult education—a field she said touches every aspect of her work.
“I wanted to know that information. Even though I’m not a teacher, most of us do adult education in almost every aspect of life. You do it in business. You’re always helping adults learn new things,” she said.
