Faculty Initiated Actions for Milestones

What Faculty Should Expect When They Receive an Approval Request

When a Milestone form requires your approval (Advisor, Program Director, Associate Dean, or Committee Member), you will receive both an automated email notification and a Teams notification from the Graduate College Milestone Tracking system (Digital Workflow Service OHIO IT).

• You may review and respond to approval requests from either location to complete the request.
• You can also view all pending approval requests and your full approval response history at any time by visiting:

Microsoft Approvals

What happens after an approval request is sent to you:

You will receive an approval email and Teams Notification

• The email/teams notification will include:
  • The student’s name
  • The milestone being requested
  • Buttons to Approve or Reject
  • Any other important information for the request

Reminder emails are automatically sent

• If you do not respond to the approval:
• You will receive a reminder email every 3 days
• These reminders will continue until an action is taken or the request expires

Approval requests expire after 14 days

Approval requests remain open for 14 days from the date they are sent.
If no action is taken within 14 days:

• The request automatically times out
• The form will be marked as No Response
• The submitter will be notified that the request expired
• The submitter must resubmit the form, which restarts the approval process

Approving or declining the request

In the approval email or teams notification:

• Click Approve if everything is correct
• Click Reject if something needs to be corrected
  • You may provide comments when declining so the submitter knows what to fix

What happens after you approve:

Once all required approvers have responded:

• The student’s official milestone status is updated
• Confirmation emails are sent
• Any additional steps (PDF routing, list updates, or downstream approvals) are triggered automatically

Summary of College Approval Logic

No Approvals Required

• MS1
• MS2
• MS3
• MS5

Conditional Approvals

• MS4 – All Coursework Completed
  • Advisor always approves
  • Program Director approves if Program Coordinator submitted
• MS8 – Admission to Candidacy
  • Associate Dean approves if Program Director submitted