GSA General Assembly Meeting Minutes

Meeting Date:  October 17, 2007

Meeting Time:  7:06 - 8:01 p.m., HGS 119 A&B

 

I.  ODEO Update - Mayra L. Garcia

·         ODEO = Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity

·         Mayra is on the search committee for a new Assistant Dean and Director of ODEO, which met in September.

·         The search committee consists of 7 members:  Dean Butler, Dean Sleight, Dean Barnaby, Lisa Brandes, a faculty member, and 2 graduate students.

·         Over six months this committee met and brainstormed a description for the position - have developed a 6-page job despcription.

·         Mayra will e-mail the GSA reps to see if we know any possible candidates in our networks.

·         They are hoping to fill the position by Fall 2008, and then deadline for applicants is November 30^th, 2007.

·         It was decided that a search committee could identify better qualified applicants than human resources.

·         The position does not need to be filled by anyone internally and has been open since May.

 

 

II.  CTF Update and Call for Readers - Dennis Mishler

·         Dennis has all submissions (55 total) from this first, October 15^th, cycle.

·         He currently needs 1 Social Sciences reader and 2 Humanities readers.

·         There will be a meeting next week where Dennis will explain the reading and ranking processes.

·         Readers will have applications for 1-2 weeks.

·         Each reader must read all of the applications.

·         Subsequently, the two readers will get together and determine who gets funded and how much each award should be.

·         From a total of $45,000 this year, each division will get $4,000 - $7,000 this cycle.

·         Social Science reader volunteer:  Florian Ploeckl

·         Humanities reader volunteers:  Stephen Gosden and Matt Gunterman

 

 

III.  Departmental Meeting Reimbursement - Sara Nichols

·         We have attained 3 GSA credit cards.

·         The cards will be kept here at HGS in Marybeth Brandi’s office and must be returned within 24 hours.

·         When you return the credit card to Marybeth, she will provide you with a form.

·         You should bring her the receipts, and an e-mail description or the minutes of your event and an attendance sheet.

·         Only GSA representatives can sign out the cards.

 

IV.  Mentoring Week - Oct 29 - Nov 1

 

Monday Event

·         Andy Bellemer is organizing this workshop which will take place at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, October 29 in HGS 119B.

·         A panel of 3-4 students has been invited to speak about how to get the most out of mentoring by talking about their own graduate school experiences and relating them to this theme.

·         Everyone is invited, and please come with questions and ideas.  Please attend!!!

·         Andy is still looking for a Social Science panelist who has had a great (or awful) mentoring experience.  Anyone interested, please see Andy after the meeting tonight.

·         Most graduate students discuss mentoring issues; this is a forum for the sharing of ideas.

·         There will be refreshments.

·         We strongly encourage GSA representatives to attend.

·         There is a Mentoring Week link on the GSA homepage with the schedule.

                       

Department Events

·         Individual or groups of departments (based on location, discipline, and the composition of the Mentoring Committee) have been asked to have faculty panel discussions.

·         Geology and Forestry Panel (Bryan Woods): 

            -  Wednesday, October 31 at 1:30 in KGL 102.

            -  The Geology DGS was supportive and wants to include Astronomy and Physics.

            -  The DGS from Geology is currently on the panel, and they plan to ask the                                       Forestry DGS as well.

            -  Elizabeth T. Williams may possibly be able to get a panelist from the Physics                       department as well.

 

·         Psychology Panel (Kerra Bui):

            -  They are currently waiting to hear about panelists from their DGS.

            -  They also plan to have refreshments.

 

·         History Panel (Matt Gunterman):

            -  Wednesday, October 31 from 2:00 - 4:00 in HGS 211.

            -  This is a joint effort with History, History of Science and Medicine, History of Art,             and Medieval Studies.

            -  Panelists include several junior and senior faculty members and two students.

 

·         French, Spanish and Portuguese, and Italian Panel (Claire McMurray):

            -  The panel will consist of five faculty members.

            -  Funding for refreshments will come from the French and Spanish and Portuguese                            departments.

 

 

·         BBS at the Medical School Panel (Ian Simon):

            -  People are aware of the idea, but Ian will need to go to their offices in person to                  recruit panelists.

            -  There are many departments at the medical school - Ian has a list of possible                      meeting rooms.

 

·         Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science Panel (Eli Kim):

            -  Tarek Fadel has obtained the Engineering DGS’s approval.

            -  The panel will take place on Wednsday, October 31^st.

            -  They are currently working on getting food and faculty panelists.

 

·         BBS at Science Hill and Chemistry Panel (Laura Thomas):

            -  So far, they have two Chemistry Panelists and one MCDB panelist.

            -  E-mails have gone out to several MB&B faculty, and they are currently waiting to                           hear back.

            -  The panel will take place on Tuesday, October 30^th, starting at either 1:30 or 2:30                           and lasting for one hour.

            -  Chemistry and MB&B DGS’s have agreed to send e-mail announcements to                        students and post-docs.

 

·         Either Bobbi or Laura will send the proposed Mentoring Week questions in an e-mail to the reps tonight.

 

Keynote Speaker Kathy Barker Nov 1^st

 

General Themes:

·         How generalizable is good mentoring between different fields?

·         What are the common threads?

·         We are hoping for both general and specific examples of good mentoring.

·         We are also planning to compose a write-up of the whole event.  Laura can do this, in addition to a few other people.

 

Advertising

-  Andy will e-mail everyone the flyer tonight or tomorrow. 

-  Print in color - hopefully everyone can help post them around campus.

                       

A YDN photographer here tonight.

           

Mentoring Committee

·         If you have any input - contact Andy, and attend the Monday panel.

·         It would be great if you could help advertise and find faculty.

                       

 

V. Departmental Meetings

 

Spanish and Portuguese (Nick Goodbody)

·         Their departmental meeting was held at GPSCY, the package was $5 per person per hour for a room and an open bar.

·         For future reference, GPSCY can be invoiced.

·         Nick plugged Mentoring Week.

·         They also discussed how to approach faculty.

·         This was an effective forum for students from many different years to meet.

 

Geology and Geophysics (Bryan Woods)

·         Met the day before the first day of classes.

·         They discussed the role of the department in industry recruiting (unethical controversies).

·         Geology has its own endowment.

·         They are hoping to hold a Yale-Harvard football game tailgate with Forestry (there is some money for this).

·         GPSS is working on having a graduate student tailgate.

·         The McDougal center may want to get involved.

 

 

VI.  Additional Topics for the GSA Agenda

 

Information Technology (IT) at Yale

·         The President of the university and Dean Butler are interested in overhauling the digital landscape of Yale.

·         It would be useful to have graduate students’ and undergraduates’ input in this endeavor.

·         We want to organize an internal GSA committee to work with Phil Long to organize a University committee.

·         There is a faculty committee already.

·         Eli - the university has a 25 year plan for this initiative, but it is broad.

·         However, it may be useful to get ITS to deal with more pressing issues.

·         Eli tried to get in contact with Phil Long, but he was out of town.

·         If anyone is interested in joining the IT committee, contact Andy Bellemer.

·         The university is not interested in being on the cutting edge of technology, but we would like to be fast-followers.

·         Dean Butler is interested in Yale having a more visual presence around campus - screens at the Medical School would be a good addition to the rest of campus.

·         There are issues with getting/maintaining wireless internet in some departments and parts of campus.

·         Departments need to pay for wireless connections, so departments that are not technically inclined sometimes go without.

·         Departments like Computer Science have large, in-house IT organization, whereas some departments have none.

·         It is not possible to bill hardwire connections to grants.

·         Not all departments take advantage of the digital classrooms around campus.

·         Eli will invite Phil Long to one of our meetings.

VII.  Women’s Health Concerns - Liz Williams

·         Let’s get some of the facts straight:

·         If a student has the Prescription Plus plan, birth control costs a $100 deductible, in addition to 20% of the cost each time the prescription is refilled (~3 times per year).

·         The HPV vaccine is covered by the Prescription Plus plan, but is $420 without it.

·         Bryan Woods - GPSS is also interested in getting involved in these issues.

·         The cost of birth control depends on the brand; some brands do not have generics.

·         The price has increased because Yale used to be considered a “clinic” by the government, but it no longer is, so birth control is no longer subsidized.  This is not specific to Yale.

·         Can Yale subsidize birth control?

·         Liz Williams may need to speak with the Benefits Office.

·         Having a report with specific numbers of how much the prices have increased would be effective in convincing the university to get involved - Liz Williams.

·         We could also lobby to change the law.

·         Hannah Chapin - people can look into getting government contacts - House of Representatives.

·         There was a flyer near Toad’s Place advertising a meeting about these women’s’ health issues.

·         Perhaps we could join forces with GPSS and the YCC.

·         The hope (from a Yale subsidy standpoint) is that Yale would not have to subsidize the HPV vaccine for very many years, as younger girls start getting vaccinated earlier.

 

Final Announcements

·         Ian Simon - has provided handouts with suggested Mentoring Week panel questions.

·         Even if you are not on a panel or organizing one, these can still be interesting to take to panel discussions/departmental meetings.

·         The questions have been broken down into three types:  just grad students/just faculty/just department chairs.

·         We will send a link to the University of Michigan Handbook, which has interesting mentoring suggestions.

 

Motion to Adjourn - 2^nd