Yale University GSA

I. Brief Introduction

II. Motion to Approve the Agenda

III. Advertisement for Yale Day of Service

IV. Update on Elections

Vice-Chair Stephen Gosden will send out (via e-mail) a list of all of the positions
Health Care Liaison will be elected tonight, as there is a meeting of the Health Care System this Friday
Nominations are now open for all of these positions

V. Vote for Health Care Liaison

VI. Visit from Deans Butler & Harper-Mangels

Orientation has taken place over the past 10 days.
There was a great turn-out for Grad School 101 (75% incoming students attended).
The graduate school is interested in making different types of teaching opportunities available to Ph.D. students.
The University Dissertation Fellowship policy has recently been changed to allow Humanities and Social Science Ph.D. candidates to split the fellowship over two separate semesters; however, approval by the DGS and advisor is required in order to do this.

Graduate housing is a long-term (6-11 year) issue that the graduate school is breaching. Concerns are: HGS, new types of graduate housing, renovation of old housing.
How will students be involved in the development of graduate housing?
Students will not be involved in the physical or budgetary housing plans but will be asked for input regarding desired types of housing.
The graduate school will also be looking at what types of graduate housing work at other universities.

Could you discuss some of the initiatives that the GSA has been involved in recently?
The GSA developed the FEAST for teaching program (suggested by the GSA, funded by the graduate school).
GSA members are on the Graduate school Executive Committee (Chair, Vice-Chair, 1 Humanist, 1 Natural Scientist, 1 Social Scientist).
The Executive Committee is involved in reviewing changes to/existing Ph.D. programs (for example - development of new Ph.D. Programs, joint MD/Ph.D. or MBA/Ph.D. Programs).
The GSA Steering Committee has confidential meetings with Deans Butler and Harper-Mangels every two weeks, where we each bring graduate student issues to the table (this helps to determine GSA and the graduate school agendas).
Steering Meetings also help to prepare the Steering Committee for the annual end-of-the-year meeting with the Yale President, Provost, and Yale Corporation.
Another recent initiative of the graduate school in which GSA was involved was the transition to 12-month funding for Humanists and Social Scientists (we helped to make this clear to the President, Provost, and Yale Corporation that this issue was important to students).

GSA often gets things accomplished through small administrative offices directly (i.e. transit, library, gym).
Sometimes, when the GSA meets resistance in these types of pursuits, we seek the aid of Dean Butler (development of intramurals for grad students was one of these cases).

The intersection of Prospect St. and Trumbull St. is busy and possibly unsafe - the Dean is getting involved and would also like students to so.

What happens in the Natural Sciences when an advisor loses a grant or a lab is forced to close?
Once a student is admitted to the graduate school, there is a funding commitment (provided the student is in good standing).
People with personal concerns should speak to Dean Harper-Mangels.

Graduate School initiative to bring new kinds of teaching to students - what is it?
There was an experimental program in the French department which has now been officially adopted by that department. The hope is to spread this to all departments in the graduate school.
The program is a type of "co-teaching/apprenticeship" experience, where the participating student is directly involved in the design of the syllabus, giving of lectures, etc... for a class, alongside a Professor.
This will hopefully be in place in other departments in the near future - it will also require each individual professor's permission (some may choose not to participate in the program).

An overview of the Graduate School's role in departments
The graduate school is highly decentralized (unlike Yale College).
The graduate school serves the needs of the departments; departments define their own programs.
The only time the graduate school really gets involved in the definitions of departmental programs is when the time-to-degree is becoming too long.
The graduate school allows departments to determine how students will progress through their programs, with a few general guidelines (candidacy must be achieved by the 3rd year, some funding issues).

Is there any chance that the graduate school will be having a summer dissertation deadline?
Unfortunately, many professors are not here during the summer months, so they are also not here to approve degrees at that time.
If a student already has a job (finished the dissertation in the summer, but has yet to be approved), one can start the job as a "lecturer convertible" (a lecturer position that can be converted into an assistant professorship). The Dean can then write a letter to the institution stating that all requirements have been met except for the final approval of all of the faculty (pro forma?).
Most universities have this kind of this kind of provision.

VII. Topics for the Next Meeting

VIII. Motion to Adjourn - Second.

GSA General Assembly Meeting Minutes 9/10/2008