GSA General Assembly Meeting Minutes 10/21/2009

By Sei Pyo on October 21, 2009 9:04 PM | | Comments (0)

  1. IVY Summit - Paul and Stephen went a few weekends ago...we now get updates from them
    1. REIMAGINE CORNELL -
      1. 17 working groups for this design of a new goals for the university (revised due to current economic crisis). Grad students not included - only undergrads were consulted on issues. Cornel managed to get advisory stuff for this, but did not get a real spot
      2. Cornell trying to get added to search committee for new dean. Yale does not allow students on search committees either. We are trying to get our voice heard as well
      3. Cornell submitted 'grad student initiative' with all grad student needs in the future. Got trustees talking/gave them something to look to. Maybe we wan to make something similar...they need to consider something
    2. Princeton campus club for grad/undergrad joint socialization there. We talk about grad/undergrad interaction a lot here...YCC also wants more interaction
    3. Penn
      1. Landlord ratings - legal roadblock for posting landlord stuff online. Penn got around legal by requiring netlogin, not public info. Housing issues vary between the ivys. Penn seems to parallel us the most in terms of housing needs/circumstances. We want to stay in contact with them to get ideas of how to do things
      2. Penn is VERY active in surveying its students. They get really high response rates. We could survey across the schools - and 'inter-IVY' survey to get an idea of how students feel about the same issues across campuses....reducing the degrees of separation to present comparisons between schools
    4. MIT
      1. Data-driven advocacy. Generate statistics from surveying. They use consumer price indices to negotiate own stipend increases with university..The data gives them credibility in advocating...
      2. Very active with national assoc of grad and prof schools...we are a member on and off...GPSS sends reps, we do not...we can consider getting involved in the future...things MIT works on with NAGAPS
        1. Prior to 1986, grad stud stipends nontaxable - this group wants a return to nontaxed stipends
        2. VISA caps for international students...they should not run out of visas before their grad studies are finished
        3. Right to research - open access research. Any govt funded research should be open access (Stephen will forward so you can think about it as this is controversial)...this is something grad students are looking into..have actual lobbying in DC..
    5. Harvard
      1. Almost same as Yale, except STUDENT ADVOCACY AWARD.
        1. This awards a great student leader like we award a mentor. Also done at convocation. Might be nice to consider for student leaders!
    6. Columbia
      1. Dissatisfied - same issues as us but they are just more dissatisfied!!!...they even had a survey to do this with
        1. 10% more grad student (phds) reductions - undergrad/masters increases. Housing being switched from phd to undergrad housing with no guarantee to be switched back to grad housing in the future. HARD to find housing in NYC
    7. Brown
      1. Weird taxing issue. Taxing specifically those without property in RI.
      2. Many cities are now starting a weird new new application of odd laws as they are to ... NH car excise tax
    8. Off-campus health plans
      1. Better at other universities
      2. Other universities have public tra
  2. Kathleen - has enough people to read the CTF funding stuff
  3. Mentoring week - point is to outline 'positives' of mentoring -2nd or 3rd week of February
    1. Mentoring award - a mention of it and why it is important to highlight 'good' things
      1. Grad teaching center already organizing this.
    2. We do mostly dept events b/c faculty members are more likely to show up only to events w/n their own dept.
      1. Let us know if your dept would like to host one!!! Hour-long seminar/talk on this topic...get it on your radar and let Stephen know if you have ideas
  4. Accreditation
    1. Steering meeting with the acc team on nov 2nd. Please email suggestions to Paul Pearlman or Stephen so that suggestions can be discussed at next steering meeting.
      1. May want to look at the following ideas
        1. Grad student issues
          1. 4-20 specialization vs. generalization for grads
          2. 4-24 grad and undergrad rltnship
          3. 4-27 balance btwn training in research and prof degree
        2. 5-5, 5-8, 5-17 reliance on grad students, mentoring of grad student TAs, advising
        3. Student section 6-4 to 6-6 on retention and graduation, the 2-4 project (focus on these years in the program to study how long it takes to graduate, if people do graduate, it was prepared fall of 2006 so you can look at the one of your dept and see if they did what they said they would do to promote this..).
        4. Self-study report. Tires to answer this questions
          1. Academic section
            1. Grad student part is 1/3 page (page 46 of report)... maybe be worth looking at
            2. Pages 61-63 - role of grad students as teachers.
            3. Pages 70-72 - assessment of grad stud housing
      2. Committee seems interested in grad stud events
  5. Health advisory comm.
    1. Outstanding issues from last year
      1. Mental health - also spoke about at MAC meeting
        1. Wait times in service
          1. New building when it opens (2010?) will cure problems of pharmacy wait times as well. They skirted this issue. People commented that they should not skirt around this issue. 40% of grad students have issues with them. Could students rate necessity of next meeting to make their next meeting faster. Second meeting time is 3-4 weeks!!! People in immediate mental need satisfied. Then huge other regime slow assessment.
        2. Service prob. People not satisfied ot ppl they speak to when they call up the service. People found that all places with phoning people not satisfied with service, will retrain employees to be more tactful/knowledgeable in their fields
    2. Birthing centers
      1. If on Yale insurance, cannot be reimbursed unless you do it at hospital
        1. Mothers should have options to birth at birthing center rather than hospital. We will be bad PR if we do not offer this. Goes along with Yale's push to have a baby boom.
  6. Caucus Concern summary is given out.
  7. Question in regards to cost of living increase in stipends.
  8. Question in regards to 6th year policy.
    1. Stephen's response --- it's a dept by dept issue. Grad school guidelines allow for major flexibility. Therefore it depends on grad school dept policy. You are not 'promised' 'guaranteed' teaching. It is a real issue. We have been tackling this issue.

    9. Categories

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