GSA Minutes 2009-01-29

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GSA meetin minutes 2009-01-29 GSA Meeting Minutes 01 January 2009

Contents [hide] 1 Officers' Reports 1.1 Adam Wilson(Graduate Student Symposium Committee) 1.2 Nic Tippery(GSA Treasurer) 1.3 Tsitsi McPherson (Welcome Committee) 1.4 Kat Shaw(T-shirt committee) 1.5 Maxi Polihronakis (Grad-Invited Seminar Committee) 1.6 Sarah Treanor (Monday Evening Seminar) 1.7 Vanessa Boukili (GSS Representative) 1.7.1 Graduate Student Unionization

2 Other Business 2.1 Carrie Fyler 2.3 Jessica Budke 2.4 Susan Herrick


[edit] Officers' Reports [edit] Adam Wilson(Graduate Student Symposium Committee) Based on the survey sent out to students, March 21st was selected as the date for the symposium. Nineteen grad students replied. This did not coincide with the preferences of the faculty. IN response to the survey, the faculty gave reasons why they didn;t come last year: family commitments, it shoudl be during the wekk, it should be during spring break. Another suggestion was to present some king of faculty award. This was discussed as a possiblity. We should encourage undergraduate participation. There was not much interest, so far, in the speed presentations. There was a suggestion about having a "recycled" poster session at the symposium.

A budget has been submitted to the GSS for next year, asking for funds to support 70 attendants because of the trend of increasing attendance. [edit] Kat Shaw (GSA Treasurer) We have no pizza today because we are in the red from purchase of t-shirts. Our balance is approximately -$76. There was a $30 donation just now that brings us up to -$46. Buy t-shirts to complete our fundraising effort! Some money is still owed by grads for t-shirts picked up but not paid for at the Graduate Student Symposium. [edit] Tsitsi McPherson (Welcome Committee) Four people were welcomed at the Graduate Student Symposium. Three of the four are coming as of now. The last one was not enticed by wild and crazy Storrs. Tsitsi searched for 1.5 hours to find exciting things to do in Storrs to include in the welcome packet. Tsitsi now has a list of people coming in the fall. [edit] Nanci Ross (Faculty Representative) Nanci just sent an email about the faculty meeting this week. [edit] Summer Funding One question was asked, can we find out earlier about summer funding? The answer is no, because that funding depends on making sure students don’t already have summer funding. There was mention of encouraging grads to help mentor honors undergrad students in exchange for summer support. There are lots of honors undergrads and not enough labs for them to work in. The incentive was given as $1500 per undergrad, but this is still a work in progress. Tsitsi: What if, for example, you’re going to Belize for the summer? Nanci thinks the money could be deferred, or undergrads could be employed while the advisory grad student is away, doing unsupervised work. Susan Herrick: Does this include SURF funding? Can we take on SURF undergrads for the $1500 incentive? The money should still be available for grads who mentor SURF undergrads. Nic Tippery: Where does the money come from? Nanci: The powers-that-be have been touting the honors program, but they have no place for them to work. The money would come from the honors program. Nanci: Grads should push for this program. Undergrads need a faculty mentor to conduct summer research, but faculty are often too busy to sign on. Grads could bridge the gap and be the effective mentor for these students. 40% of honors undergrads are Biology students. MCB doesn’t invite honors undergrads like we could. Nanci reminded us that this is currently just an idea that Janine Caira is kicking around, and it is not yet full-fledged. [edit] Building Update Building update: TLS will not be torn down. There is the potential for a new EEB building where the greenhouses are currently, but it won’t be very big. [edit] Admissions Update Admissions update: There will be 10 new students in the fall. We’re a bit over budget for supporting grad students. We’re often over budget, so no worries. The university approved a 3% grad pay raise. Be glad because it almost didn't happen, but letters of support had already been sent out. At the same time they hired 300-400 new administrators. [edit] Graduate Student Unionization There is a bill in the Connecticut legislature now to allow graduate students to unionize (mentioned by Carl Schaefer). The bill is expected to pass. If it passes, afterwards we will have the option to form a union at some time in the future. The AAUP has offered, if we want to unionize, to help us set up and organize. Nanci, who has a strong pro-union stance from growing up in Detroit, thinks unionizing is important. For example, she remembers the cohort of 2003, when people were talking about how great the grad student health insurance was. Shortly thereafter, grads were not considered state employees in one crucial component, for the purpose of health insurance. The university saved us in the end, but having a union could have been effective in that situation. Krissa: There was talk then (in the GSS) about forming a union. But at the time it was illegal. Susan Herrick: It could cost us. Nanci: At the University of Michigan, grads were able to bargain for 12 months of pay, and a maximum of two semesters teaching for their entire tenure. Nicola Plowes: Less time as a TA could amount to shorter tenure as a grad student, thus less cost for university overall. Amanda Wendt: What is the status of the bill? Nanci: It should sail through, but it wouldn’t hurt to contact your legislators. Krissa: UConn would oppose a union. Susan Herrick mentioned she is part of AAUP because of her job at ECSU. There are two points to consider: The union takes their costs out of every paycheck. The union will defend horrible employees with the same force as good ones. Susan also mentioned that technically we’re not full time employees but temporary, as far as the state is concerned. [edit] Maxi Polihronakis (Grad-Invited Seminar Committee) There have been 10 nominated speakers. Nominations will be accepted through tonight. Em Komisky: Will you send the list around? Maxi: Yes, next week. The schedule for spring next year is already filling up. It could be the next fall before the speaker could come, in which case Maxi would not be able to coordinate his/her visit. Em: How does the selection/arrangement process work? Maxi: 1. We vote to choose the person. 2. The person confirms that he/she will come. 3. We arrange a date for the seminar. If any of these steps doesn't work out, we take our second choice, and so on. Andy Bush is covering the seminar coordinator position for Bernard Goffinet. [edit] Diego Sustaita (Monday Evening Seminar) The final MES of the semester will be on April 30. The speaker will be Ivan Castro-Arellano, a postdoc of Mike Willig. The MES still needs to find a faculty home to host. Mike Willig has not responded yet, and he lives pretty far away. Em mentioned that she has a home too, but it's far away also. [edit] Tsitsi McPherson (Curriculum Committee) There was a change discussed for Cindi Jones' EEB 276 (Plant Anatomy) class. There is a wish to change the number of lab hours. Currently, the lab for this course meets twice per week for 2 hours each time. The proposal is to change this to one lab session per week, with the total time reduced from 4 hours to 3.5 hours. The single longer lab period will allow more thorough investigation of the material presented. [There was confusion at the meeting of this announcement being about Cindi Jones' Developmental Plant Morphology class, which Jessica Budke and Em Komisky refuted.] [edit] Krissa Skogen (Center for Conservation and Biodiversity) The CCB co-sponsored the Teale lecture by David Sibley. Bioblitz is coming up, June 8-9 in Middletown, CT. Dave Wagner is the local contact, he can put you in contact with your respective person. [edit] Jason Hill (GSS Representative) Jessica: Was our Graduate Student Symposium budget voted on? Jason: Not yet. Not sure why. Nic: What budget? Jessica: The budget for next year's Graduate Student Symposium. [edit] Other Business