From owner-info@gso.bu.edu Fri Nov 6 18:03 EST 1998 Received: from gso.bu.edu (GSO.BU.EDU [128.197.60.71]) by cs.bu.edu ((8.8.8.buoit.v1.0)/8.8.8/(BU-S-10/16/98-v1.0a)) with ESMTP id SAA22515; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 18:03:27 -0500 (EST) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by gso.bu.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/(BU-S-02/10/97-v1.0)) id SAA24328 for info-list; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 18:03:21 -0500 (EST) Received: from cs.bu.edu (CS.BU.EDU [128.197.10.2]) by gso.bu.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/(BU-S-02/10/97-v1.0)) with ESMTP id SAA24324 for ; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 18:03:17 -0500 (EST) Received: from cs16.bu.edu (rip@cs16 [128.197.10.115]) by cs.bu.edu ((8.8.8.buoit.v1.0)/8.8.8/(BU-S-10/16/98-v1.0a)) with ESMTP id SAA22500 for ; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 18:03:17 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Pitts Received: by cs16.bu.edu (8.8.5/Spike-2.1) id SAA19216; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 18:03:13 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 18:03:13 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199811062303.SAA19216@cs16.bu.edu> To: info@gso.bu.edu Subject: GSO - summary of Thu, Nov 5, 98 meeting Sender: owner-info@gso.bu.edu Precedence: bulk Content-Type: text Content-Length: 12268 Status: RO Here is a summary of what we did at yesterday's Graduate Student Organization meeting. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, November 19th, 5-6:15pm. Since I will be at the NAGPS Conference during that meeting, it will be run by Ann Walker with an e-mail summary provided by Fran Altvater . --Rob Summary ======= 1. Committee Reports Funding Committee ================= Gareth Roberts reported for this committee. They've had difficulty getting people at other schools to give information about salaries, etc. They've asked grad groups at other schools to help them, but have not heard from them yet. ---- Meeting attendees suggested that it may be easier to learn about salaries by talking to students at the NAGPS Conference (the Funding Committee will have a rep at that conference). Or, that there may be a comprehensive reference listing salaries (of students) at different universities. Healthcare Committee ==================== Jill Orofino reported for this committee. The healthcare plan writeups that they mentioned would be available soon (at last meeting) are on the web. The writeups that were added so far this semester are: "Tufts University Student Health Plan," "Brigham and Women's Hospital" and "Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital." Currently: - They are researching the BU health plan. This is expected to take longer than most writeups since they want to do a thorough job of describing BU's plan (especially so that new students can review it before they come to BU). A few interesting facts from their research so far: - The ceiling on certain medical services Chickering will cover is comparatively low, e.g., $5,000 per surgery (per policy period). - BU's student insurance does cover some tooth extraction services. - BU's Student Health Services: + Has no specialists. + Only treats short-term conditions (long-term conditions are referred out). + Can do only basic lab tests (no x-rays, etc). + In general, provides fewer services than student health services at the other schools they've compared so far. Notably, the student health plan at Tufts University (completed earlier in the semester) is also under Chickering. They pay $745/year. (Note: Tufts grads also pay a mandatory $431/year fee for their Student Health Services--12/4/98). The Healthcare Committee will be able to better describe the differences between BU's and Tuft's Chickering plan when they have completed researching the BU plan. - They are looking into dental plans, including services at local university's dental schools. Some schools claim to offer services for low-income patient. They've also come across a Mass. Dental Society program called "Dental for All" that is supposed to cover low-income individuals who are not eligible for Medicaid. This is apparently a program you must apply for and that covers basic services when you qualify. They are awaiting more information on these programs. A meeting attendee suggested the "Forsythe (?) Dental School." - They have added more definitions of medical terms to the "Terminology" section of the GSO healthcare web pages. Future plans (besides those above) include deciding what kinds of information the committee's rep will ask of other school reps at the NAGPS Conference. The guidelines for some of the plans they wrote up before the fall semester changed on October 1st. Since these state-run plans normally have to be updated after April (when income qualification guidelines change each year), they will update them at that time. Housing Committee ================= This committee did not report. Liaison Committee ================= Gary Garber reported for this committee. SSW Meeting ----------- They reported about a meeting with the School of Social Work's (SSW) Student Organization (a grad group in BU's SSW). At that meeting, they: - Got a copy of that group's constitution (for our Steering Committee). - Learned about where they spend some of their budget: T-shirts, socials. - Learned about their source of funding: $25/year fee from students. - Learned more about how the paperwork that registered groups have to file (e.g., to spend money) works. - Discussed collaboration possibilities: (1) Invited SSW students to our next Pub Night. (2) Their GLBT caucus may be able to collaborate (with us in the future) on issues like researching including domestic partners on insurance plans. SAGE Meeting ------------ They reported about a meeting with the Student Assoc. of Grad. Engineers (SAGE), which is BU's Engineering School's grad student group. They learned that this group: - Has been around for 8 years. - Traditionally, it has been a 2-person group (with a president and treasurer). More recently, they have taken on more projects and have added more officers to handle things like: communication with students, orientation, social events. - Have reps from each dept. - Recently acquired a lounge. - Are working on "professional development." - Have an orientation for students. - Deal with issues like "unfair qualifying exams." - Their funding comes from 2 sources: + Students pay $10/semester fee (approx. 400 students). This money goes towards things for the lounge (e.g., computer equipment). + Engineering dean pays for social activities. GRS Meeting ----------- They reported on a meeting with Andrea White, an assistant to Assoc. Dean Whitaker. Information learned from that meeting includes: - This year's GRS new student orientation cost $6,000. - Improvements in grad students' library privileges are still on the "back burner," but apparently still have the deans' support. - The new grad student lounge on the 3rd floor of the Metcalf building now has an ID-card reader. The Liaison Committee would like to know what other supplies that room needs besides: seating, bookcases, magazine racks and bulletin boards. The exact details of how students will receive card access to that building and room still need to be worked out. - Andrea White is willing to arrange a brown bag talk on resume writing and job interviewing if we would like. - GRS is willing to invite representatives from other insurance companies to next fall's orientation if we are able to find more plans applicable to grads. - Whitaker may be suggesting multiple-advisor approaches for students to each depts' Director of Graduate Studies (perhaps 3-person committees). - Whitaker is apparently hoping for a student stipend pay increase next year. Also, for a yearly pay increase after student stipends better match the cost-of-living. It is not clear whether Dean Berkey supports these things. Meeting attendees felt that GRS is willing to make these pay increases because BU is not competitive with other universities. Attendees cited a decreased number of new students in their own departments due to students accepting appointments elsewhere. - Andrea White has been offering seminars on "grant writing" to each dept. - There are additional web pages with information about funding opportunities: http://www.bu.edu/OSP/. - Andrea said that the Boston Globe misquoted Whitaker in the article mentioning Pub Night. It is not clear whether this means that he mentioned the GSO in that context or not. Finally... Apparently, Assoc. Dean Whitaker is interested in attending one of our GSO meetings. Since we need to discuss more what kind of relationship we want with the administration and would want to be well-prepared for any such meeting, we are leaving that open for more discussion in the near future. Social Committee ================ Jen Wenner reported for this committee. They reported that plans for the next Pub Night are on track. Steering Committee ================== They did not attend, but Dave Morgan reported by e-mail that their only new business was an upcoming meeting with a representative from Harvard's graduate organization. This is just a rescheduling of the meeting they mentioned last time. 2. Collaboration with AAUP We discussed possibilities for collaboration with the BU Chapter of the American Assoc. of University Professors (AAUP). Rob Pitts gave some information about BU's AAUP: - GSO first talked with them last March (minutes of that original meeting are available upon request). - AAUP is an advocacy group for teachers at universities. They do have a Collective Bargaining Congress branch that deals with union issues. - BU's chapter has been around for perhaps decades. Teachers here struck in 1979. They eventually gained some advances through collective bargaining, however, not long after the '79 strike the National Labor Relations Board (who has jurisdiction over employees at private schools) ruled that teachers were "managers" and could not bargain collectively. Still, many members of the AAUP throughout the country participate in some kind of collective bargaining unit. - BU's Chapter has dealt with the BU administration before. One example of this is their report on "Academic Freedom at BU" that they gave to the administration (available to look at upon request). We've agreed that the best way to initially collaborate with them would be to have a joint brown bag lunch talk. Meeting attendees decided that the topic that we may be interested in having them talk to us about is one of: - Intellectual Property Issues - Student/Advisor Relations - Teaching and Tenure Issues We would like to have such a talk this semester, which will depend on the availability of one of their members to present one of these topics. 3. Group Diversity We discussed how to promote more diversity in the GSO. Rob Pitts presented some statistics about the group's current participation: - Approx. 150 students on the mailing list since after orientation, including at least 1 person from 26 depts in GRS. - 15 students on committees (down from 17 earlier in semester). Participation in committees is from students in 8 Science depts and one Humanities dept. - People attending general meetings are usually a subset of those on committees (although we encourage others to come). - More people participating on committees and at meetings this year (versus last year). Nonetheless, the number of departments from which students participating in those come is not necessary larger than last year (although some of those depts are different than last year). Other diversity issues (although we don't have statistics on these): - Pretty diverse on gender. - More PhD students are involved than Masters. - Probably more American versus international students. ---- Meeting attendees suggested that some of these diversity issues are possibly due to: - Time on campus, access to e-mail (Humanities versus Sciences). - Less time on campus, shorter degree programs, part- and full-time jobs (Masters students). ---- A suggestion for trying to be more inclusive of Masters and international students was to have at least one brown bag talk geared toward each during the year. ---- In order to make sure that general GSO meetings are more visible, we agreed to: - Start putting up signs (possibly stuffing mailboxes) for general meetings. - Look into advertising them in Daily Free Press or BU Bridge. - Try to promote the GSO with dept grad groups (including creating an updated flyer on the GSO's accomplishments and goals).