From owner-info@gso.bu.edu Fri Feb 19 17:22 EST 1999 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 RAA20645; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 17:22:35 -0500 (EST) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by gso.bu.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/(BU-S-02/10/97-v1.0)) id RAA07941 for info-list; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 17:22:24 -0500 (EST) Received: from cs.bu.edu (root@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 RAA07937 for ; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 17:22:20 -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 RAA20638 for ; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 17:22:24 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Pitts Received: by cs16.bu.edu (8.8.5/Spike-2.1) id RAA12034; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 17:22:19 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 17:22:19 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199902192222.RAA12034@cs16.bu.edu> To: info@gso.bu.edu Subject: GSO - summary of Thu, Feb 18, 99 meeting Sender: owner-info@gso.bu.edu Precedence: bulk Content-Type: text Content-Length: 10415 Status: RO Here is a summary of what we did at yesterday's Graduate Student Organization meeting. Our next general meeting will be on Thursday, March 4th, 5:30-6:45pm. --Rob Summary ======= 1. Committee Reports Funding Committee ================= Ann Walker reported for this committee. They reinterated a few points concerning the Harvard pay rates they sent out earlier via e-mail, namely: - Harvard's overall student stipend pay rate is higher (since there is no disparity between their Sciences and Humanities). - Harvard's stipends are paid out over 10 months--although this means a lower monthly rate than they would have on an 8 month system (like BU), the main issue is how much students make each year (since rent, bills, etc. are year-round). One committee member has looked into the issues of Mentoring and Grievances by talking to their dept's Director of Graduate Studies. From that discussion, they learned: - BU does nothing to foster mentoring (though there may be documents saying that students should have an "advisor"). - BU has no method of dealing with grievances for grads, except in cases of "discrimination". - One way of dealing with the mentoring issues is to produce a "handbook" on mentoring. - It was suggested that they provide statistics to the BU administration in order to prompt changes in Mentoring and Grievance policies. To that end, they are considering surveying graduate students (there is apparently not enough information on this topic from our last survey, Spring 1998). ----- A meeting attendee suggested that if there is a need to do such a survey, they should coordinate it with other GSO committees that would benefit from grad feedback (on their own topics). Others suggested that we should seek help from those experienced with doing real-world surveys (e.g., social scientists), so that the survey is very "valid". The main motivation for getting this "professional" help is in the need to use the survey to justify changes to the administration. In contrast, our first survey (last Spring 1998) was mainly for informing the GSO and graduate students. Healthcare Committee ==================== Jill Orofino gave the main report for this committee with some additional information from Rob Pitts . 1. A write-up of Northeastern University's student insurance plan, a Chickering plan, is now on the Healthcare Pages at http://gso.bu.edu. Major properties of the Northeastern plan are: - Cost for grads is $841 for 98/99. This includes an extra campus health services fee that is covered by tuition for undergrads. - There is no coverage for part-time students (< 9 credit hours), or dependents of *any* student under the policy. Nor can any of these groups use the campus health center (they can't pay the extra fee to do so). - Coverage for services at preferred providers is usually 100%, although there are dollar limits to certain classes of services. - Their campus health center does mainly primary care, and refers out when a specialist is needed. 2. During the Northeastern research, they also learned that BU's Chickering plan has a provision for extending insurance after graduation (some details added to the BU write-up). Further details will require more research. 3. They are beginning to plan a brown bag lunch talk, which would take place later in the semester and would involve inviting a representative from Chickering. Issues relevant to planning that talk are: a. What kind of focus/format should the talk have? What kinds of questions would you like to hear the representative address? (Those at the meeting expressed interest in ways to extend the BU Plan, i.e. might a dental or vision option be added the the basic plan if students wish to purchase it? Those at the meeting also expressed interest in knowing Chickering's stance on preventative medicine: Could the plan cover yearly physicals, etc.?) b. Should we invite undergraduates to the talk (they're on the plan as well and might benefit from some information)? (Someone mentioned they believed that Chickering already gave a talk specifically for undergraduates (sponsored by the undergraduate student government) this semester.) 4. Comments on their suggested edits to the NAGPS's national healthcare survey questions have been positive, though the mailing list on which different GSAs are discussing it has not been highly active. The deadline for a final version of the survey has not been finalized, but is supposedly "soon." ----- To add more information to the question last time about why Chickering is prevalent at many schools, they mentioned the following: The Northeastern University campus health center mainly provides primary care (i.e., doesn't have many specialists), which is the same for BU and Tuft's campus health centers (both of those schools also have Chickering insurance). In contrast, Harvard and MIT have full-service campus health centers and offer student plans with Blue Cross Blue Shield. An employee of Northeastern's campus health center also said that Chickering is prevalent throughout the country for schools. Someone suggested that the prevalence of Chickering is probably because they specialize in "student insurance" products. Housing Committee ================= Doug Wright reported for this committee. They've talked with Off-Campus Housing about getting new students (without BU computer accounts) access to the office's listings on the web. They also talked with Information Technology (IT), which provides Off-Campus Housing with the computer support to maintain their listings. They learned that those 2 offices are trying to add access for new undergraduates, but haven't completed that yet. The impression the committee got is that it is not a high priority for Off-Campus Housing or IT. They plan to continue to pursue the issue with those offices. ----- A meeting attendee mentioned that bringing the access problem to the attention of one of the deans might help speed up the process. Someone pointed out that access is more important to grads since they don't really have dorm options. The committee added that when they talked to BU's Rental Properties Office last semester, that office mentioned they hoped that when the new undergraduate dorm (at the old Armory site) is completed, that would leave more rental properties open for grads. Meeting attendees thought that was unlikely to happen, i.e., rental properties would still go very quickly. Liaison Committee ================= This committee did not report. Social Committee ================ Amy Tapper reported for this committee. They reiterated that the first social event of the semester (Happy Hour at Ri Ra's) went very well with approximately 50 attendees. For future reference, the logistic problems incurred with running this event were: - GRS didn't give enough money for snacks (they offered less than they used to for Pub Nights--the committee will pursue getting it back up to the usual amount). - When they called Ri Ra's ahead of time, they were told that Happy Hour priced appetizers would be available, but that was not the case when they arrived. - The waitress kept tabs for tables and said that students could not pay for drinks as she served them. This made paying bills more difficult when some students at a table wanted to leave before others. As possible solutions, it was suggested to have students only buy drinks from the bar or to talk to the management about the desired billing method before the event. - They now know to include "Sponsored by the Graduate Student Organization", with relevant web and e-mail addresses, for future event announcements (recall this committee has new members this semester). As for their next monthly event, they provided the following tentative details: - The event will be candlepin bowling at Ryan Family Amusement Center (adjacent to Fenway Park). - Proposed date and time are Tuesday, March 23 at 7pm. - Costs of bowling there are: $2.40/game, $1.25 for shoes. - They would like to buy pizza if GRS gives them money. - They'll invite students to Boston Beerworks (across the street from the bowling alley) after bowling. Steering Committee ================== Their report consisted of a presentation/discussion of the articles in the "Constitution, Bylaws, etc." section below. 2. Constitution, Bylaws, etc. Jen Wenner presented revisions of the "Purpose" article. Attendees discussed this revised list of "purposes of the GSO" and suggested some edits. The group set a deadline of the next general meeting (March 4th) for finalizing the "Purpose" article. Kendra Carter presented the "Committees" article. There was little time to discuss this article, but there was enough for a quick review of the first 4 proposed committees. - There was some discussion about how the proposed Publicity Committee might only "assist" other committees in some cases. For example, that it was ok if the Social Committee produced their own flyers and the Publicity Committee helped distribute them. In other words, other committees might do some publicity work, when appropriate. - The description of the Liaison Committee sparked the most discussion. Attendees where very interested in spelling out the responsibilities of liaisons in representing the group opinion. They also wanted to revise wording about how liaisons would be chosen. We'll continue the discussion of Committees at the next general meeting. The Steering Committee will provide revisions of articles based on this discussion and e-mail feedback in separate e-mail.