From rip@cs.bu.edu Fri Feb 27 17:44:33 1998 Received: from cs16.bu.edu (rip@CS16.BU.EDU [128.197.10.115]) by cs.bu.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/(BU-S-01/27/97-fc1)) with ESMTP id RAA18752; Fri, 27 Feb 1998 17:44:24 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Pitts Received: by cs16.bu.edu (8.8.5/Spike-2.1) id RAA11521; Fri, 27 Feb 1998 17:44:16 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 17:44:16 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199802272244.RAA11521@cs16.bu.edu> To: aasa@bu.edu, alistair@bio.bu.edu, altvater@bu.edu, amgomez@bu.edu, atrochio@bu.edu, bhattac@bu-ast.bu.edu, btnoren@bio.bu.edu, byrnea@bu-ast.bu.edu, cchamber@bu.edu, celatka@chem.bu.edu, crampton@bio.bu.edu, crichard@bio.bu.edu, desrosie@chem.bu.edu, dkmciver@bu.edu, dmorgan@math.bu.edu, eftychia@bu.edu, elioff@chem.bu.edu, fclittle@bu.edu, ganne@bu.edu, garethr@math.bu.edu, ggarber@buphy.bu.edu, herbert@bu.edu, imlac@bu.edu, ingalls@ninkasi.bu.edu, jdunlavy@bu.edu, jric@bu.edu, jwillis@bu.edu, kim1@bu.edu, kpetersn@bu.edu, krlynch@bu.edu, landy@bu.edu, lholmes@bu.edu, marcusp@bu.edu, mghayes@math.bu.edu, mhmann4@bu.edu, monk@bu.edu, mparks@bu.edu, mramage@crsa.bu.edu, mslobodk@bu.edu, mwalker@bu.edu, obongo@bu.edu, rbresler@bu.edu, rcabana@bu.edu, rip@cs.bu.edu, rolvera@bu.edu, salzmann@bu.edu, scarella@bu.edu, spak@bu.edu, stephr@math.bu.edu, susanlee@bu.edu, tdwalker@bu.edu, th@math.bu.edu, wenner@bu.edu, yfederow@truckee.bu.edu Subject: GSO - summary of Thu, Feb 26, 98 meeting Status: RO Here is a summary of what we did at yesterday's Graduate Student Organization meeting. Our next meeting will be on Thu, Mar 19 at 6pm. Thanks to Mike Hayes for bringing the leftover pizza and crackers. --Rob Summary ======= - Social Events + Pub Night There is a pub night next Tuesday, March 3, 6pm onward. E-mail, which we'd like everyone to distribute to other grads in their department, has already been sent out. Also, posters are being placed in each departments' building. + Other Events 2 other events are planned for the semester. Tentatively, they are an event at Boston Billiards and a "Dim Sum" event. The social group will send more details about those events as they are finalized. The social group is also looking into getting businesses to sponsor events. - Survey The survey group is still refining the survey that we will send to all GRS students. Recall that its purpose is to collect information about what issues graduate students are concerned about. The survey group hopes to have an almost-done copy of the survey for everyone to critique by our next GSO meeting. They want to distribute the survey by early April (or sooner if possible). Surveys will be on paper and will mainly be distributed via dept. mailboxes. They'll rely on a representative from each dept. to help distribute/collect surveys from grads. - Healthcare The healthcare group is currently looking at different healthcare plans with 2 main goals: 1) To find healthcare plans that are available to BU grads (all grads or a certain subset). 2) To determine how good the student healthcare plans are at other (comparable) schools. They have looked into the health plans available to BU faculty and staff. The idea being that BU already has a large number of people participating in these plans, which might make it easier to include grads or some "employee" subset like TFs/RAs. The MIT student health plan was also reported on. A brief summary of the BU and MIT plans will be sent in a separate e-mail due to length. Currently, the group plans to look into healthcare programs that students may qualify for because of our limited incomes (e.g., sometimes below poverty level). They need more volunteers. Contact Rob Pitts (rip@cs.bu.edu). - Our Relationship with Administration We shared various opinions about what kind of relationship we should have with the administration and whether we should try to become an "official" groups. Some of the points made or questions raised were: 1) We should have regular contact with someone in the administration so that when we need to ask questions, etc. we will already have a rapport. 2) If we have someone as a liaison with the administration, it would be better to have someone from an official organization (i.e., they'd have "some kind" of authority to represent the group) rather than just being a "go-between"). 3) Liaisons from our org. should probably be grads who will be at BU for a little while so that they have time to built a rapport. 4) What do we think "official" will mean? Getting registered with the student activities office or something broader (e.g., working with student gov't)? 5) Being official will give us more exposure. We may be able to participate in some kind of orientation, get information about our group distributed to new grads, etc. 6) Being official will give us more longevity. More exposure will make recruitment of volunteers easier. Also, if the administration views our organization favorably (e.g., it helps them get better rankings/accreditation to have a grad org) they may seek out more contact with grads. 7) Some are worried that the administration will try to have too much control if we are official. Others argue that the only thing they could do is not talk to us any more, which is a possibility even if we just establish a rapport and don't become official. Also, they could take away money from us. Others note that this would be money we don't currently have anyhow. Finally, some point out that if we research becoming official and find out that we will have to compromise too much, we can always decide to stay unofficial. 8) Some suggest that we should invite people who have already formed organizations (undergrads in CAS or grads at other schools within BU) to discuss their experiences with forming groups and dealing with the administration. 9) We may also find advocates among the faculty (members of the American Assoc. of University Professors, etc. perhaps). ----- Currently, our plan is to get speakers from other BU orgs. to talk about their experiences in forming a group and dealing with the administration. Cassandra Celatka (celatka@chem.bu.edu) has volunteered to look into the process of getting an organization registered with the student activities office. Gary Garber (ggarber@buphy.bu.edu) has volunteered to join Mike Hayes in discussing social events with Assoc. Dean Whittaker. Thus, he'll be trying to build a rapport with the dean for when we want to discuss other issues. - Student Employee Issues Yvonne Federowicz (yfederow@truckee.bu.edu) has had contact with the vice-president of a clerical/technical union here at BU. She is arranging a meeting with this person so that we can hear about what kind of experience they've had dealing with BU.