From owner-info@gso.bu.edu Fri Mar 19 16:58 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 QAA03069; Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:58:24 -0500 (EST) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by gso.bu.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/(BU-S-02/10/97-v1.0)) id QAA24443 for info-list; Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:58:18 -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 QAA24439 for ; Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:58:14 -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 QAA02863 for ; Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:58:12 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Pitts Received: by cs16.bu.edu (8.8.5/Spike-2.1) id QAA09145; Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:58:08 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:58:08 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199903192158.QAA09145@cs16.bu.edu> To: info@gso.bu.edu Subject: GSO - summary of Thu, Mar 18, 99 meeting Sender: owner-info@gso.bu.edu Precedence: bulk Content-Type: text Content-Length: 8083 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, April 1st, 5:30-6:45pm. --Rob Summary ======= 1. Committee Reports Funding Committee ================= This committee will be known as the "Financial, Academic & Research Committee" from now on. Ann Walker reported for this committee. - They have contacted the BU Law School's Office for Career Development, which has recommended a person appropriate for giving a talk on "Intellectual Property." It's not yet clear whether this person will be available to talk this semester. - They have collected guidelines on advisor/advisee relationships from some other schools. Namely, Univ. of Minn., Univ. of Calif. at Davis and MIT, who they believe have good sets of guidelines. They would like to propose to our administration that BU establishes such guidelines. To that end, one committee member is working with an interested professor in their dept. on a version of those guidelines for BU. They may send information out about those guidelines in order to get feedback. Healthcare Committee ==================== Rob Pitts reported for this committee. - They've looked into the "Lifetime Learning Tax Credit" that applies to grads who pay their own tuition and/or fees. Apparently, it cannot cover health insurance (or health services fees). - They've placed a write-up of the state assistance program "Free Care" on the Healthcare Pages (http://gso.bu.edu/healthcare). (Since they already have write-ups of how Free Care is implemented as some hospitals and health centers, this new write-up gives more specific information about how the program works in general). - They are continuing to plan a brown bag lunch talk with Chickering. Current details are: - *Tentative* date of Tuesday, April 6th, 12:30-1:30pm in MCS 135 (but they still need confirmation on one of the 2 speakers for that date). - Both a representative from Chickering and one from BU's Student Health Services will be present. - They are scheduled to meet with the Undergraduate Student Union (the ugrad student gov't) at one of their regular meetings on Monday, March 22nd to officially propose that the union co-sponsor and assist with this event. - Early next week, they will be sending some initial questions about healthcare to the Chickering representative to look over in preparation for the talk. They are interested in any questions students might have. Housing Committee ================= Doug Wright reported for this committee. - They will be working on a formal letter (as requested by IT) about why new students need access to Off-Campus Housing listings before they come to BU. - Recently, they have been receiving (and answering) some basic questions from prospective students about housing (which suggests that these students are finding the GSO's web page). ---- A meeting attendee asked whether the "sublet" announcements that are listed in the GSO's "Postings" section should be part of the Housing Pages. They responded that they did not want to replicate the listing services that the Office of Off-Campus Housing already provides--that office's listings are probably a better resource (since their pages are likely visited by more students). Off-Campus Housing's listings are always recommended to students that ask to post a sublet with the GSO, but "Postings" will still be available for apartment listings if students want to place one there as well. Liaison Committee ================= Gary Garber reported for this committee earlier in the week by e-mail. For Orientation (it's more of a "Welcome") this Fall, GRS wants to make a big deal and spend a lot of money since this is the 125th anniversary of GRS. Orientation issues are: - The date will be Tuesday, September 7th (classes start Thursday, Sept 2nd.) - GRS wants to invite all of their faculty, staff, students, etc. to the event. They said all included that is ~1600 people. - For the reception, GRS plans on using both the small and large ball rooms in the GSU. - GRS likes our suggestion of an outdoor BBQ, but won't do anything outside without a tent. The Commencement tent was $7000, so they figure a smaller one for this event would be about $4500. - Giving tours to new students is possible if we train ourselves and are willing to lead them. - They plan to have a jazzier poster for the events--4 colors. There will probably be a live string quartet at the reception, and more food at the info session in order to make it more festive. - New Student Packets: They have a library info sheet in the packet. Also, discount coupons. - There will probably be a June mailing. Interestingly, GRS would like to have all new students set up their e-mail accounts over the summer. What they are trying to do is set up an e-mail database list, so they can have a new students e-mail list for this summer (so they don't have to rely on depts. for pertinent info). So, their might be something like new-grs@bu.edu for all the new students. Similarly, during the year, there will be something like grs@bu.edu for all GRS students. Of course, there will be restrictions on usage, so people don't get their mailboxes cluttered with spam and such. - No RSVP will be needed this year, as that may have discouraged people from attending last year. - The date for the new TF orientation is yet unknown. ---- A meeting attendee asked whether establishing accounts for new grads over the summer would fix the "access to Off-Campus Housing listings" problem. Social Committee ================ Cassandra Celatka and Amy Tapper reported for this committee. - Again, March's Social Event will be bowling/BeerWorks on March 23rd. - They were able to get $50 from GRS to buy pizza for that event. - For April, they are considering the "Dugout" bar as the event location. ---- They provided more information about the free Calendar listings in the Daily Free Press. That Calendar is published on Thursdays. Event descriptions can be send to "calendar@dailyfreepress.com" and must be submitted by noon on the 2nd Sunday before the calendar in which you want the event to appear (approx. 1 1/2 weeks ahead of time). Steering Committee ================== Kendra Carter reported for this committee. Their report consisted of a presentation/discussion of the articles in the "Constitution, Bylaws, etc." section below. 2. Constitution, Bylaws, etc. We continued discussing the "Committees of the GSO" article and got through the rest of the committees. We discussed having committees like "Survey" and "Steering" be re-occurring committees (e.g., have "Steering" pop back into existence each year to make sure the constitution and laws stay up-to-date.) These would be different from ad-hoc committees that are created and destroyed as needed. We also continued the discussion of the "Officers of the GSO" article. On the issue of either having 2 chairpersons (for the group as a whole) or "pres. and VP," we settled on having a president and vice-president so that duties are divided up (i.e., not really an issue of difference in "power"). Although these 2 officers would have different duties, they both will need to keep in touch with what is going on in the group. Remember to send your comments on articles (that have already been sent out by e-mail) to steering@gso.bu.edu.