From owner-info@gso.bu.edu Fri Mar 5 15:56 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 PAA06553; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 15:56:58 -0500 (EST) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by gso.bu.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5/(BU-S-02/10/97-v1.0)) id PAA11808 for info-list; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 15:56:52 -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 PAA11804 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 15:56:49 -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 PAA06511 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 15:56:49 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Pitts Received: by cs16.bu.edu (8.8.5/Spike-2.1) id PAA10737; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 15:56:45 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 15:56:45 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199903052056.PAA10737@cs16.bu.edu> To: info@gso.bu.edu Subject: GSO - summary of Thu, Mar 4, 99 meeting Sender: owner-info@gso.bu.edu Precedence: bulk Content-Type: text Content-Length: 8548 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 18th, 5:30-6:45pm. --Rob Summary ======= 1. Origin of the GSO Gareth Roberts briefly outlined the types of documents he and Chris Richardson plan to include in a description of the origin of the GSO (based on the Fall '97 TF pay disparity). We will announce when this description becomes available on the web site (http://gso.bu.edu). 2. Committee Reports Funding Committee ================= Gareth Roberts reported for this committee. Currently, they are: - Working on a web page that will contain grad pay rate information for BU and some other schools. - Looking into pay rates in *certain departments* at other schools. They have found that by contacting those departments as "perspective students", it is easier to get pay rate information. This project is currently of lower priority. - Tentatively planning a brown bag lunch talk for later in March. This talk will be on Intellectual Property issues. They are attempting to get a student from the law school as speaker. - Continuing to look into advising/grievance issues by gathering information on guidelines or award programs (e.g., that promote good advising) at other schools. - Reviewed the NAGPS web site that describes the 2 new tax credits and found that one is applicable to grads who pay their own tuition. Finally, they are suggesting "Financial, Academic and Research (FAR) Committee" as their new name, but will hold off until this committee is discussed in the context of the "Committees" constitution article. Healthcare Committee ==================== Denise Guillot reported for this committee. 1. They have added the following to the Healthcare Pages (http://gso.bu.edu/healthcare/): - Summaries of some dental clinics (available to grads) that provide discounted services. - Additional definitions of healthcare terms, including HMO and PPO, and a comparison between those 2 types of plans. 2. They are continuing to plan a brown bag talk with a Chickering representative, including what set of questions they will prepare. They are tentatively scheduling the talk for early April and will ask the Undergraduate Student Union to co-sponsor the event and invite undergrads. 3. They have contacted BU's Student Accounting on some issues: - Insurance Premium Refunds: According to Student Accounting, there is a grace period in which students can get their Chickering insurance premium refunded if they've already paid their bill (in which that cost is automatically included), but then decide on another insurance plan. The grace period is approx. 2 months, but they do not yet know the exact date span. (Choosing another insurance plan, of course, still requires that the student fill out a "waiver", as described on the Healthcare Pages.) - Student Health Services Costs: Since there is no apparent item on GRS students' bills for the costs of Student Health Services, the committee asked whether BU picks up these costs or whether it is included in other costs (like tuition). Student Accounting said that coverage of the cost depended on school, but wasn't yet able to give more details. 4. The format of the NAGPS's national healthcare survey is in the process of being finalized. 5. They will be writing up Free Care, the state-run healthcare assistance program that they've described at several hospitals or health centers, but for which they haven't yet provided a general write-up. ---- A meeting attendee asked whether students could enroll in the Chickering insurance for half a year. The committee responded that the insurance does allow Spring enrollment. Also, at the last meeting, someone suggested that recently in the past (or soon to come) a student group was sponsoring a healthcare talk (possibly with Chickering). After talking with the Undergraduate Student Union, the Student Activities Office, and Chickering's reps to BU, they were not able to find evidence of such an event. Housing Committee ================= Catherine Capuzzi reported for this committee. They've talked with the Accounts Manager at Information Technology (IT) about getting new students (without BU computer accounts) access to the Office of Off-Campus Housing's listings on the web. According to IT, they are implementing an early-bird password system, where students (no sooner than 1-month before they are scheduled to come to BU) can have access to certain restricted areas of the BU web site. Unfortunately, these early-bird passwords will not give access to Off-Campus Housing's listings. IT suggested that they draft a letter describing why new students need access to those listings. ---- Since it seems clear to the committee that access to listings is not a high priority for IT or the Office of Off-Campus Housing, it was suggested that they ask GRS (via our "liaison") for assistance in pushing for this change. As an aside, another meeting attendee mentioned that when they had gone to the Off-Campus Housing Office, the office said they no longer provided paper listings, i.e., that they now only provide the web version. Liaison Committee ================= This committee did not report. ---- A meeting attendee reiterated that they (a non-TF) were getting TF-like borrowing privileges at the Science & Engineering library. From other sources, we've heard that non-TF English students are not getting these extra privileges at Mugar. Social Committee ================ Cassandra Celatka reported for this committee. - They reported that they were able to get GRS to cover the costs of food for the Ri Ra event (recall that they had to spend more than the $30 allotted). Apparently, GRS is fine with covering food costs for such events, but wants to know about them well in advance. - They are still planning on the bowling/Beer Works event for March 23rd. - They've learned that the Daily Free Press now has a free Calendar section in which groups can post events (originally postings were at a cost). They do not yet know how much in advance these announcements have to be sent in. 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. 3. Constitution, Bylaws, etc. Finalizing Article ------------------ The group reviewed the final version of the "Purpose of the GSO" article. This article passed with a consensus.** Continuing Article ------------------ Kendra Carter again presented the "Committees" article. Suggested revisions of the first 5 committees in that article were discussed. Besides revising the descriptions of each committee, we again discussed how to chose liaisons, plus how many liaisons we need. In addition, we decided that a "Survey Committee" would be better as an ad-hoc committee. We'll continue discussing and revising the "Committees of the GSO" article at the next meeting. New Article ----------- The group began discussing an "Officers of the GSO" article. Issues were: what exactly to name the "president" and "vice-president" and whether they should be more like co-officers or in a hierarchy. We also discussed whether committees only need one chairperson. Finally, we decided that "recording meeting minutes" should be allotted to the Publicity Committee (which is already charged with maintaining other types of records). ---- ** Note that when an article passes by consensus it means that no major concerns remained. Minor rewording of articles that have passed is allowed between now and ratification of the Constitution, but we will not expend meeting time on passed articles. ---- Remember to send your comments on articles (that have already been sent out by e-mail) to steering@gso.bu.edu.