From owner-grads@po.cwru.edu Wed Nov 3 16:23:30 1999 Return-Path: Received: from babar.INS.CWRU.Edu (majord@babar.INS.CWRU.Edu [129.22.8.213]) by fafnir.astr.cwru.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id QAA14983 for ; Wed, 3 Nov 1999 16:23:30 -0500 Received: (majord@localhost) by babar.INS.CWRU.Edu (8.8.8+cwru/CWRU-3.6) id QAA20573; Wed, 3 Nov 1999 16:23:02 -0500 (EST) (from owner-grads@po.cwru.edu for grads-out) X-Authentication-Warning: babar.INS.CWRU.Edu: majord set sender to owner-grads@po.cwru.edu using -f Received: from imo-d07.mx.aol.com (imo-d07.mx.aol.com [205.188.157.39]) by babar.INS.CWRU.Edu with ESMTP (8.8.8+cwru/CWRU-3.6) id QAA20491; Wed, 3 Nov 1999 16:22:43 -0500 (EST) (from RJCharn2@aol.com for ) From: RJCharn2@aol.com Received: from RJCharn2@aol.com by imo-d07.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v23.6.) id 3IKS0Sv2JR (4422) for ; Wed, 3 Nov 1999 16:22:09 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <0.817b0e64.25520181@aol.com> Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 16:22:09 EST Subject: Report on GSS meeting of 03 November 1999 To: grads@po.cwru.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 27 Sender: owner-grads@po.cwru.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO Attendance: Rich Charnigo Graham Cormode Karen Tucker Tom Hunde Laurie McGarland Denise Rafferty David Vanik Andre Marozsan John Martin Chuck Kelly Adam Majewski Dan Kerr Lesley-Ann Miller Gail Bromley Tina Smith This report is quite long. A lot of topics were discussed at the meeting today. The meeting began with a description of the presidential inauguration; it was noted that our new president, David Auston, did in fact address some of our concerns in his talk. Moreover, searches are now or will soon be underway for a provost, a vice president of information services, and an assistant dean of graduate studies. Dan Kerr's resolution about equity of funding was passed unanimously, after considerable discussion. Concerns involve equity of funding across universities, within the university but across departments, and even within departments at this university. Tuition taxation and restrictions on outside employment also came up. Several senators volunteered to present graduate student concerns at some later date to Dean Jentoft and President Auston. Among the items up for discussion are competitive funding for graduate programs, tuition taxation, graduate student involvement in campus matters, parking provisions for graduate students, health insurance, and awareness of GSS activities. We voted unanimously to recognize three student groups. There were several committee reports. The graduate studies committee had its first bona fide meeting last month. The main result was a resolution favoring a thorough investigation of how plus/minus grading might be implemented and what its consequences might be; such a discussion should involve students, faculty, and administration, and would likely be a year-long process. The graduate studies committee is NOT taking a stance for or against plus/minus grading, but is just recommending that the issue be worked out seriously if it is to be considered again and, in particular, before another vote is taken. Other matters like revision of the General Bulletin and a policy on electronic dissertations will be discussed in future meetings. Gains (Graduates Allied in Service) is running a food drive from 06-19 November, and the pick-up will be in lot 1A on Saturday 20 November. Fliers were passed out for distribution to departments. Activities: A graduate students' party at Jillian's is scheduled for 12 November, with the cost of admission being a donated food item (for the aforementioned food drive). Possible activities for the spring include a play, softball, and participation in the Spring Fest. The Diekhoff Committee was formed today. This Committee is responsible for selecting two professors (this year in natural sciences and engineering) to be recognized for excellence in graduate instruction and/or advising. NAPGS is holding its national conference this month in Columbus. We are sending two representatives. Tom Hund is the person to contact if you think there are some issues that should be discussed with other participants at the conference. Some suggestions given today were funding issues and bylaws for graduate student organizations. The bylaws committee has met and proposed some changes, which will be distributed to GSS members electronically. The parking committee had its first meeting today, after the GSS meeting, so I will append to this report what happened there. The first topic of discussion was a policy that would permit only freshmen with exceptional circumstances to obtain parking passes, which could alleviate some of the strain on campus parking capacity and prevent upperclassmen from being locked out of spaces. The matter of getting graduate students into better parking spaces (i.e., closer to campus) did come up, and Margaret Perry intends to work on this for next year. Other topics discussed included enforcement against illegal parking and the possibility of adding another parking structure. A consulting firm reported that if there were any increase in the need for parking, CWRU would have problems, so a parking structure could provide relief for now and in the future. Finally, outreach efforts were suggested to recruit new Senators and to keep graduate students better informed of campus events. One specific suggestion (which I personally think is an excellent idea) is to put graduate students on the subscription list for "Campus News", a bulletin received by faculty but not (presently) by graduate students. R.C.