JHU Department of Biology Graduate Student Representative ...



JHU Department of Biology Graduate Student Representative Council

February 14, 2006 Meeting

Attendance: Alex Ebie, Jill Weyers, Anna [Krueger] Allen, Aaron Stephan, Megan Mayerle

• Meeting with Karen

Alex met with Karen Beemon last week. Topics discussed include an introduction to the makeup and goals of the council as well as an overview of current projects. Notes from that meeting were distributed and included in topic discussions during the rest of the meeting. Those notes are found in Appendix A. In the future, it might make the most sense for the co-chairs to meet with advisor when necessary.

• Elective Classes - Megan

We have previously discussed taking our class list to faculty. This is echoed by Karen’s suggestions to do the same. Megan will come up with a targeted list of classes and who might be the best person to ask about teaching it.

Per the post-doc teaching program Ostrander started (see Appendix), Megan will talk to Dr. Lattman about his interest in this – some sort of program similar to the Dean’s Teaching Fellowship but for post-docs. It was also mentioned that it might be good to have a post-doc representative on the council who could speak for their interests and potentially take charge of this. Alex will send out a general email to post-docs to determine their interest in representation on the council.

• Faculty-Council Communication & Faculty Meetings

Jill stated that Mark VanDoren informed her that the faculty meetings are now being organized differently with a list of topics which are discussed; if we want something on it, we should tell Barbara so at least it will get read at meetings.

Student communication

Some students had mentioned they’d interested in seeing our meeting minutes. What’s easiest? Post minutes on the webpage? Alex will talk to Andrew or Barbara about post minutes on some department link.

• PhD Candidate Hooding Ceremony - Alex

Research into the hooding ceremonies at other universities suggests typically they’re done the evening before the morning of commencement. Ceremonies vary but can include: several speakers outside, alumni, faculty and/or students; faculty and/or student awards; roll call of masters students; presentation of hoods on stage and/or diploma cases; and some sort of reception to follow.

In contrast the JHU School of Nursing does their’s afterward; this may be dependent on space availability. If we want to just do ours in the auditorium in Mudd rather than elsewhere on campus, it might not matter. Also, although the luncheon budget could be used for a reception, it was also suggested that organizing a potluck might also be an easy way to take care of this, perhaps by getting each lab to provide something.

Also may want to include other departments such as chemistry and biophysics – places where biology student can rotate. If those departments only have a few students, it could be worth it, especially if those departments are interested in contributing to the budget. Alex will take charge of this and talk to Joan about the number of students and work on putting together a package to propose to Allen and the other faculty.

• Department of Biology Career Website and Launch – Jill and Anna

Website - Jill is working with Erin Fleming who is involved in the Pioneers in Biology set up.

Public Relations - Karen says prototype flyer (shown in previous minutes appendix) is fine.

Speakers - Anna spoke to Mark who has a job now and is willing to come and talk. Fred got a bunch of responses from initial emails; Anna is interesting in finding out who he talked to so that there isn’t redundancy in the communications to Alumni

• Progress Reports - Jill

Recording - Jill has been working with Sean on this: Sean is putting together options and packages for Jill to make a decision on; they are waiting for the departmental quote though.

Jill will talk to Andy about the Recording system so that he knows what is going on; Alex will send out a new schedule to council for passing out the comment sheets (Appendix B)

Next Meeting: Wednesday March 28th, 9am at Grad Lounge

Appendix A: Notes from Alex’s Meeting with Karen Beemon

2/3/06

Alex's Meeting with Karen

I. Overview of Committee

A. Committee members, regular meeting times

B. Our goal: facilitating student needs

II. Current Projects

A. Elective Courses

Karen is already familiar with this project since Megan has been discussing it with her. Karen suggests :

1. Circulating the course list to faculty; some have poorly attended

courses and might be interested in a change

2. Pinpointing specific faculty for specific classes and talking to them

personally; the office circulates a course list which can be used to determine who is already going to be busy. Undergrad courses must be set up a semester in advance, but grad courses can be done quite late. (ex: Friere - disease course; Moudrianakis or McCaffery - microscopy course)

3. Be specific about what you want in a class; seminar courses are easier

for faculty and may be easier to get faculty to teach.

4. Perhaps setting up a course in which experts would be brought in might

be a good suggestion as well; faculty would really only supervise speakers rather than be burdened with teaching the whole course.

5. Talk to the University (Lattman) about additional money and or staff.

Ostrander had some sort of system for post-docs to get funds to teach courses in the department, but left before it was established. Perhaps Lattman would be interested in the suggestion.

B. Alternative Career Development

1. poster looks fine

2. It would fine to ask people if it's OK to post their info rather than

having to go through the professor

3. Might be worthwhile to eventually include all careers, including those

which are academic but different such as small teaching (no research) colleges and industry vs. government labs as well as large university dynamics

C. Progress Reports

1. Andy is in charge of this, but Sarah Woodson has also expressed some

interest in changing the setup.

2. Attendance: Karen didn't really know what to say about getting greater

faculty attendance. She said Andy tries to set it up so that people in different areas are going on the same day. The alternative would be to group similar talks, but might simply encourage the divisions in attendance we have now. Carnegie, for example, rarely attends talks unless there is some sort of connection, such as a student of theirs.

D. Hooding ceremony

1. Karen doesn’t know anything about hooding ceremony having never

been anywhere where one was done.

2. Cost?

3. Timing is an issue; perhaps as part of the lunch or perhaps as a

breakfast the day of commencement.

4. There should be an office on campus that takes care of commencement

that could be contacted

Appendix B: New Progress Report Comment Sheet Schedule

Feb 21st Aaron

Feb 28th Jill

Mar 7th Megan

Mar 14th Anna

Mar 21st Alex

Mar 28th Aaron

Apr 4th Jill

Apr 11th Megan

Apr 18th Anna

Apr 25th Alex

May 2nd Aaron

May 9th Jill

May 16th Megan

May 23rd Anna

May 30th Alex

TBA Aaron

TBA Jill

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download