Monthly Archives: September 2012

DSC Minutes, 9/21 Meeting

from Flan and John (representative report available here).

– Printing: For now, IT is only collecting data on print usage patterns. The 10,000 page quota is a “soft quota” – if you run out, you just have to ask the HelpDesk and they will reset it for you. The expectation, though, is that at some point there will be a “hard” quota/limit on the number of pages you can pring.

–  Free Microsoft Office and other software: If you log in to CUNY Portal and switch your “primary status” to Employee/Faculty (should definitely be an option for anyone teaching at one of the campuses and perhaps for others as well), you can go to the ‘eMall’ and get discounts and some free software, including Microsoft Office. I just tried it out, and downloaded the latest version of Office for Mac free.

– EndNote: if you want EndNote, you have to download it (which you can do for free) by the end of the year; it goes away Jan. 1

– Increased Access to Room Reservations: In the near future, all students should be able to reserve ALL rooms at the GC through the DSC website (until this change, only option were the DSC meeting rooms) – everything from a classroom to the Skylight Room. It remains to be seen how responsive the room reservation folks are to student requests, but in theory students should have good access. Note that this is available ONLY for student-led, student-run events (i.e. Center X cannot use this system for room reservations) – student orgs, study groups, etc.

– Writing Center: They’re in the process of hiring someone to establish a Writing Center, to be used primarily for 1) help revising diss chapters, articles, revise and resubmits, etc. and 2) working on job application docs

– Email: The email system will be changing around Jan. 1 – addresses will probably change. More details forthcoming.

– Blood Drives: DSC is continuing to try to work to get blood drives off-campus until the ban on men who have had sex with men from donating blood is lifted (see this recent GC Advocate story for details)

– $$$ for student events: There are DSC grants available (for up to $750) for student-run, student-led events, conferences, etc. – they are eager to have more applications and provide more support. For the first round of grants, the deadline is Thursday; more info and the application can be found here.

– Health Insurance/NYSHIP: Excellent resources on dealing with NYSHIP, recommended providers, and other health insurance issues are available here.

As always, if you have any questions, or an issue you’d like us to bring up at the next meeting (Oct. 26), please email us.

Update on student evaluations for department classes (addition to Exec Committee minutes)

Joe was very enthusiastic, both at the Exec Committee and in a separate meeting about this yesterday, and most of the other faculty were enthusiastic as well. The hope at this point is to have evaluations in place for classes at the end of this semester, with perhaps some tinkering to be done before a more final system is in place for the spring semester.

We expect this will be an online system. The reasons for doing this are multiple – easier data collection, no need to rely on individual professors to actually go through with paper evaluations, etc. There will be some details for us to work out with Joe before we confirm it will be online, so there’s still a chance we’ll end up doing paper evals.

Our expectation regarding access to the results is this: all students will have access to the numerical data resulting from the evaluations; the EO and the faculty member (as well as potentially the DEO) will be the only ones with access to the written comments – this is probably necessary to get some faculty on the Exec Committee to agree with it, which we will need.

Joanna, Aleta, and I will be putting together a more formal proposal and draft evaluation for the next Executive Committee meeting (either October or November).

For now, we would like your input on 1) questions – for both the numerical and written response components of the evaluation – that you would like to see on evaluations for courses and 2) any general thoughts/suggestions you have. Please feel free to either discuss on the list or email jointly myself, Joanna, and Aleta off-list if you prefer.

 

 

Executive Committee Minutes, 9/21 Meeting

*Submitted by Joanna Tice, on behalf of your student representatives to the Executive Committee: John McMahon, Aleta Styers and Joanna Tice

1) New Graduate Center Fellowships: Announces major shift in the fellowship funding/structure, coming into effect for students entering in the 2013-14 school year
– The Enhanced Chancellors Fellowship will be replaced by a new fellowship (Probably called the Graduate Center Fellowship)
– Stipend increased to $25,000 annually + tuition remission
– Same 5 years guaranteed funding with 1 year RA position, 3 years teaching (reduced to a 1-1 teaching load, potentially transferable to a 0-2 or 2-0) and 5th year writing fellowship
– Purpose: to make GC fellowships competitive with other institutions.
– All PhD students NOT receiving a fellowship WILL be receiving a tuition waiver
– MA funding possibilities will remain the same (i.e., limited)
– This was accomplished by requiring a 25% reduction in funded PhD students, institution-wide. However, our department already accomplished that reduction in the last few years, so it will mean a reduction of only 1 or 2 PhD students at most for PS. This does not apply to MAs (if anything, MAs may be increased).
– THIS DOES NOT CHANGE THE FELLOWSHIP FUNDING AND STRUCTURE FOR ALREADY MATRICULATED STUDENTS

2) Composition of Entering Class this Fall: a substantial majority are Theory and IR students, followed by Comparative, American, very few in Public Policy, but those few appear very focused with research objectives already clear.

3) 1st Exam results: This year was one of the most successful years on record for successful completion of the first exam
– 25 out of 30 students passed their respective exams
– 13 students changed levels
– more people taking exams earlier
– faculty from two of the fieds commented upon relatively weak responses in some of the passing exams.

4) The Gittell Chair/Samuel’s Center Faculty Search: This search has been adjusted over the summer and the position would no longer be housed in the Samuel’s Center
– The Search is somewhat up in the air, as a permanent position has been offered but most likely this scholar will not accept (based on family situation) and thus the position will be offered to a number of visiting scholars until a match is found
– The Faculty Membership Committee is still actively pursuing an IPE line

5) Budget: Budget for the department seems stable – there will be no reduction in courses or entrenchment on hiring

6) Professional Development Workshop Planning: DEO (Rosalind Petchesky) announcement about planning process of student professional development workshop.
– Several students on the list serve have expressed interest in a workshop about the 2nd and 3rd exams. We brought this up with Professor Petchesky and she suggested that students interested in those topics suggest them on the Questionnaire sent out by the department last week (sent by Margaret on the 14th).
– If you are interested in a workshop on the 2nd or 3rd exams, please submit the questionnaire ASAP and write-in that request in the “other topics” section of the form.

7) Department Website Improvement: Joe is proposing to launch a committee to overhaul the website in the coming months. He will most likely need student volunteers to participate in that committee, if anyone has particular interest, you might let him know.

8. Changing of the Guard: Just FYI, Joe will probably be taking a sabbatical for half of next year and for half of the year after that. Apropos this, he spoke of the need to identify and train new a new EO and a new DEO to replace Ros