Also also, we did not share course evaluations from last fall because the response rate was so low. There is a question on the survey regarding evaluations so we would really appreciate it if you all took time to answer that one thoughtfully – we are happy to create evaluations for this semester’s courses if that is something that you all are actually interested in.

**Note that the November meeting was cancelled.

• EO opened announcements:
  • Colloquium program for Spring 2015 is nearly set; look for announcements as the semester approaches.
  • Reminder: Student Conference is on 27 February and will be an all-day event, as we had a lot of student interest.
• Student Announcement: Comparative Politics students with the support of Prof. Woodward have organized a weekly Comparative Politics Workshop. The first meeting will take place on Wednesday, 4 February, 4:15pm and feature Andras Bozoki.
• Bulk of meeting consisted of discussion around changes in the update of documents made by a sub-committee convened expressly for their revision.
  • A huge thanks to Professors Ben Fontana and Susan Woodward, as well as Margaret Cook for taking the lead and doing a lot of detailed work on the documents.
• Note that the process to amend the bulletin is different from the process to amend the handbook. Updates to the handbook are approved within the department. The bulletin requires the approval of miscellaneous 8^th Floor entities. After the handbook has been finalized, the bulletin will be updated.
• Approved:
  • Updated Handbook with minor adjustments. Once the Curriculum Committee has addressed the suggested revisions, the upated handbook will be made available department-side.
    • Debate:
      • Research Methods vs Methods of Inquiry
        • The problem here that one contingent argues that “Methods of Inquiry” is problematic because it’s vague. It potentially allows Theory students to go through the program without taking a Qualitative or Quantitative methods course. Another contingent argues that we have gaps in the methodology curriculum; we have a methods requirement but don’t offer enough courses to fulfill the requirement. Additionally, it was argued, that Theory students going on the market should have a grasp of some methods of the discipline, even if they are not what they use in their own work.
        • Decision:
          • The debate was tabled until the Spring with continued (but informal) agreement that our program needs to have more methods options. Course proposals with syllabi are being developed and will be considered in the Spring.
        • 700 (3 cr.) vs 800 (4 cr.) Level Courses
          • The students raised the issue that there is not always a meaningful distinction between 700 and 800 level courses and that this can affect time to degree.
            • No change was recorded due to the fact that the distinction is enforced GC-wide. However, the AEO reminded the students that if they run into a problem regarding credits or meeting the five 800-level course min., they should speak to her and/or their professors. They are potentially in a position to assist you, so please advocate for yourself.
          • Faculty Advisement
            • Students raised concerns about the section in the updated handbook stating that each student is assigned a faculty advisor upon entry. The students wanted to know if this would now happen moving forward as previously the practice had been to assign all students to the EO or DEO. Faculty responded that they updated the policy to reflect the aspirations of the department but ultimately the committee decided that there should be a larger conversation about what our policy should be moving forward.
          • First Exam
            • There will be three graders for every exam, and each grader is expected to provide substantial comments in order to ensure that students understand the grade they received regardless of whether they pass or fail.
            • While this is not a change, it should be noted that there was a conversation about what occurs following a student’s second fail of an exam. The policy stands that students who fail an exam twice are automatically terminated from the program. Appeals can be taken up with the EO.
          • Second Exam
            • The updated program documents include an FAQ on what students can expect during the second exam.
            • The language in the handbook and the guidelines states that the third reader is expected to provide comments and questions two weeks prior to the defense date. There was debate about whether the third reader’s comments should be required or simply recommended. The committee kept the language stating that comments are expected from the third reader to indicate to students that while they can ask for a response prior to the defense, they may not receive one.
          • Placement Data on Graduates has been compiled and is in the process of being analyzed. Data will be available shortly. Thanks, Margaret!

Thanks to the English Deptartment’s Anne Donlon for the instructions below:

You may have seen the email from Jane Trombley in Communications & Marketing announcing the newdigital signage launch, and you may have noticed the flatscreens going up around the building. Communications has published a page on the website with the templates for fliers and information on the process of getting things posted:https://www.gc.cuny.edu/About-the-GC/Resource-Services/Communications—M…. The screens that will be in the lobby, and the screens that are in the glass display cases on each floor are managed by Communications. They have stated that anyone will be able to post fliers on these screens, as long as they use the template provided and provide the necessary information. In addition, there are other screens throughout the building with oth er “owners.” This information is charted on the webpage, linked above. Students and other members of the community will have to contact each “owner” separately if they want their fliers to appear on those screens.

The DSC is the “primary owner” for three of the screens on the 5th floor (two in the DSC hallways, and one outside of 5409). Our policy is currently a work in progress, and I’m sure it will evolve depending on the demand for screen time. Currently, we’ll proceed as follows:

Email your flier to ccc@cunydsc.org.
Fliers must be sent at least 3 business days before it is to be added to the rotation.
Fliers must be sent as a powerpoint file using the correct vertical template, provided on the Communications site, and attached.
Each flier should include relevant information, including, for example, place, time, contact information for a given event.
The sender must include a start and end date of when they want the flier to appear.

Each flier has to be individually added and removed from the powerpoint rotation in real time–it’s not at all automated–so please allow for some flex time when you make your request.

Finally, if you have comments on the digital signage project, Communications & Marketing has set up this email address:signagesuggestions@gc.cuny.edu.

If you’d like to maintain full-time status to keep getting fellowship money after you finish your coursework, you’ll need to register for weighted instructional units.  Here’s a how-to, copied from Mike Miller’s very helpful listserve email:

• Go to the GC dynamic schedule here, and select courses for the desired term.
• Then, under “subject,” choose “Weighted Instructional Units.” That’s where you’ll find the CRNs for WIUs.
• In order to maintain your full-time status, you need to register for 7 WIUs. If, for example, you only have 3 credits left, and will be registering for one course, you’d need to register for 4 WIUs (which has a different CRN).

Audio available here.

Summary from the the Adjunct Project:

“CUNY Graduate Center President Kelly held a Community Meeting on
Monday, February 25, 2013. A group of students, faculty, and staff
raised critical questions about the Fall 2013 GC Restructuring Plan,
CUNY Pathways, the Kroll Report, insurance coverage, and other issues.
These questions had been openly crowd-sourced beforehand to encourage
campus-wide input in shaping this forum.

The Adjunct Project has organized an “alternative Community Meeting” to be held on Friday, March 8, 3-5pm in GC room 5414:

“[S]tudents, faculty, and staff can interact and strategize responses to the lack of general participatory democracy and transparency at the Graduate Center, and how specifically to counteract the worst aspects of the Fall 2013 Restructuring Plan.

 Notes from meeting w/ Pres. Kelly on February 25, 2013, 3pm

Approx. 70 in attendance.

New Fellowship packages:

• Modest decrease in size of PhD, modest increase of Masters
• Increase in funding for PhDs
• Reduced incoming class size by 61 students across 24 programs by 2015
  • 423 in 2012
  • 362 in 2015
• Value of fellowships increased
•  100 tuition only fellowships
• Says committed to diversity .  No specifics.
• Problem: will create a discrepancy between current ECFs. We’re going to address it in 2 ways: identify more resources for more students as well as philanthropic resources at the urging of the DSC
• We have until fall of 2014 to come to some redress before the force of difference is felt. Requires partners. Stresses it is not a unilateral decision. At American Univ its 80/20 masters/phd, here it is reverse 15/85 masters/phd. Want to change that. Primarily we’ll be a PhD program. Emphasizes MALS program. Says no reduction in programs.
• Promises dependent on fiscal availability.

1^st year ECF asks about disparity. Why do we have to Fall 2014 and not this fall?

• Kelly says student is receiving more than those before her, he’s more concerned with the TEACHING disparity and where he is targeting, which is why he has until 2014.

Student asks about partners in a dialogue

• BK says he looks for variety of partners on financial side, the university, students, staff. He assumes the latter two won’t be writing checks to solve the problem but he’s “anxious” to speak with them

Student asks about DSC and club space moving from 5^th floor to basement

• BK says we’ve doubled students and faculty since moving into this building.

• Basically, we’ve grown. Looking for more space elsewhere. After talking to ppl involved, but there’s a lack of money for new space. No decision has been made, full consultation of students will be involved.

Student asks how students are consulting in restructuring plan

• Goal was higher funding, he says they realized they created a disparity, lists incidences when students were consulting (spoke too fast for me to list them all)

Student asks about the lack of parental leave and federally mandated well women services associated with ACA

• Kelly asks Scott to address it
• Scott talks about consulting with someone in Albany to implement it

Contraception was brought up.

• It seems that Scott needs particular points about ACA and how it will impact NYSHIP to address it. This seemed like a dodge to me
• BK says GC made the case in Albany that NYSHIP services available to SUNY students should be made available to CUNY students. Says it was successful. Refers to Scott for details. Says plan has to be in compliance with ACA. Says they’re keeping a close watch on it

BK returns to parental leave. Says there’s a task force working with Louise Lanahan (sp?) about pregnancy accommodation

• This is the 1 semester leave that has been mentioned previously.
• Accommodation in place by Sept 1.

Student asks about equal pay for equal work, adjucts inclusive and new fellowships. Notes increase in disparity.

• BK says student is totally correct about pay scale for adjuncts and has nothing to add
• Regarding doctoral fellowships, he says the goal is to get better and better
• It sounds like the admin is just going to wait this out. The disparity will disappear over time regarding fellowship

Student asks about phasing in of fellowships instead

• BK says that’s what that this is, a phase in. we’re a tiny part of a large university with lots of components

Student asks about funding and says she doesn’t have an ECF and notes the monetarily disparity specifically. Notes struggling students. Asks what is being done right now

• BK’s face at this comment was priceless
• BK says he understands and recognized the students complaints, says he can’t do anything about adjunct pay but that he can continually speak about it
• Says he’s not turning a blind eye to 12,000 adjuncts, 10% who are phds at the GC
• BK says this is a national issue, not just a CUNY issue, says as long as resources are continually restricted in the public sector, this will continue to be an issue.

Student asks about PATHWAYS and how that will effect grad students

• BK says it won’t impact it in his opinion. Particularly he says w/decline of teaching due to new fellowships, need for adjuncts will go up. Where do we find teachers then is the question? Says it’s an exploitative way to look at grad students.
• That being said, there will be too many positions, not too few.
• Notes impact of past budget cuts have taking a long time to rebound
• Is he concerned about pathways denying opportunities? He is not

Mike asks “If someone has outside funding, is there a hard cap on how many students are admitted?”

• BK says if someone produces outside funding, he says “come on down” but his concern is that in the past, like int’l students, were promised one thing and got another.

Student asks about follow up on question of diversity. Asks what current steps are made that Eos/programs are at least having convo on diversity

• BK says he needs student help with that. Says that this new funding does not mean will be seeking out a different type of student that we have in the past
• BK says diversity in terms of lifestyle, sexual orientation, economic difference, etc are hard to measure, but it’s up to the individual programs and he’s removed from it. BK says he wants to give them tools to do as best as they possibly can.

Person asks about int’l students

• BK says that if someone comes with a major grant, we can admit them. But we will not give a slot b/c your parents have vast resources that they will sign up for. Says this is beyond the pale

Student talks about Marilyn Katel (sp?) archives (apologies I have no idea how to spell this)

Student asks about incremental increase in funding versus decline of class size

• BK says it is not a major decrease: 61 students of 5 years. Quotes Bill Clinton “it’s the arithmetic” (Pretty sure he’s leaving out part of this quote)
• Enrollment strategies have to be adjusted to placement outcomes

Student asks about role of students, faculty, and staff. What does democracy mean? This has to be some DSC person. Asks it to BK as well as to the whole room. Says there are 2 community meetings a semester but it is different from day-to-day conversations and we want alternative community meetings to come up with alternative plans for our university

• BK says he would offer as evidence the strategic plan. In terms in collaboration: it is rare that he doesn’t give the same speech 3 times a week.
• Provost talks about collaboration being in the DNA of this institution.

Student asks about students getting arrested on campuses. Asks what response is to that Kroll report about Baruch

• BK says 1) wasn’t there when report was issued, can’t comment ???, 2) our position is we try to manage our own affairs in our own house but he could not promise that there would a change in that policy. He has 2 commitments; protect free speech and protect others to live their lives, 3) … I don’t think he did 3 points but whatever

Many thanks to Adam for these excellent notes. -FA

From John and Flan.

As always, if you have any questions or if there’s an issue you’d like us to bring up at the next meeting, please don’t hesitate to email us.

Library info:
The meeting opened with a presentation by the Polly Thistlewaite, chief librarian at the GC.

• The GC reference desk is currently located on the second floor of the library.
  
• Last week was Open Access Week, which promotes the free online access to scholarly research. Polly focused on the difficulties our library has faced in trying to keep up w/ the rising costs of online databases.  She noted that the managers of such databases sometimes have a 30% profit margin, and we’ve seen a staggering 381% increase in cost of subscriptions since online databases introduced. 
  • If you publish an article but would also like to make it openly accessible, you can look up the publishers’ general policies on self-archiving by using Sherpa/RoMEO.
    
    • Not surprisingly, there is evidence that more accessbile article get more citations than those that are only available in journals.
      
• Be sure to use interlibrary loan for journal articles the library doesn’t subscribe to.  You will get the article, plus the library will likely buy access to whole journal if they get 5-10 requests from same journal.
  
• MaRLI (Manhattan Research Library Initiative) grants us borrowing privileges at NYPL, NYU, & Columbia libraries.  Apply @ the New York Public Library.

We then listened to presentations from various DSC officers.  The info below might be useful.

Getting $$ for your research and events:

• It might be worth checking out the Advanced Research Collaborative (ARC)
  • This the provost’s project and there is potentially a lot of $$$ to sponsor various projects and post-doc positions.
    
• The DSC has grant $$ available for seminars or professional development events. 
• Any students can start a chartered organization (for example, see SPTSA started by theory students in our department a few years ago)
  • Must be interdisciplinary; need 23 students or more to sign on
  • You’ll get $300/semester, plus an office after 2 semesters of existence. 

Other resources:

• Ombuds: it exists
  • The DSC can also help settle  academic issues/question
• Color printing services available on Z level (use freight elevator).  Good if you need to make a poster for an event.
• If you haven’t done so already, be sure to enroll in CUNY Alert to get updates on school closings, etc.

Health and wellness:

• Fewer services now available.
  • The GC is only getting a total of 7 free flu shots total to distribute this year.  Good luck.
  • Apparently, the GC also used to offer free HPV vaccines.  No more.
    
  • The DSC Officer of Health and Wellness noted that unhappy student feedback is welcome.  Try writing letters to the Wellness Center, Provost’s Office, etc.
    
• Thus, I would recommend keeping a healthy distance from your fellow students here.  But you can still pick up free condoms in the DSC office in room 5495.  We might also get condom dispensers in the bathrooms soon.
  
• November is open enrollment month for NYSHIP health insurance.  
• The DSC Health and Wellness office is available to help with health insurance problems (NYSHIP and in general)
• The GC does not offer maternity/paternity leave to students (or any other type of leaves, for that matter).  Students sometimes work things out with their EOs. 
  

Institutional developments:

• The administration is ready to make an job offer soon to someone who will head the new Office of Career Development (will start anytime between now and early next year)
  
• The GC was recently assessed as part of the Middle States Review.  Apparantly, they weren’t impressed by the lack of learning outcomes/course objectives included on most course syllabi.
  
• 2 recent DSC resolutions have perhaps actually yielded results:
  • Blood drives will be off-campus – not in GC space
    
• 1-2 gender neutral bathrooms will be created “at some point” in near future
  
• The GC will be reducing # of doctoral students
  • Our current completion rate = 40%(!!!)
  • More master’s students
    

Building updates:

• The easels for displaying event flyers will be staying in the hallways for now
  
  • We will also be getting TV screens installed in the hallways soon.  These will also contain event listings, although no one @ meeting was quite sure how to get events added.
    
• Some of the walls will be repainted, but they will likely remain the same color (easier to hide the grime). 
  
• Surveillance cameras being upgraded.  You know you’re always being watched, right?