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?