GSC Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
6:30 p.m., Graduate Student Lounge, Dudley House
Minutes
The minutes from the November meeting were approved.
Harvard Planning and Real Estate
Susan Keller (Director of Harvard Real Estate Services, HRES) and Alexandra Danahy (Harvard Planning and Allston Initiative) discussed HarvardŐs plans for new graduate student housing. HRES will be initiating a survey of graduate students regarding housing options. A few years ago the faculty resolved to house half of HarvardŐs graduate students in Harvard-owned housing within ten years.
Harvard has part of a new 550-unit complex near Longwood at the corner of Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue. Harvard will control 170 units (mainly studios and double studios) with 235 beds; the project should be completed in the summer of 2006. These are the first Harvard-owned student apartments at Longwood; the complex will not have a meal plan or central dining facility. The ground floor will contain restaurants and retail establishments.
Other projects are planned for the MahoneyŐs site at the corner of Western Avenue and Memorial Drive and for a site along Banks and Grant Streets. A nearby power plant will be converted into affordable housing for Cambridge residents. Construction should be finished in the summer of 2006 or 2007. A meal plan for residents is possible, but will not be required. Some house master apartments are planned for faculty and their families. The complexes will have more common area space than the Longwood development.
HRES has been meeting with representatives from MIT housing to compare new housing projects. HRES would like the GSC to help them promote their graduate student housing survey. The survey will be conducted via the web during the first two weeks of April; HRES will be testing questions with a paper survey in early February.
If undergraduate Houses are built in Allston the Houses at the Quad may be converted to graduate student housing, but the change would be at least ten years away. Possibilities for the Allston campus include housing, a student union, and office and performance space for student groups. HRES is investigating many types of housing configurations for Allston.
More information on the Longwood development will be available in about a year.
Grants
Ben Lee, GSC treasurer, announced that the next deadline for conference grant applications is January 21st; grants of up to 60% of expenses or $700 are available. At the next meeting student group funding applications will also be discussed; detailed applications will receive more funding. Departments need to be represented at at least two GSC meetings a semester for their students to be eligible for GSC grants.
Josh Yaphe, GSC vice president, noted that recommendations submitted with grant applications should indicate why attending the conference is necessary. Grant applicants should be presenting a paper or poster at the conference.
Announcements
Matthew Mosca, humanities at-large representative, announced that the deadline for mentoring award nominations would be in mid-February.
Carrie Thiessen, interdisciplinary student representative, will be distributing a survey to interfaculty and interdisciplinary students to discover funding problems, particularly for students in the third year and above.
Ernst van Nierop reported on a meeting with the Office for Technology and Trademark Licensing. Harvard licenses about 180 patents a year; one or two have returns of over $1 million while 130 earn below $10000.
Josh Yaphe announced an open meeting in March to discuss teaching fellow issues; he would like all 55 graduate departments and programs to be represented.
Miguel de Baca, GSC Communications Officer, has been working on an events calendar for the GSC website. He also has been inviting guest speakers to attend GSC meetings; he would like suggestions for guests to invite in the spring.
Women and Tenure
Zoe Trodd, GSC president, and Christine Thomas, GSC representative to the Committee on Graduate Education, discussed the issue of women receiving tenure at Harvard. In the Faculty of Arts and Sciences women make up 23% of the faculty and 18% of tenured faculty. In Neil RudenstineŐs last year as president 37% of tenure offers went to women, but that fraction has dropped in every year since.
On Friday, December 10th the GSAS womenŐs group will sponsor an open meeting with two faculty members to discuss women and tenure. The meeting will be held in the Dudley House Private Dining Room at noon.
Other Business
Dominic Longo announced that the Harvard Graduate Council had been discussing cross-registration and course evaluations.
Carrie Thiessen noted that the Graduate Student Health Advisory Committee would be meeting with the head of University Health Services.
Adjourned at 7:32.
Respectfully submitted,
Mike Westover