The 2nd meeting of the academic year 1996-7 was held at 5:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, 6th November, 1997 in the Graduate Student Lounge in Dudley
House.
Officers Present: Adam Fagen, President; Kyriell Muhammad,
Vice President; Paul Callan, Secretary; Christine Murasaki Millett,
Treasurer; Gabriella Gonzalez, Social Officer; Carlos Lopez, Facilities
Officer Apologies:
After introductions of the officers and members present...
1. Announcements
The following items were noted:
The winners of travel grants in
the Fall round were announced. They included 5 humanities, 3 social
science and 1 science student, which was roughly in proportion to the
numbers of applicants in each of these disciplinary areas. In response to
a question, Kyriell pointed out at the committee consisted of himself, the
President, three GSAS Deans, and one faculty member.
The student parent-kids bagel brunch will take place on Saturday, 16th
November from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the Dudley House Common Room.
The GSC will have a meeting with the Provost (second-in-command after
the President) Al Carnesale on Wednesday, 11th December at 5 p.m.. A list
of people who wish to attend was collected.
A group was formed to review the responses from students and from
departments to the survey on departmental procedures for reviewing graduate
student progress and implementing the GSAS 10 year rule. The group will
formulate policy proposals on these and related issues for consideration at
a future GSC meeting before putting them to GSAS. In the meantime, we will
propose that GSAS send out a letter to G9s warning them of the rule before
it is too late.
Next meeting is on Wednesday, December 4th at 5.30 p.m. in the GSC
Lounge.
2. Elections
Carl Elkin (celkin@fas) was
elected to serve on the Advisory
Committee on Shareholder Responsibility for a term of two years. This
committee advises on ethical matters relating to Harvard's shareholdings -
for example, it advised that Harvard should divest itself of holdings in
tobacco companies. The graduate student place on the committee rotates
between the different schools every 2 years. It was decided that Carl
should report regularly to the Council, which can mandate his votes at the
committee if it so wishes.
3. Matters Arising
These minutes were approved.
Adam reported on developments with the Home Run shuttle, which is in danger
of being stopped due to insufficient use. The cost of rides will now be
put on one's term bill; tickets are no longer being sold. This means that
students can use the service without having to purchase tickets in advance
(tickets were not sold on the bus itself).
The focus of discussions on graduate student access to athletic facilities
has now began to focus on opening the
Hemenway
Gym earlier (maybe at 6 or 7 a.m. rather than 8 a.m. as at present).
Discussions on improving the opening hours of the
MAC
are likely to be more protracted.
4. GSAS Announcements
Doug Moon talked about the GSAS student-alumni Phonathon, which will take
place on November 13th from 6-9 p.m.. Graduate students and GSAS alumni
spend the evening calling alumni who have given money before to ask them to
donate to GSAS again. Most of the money donated goes to fellowships.
Those participating will get a free dinner and a stipend of $25. For
further info, and to participate, contact
dmoon@harvard.edu. He can also be
contacted concerning other paid opportunities to work on fund-raising from
alumni for GSAS.
Rise Shepsle (shepsle@hugsas.harvard.edu)
spoke about the GSAS Internship Program, through which GSAS alumni offer
internships to current graduate students. She emphasised that many of
those offering fellowship were flexible about the details, e.g. the times
for which the internship is available. There are binders (whose use is
restricted to GSAS students) listing the internships available in the
Office of Career Services and Byerly Hall. The listings should be
available on-line in Dudley House in January. Some suggestions were made
including putting a copy of the listings in the Dudley House Library and
sending notices to department administrators.
5. Library Issues
Barbara Whitlock (bwhitlock@oeb.harvard.edu)
and Asta Sveinsdottir
(aksveins@fas.harvard.edu),
the GSC reps on the FAS Library Committee reported on the work of the
committee so far this year. Some of the major issues it will consider are
security in Widener and a policy for deciding which books should be moved
to the Harvard depository. There was a general discussion on libraries, in
order to set an agenda for Asta and Barbara for the coming year. The
issues raised were (in no particular order!):
shortage of videotape playing facilities in Cabot,
time taken to get books from the depository,
desire for late opening of one or more libraries, especially Widener
(which closes at 10pm),
facilities to be added to HOLLIS 2 (the replacement for the current
online catalogue, HOLLIS) should
include checking one's borrowing record or having it e-mailed to you
regularly, renewing books online, calling books from the depository or from
one library to another, recalling a book which somebody has borrowed, and
searching by shelf (i.e. being able to see the books which are adjacent to
a book whose shelf number you enter),
permitting students to take journals out of Widener for short times,
and
reducing the price of photocopying, which was increased from 8c to 10c
when the use of Crimson Cash for library photocopiers was introduced (the
Law and Medical School libraries only charge 5c per copy
[n.b.: the Medical School operates on a two-tier system with students
paying 5c per copy, while others
are charged 10c; cheaper student copies are apparently subsidized by the
Division of Medical Sciences]).
6. Treasurer's Report
Christine presented the Financial Statement to the end of September.
She also reported on discussions that the Budget Committee has had about
group funding. The form which groups seeking funding must complete is to be
altered to get more specific information. While there is no ceiling on the
funds which can be allocated to any group, Christine said that there would
be an effort to ensure that funds were spread more equitably among the many
groups seeking funds. These issues will come up for discussion at the next
meeting of the Council.
It was pointed out that groups seeking funds must first be recognised by
the Committee on Graduate Education (CGE), and that they should talk to
Susan Zawalich, the Dudley House Administrator, about getting
recognition.
