The 4th meeting of the academic year 1996-7 was held at 5:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, 5th February, 1997 in the Graduate Student Lounge in Dudley
House.
Officers Present: Adam Fagen, President; Paul Callan,
Secretary; Christine Murasaki Millett, Treasurer; Gabriella Gonzalez,
Social Officer; Carlos Lopez, Facilities Officer Apologies: Kyriell Muhammad, Vice President
After introductions of the officers and members present...
1. Announcements
The following items were noted:
The winners of
travel grants in the Winter round were announced. They included 3
humanities and 5 science students. There were many more scientists than
in previous grant rounds.
Pub night on Friday, 7th February from 9:00 p.m. in the Graduate
Student Lounge.
GSAS student organisations should soon be able to get web space from
FAS Computer Services or from the Harvard Computer Society; they may
also put their web pages on the GSC web site. For further info, contact
Adam or Paul.
Discussion meeting between students and administrators from Harvard
Transportation Services in an effort to improve the services offered, to
take place on Thursday, 6th February at 7:30 p.m. in Hilles Library
Cinema. This will be an opportunity to discuss the Home Run Shuttle as
well as the Evening Van Service, the Harvard Shuttle and other services.
Graduate students were encouraged to attend.
Elections of GSC officers will take place at the April meeting of the
Council. Nominations will open at the next meeting of the
Council.
NAGPS will be organising a Graduate and Professional Student
Appreciation Week in April!!
The 11th annual GSC Comedy Night will take place on Saturday, March
15th in Dudley House.
A Commissioner has finally been appointed and the GSC Basketball
League will be starting up soon. Fliers and more information will be sent
out next week.
Next meeting is on Wednesday, March 5th at 5:30 p.m. in the GSC
Lounge.
2. Treasurer's Report
Christine presented the Financial Statement
to the end of January. It was noted that the expenditure on NAGPS
participation was already over the bidget for the year, largely to to the
cost of sending three people to the Annual Meeting in California. It was
also noted that the Pub Nights are already close to the budget allocation,
but the Council agreed that an additional pub night should be held in
April because of the popularity of these events with members, i.e.
graduate students.
The Council approved funding for four student groups - the Harvard Medical
Area Ballroom Dance Club, the Catholic Graduate Society, the Organization
of Portuguese Speakers and the Half-Asian Peoples Association - and for
some special events.
Christine also reported that the Budget Committee has prepared a new form
for student groups seeking funding. It has introduced some new
regulations, the most important of which is that groups must publicise
GSC-funded events widely and acknowledge GSC support in their
publicity.
3. Dudley House Master Search
Daniel Fisher's three-year term as Master of Dudley House ends this
summer, and the search is on for a new House Master. A search committee,
including the President of the Graduate Student Council, has been formed.
Its first task will be to decide on the qualities desired for the person
who will be responsible for the graduate student center. Next, it will
draw up a list of candidates from among the tenured faculty. Graduate
students were invited to make your suggestions Ñ for what qualities you
think the House Master should have, for what the new Master should do to
improve Dudley House as a resource for graduate students and for specific
people who would be good for the job. Suggestions can be sent to Adam
Fagen, at 5-7512 or president@gsc.student.harvard.edu.
4. Discussion of Procedures for Reviewing Graduate Student Progress
and the 10 Year Limit on Graduate Study
Paul presented a report from the
group - consisting of Paul, Adam Fagen and Sujay Rao - formed by the
Council to consider these issues.
In order to reduce the time students take to complete their degrees, the
Graduate School has a rule requiring students to finish in 10 years.
Extensions can be granted if the student is deemed to be making
satisfactory progress. Graduate students wish more than anyone else to
reduce time to degree, but the group felt that this '10 year rule' is a
blunt instrument. Problems start in the first few years of research, not
in the ninth or tenth year.
The group thus proposed a simple and effective mechanism for informing
students about their progress on a regular - at least annual - basis:
Students would prepare a one-page report on progress made and future
plans. The report should be read, commented on and signed by the
student's advisor and thesis committee, and the advisor should give an
estimated degree date. The student would then submit this report to the
Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) in the department. Currently, the DGS
or a committee in each department reports annually to GSAS on the whether
the progress of each student is satisfactory or not, but this system does
not work very well. We propose that such reviews would in future be based
on the students' reports and advisors' comments. The result of the review
- satisfactory or unsatisfactory - should be communicated in writing to
each student by the DGS. If the student's report and the advisor's
comments indicate any problems, the DGS could arrange a meeting with the
student or between the students and the thesis committee as appropriate.
This mechanism is designed to minimize the hassle to graduate students and
faculty, while ensuring that students are aware of how they are
progressing. Paul stated that it would help to identify conflicts between
the expectations of advisors and students and to enable problems to be
tackled early on (or to let students know when they are doing
well!).
In addition, the report made proposals on the implementation of the 10
year rule. First, the rule should only be implemented when a student has
received unsatisfactory progress reports based on the annual reviews
outline above. Second, leave taken for non-thesis work should not be
counted in determining the years of graduate study for the purposes of
this rule. Third, GSAS should inform students in writing about the rule
at the beginning of their eighth, ninth and tenth years, and not just when
the rule is being applied to them!
During the discussion which followed, a number of suggestions for
additions to the report were made. First, the graudate school should
collect statistics on times to degree by department, sub-field and advisor
and publish them for graudate students - a sort of CUE guide scheme for
graduate study. Second, meetings with thesis committees should be
mandatory for students each year starting one year after the average time
to degree for the department or in the eighth year, whichever comes
first.
With these amendments, the Council unanimously approved the report. It
will now be presented to the Graduate School, initially at a GSAS Deans -
GSC meeting.
