The 5th meeting of the academic year 1996-7 was held at 5:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, 5th March, 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
After introductions of the officers and members present...
1. Announcements
The following items were noted:
The President of the University, Neil Rudenstine, will meet with GSC
representatives on Tuesday, 1st April from 2:30 - 3:30pm. If you would
like to attend this meeting or to suggest items for discussion with Prof.
Rudenstine, contact Adam Fagen at
president@gsc.student.harvard.edu.
The annual comedy will take place on Saturday, 15th March starting at
9pm in the Dudley House Dining Hall. The comedians will be Georgia
Ragsdale and Julie Barr.
Student Parent-Kids Bagel Brunch on Saturday, 12th April from 11:00am
- 1:00pm in the Dudley House Common Room.
The next GSC meeting will take place on Wednesday, 2nd April starting
at 5:30pm in the GSC Lounge. Among the items on the agenda will be the
election of officers and committee members for next year.
2. Opening of Nominations for 1997-98 GSC Officers and Committee
Representatives
FAS Library
Committee:
The Library Committee has been discussing whether to open one of the
libraries, probably Cabot, 24 hours a day. Plans are also well underway
for a new catalogue, to be called HOLLIS II. If you have any suggestions
for features which shoud be included, send them to either of the GSC
representatives or to Dale Flecker in Widener Library.
FAS Information Technology
Committee:
Tom Jenkins reported to the Council on a number of current issues.
1. FAS Computer Services (HASCS) is getting a new modem pool which should
provide a more reliable service which will also have more functionality,
e.g. using Netscape.
2. HASCS has received a grant of $100,000 to be spent on technology for
teaching - so if you use or wish to use computer facilities for any course
which you teach, consider applying for some of these funds.
3. HASCS is seeking to increase the number of graduate student User
Assistants. It intends to hire graduate UAs on a departmental basis;
people who will help faculty, administrators and other grad students in
the department with computer problems.
4. Efforts are being made to put grades and transcripts on-line. Grades
should be online by May, with transcripts taking sometime longer. The
main hurdle is security.
Graduate Student Health Advisory
Committee:
Cathy Phipps reported on the work of this committee. She reminded the
Council of the great resources - books, information leaflets, videos, etc
on different health issues - available from the Office of Health Education
at UHS and encouraged people to use these valuable resources. She also
invited students to send suggestions for issues, complaints about UHS, etc
to her by e-mail to cphipps@fas.harvard.edu.
Under matters arising, Paul reported on the discussion at the GSC Officers
/ GSAS Deans meeting about the Report on
Procedures for Reviewing Graduate Student Progress and the 10 Year Limit
on Graduate Study which the Council approved at its last meeting. The
Deans had agreed with regular reviews of graduate student progress
involving student input, feedback from advisors and formal statement
evaluating a student's progress from the department. It was agreed that a
separate proposal, including a draft form for a one page progress report
by the student and for comments from the advisor (including an estimated
time to degree) should be presented to the Committee on Graduate
Education. If approved by the CGE, the proposal could be put to the
Faculty who could make it formal policy binding on departments. Paul,
Adam and Sujay will work on this proposal to CGE with Garth McCavana, Dean
of Student Affairs.
In the meantime, the other proposals relating to the G-10 rule will be
dealt with separately. First, the Deans are looking into ways in which to
improve student awareness of the rule, including the GSC proposal to send
letters to all G-8 and G-9 students. Second, we proposed that leaves of
absence should not be counted in determining how long a student has been
here. The Deans pointed out that some student might actually do
dissertation work while on leave. The annual progress report form asks
students to list leaves of absence, which will insure at least that
administrators are aware when a student has taken time off. This should
ensure that the G-10 rule is not invoked for student who have taken
non-academic leaves of absence.
5. Treasurer's Report
Christine reported that three student groups had been awarded funds by the
Budget Committee - Harvard Chinese Students and Scholars Association
($400), Medical Sciences Student Organisation ($500) and the Harvard
Graduate Student Canadian Club ($166). She noted that application forms
are due two weeks before the monthly budget committee meeting, which
itself takes place on the Monday of the week of each GSC meeting.
Adam and Christine reported that and arrangement has been reached with the
Harvard Computer Society to
provide facilities for graduate student groups. The basic facilities
provided will include an e-mail account, Web site, and mailing list. The
GSC will pay the Computer Society for this service on behalf of graduate
student groups, $100 for this semester, and the price for future years
incorporated as an item in the budget, probably being allocated from the
funds for student groups.
The latest Financial Statement, covering the period to March 1, was
presented to the Council.
5. Preregistration for Courses
Adam introduced this item and asked for volunteers interested in doing
further work on the issue. It is very difficult to predict the number of
students who will take a particular course, and this in turn causes
problems in the hiring of TFs. For example, if a course has many fewer
students than expected, the number of TF positions expected will not
materialise, leaving some graduate students scrambling for teaching
positions in the first or second week of the semester. One solution could
be to require students to pre-register for course at the end of the
previous semester, giving a non-binding indication of what courses they
will take.
Some members present doubted the value of pre-registration in predicting
student numbers, since many students could change their minds during the
shopping period and actually register for different classes. They argued
that unless pre-registration was really simple to implement, it might not
be worth the effort. Formal registration in advance and abolition of the
shopping period would not be acceptable to undergraduates; it might not be
that effective anyway since students could still add or drop
courses.
Other ways of addressing the problem of availability of TF positions were
made. Some departments guarantee Teaching Fellowships to any student who
does not have alternative support. Many departments organise the
allocation of TF positions in departmental courses centrally, which helps
if TFs have to be reallocated when
course attendance vary from expected numbers. These are other options to
consider.
