GSC BoD Meeting
Thursday, April 5, 2001
Directors present:
Alex Backer, Jeff Bergthorson, Tanja Bosak, Marco Casari, Catherine Cornu, Diego Dugatkin, Will Green, Serena Guarnaschelli, Benedict Hebert, Anil Hirani, Michael Johnson, Timothy Lesko, Chunhui Mo, Jose Mumbru, Athanasios Nenes, Nick Pornsinsiriak, Steve Pracko, Cecily Ryan, Hui Wu
Directors absent:
Magali Billen, Michael Fleming, Bob Gingrich, James Harrington, Ying Huang, Tobias Kippenberg, Fok-Yan Leung, Melvin Leok, Claude Seywert
Guests:
Martha-Helene Stapleton, Julie Liu, Ted Jou, Michela Munoz, Olga Schneider, Jason Cohen, Peter Mau
Chair Alex Backer presiding.
I. PRELIMINARY BUSINESS
a. Introduction of guests and new directors
Martha-Helene, ASCIT President; Ted Jou, ASCIT Director of Social Affaires; Peter Mau, to request funding for SASS; and Julie, Michela, Olga and Jason, possible new directors.
b. Additions to the agenda
Two additions in the section of Action Items: (7) Funding for the Social Activism Series for 2001-02; and (8) Indoor Soccer.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of March 2001 were approved.
III. ACTION ITEMS
Jose and Alex have prepared a survey on two issues: First the convenience of having some type of management training and student-advisor conflict resolution for incoming faculty. Such type of training would help to improve the mechanisms to solve conflicts. The second topic is TA experience. Faculty has discussed the option of making mandatory that all students have at least a TA during the course of the studies at Caltech. They would like to know if such experience would be positive for the students. The survey will be emailed to everybody in the same way that the previous one on health insurance for dependents.
In the past there have already been similar initiatives, however they never got implemented by faculty. Alex said that there was some brainstorming session on Ethics of Research in Biology and they have a webpage with documents and links to relevant information at another institutions. In that sense, the purpose of the survey is to collect quantitative data from the students, and if it confirms our suspicions, then we will send a petition to the Administration. It will be convenient to form a committee on this issue.
Thanos said that the awards would be given in the beginning of June. There are two categories: best teacher and best TA. Catherine volunteered to help him with the process of selecting the winners.
Parandeh Kia would like to have feedback from students about the TA experience in different options and to know about it a TA requirement would be positive. The reason for such requirement is kind of technical since Grad Office should allocate the money for the TA's. As Marco pointed out, the results on the survey should provide valuable information. Jason said that the experience could be good if the Teaching Assistants are properly trained. In his experience at Berkeley, TA duties were mandatory once every semester for the first three years. Hui and Melvin, who had sent a message before the meeting, accepted to be in the committee.
Alex met with the Alumni. They expressed interest in helping with the student-advisor issue. They offered to do mentoring. Melvin also volunteered to be the link between Alumni and GSC on this issue.
Ted came to ask for cosponsoring from GSC of the formal. Last year GSC funded the event with $2000. This year’s formal will be on Saturday May 26 at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey. Last year’s budget was $17,000 (with the $2,000 from GSC). The attendance was 180 people (25~30 grads). This year ASCIT will put $6,000 and they would like GSC to contribute with $3,000 and they expect 180~200 people. The tentative prices are $40 (undergrads) and $45 (grads), with alcohol not included. There was concern about how to get to the event. Ted said that most probably transportation would be provided with a bus. The board considered that the amount requested was too much in proportion to the participation of graduate students. We are willing to fund in proportion to the total cost of the event if some conditions are satisfied: 1) The ticket price must be the same for grads as for undergrads, since there does not seem to be a clear reason for the price difference. 2) The event should be well advertised and the advertisement should also target grad students. ASCIT should send the details to the GSC Newsletters to be publish by May. 3) Put information about the bus. There was a vote to fund for $1,500 and the possibility of $500 bonus as an incentive for advertisement. The motion was passed with one vote against (Marco) and one abstention.
This seminar series has been organized during the last two years and its purpose is to bring high caliber speakers to Caltech to talk about labor, environment, or peace movement issues among others. There is no other event at Caltech like this one. Marco proposed to set up a permanent fund of $2000 or $3000, the "Scientists as Citizens of the World" initiative, for seminars on social issues rather than scientific only. The series would consist of six seminars, 3 high level speakers and 3 locals, and would cover subjects like: foreign policy and the military, science and technology, genetically modified food, environmental and cultural issues and a special speaker on Martin Luther King’s day. The attendance to these seminars has been varied from 50 or 60 people for smaller names to over 300. Next year’s proposal presents an increase in the speaker fees (from $1000~$3000 this year to $5000 for next year), however sometimes these speakers are willing to come to Caltech for fees that are much lower than what they usually charge. The board was favorable to fund them but it looks like we do not have now the money for them, so they will have to wait until the next GSC budget.
Alex announced that we have received the authorization to organize indoor soccer matches.
IV. ONGOING ACTION ITEMS
Tim said that approximately 10 companies (Disneyland, Rockwell, consulting firms…) have shown interest in having groups of people for a visit. Karen Harrelson from the Alumni Association will help to contact people in bigger companies. The groups should be comparable in size to the one in the visits to JPL. We could maybe combine with undergrads. The next steps are to decide which companies, group them by area and make interest email lists. The visits should start within the next month.
Thanos said that this whole-day trip would be on May 5 to Santa Ana valley. The wineries have already agreed and now he is looking for a bus. He expects a group of 40 students.
Ying was out of town, so she could not update us on her work as Technique Editor. Tim said that the Technique committee (Marco, chair; Fok, Steve, Jim and Tim) would have a meeting with her next week. This meeting is to review is they are satisfied with the progress and, if so, pay one third of the money. The main concern is that so far the committee did not know much about Ying's work. They have talked to Ying about the possibility of splitting the workload with somebody else more computer savvy.
Although there were initially 4 applicants, when Alex told them to submit one paragraph proposal they never replied. The compensation for the work, $400 this year, seems not to be enough. Since $1000 has been already set aside for the Lab Reviews, we decided to raise the compensation to $600. There was no need to send out an announcement because Ben accepted to the editor.
V. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Because of the petition that GSC sent to the Administration, we will have a meeting with on April 11 to discuss on the health insurance for dependents. It is important to improve the insurance policies for dependents but without lowering the benefits that students currently enjoy.
The GSC officers will be elected this month. The GRB will handle the election process. They will send out the ballots by mail. The candidates are Jose (Chair), Florian and Fok (Vice Chair), Jason (Secretary) and Steve (Treasurer). Michael Johnson accepted to be the new GSC computer czar, which until now was a duty of the secretary.
Three topics:
No CHCC report this time.