Graduate Student Council Meeting
Date: February 7, 2003, 16:00
Location: Darts Lab, 2nd floor of CCB
Attendance
Members Others
Duke Hutchings Chad Hunneycutt
Pat Widener Brian McNamara
Elaine Huang Vin Scarlata
Brendan Hannigan Markus Haas
Amy Voida
Dan Sternberg
Daron Vroon
Jay Summet
Gillian Hayes
Heather Mahaney
Aparna Ashok Bajaj
Heather Richter
Bob Amar
Quan Tran
Agenda Point 1: Welcome New Members
* GSC welcomes the following new members
- Delphine Nain [Women's Programs]
- Xuehai Bian [PhD Admissions]
* GSC thanks former Women's Programs Representative Quan Tran for her
hard work!
Agenda Point 2: Old Business
* Quals Document
- Met objectives established at previous meeting concerning the
GSC-sponsored "Advice to students taking the qualifying
examination" document
--> website is now hosted by GSC and monitored by Barbara Binder
--> website is linked in from the college's official quals page
--> website address also appears on document passed to quals students
* ACM DL Subscription
- No progress since Duke was unable to present the idea to DAC.
Will present to DAC and report on progress at next meeting.
Agenda Point 3: Faculty News
* Faculty Retreat
- Several students attended the faculty retreat (Duke Hutchings,
Daron Vroon, Mel Eriksen, Gabe Brostow, Heather Richter, Jim
Bowring, Kris Nagel) to discuss upcoming changes in the CoC
organization.
- Many materials were generated to discuss ideas and provide a
groundwork for a small working group to help the Dean makes
changes in the College. Contact Duke to see the materials.
- There is also a swiki to communicate ideas to the small working
group: http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu:8080/change
* Faculty Meeting
- Budget cuts are looming for the current year and upcoming year
Agenda Point 4: Committee Reports
* Faculty Recruiting [Zack Kurmas, remotely]
- The committe is beginning to shift focus from senior candidates to
more junior candidates. It is un clear how many spots will be
available for incoming faculty members.
* Honors and Awards [Brendan Hannigan]
- The committee had to start with entirely new packets as packets
from previous years were somehow misplaced, putting them somewhat
behind.
- The committee is looking to nominate students in a variety of
categories, the topmost being Outstanding MS and PhD Theses and
Outstanding Undergraduate Research
* New PhD Programs [Amy Voida]
- A new committee has been formed at the faculty level to ensure
that a new program concerning "Human-Centered Computing" is
defined by the end of the term. They are aiming for an inagural
year of 2004.
* PhD Admissions [Dan Sternberg, Xuehai Bian]
- There has been some miscommunication in this committee resulting
in Dan not being informed of the status of the committee
- On the other hand, Xuehai is buried under a very large stack of
Chinese applications, for which he is assisting in making
admissions decisions.
* PhD Recruiting [Daron Vroon, Jay Summet, Gillian Hayes]
- Two recruiting weekends are being planned, both for March. Dates
and more information will be available soon
* Seminars [Aparna Ashok Bajaj]
- Seminars are underway! (one by Jay, one by Brian McNamara)
- Still looking for more topics and more presenters
* Undergrad Program Committee [Bob Amar]
- Possible changes ahead for the first two years of classes
- Discussion of creating an undergrad specialization in information
security
* Women's Programs [Quan Tran]
- A series of formal and informal research talks (given by women but
open to all) is beginning soon
- Committee is also planning a women's brunch during the visit
weekend
* No Reports
- CNS [Pat Widener]
- DLS [Tejas Iyer, remotely]
- Graduate Committee [Elaine Huang]
- Masters Program Rep [Nitesh Singh, remotely]
- Int'l Student Rep [Manas Tungare, remotely]
- Picnic Coordinator [Heather Mahaney]
- Space Planning [Heather Richter]
* Missing Reports
- RSI Coordinator [Wei Han]
- Faculty Review [Amanda Lyons]
- Grad Student Orientation [Shomari Mosi]
- Grad Teas [Joe Tullio]
- UROC [David Nguyen]
Agenda Point 5: New Business
* PhD Review process and notification procedures
- Duke met with Jim Foley with concerns about unclear financial
statuses of the PhD students
- We discussed some solutions to communication chain problems that
currently occur with the PhD review process
--> The administration will tell students (via email post) when
letters are ready (in case advisers forget or are reluctant
to share bad news)
--> Students on concern, warning, or probation will receive
separate notification and will be told exactly what the
implications of their statuses are.
- There is a possibility of a tightened review process this year
* Reimbursement process for students
- Financial services is developing a website for directions to
students on completing various institute-related financial
tasks. The following list indicates that information would be
useful on the webiste.
- How to get on the CoC Payroll
- How to set up Direct Deposit
- How to file Conference and Travel Reimbursements
- How to handle Equipment Purchases
- How to get reimbursed for things like Grad Tea
- How to handle petty cash items
- (possibly) where to look for conference funding sources
- Information on *who* to talk to for different issues if
questions arise (because Administrative Titles are oftend
incomprehensible - e.g. what is the difference between
"Accountant I" and "Accountant II"?
* Grad Tea Challenges
- Tabled until next meeting.
Agenda Point 6: Quick Notes
* The slush mailing list has been moved from majordomo to mailman,
offering a web-based interface and many more subscription options
for slush. There was some talk about digesting slush again, and
Duke asked for people to send proposals on tackling issues such as
posts being distributed outside of CoC and protecting email
addresses from spammers
The meeting concluded around 17:00.
These minutes were submitted by Duke Hutchings, and are subject to
change until the February 2003 meeting, at which time they will become
the official meeting minutes.