GSO Attending Members: Fox Foley, Jane Glanzer
Total Meeting Time: 50 minutes
Updates from June/July:
a. GCC/GSO Meeting:
i. Went well but still doesn’t seem like GCC will budge much…
1. First idea was an oral exam which sounds like a not so great alternative
ii. Would like a forum of all grad students and GCC
iii. Jeff agrees would be good to do another survey, will meet again soon. All dept
meeting mostly civil rights and title ix but will have Juhan give small
presentation about it
iv. A lot of changes with title ix over the last year. Grad assistants are more like
employees than students e.g. if you fail to report you can be fired even if a
friend shares something as a friend. You have to report to title ix even out of
work context. grad students are mandatory reporters.
1. There will be a September (hopefully?) training course on moodle,
mandatory. Fellowship students? Question for Jane in next meeting.
2. This month’s discussion:
a. The Qual:
i. Liked the format, nice having equation sheet, extra time, 2 out of 3 questions
ii. Feedback was that having it two mornings rather than morning and afternoon in
one day
iii. VERY helpful to have the summer to study
iv. Study sessions were much appreciated by those that attended, might be more
popular in the future with more notice/hopefully not on Zoom
v. Harder if in summer, formal course during the semester not a bad idea
vi. Took almost 2 weeks to get the results back.. Not good. Have recorded that John
DiTusa said (barring extenuating circumstances) it should not take more than a
week to get our grades back
vii. Having Paige in charge of technical aspect is good, should have rules about
getting them back sooner. Written thing somewhere approximately 2 to 4
questions are changed a year, but that doesn’t happen either. Brief guide to
graduate studies? Highlight and send to Rob Hynes. Early August is a bad time
for graders though, nice to get back asap but is a struggle for faculty who are
vacationing or traveling
viii. Thomas Corbitt is going to take over the REU program so next year won’t be
doing qual, new qual chair will be Kristina Launey.
b. Faculty Search Updates?
i. Justin Wilson accepted theoretical materials, is he here?
ii. September 14th probably
iii. Hanyu able to get here?
iv. Has accepted offer and is having big issues with visa
v. Eric Burns is here!
vi. Jiandi did make it back to China
vii. Rongying is at SC now
viii. Hearne: a couple of candidates committee wanted to bring in, wanted to do in
person and not virtual, want to wait for COVID to not be so bad
ix. Academic affairs has not authorized a search yet this year, maybe September,
experimental condensed matter and theoretical AMO are top priorities
c. Covid-19 stuff:
i. Very nice that they require vaccines now but still kind of wary that students can
(easily?) opt out and mask enforcement is lacking… also time that it takes for all
of this to be effective
ii. Employees HAVE to get vaccinated, students can opt out (state law). October
15th date testing frequency, upping frequency of testing would make people get
vaccinated more
iii. Still once a month for unvaccinated people, cost issue?, make people pay???
iv. Daily symptom checker, no consequences at all if don’t do it afaik
v. Same with uploading vaccine information
vi. Mask enforcement is lacking, don’t be afraid to tell those not wearing mask at
all or improperly to wear a mask
vii. No HEPA filters in the grad student cubicle office or in places other than just
large classrooms, are we able to get some for smaller spaces where large
amts of people can still gather?
viii. Jeff has ordered some and will put one in there
ix. When do colloquia start/ are we keeping it on Zoom or hybrid?
x. Not gonna do colloquia for a while and see how covid plays out, betting that we
might be all virtual after a few weeks
Dana worked to try and get concerns assigned to grading and stuff, hopefully all is well for grad students
Some virtual labs, some students might get COVID
Updates from GSO:
a. Just had our first General meeting of the semester
i. No big complaints, things seem to be going well
ii. Looking forward to all-department meeting with updates
b. Want to do something for socializing, maybe a picnic or something
c. Going to set up mentor system as we have in the past for newer students paired with
older students
A block party or something outside, plan something like that if things get better and
not worse . Trip to the diary store? Virtual happy hour? Maybe once a month if we do
that again.
Last thing: there are some grad students on DEI committee, and would like to keep population the same for now for continuity’s sake: but outreach committee would like to have grad students on that committee ask students if interested? Get extra pay!
TL;DR ---
Go to the all-department meeting on Tuesday September 2nd (hahaha Hurricane Ida happened instead)!!! Very important updates to Title IX and other dept. Info!
Qual seemed to go well, but still need to work on time getting it back, still talking with Graduate Curriculum Committee about changes and alternate pathways
Lost a lot of faculty in the past years, but slowly getting new people, looking for experimental condensed matter and theoretical AMO next
COVID-19 is still crazy, crossing fingers is all we have left but thankfully vaccine is mandated. No serious talk of increasing testing of unvaccinated. Gonna get a HEPA filter in grad student cubicle area though so that’s cool. No colloquia for now, see if pandemic gets any better…
We all need a bit of socialization but we’re still watching and waiting to see if cases keep increasing. Event would be outside anyway.