11/24/09

SASgov General Body

GSC Room 305

Present: President, VPs Finance, Policy, Public Affairs, Social, Communications. Reps: AAMW, Ancient History, Applied Math, Art History, Bio, Classical Studies, Comp Lit, Criminology, Demography, EALC, Earth & ES, English, Fels, German, HSS, History, Linguistics, Master of Environmental Studies, Math, Music, NELC, Philosophy, Physics, Romance Languages, Sociology

Agenda

1. Dinner and Committees (5:30-6:30)
2. Approval of the Minutes (6:30-6:35)
3. Career-related Issues Survey (6:35-6:50)
4. Announcement: GAPSA elections next meeting (6:50-7:55)
5. GAPSA Reports (6:55-7:05)
6. Officer/Committee Reports (7:05-7:25)
7. New Business (7:25-7:30)

1. Dinner and Committees (5:30-6:35)

2. Approval of the Minutes (6:35-6:40)

Minutes approved

3. Career-related Issues Survey (6:45-7:05)

Raleigh opened discussion on the Career-related Issues Survey, sent to the body earlier. Some proposed changes to phrasing, to overall questions, and to general aim include:

Add: “how soon do you anticipate graduation?”

Take into account post-docs

Career goals could be multiple

Raleigh: we’ve been thinking about what needs students have after graduation.

Question re: specifically, q. 4 (“Please rank the following career goals in order of priority to you”) = what is the point of prioritizing? Could we specifically say: “Do you plan to leave the field?” R: That could be a separate question.

Concerns re: job finding question – include significant other / partner, prestige, immigration issues. Emily G points out issue of family planning & tenure

Proposed additional questions:

Have you had, or do you require, guidance for professional work you pursue during your graduate tenure?

Do you need to find employment unaffiliated with UPenn during your grad tenure?

May want to filter results by year; Deirdre suggests including years as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7+

Suggestion: have a separate question: “Would you be interested in non-academic work in your field?”

Arthur: for q. #7 - Please check the resources you have used at Penn Career Services - ask: “Does your department offer any of these resources, and do you use them?”

For q. #6 - Please rank the following in order of value to you for career advice - include faculty outside UPenn

Note re: q. #10 - What are your main concerns in finding a job? - it is 2 questions – 1 about priorities & 1 about concerns

Raleigh: Is there anything extraneous/unnecessary here? (Leery of long surveys)

Conclusion: there could be more checkboxes, or a “say how important” option (i.e., circle on 1 2 3 4 5 how impt this issue is to you) rather than prioritizing.

#5 - Have your career objectives changed since arriving at Penn? – is a tough question to ask in a short survey. What is its objective?

Raleigh: might be a q. to drop

Arthur: but it might be a good q. for LPS students

Perhaps an additional question: “What types of programming re: finding jobs interests you? [or: will you use?]

Raleigh points out that Career Services & the Center for Teaching & Learning offers a lot of this already – it’s just necessary to follow-up, and figure out how well-informed people are, out there, abt. what CS & CTL offer.

CS will go over your CV, etc; that’s relevant to all, even if specific workshops won’t apply to certain individuals

Issue = a lot of people don’t know that resources are there. Conclusion = Publicize!

For q. #6 - Please rank the following in order of value to you for career advice – add blogs, workshops, and professional associations

Raleigh: feel free to email w/ additional questions, comments, edits, etc.

4. Announcement: GAPSA elections next meeting (7:05-7:10)

3 research seats are open.

Encourage people to run!

Note: you don’t actually have to be in SASgov; GAPSA research reps merely attend GAPSA’s biweekly GB meeting, and come to the SASgov meetings at 6:30.

5. GAPSA Reports (7:10-7:15)

The B&W formal was enjoyable

Professional and Research reps reported that, at GAPSA’s last meeting, each school’s reps spoke on what they could improve about their individual govts. Scott O. takes this moment to offer a panegyric to SASgov, for reasons of general participation and enthusiasm/interest for activities in student body. General applause.

6. Officer/Committee Reports (7:15-7:25)

Social: Nothing to report except: holiday happy hour!

Invite your UPenn friends to join the SASgov group on Facebook!

President: During the happy hour, we might record the SASgov song! à a song explaining what SASgov is, & what it does. Cara suggests putting the video on youtube.

Finance: Nothing to report.

Policy: Preliminary work is being done on a SAS grad student handbook; a report based on the tuition reform survey will be discussed next week. With regard to the former: the GSC covers some resources, so it is necessary to double-check & make sure we don’t overlap.

Public Affairs: need 1 volunteer for library event – go to Cosi @ 11:45 for pickup. Deirdre volunteers. PA will collaborate with Policy on SAS grad student handbook.

Issue: PA has a large budget, & big ideas for next semester, BUT “we think of an idea, and it already exists.”

Solution: open up some sort of funding? Academic, Career, or Personal Development Funding? ($200/$250?) Co-sponsor events?

When asked for an example of such an event, Raleigh offered the screening of “Naturally Obsessed” – co-sponsored w/ the Career Center & with the Engineering Council. Suggestion is only to make that sort of co-sponsorship a more formal, & perhaps more frequent, process.

7. New Business (7:25-7:30)

No new business to report.

Motion to adjourn; seconded.

Meeting adjourned.