October 27, 2009
10/27/09
SASgov General Body
GSC Room 305
Present: President, VPs Finance, Policy, Public Affairs, Social, Communications. Reps: AAMW, Ancient History, Applied Math, Bio, Chemistry, Classical Studies, Criminology, Demography, EALC, Earth & ES, English, Fels, German, HSS, History, Linguistics, Master of Environmental Studies, Math, NELC, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Romance Languages, Sociology
5:30-6:30 Committee Meetings
6:30-6:35 Approval of Minutes
6:35-6:45 Julie Vick from Career Services
6:45-6:55 Leslie Warden from Penn Museum
6:55-7:10 SASgov Weekly
7:10-7:15 Grad Humanities Forum CFP
7:15-7:25 Committee/Officer Reports
7:25-7:30 New Business
5:30-6:30 Committee Meetings
6:30-35 Approval of Minutes
CORRECTIONS:
Julie Vick = she. Spellcheck.
w/ these changes, minutes approved.
6:35-6:45 Julie Vick from Career Services
Julie Vick introduced herself, and handed out prepared material.
Services brochure, including new handout that we did this year; looks like a grid. Talked to lots of other offices on campus; brochure outlines services that can affect/ help career planning.
“The Insider’s Guide to Graduate Education” – annual program for 1st and 2nd year PhD students – advice given. Andy Binns (vice provost for education) gave talk past few years. Good opportunity for new students to hear about grad school from older students.
Program for the Academic Career Conference also handed out. Continues throughout semester; faculty members brought in to talk about jobs, & the process of applying for them,
Lots of workshops also occur through semester. Non-academic careers discussed; career changes. The office has worked w/ people who decide upon alternative careers/ etc.
Vick directed students to website; asks for input / feedback. [nb: on programming as well]
Often work with grad student center; co-sponsor programs. Need reps to help encourage classmates to attend. [although, nb, in this economy, attendance has not been a problem]
Help people w/ teaching philosophy statement, materials, mock interviews, etc.
Vick asks for questions / comments. Deirdre: how long does it take for mock interviews to be scheduled? JV: can be scheduled relatively quickly. People can go in cold, or bring in their materials, their own questions, etc. Arthur: do you ever work with faculty in order to get an insiders’ perspective on a particular field? JV: yes – faculty conferences, faculty talks about academic search, “behind the scenes,” etc. Career services tailors talks to specific departments. Really like to get out to departments & talk about job-hunting in particular fields – so if you’d like to help organize such an event, pls contact Career Services.
Raleigh: comment – Career Services list serves are very good. JV: yes – listservs are by “broad discipline.” Announcements of workshops, job listings, internship listings, etc. Assign extremely specific subject headings to emails, so you don’t have to go through a bunch to find specific information. Just knowing that events are there is helpful to new students. CS has a separate list for 1st year PhD students.
Email: vick@upenn.edu. JV’s 3 colleagues also work w/ doctoral, post-doc students – hope to work with all of us.
Interesting forthcoming talk: the State of Things – how the economy is affecting various employment sectors.
JV was thanked for speaking.
6:50 – 7:00 Leslie Warden from Penn Museum
Leslie introduces herself. This year, museum is making a big push to increase graduate student involvement. (There are thousands of objects & archived material.)
University of PA Museum Archaeology & Anthropology – right across from the Penn Museum. 3rd largest Egyptian collection in the US. Cool Chinese, Buddhist, Islamic, Native American collections.
Museum is always free for Penn ID card holders. Take friends & family to Penn Museum – tell your constituents!
11/6 (Friday), Penn Museum is opening doors for a behind-the-scenes tour (2-4:30). Free, but space is limited, so please RSVP. Email: gradmuseum@gmail. We’ll meet important people; see important museum processes. (Things not open to public will be open to graduate students. NELC basement storage!)
Will meet w/ exhibitors, head of archives, etc. Will end in Lower Egypt, w/ casual reception. Good place to network, & a fun time as well. lwarden@sas.upenn.edu – please write with any questions. Free stuff!!
Leslie bids us farewell – R.S.V.P. !
7:00 SASgov weekly
Deirdre made sure everybody knows what SASgov weekly is.
MES rep did not receive weekly.
1st year MGAs did not receive. Their list was not synched. Keep ears out for anybody in your program who is not getting emails now. This is how people find out important information.
Q: How useful are you finding this SASgov weekly? How can we make it better?
General verdict: seems good.
Q: This evening, for example, we received lots of info. How do you plan to pass on information? We hope that anything that you expect that your colleagues could find helpful you are passing on yourself. Raleigh: One of the important functions of this meeting is that we share information pertinent to all; reps can share information with their departments. Curious if people have suggestions as to how to disseminate information. Should we send out an email following this meeting, w/ info you can forward to your constituents? In other words: are there ways that you suggest to make sharing of information easier?
Cara: we have a google group in crim – suggests emailing flyers so we can forward them. Arthur: be wary, b/c .pdfs can become quite unwieldy. Scott: .docx is right out!
Raleigh: would post-meeting emails be useful, or just a pile-on?
Nb: there are only so many emails that our constituents are willing to deal w/, that have to do w/ SASgov.
7:10 Grad Humanities Forum CFP – “Missed Connections”
Deadline to submit a paper [abstract] for this conference is Nov. 1. If you’re looking for somewhere to present work – it’s on campus, & a great way to get experience presenting a paper.
7:10 Committee/Officer Reports
Finance – Interdisciplinary event deadline is next Friday, 11/6. There is quite a bit of money, so please apply!
Social – Halloween event is organized! Please come in costume – remind people to bring Penn and STATE ID. Ca$h prizes! ($100, $70, $50.) Also, admission fee of $3 if you do not attend in costume.
Policy – Discussed draft of summary of tuition reform survey that went out at the end of last year. How can we tackle issues that were raised? All still a bit up in the air. 2 committee members are now part of GAPSA library committee – we can send info/comments (both good ^& bad) through them to the library powers that be.
Public Affairs – Planning lots of events – nothing set in stone yet.
GAPSA
Professional – Still planning events. Wine walk b/w all of the school (so we can see the actual buildings – med school, vet school, etc. Quizzo trivia at each site? Etiquette dinner (2 50-person dinners.)
Research – Budget shenanigans mentioned. Motion to liquidate some of the surplus was voted down; but GAPSA exec wants to emphasize that Research & Professional Councils have lots of resources/ funding available for your departments.
Deirdre – we may be electing more GAPSA representatives.
Motion for more vegetarian options. Seconded. Majority approved.
Motion to adjourn, seconded. Meeting adjourned.
