Tuesday, October 27, 2009

2009 Fall Forum Concerns

If you have questions or concerns for GSAC and/or for the faculty, but you cannot make the Fall Forum, Feel free to leave a comment in response to this post articulating your concerns.

2009 Fall Forum

It’s that time of year again—midterms are upon us, pumpkins fill the streets, and your friendly GSAC representatives need YOUR help to prepare for the annual All Department Meeting by coming with ideas and issues to our grad student only discussion, the Fall Forum!

• Fall Forum will be held on Friday, October 30th, 11am–1pm, Ballantine 310
• All Department Meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 11th, 4pm–6pm, Chemistry 001.

The department is making several changes to the budget, conference funding, AI teaching opportunities, and course requirements- all things that directly affect graduate students. They have asked for our input, and we want to be sure that we're accurately representing your opinions. So—if there is ANYTHING on your mind in terms of how the department is running and/or serving you; if you have complaints or comments you would like to air regarding course offerings,exams, teaching opportunities, printing quotas, course registration, or budgetary changes.; if you would like to be involved in a dialogue with the faculty about the future direction of the department; or if you are interested in hanging out while listening to your peers and eating some snacks for a couple of hours, PLEASE COME to the Fall Forum on Friday, October 30th from 11–1 in Ballantine 310. This forum will involve no faculty—just GSAC and you—so you should come (with no fear of repercussions) prepared to voice your honest opinions and complaints. From this discussion, we will get a sense of the key issues concerning the graduate students that we can then take to the faculty in the All Department Meeting.

Of course, we encourage you to come to the All Department Meeting, but please make time to attend the Fall Forum; our ability to effectively communicate with the faculty and state our needs depends largely on your participation in this first discussion.

Thanks, and looking forward to seeing you next Friday!

Fall 2009 Works in Progress

Just a preliminary announcement: GSAC will be holding its first Works in Progress Colloquium on November 18th at 8:00 pm in the Ballantine Lounge (BH 008). We will be reprising last spring's creative/critical collaboration. More details to come soon!