New Poll: To Blog or Not?

The first poll demonstrated resoundingly that Jonathan Elmer needs to step it up at the Halloween Party. But the ABDs weren't terribly far behind...

This new poll is slightly more serious. At the Fall Forum, we discussed potential uses of the blog and other electronic resources. It might make more sense to switch from a blog to an OnCourse site. A blog is good at disseminating information, but in some sense it might be redundant with englgrad. An OnCourse site, on the other hand, would allow us to have updates, store/share resources, and keep a calendar. Well, you're all familiar with OnCourse... I don't need to tell you it's potential and limitations.

Let us know what you think on the poll, and if you want to get more specific post a comment here!

Undergrad Coffee Hour

This is from Elise and Erik on our new Undergraduate Outreach Committee:

In an effort to build a community both between graduate and undergraduate English students and between the undergradutes themselves, we will be starting a weekly coffee hour at which one or two grad students can mingle with undergraduate majors, minors, and any interested student. We envision these coffee hours to be very informal affairs--a chance to become better acquainted with students who are already pursuing English degrees, as well as those minoring in English or considering becoming a member of the department. We want the atmosphere to be casual and fun and not a pressure-cooker for the undergraduates. After these coffee hours get off the ground and we have a better sense of how many students we can expect each week, we'll also encourage faculty to come and meet and chat with our talented undergrads.

We'll be kicking off these coffee hours next Friday, October 22, from 4-5 PM at the Pour House on Kirkwood. After next Friday, the coffee hours will continue every Friday at the same time and in the same location. Erik and I will certainly be there next week, but we'd like to establish a list of other interested grad students who wouldn't mind spending some time shooting the breeze with our younger colleagues. If you're interested in attending these coffee hours or are interested in any aspect of undergraduate outreach (more amazing and fun things are on the horizon!!), please respond to me at elonich [AT] indiana [DOT] edu. I'll put together a special email list to keep everyone up to date on our activities and schedule. Also, even if you don't have the time to attend any coffee hour, any publicity of these weekly get-togethers would be appreciated. It would be lovely to meet some engaged W131 and W170 students, as well as the students you may have in upper level literature and creative writing courses.

Thanks so much in advance, everyone, for your consideration. Erik and I are truly excited about building a stronger undergraduate-graduate community within the department, and we're looking forward, as always, to working with all of you to accomplish this goal. We hope to see you at a coffee hour soon!

Sincerely,

Erik Bohman and Elise Lonich

Basgier Nuptials

Congratulations to Chris Basgier, former GSAC rep, on his marriage yesterday to Lacey!

2010 Fall Forum

As we hit the mid-semester mark, GSAC is looking ahead to our annual All-Department Meeting. To generate ideas for this meeting and to think about issues in the department more generally, we graduate students will be meeting first for our Fall Forum.

This year, the Fall Forum will be held on Wednesday October 20th, from 1:00-3:00pm in Ballantine 004.

This meeting will be our opportunity to discuss--in a gradutate student-only environment--the ongoing changes in the department, as well as any other issues on your mind, from teaching opportunities to budgetary changes. This is also a great time to pool our knowledge about many of the transitions the department is undergoing, and to make us all more knowledgeable English department citizens! So--if there is ANYTHING on your mind in terms of how the department is running and/or serving you; 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 Wednesday October 20th. 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. If you're teaching at this time or have other conflicts, but still want to make your voice heard, please feel free to email GSAC (engsac@indiana.edu) or any of your GSAC representatives individually to discuss your concerns, vision for the department's future, or whatever! We would love to hear from you, and we're anxious to be able to represent your interests fairly and fully to the faculty in this year's All-Department Meeting.

2010 GSAC Book Sale

The annual GSAC Book Sale provides two benefits to our community: (1) you get an awesome selection of extremely cheap books; and (2) the proceeds help fund GSAC's many departmental activities. So, make sure to stop by this year for some quality rummaging!

The sale will be held Nov. 10-12 (W-F) in Ballantine 419. Hours of operation will be 10am-3pm. Look for an email soon about help staffing the sale.

New Departmental Directory

The 2010-2011 Departmental Directory is now posted online! You can access it at: http://www.indiana.edu/~engweb/research/studentAdvisory.shtml. There is a link near the bottom of the page, and you must enter your IU user name and password to open it.