November 29, 2006
Attendees: Ellen, Stephen, Phil, Theresa, Forrest (Jingjing) Z., Tara, Spencer, Stephen, Melissa, Peter, Vaneet
The Spring Alumni Mixer will take place Tuesday April
17th from 6-8pm. Peter will email Joe
with the date.
Thanksgiving
We had a large turnout -- Phil collected $370 and a trunk-load
of food from half of the Equad. Forrest
B. collected from the other half of the Equad, and he also had quite a bit,
though he wasn't at the meeting to tell us exactly how much.
We had feedback that people would have donated more if the
drive had been longer. To accommodate
this, we will extend the drive until December 14th for anyone who wanted to
donate but didn't have time. Phil will
deliver what we collect on December 14th, and if there is still more collected
afterward, he will make a trip the following week. Each department will send out an email before
the end of the week, and will determine their own policy for placing boxes and
collecting money.
We will make small bags with food and candy decorated in the
holiday style (probably red and green saran wrap) and give them to the
custodial staff. Peter will email Joe
asking her to get in touch with the head of the custodial staff, and reserve
the Dean's Conference Room on Dec 18 or Dec 19, where we'll have some food
(e.g. coffee and danishes)
and we'll give them the holiday bags.
Last year it was around 10am because the custodial staff had their
coffee break then. The day beforehand,
the GEC will get together and make the holiday bags. Peter volunteered to be on the subcomittee to do all this.
POPT
The POPT will be held for each department in January
sometime between the 8th and the 12th, and then again in May. The test comprises a 5 minute conversation
with an undergrad asking questions like "Where are you from?",
"How do you like grad school?", and then about 4 questions in the
test taker's field. These questions are
chosen from a list of about 8 that are provided by the student's advisor and given
to the student the night before the test.
The GEC will hold practice sessions in which students are
asked practice questions and then given feedback. Each department will determine on their own
when they will hold these practice sessions (perhaps by emailing the test
takers), and then tell Ellen the details of how they will hold them. Small departments might hold their sessions
together, in particular ORFE and CHE.
Some suggestions on holding the sessions:
Suggestions for holding POPT practice sessions:
Suggestions to tell POPT test takers at practice sessions:
October 18, 2006
Attendees: Ellen, Phil, Tara, Spencer, Stephen, Melissa, Peter, Vaneet, Laurent
Dries Darius talk will be next Tuesday. Officers might be taking him out to dinner on Tuesday. The talk will be on “Recent Trends and Strategy in Corporate Finance.”
Phil sent out an email about possible community service events. He mentioned a University website that has some possible projects, but they are somewhat out of date. From talking to a colleague, Phil thinks that we can have the most impact with some type of drive. Food drive, clothing drive, toy drive, etc. Another possibility is something like Scholars in the Schools, where we leverage our engineering experience. Different specific possibilities were discussed. Phil will get started on the charity drive and put together a list of possible groups to support. Melissa thought we should shoot for a food drive in November for simplicity.
Laurent, Theresa, and Ellen have been talking about undergrads about teaching awards. First week of November is the deadline for the award selections. Nominations for Spring 2006 awards will start soon.
Ellen thinks we should have a grad student lounge open house even to introduce new students. Something around Halloween was discussed. Candy, apple cider with dry ice, etc. Most people thought we should do mostly candy. If we have it the day after Halloween, candy will be on sale. Market as “Day after Halloween candy binge.” Melissa asked for suggestions on candy preferences. The 8-year-olds in all the GEC members made their recommendations.
Jo announced at the beginning of the meeting that a photographer would come to take the GEC picture today. The picture was taken at the end of the meeting.
Attendees : Stephen,
The TA-undergrad mixer went okay. There was not as much mixing as last year, maybe because of no name tags? The number of undergrads compared to last time wasn’t as high. Maybe it wasn’t as well advertised. Standing tables and other ideas for improving the spring mixer were discussed.
Laurent needs help with the undergrad liason work. Besides the mixers, the job would include helping with undergrad awards and evaluating teacher recommendations. There may be other things like lab tours throughout the year. Theresa volunteered.
We discussed the GEC lecture series. Dries Darius can make it for a seminar on Oct 23. This is during midterm week, but classes are in session. Chem-Es have a problem with that Wednesday. It may be switched to Tuesday or Thursday. Dries works at Citi Group. He was involved in founding of GEC and GEC lecture series, and was the first chair of GEC. Forrest B. may have someone who is speaking in late Nov/Dec. Janet may also have some recommendations.
Volunteer Activities:
Engineers without Borders is a
possibility. Forrest B is very involved
in EWB. Intro meeting was last night at
Also, a new meeting time of Wednesdays at 10am was proposed
- we are still not sure if this works for everyone, but it seemed to work for
everyone in attendance, so we'll keep trying to figure out a good time. Monday and Friday at
Attendees : Brian, Theresa, Vaneet,
Tara, Spencer, Jo, Ellen, Janet, Kuni, Stephen,
Peter, Forrest (Jingjin), Kale
T-shirts
Stephen’s budget got slashed so t-shirt fund won’t have much extra money. Free t-shirts will only be given at BBQ this year, not after.
BBQ will be Wed Sept 13
Job Assignments
Setup:
everyone (show up by
Cleanup: everyone
Bartender: Melissa, Kale
MC: Janet
Sound system setup: Forrest
T-shirt distribution: Kuni, Spencer, Brian, Ellen
Raffle help: Theresa
Traffic flow: Stephen
Reps from each department will need to stuff new students’ mailboxes with BBQ announcements.
T-shirts will need to be folded once they get here on Sept 5. Date and time to be determined.
If you haven’t had your picture taken within the department yet, see Anca. They will be printed in a new student orientation flier and on the website.
Stephen wants all GEC members to check out the pre-orientation party and mix and mingle with all of the new students.
Lecture Series: Ellen will be sending out an email with recent grad alumni for GEC members to pick lecturers from.
Jo will be setting up an email list serve for GEC members.
Next meeting: T-shirt
folding! Wed Sept 6,
Attendees : Melissa, Stephen Friedfeld, Ellen, Forrest, Tara, Brian, Peter, Theresa
BBQ September 13th (on a Wednesday evening, before the first day of class).
Stephen reminds us of the Pre-Orientation Reception that we’re invited too on the day of the BBQ.
Jo will be using pictures of us to stick into the first year packets. If you don’t like your picture that your grad administrator has, make sure to show up at the next meeting for a retake or send one of your own.
Grad Alumni Series: be thinking of recent grad alumni who could give a nice talk and provide their own transportation.
Lounge Update
Talk about volunteer activities…
GEC publicity. At the start of the academic year (September), we should:
Next GEC meeting: ¿Wednesday, August 23rd at 12:00pm, Eisenhart Room?
Attendees : Melissa, Phil, Stephen Friedfeld, Ellen, Forrest,
First meeting of the 2006/2007 Graduate Engineering Council!
“Election” of officers and committees:
Grad lounge discussion:
Welcome BBQ September 13th (on a Wednesday evening, before the first day of class).
GEC publicity. At the start of the academic year (September), we should:
Next GEC meeting: Wednesday, August 2nd at
March 1, 2006
Attendees : Melissa G., Phil, Melissa C., Lan,
Alyssa Miksis Director of Graduate Alumni Relations,
Asst. Dean Stephen Friedfeld, Ellen, Forrest, Tara, Shona, Tara, Nitin, Ronny, Najwa
Things relating to grad student lounge – tv issue, computer issue (printer broken, old temporary replacement), direcTV buttons are misconfigured says the direcTV guy…
Ellen and Melissa G. will go fiddle with the remote and Ellen will post signs directing students to email their grad lounge questions, problems, & issues to seasgec@princeton.edu.
Phil has generously volunteered to step up to the plate, take one for the team, give one to the gipper, man the bow, grab the chicken by the neck, and generally take responsibility by stocking coffee supplies and checking on the other lounge facilities.
A discussion about a GEC sponsored Charity event:
Purpose: foster a bond with our surrounding community, share our skills, facilitate grad student socializing
Options discussed:
TASK:
TASK: Tutoring/adult ed. - literacy to GED level, ongoing need for tutor volunteers, Computer literacy
TASK/other: Food drives / clothing drives
Princeton
senior resource center (
Some members prefer tutoring and other skills focused projects where we as engineering grad students can apply our unique qualifications.
Other members like to cook.
Ronny proposed a SEAS-wide contest where departments compete and winner decides what charity gets the funds.
Grad Alumni Lecture: Thursday, March 16th, 4:00pm Mike Shockling at GE
Alyssa Miksis talks about the upcoming Grad Alumni – Student Mixer: Tuesday, April 11th setup by 5:15pm and start at 6pm
Alyssa gives the GEC a run down of Mixer details. We’ll be helping out with food and follow-up calls to alumni. In year’s past, the focus has been on non-academic alumni, and while we’d like to keep the focus, we also expressed interest in bringing in alumni in academia too.
Next GEC meeting: ¿¿¿Wednesday, March 15th at 12:00pm, Eisenhart Room???
Attendees : SEAS Dean Maria Klawe,
Phil, Melissa G., Ronny, Laurent, Shona, Tara, Nitin, Ellen, Forrest, Asst. Dean Stephen Friedfeld, Najwa, Junu
Introduction: Names all around
Ellen gives an overview of GEC accomplishments and responsibilities:
In regards to our hard work bringing grad alum speakers back without an honorarium, Dean Klawe suggests we ask SEAS departments to get grad alums in industry to come back and talk, paid! – part of colloquim series
Dean
Klawe talks about her upcoming move to Presidency at
Harvey Mudd.
She stresses that PU is very much a home now and she wasn’t
looking to leave. She likes the idea of
a small school in
Dean Klawe talks about search for replacement. She hints that the search committee is deliberately young and forward thinking. Also, since SEAS currently has lots of momentum working toward execution of the SEAS strategic plan, there are advantages to hiring an internal candidate. Dean Klawe stresses that grad students should involve themselves by submitting nominations to be considered by the search committee or by contacting the committee chair, Professor Sharod Malik, to share grad student concerns via a statement or a discussion with the committee. The committee will finally recommend a ranked list of ~3 candidates to President Tilghman, who makes the final choice based on these recommendations.
Strategic
Plan May2004: Since a number of 2nd
year GEC members were only vaguely aware of the SEAS Strategic Plan, Dean Klawe gave a brief overview. In essence, the plan provided a means of
encouraging and formalizing cross-disciplinary research and interdepartmental cooperations to tackle current societal engineering
problems, attract outside investment, and further strengthen
Phil asked Dean Klawe about the potential of having an annual State of the College Address given by the Dean to the grad student body. Dean Klawe said it sounds like a great idea, and maybe this year, a joint address could be given by her and her successor.
As Dean Klawe was late for a meeting, she took one more question from Phil asking about the roles of grad student departmental steering committees. After a phone call verifying that, yes, she was indeed late for a meeting, Dean Klawe said, “Empowering!” and that she hopes we can continue these discussions in the near future.
Continuing with GEC business, Laurent and Shona (GEC undergrad liaisons) announce:
“Meet your TA” Lunch Feb 14th at 12:30 to 1:30 in the Friend Center Convocation Room with grad student teaching assistants, undergrads, GEC, & E-Council
Next GEC meeting: Wednesday, March 1th at 12:00pm, ¿¿¿Eisenhart Room???
Attendees : Phil, Melissa C., Melissa G.,
Forrest, Ellen, Nitin, Junu,
Laurent, Ronny
In the news:
Dean Maria Klawe announced her resignation as Dean of SEAS and upcoming move to Harvey Mudd presidency.
Grad-Alumni
Mixer is coming! Tuesday,
April 11th
Grad alumni lecturers found! (Junu and Melissa G. identified the age-enhanced images of the missing lecturers on their chocolate milk cartons)
Stephen has placed the order for Princeton Engineering tee-shirts!
The E-Council responded favorably to our request to include grad student votes in their teaching appreciation awards.
Ronnie is now Ronny. (actually, he always was Ronny, but I’ve been spelling his name incorrectly – sorry Ronny)
Our meeting with Dean Klawe (Tuesday, Feb 7th at 1:30):
Despite news of her departure at the end of the semester, our ideas for a meeting agenda with Dean Klawe are still valid. We will want to talk with her about GEC activities, such as POPT sessions, Grad Lounge facilities and events, Grad/undergrad interaction (mixer and E-Council teaching awards), SEAS grad student welcome BBQ,
We will likely talk about how the dean change will affect grad students and inquire about grad student input in the selection (or maybe these questions are better directed toward the dean selection committee?).
Ellen will write up agenda and email to us and Dean Klawe.
Phil mentioned a charity event:
It
would be cool if the GEC could organize something to allow SEAS grads to give
back to the surrounding
email information to grad students with some possible ways of volunteering time and resources, food/clothing drive, pick a charity group and get the body of SEAS grads involved via hype and volunteer outings, organize a charity ourselves
(Melissa G suggested one-time events seem feasible: Trenton Soup Kitchen charity day, Walk for the __, canal cleanup, etc)
Other ideas?
Laurent reports on grad-undergrad liaison:
There will be a lunch in February. Need ideas to facilitate interaction:
1. Match undergrads with grads of their respective departments: Cheesy game where undergrad/grad teams from each department compete? Do a followup session with posters so undergrads can see research being done in their field and talk with grad students? Someone suggested a game called “Speed TA’ing” which is like speed dating?
2. How do we avoid the drudgery of the pizza line? : Only invite grad students that have TA’ed over last year? Take pizzas to individual lounges to physically group the grads and undergrads by department and also avoid long lines?
Next meeting: Tuesday, Feb 7th at
Attendees : Phil, Melissa C., Melissa G.,
Forrest, Shona, Ellen, Najwa,
Laurent, Junu, Tara, Stephen
Undergraduate Liaisons:
Shona and Laurent volunteered to be the GEC undergrad liaisons. Their initial task will be to invite themselves and the rest of the SEAS grad students to the next undergrad study break.
E-Council Teaching Awards:
It
was decided to ask the E-Council if grad students and grad courses can simply
be integrated into the existing awards, instead of coordinating and handing out
our own separate Grad awards. Because
many courses are taken by both undergrads and grads, and because we are unsure
of the level of grad student response, we hope this will be a successful way to
integrate grad students’ voices in celebrating
Meeting with the Dean of SEAS, Maria Klawe:
We hope to have Dean Klawe attend an upcoming GEC meeting. While the meeting time will be determined by her schedule, the meeting agenda is up to us, so we brainstormed some topics we’d like to address:
Tee Shirt Update:
Stephen reports that several grad administrators are interested in going in on an order of white Princeton Engineering tee-shirts, allowing us to order about 200 shirts for around $1000, about half of which we’ll pay for and sell for a small profit.
Grad Alumni Speaker:
Junu and Melissa G. have volunteered to be “point persons” who will crack the whip and round up some alumni speakers. Everyone is encouraged to pass along names of prospective speakers! We will host two alumni talks next semester.
Next meeting: Wednesday, December 14th at 12:30, Eisenhart Room
November 9, 2005
Attendees : Ellen Taylor, Stephen
Friedfeld, Shona Patel,
Laurent Pueyo, Junu Shrestha, Najwa Aaraj, Phil Shilane, Melissa
Carroll, Tara Troy, Lan Dong, Melissa Green, Ronny Luss
Minutes by Melissa Carroll
E-Council Teaching Awards:
Sarah Moore, undergraduate E-Council Co-President, and Meg McNall, E-Council Teaching Awards Chair, described in detail their procedure for determining Teaching Awardees:
Starting about now in the semester, a process begins for determining awards for the previous semester. The council sends an email to Dean Peter Bogucki who forwards it to all undergraduate Engineering students. A web form is in place on which students can sign in with their net ID and password and nominate TAs and/or professors. The form stays open for about a week. Then the 2nd round of voting begins. The students in the course taught by each nominee the previous semester are emailed after obtaining the names through Blackboard by emailing OIT. TAs/profs are not emailed – the initial email also informs students not to inform nominees they have been nominated, as they may then try to influence the results or otherwise be adversely affected. The emails in the 2nd round solicit essay style responses inquiring about the nominee’s teaching style and what was liked/disliked about the nominee. This comment period lasts about 1.5 weeks. The Council then reads through all comments (sometimes having half the council take TAs, half profs) and narrows down the choices from about 8 TAs and 8 professors to the final 3 and 3. The essays are usually so strong that 1 strong dissension can immediately weed a candidate out.
Responses to the 2nd round solicitations will often be > 50%, 80% for smaller classes, such as precepts led by TAs. The specific number of responses is not used as awarding criteria, though the percent of students responding might be taken into consideration. Note that courses must include enough Engineering undergraduate students for the TA/prof to get nominated.
Graduate student winners receive a $200 cash prize; all winners receive a t-shirt and plaque.
There is a Lifetime Achievement Award to prevent the same teacher from winning every time – once a prof/TA has won 5 awards, the 5th becomes a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The E-Council is currently considering how they might recognize “Honorable Mentions” and how the useful teaching feedback they receive could be communicated to nominees without violating confidentiality.
Awardees are introduced by students in their class when accepting the award and given the option of giving a speech.
Sarah volunteered to forward to the GEC a guide on the Teaching Award procedure used by the E-Council.
Also, the undergraduates informed the group that 2 undergraduates from the E-Council will be meeting soon with Stephen to discuss serving as liaisons between the undergraduate and graduate student groups, an idea everyone agreed was good.
The GEC then discussed how we might implement such an award from a graduate student perspective. Our awardees would just be professors and our scope would be 500-level courses. It was questioned whether graduate students would actually read and respond to emails soliciting nominations and voting. People seemed to think word of mouth might elicit response, especially since the award would be a new thing.
One idea is to create a joint ceremony with the undergraduate Spring Ceremony, which would be fittingly symbolic given the upcoming 20-year anniversary of the undergraduate award, and Dean Klawe would most likely appreciate the joint undergraduate/graduate effort. There is funding available, about ~$500, for activities that bring undergraduate and graduate students together.
Misc:
The bagel breakfast at the grad lounge was paid for out of the coffee machine quarters. Approximately $100 is remaining – these funds should be saved for future such events.
T-Shirts:
One group, perhaps GWISE, has requested t-shirts to give out; however our price for selling has not yet been settled. Therefore, we discussed our next t-shirt purchase and selling guidelines.
About $500 is remaining in the t-shirt budget. Stephen recalls that 100 shirts cost about $400-$500.
Some ideas for selling that were discussed include selling them at the E-Quad Café or sending out an email advertising them. The most popular idea, however, was to sell them to the departments for inclusion in the departmental welcome packages. Stephen will ask the graduate coordinators how many shirts they will need. We will sell them to the departments for $10 each.
It was also decided to sell individual shirts for $10, or $8 each if the buyer presents a student ID. Shirts could be kept in Jo’s office and change could be handled through the petty cash fund.
Based on the SEAS picnic, a re-evaluation of t-shirt sizes was in order. The current breakdown for women’s shirts will be as follows:
XS: 10% S: 50% M: 30% L: 10%
For men’s shirts, the same distribution will be kept as before, but all XXLs will be converted to XLs. The 75%/25% men/women split will be retained.
Stephen also really liked the idea of having baby/little kid shirts.
The current batch of shirts will be black.
Alumni Speakers:
We will have no alumni speakers lined up.
The MAE people will speak to
Stephen might speak to Chris Fries who works for Sensors Unlimited and came to the alumni mixer.
Ellen will request an update from Ronny and Nitin about the speaker they had in mind.
Note that the GEC cannot pay for the speaker’s transportation and accommodations – he or she must be coming here for other reasons.
Next meeting: Thursday, December 1st at 12:30, Eisenhart Room
Attendees : Nitin,
Jessica, Shona, Tara, Junu,
Ronny, Ellen, Jo, Forrest, Stephen, Melissa C., Laurent, Melissa, Lan
Common Room Event:
To be held next Thursday, October 27th from 10-11:30am in the grad student lounge. Our target is to introduce 100 graduate students to the lounge area, and bribe them to come with free bagels, fruit, and coffee. The event subcommittee is responsible for drafting and sending out a student-body wide email about the event, and coordinating the event itself. The GEC-Lounge account will be charged for the event. Things to remember that day are: bring the toaster from the Dean’s kitchenette, GEC members should attend and wear name tags if possible, and a set of arrows will be posted on doorways to channel the grad students back into the depths of the H-wing.
Oh yeah, and Laurent will make a suggestion box.
Open GEC meetings within departments:
Melissa C. asked about having open meetings within each
department, as she and Phil plan to host one for the CS grad students. The meeting would probably involve a bribe of
some type (like free pizza) to convince grad students to offer their comments,
suggestions, and grievances about grad student work and grad student life. Melissa G. and Ellen remarked that it is
often difficult to get people to attend these types of events, although
Webpage:
Melissa C. has sent out an email soliciting help in webpage design. That email has since been forwarded to GEC members in order to find someone, anyone to beautify this poor homely website. Forrest (yours truly) has since figured out that it isn’t so hard to update the webpage with minutes and member names, although anything beyond updating the current format is beyond his capacity.
STEP:
Tara and Junu wanted to point out
that STEP (Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy) half-fellowships are
available through the
E-Council and Grad Student Teaching Awards:
Sarah Moore, the chair of the undergrad E-Council, will attend the next convenient meeting to discuss the teaching awards which they’d like to see given out by a committee or vote of grad students.
Giggles:
After the ridiculous photo shoot, this meeting became uncomfortably and uncontrollably dominated by raucous outbursts of laughter and sustained giggling. The secretary recommends a gavel be in attendance at the next meeting to smash the fingers of anyone caught smirking. With this policy of pre-emptive self-protection against these perpetrators of prank and pun, we hope that the GEC can maintain the composure and poise as is fit for gentleman and young ladies at this esteemed university ; )
Next meeting: Wednesday, November 9th at 12:30, Eisenhart Room
Attendees : Phil, Melissa C, Lan, Najwa, Forrest, Melissa G,
Ellen, Dean Stephen, Nitin, Tara, Shona,
Jessica, Ronny
BBQ notes:
BBQ was a huge success. Good music, good food, great company. The
raffle went too long. Will have to rethink it for next year, possibly
with only large prizes (less than 10?) handed out that day, and everyone else
notified by email afterwards.
Grad lounge:
A subcommittee was formed with the purpose of investigating the potential of
hosting a Lounge Showcasing Event for grad students with free food and
coffee.
The subcommittee members include:
Phil, Junu, Melissa G, and Laurent
They will report back with a budget and preliminary plans, then an email will
be sent out to all gradseas with Event specifics, the
code to the door, and a reminder of what hard working friendly people make up
the GEC.
guest lecturer:
Ronny and Nitin have a lecturer in mind that maybe
able to come by late October. Potential speaker is a PU grad alum now
working for Merril Lynch. More details to come.
T-shirt discussion:
We decided we are ready and able to buy about 200 more Princeton Engineering
t-shirts for $4-600 and sell them for $10 apiece.
GEC teaching award:
To parallel the undergrad ECouncil awards.
Sarah Moore, the ECouncil chair will come explain.
POPT issue:
POPT=english language instruction for non-native grad
students. Collective decision was reached that classes are often a waste
of time and not tailored to individual needs, not teaching the skills being
tested for, and totally void of input from those subjected to these courses-the
grad students. Lan took these courses for 2
semesters, and while found the discussion partners very helpful, the courses
themselves were frustrating. There was talk of an old survey the GEC had
created, but noone knows whether it was circulated
and sent to the POPT people.
GEC webpage:
Melissa C. volunteered to send (and has already sent!) an email to CS grads
asking for webpage consulting and design help in exchange for $$. We are
waiting and hoping that our knight in shining armor (or Warrior Princess in
zebra-skin printed leotard) will come to our rescue and give us the website
we've always dreamed of.
Next meeting, Wednesday, October 19th at 12:30!
June 23, 2005
Attendees : Melissa C., Ronny, Nitin, Stephen Friedfeld, Jo Kelly, Ellen, Junu,
Tara, Forrest, Phil, and special guest Julia Chen
graduate student common room discussion:
Phil suggested an event at the grad lounge to showcase its amenities held near
the beginning of fall semester. Especially useful to showcase is the
ability to buy satellite privileges to watch cricket matches, the World Cup,
etc. Free coffee/food could be served at said event.
Ellen suggested sending an email that listed the grad lounge amenities, with
example prices for satellite usage.
Stephen suggested the following additions to the grad lounge:
-nontechnical books and magazines to fill the shelves
(via donations or $1 Macawber bin)
-board games (Taboo, chess, Boggle, Go, cards, etc)
These additions could be solicited as donations from faculty/staff/students
or...
Jo pointed out that the trickle of money made by the coffee machine could be
used to finance these additions. A suggestion box next to the coffee
machine could explain where the money goes and ask for suggestions from
patrons.
Action items include all GEC members looking for free and donated books,
magazines, games, etc; and spreading the word that the common room exists to
fellow grad engineers.
GEC webpage design: ( www.princeton.edu/~seasgec
)
Webpage needs revamped to enhance style and functionality. It is proposed
to pay an undergrad webguru $50 to redesign the page
and show the secretary (Forrest) how to further update the site with meeting
minutes and announcements. Melissa C and Phil volunteered to find names
of willing webgurus, and have already reported back
by the time these minutes were transcribed with:
(names of 2 undergrads not listed here for privacy)
Additions to the webpage were also discussed, which included:
The creation of a common room calendar with Bagel Breakfasts and PayPerView events listed.
List of SEAS GSG members.
Resource page for Post Enrollment Status Graduate Students.
Action items include getting the ball rolling by contacting the webgurus. Look for an updated page soon!
Tee Shirt Design:
The tee shirts will be passed out free to everyone at the SEAS fall BBQ.
Action Item: Ellen will draw up and send via email some variations on a
simple design that is not dated and boldly proclaims, “Princeton Engineering”.
GEC members look forward to critiquing her work, or are invited to draw up and
send their own designs out to the GEC!
Search for DJ for SEAS fall BBQ:
Jo has an outside DJ lined up that charges only $250, but there are 2 graduate
student DJ’s (Sieu Ha and Jeff Bernstein) that
we’d rather utilize if possible. The search is for the amp and
speakers.
Action items include Forrest looking into borrowing or renting the sound
equipment and reporting to Jo on the search’s success.
Held 2-4 times annually, these lectures give grad students a feel for life
after
Action items: GEC members are asked to seek out willing alums as
lecturers and get back to Ellen with ideas. Faculty advisors are an
excellent source of names, and Nitin knows a
professor that regularly invites alums back for presentations in ORFE.
Meetings with DGSs and Grad Student Coordinators:
Phil suggested that GEC meetings with DGSs (directors
of graduate study) and grad administrators could be very beneficial. As
these people are very busy, a structured agenda is a must.
Phil and Jo’s report on the budget:
Phil and Jo discuss the GEC 2005/2006 budget submitted and hopefully soon to be
approved by the PU Accounting and Finance department. The budget was cut
by $500 from the original draft due to cuts across the board. The budget
up for approval is:
acct # ***-**** GEC general fund
-lecture series $1200 (presentations by PU grad alums, in conjunction
with GWISE-grad women in science and engineeering)
-special GEC meetings $690 (to pay for lunch meetings which facilitate
discussions with administrators, etc)
-SEAS fall BBQ t-shirts $2400
-student get-togethers $315
-additional $395 for slush fund and new ideas
Total requested: $5000
acct # ***-**** Graduate Lounge (Common Room) fund
-Jo and Phil have the breakdown of the monthly bills, like satellite service,
coffee machine rental, coffee purchasing, etc
Total requested: $3450
As mentioned at the officers’ meeting, the line item, "Parties/get-togethers" may include, but is not limited to Xmas
party for custodial services, bagel breakfast social for grads to increase GEC
visibility, GEC canoe trip?
Also, after discussion, the number of t-shirts maybe reduced to better reflect
the number of students attending the fall BBQ. This could shift more
money into the discretionary slush fund.
Julia’s words of wisdom:
As an outgoing ELE graduate alumni (M.A. 2005), Julia held positions of GWISE
President and GEC honorary member. Before leaving to live the California
Dream, she is working for the Princeton University Preparatory Program (PUPP)
as an Introduction to Engineering instructor for the underprivileged area high
school PUPP participants.
Julia talked about last year’s struggle to make the Princeton Oral
Proficiency Test (POPT) fairer for engineering grad students. Now,
international nonnative speakers are orally tested by interacting in a mock TA
lecture with undergrads that have some background in the subject matter being
presented. Before this change, the undergrads may have been humanities
majors to whom calculus and science were foreign languages, so the engineering
grad students had a very hard time explaining concepts AND showing their
language skills effectively.
Julia also brought up the struggle to help out the Post Enrollment students
entering their 6th year. It was mentioned that the GSG already has much
attention devoted to this issue, so Ellen plans on contacting them to touch
base.
Finally, Julia mentioned ways that the GEC should promote itself. Grad
students often don’t know what the GEC is, what the GEC does for them, or
who their representatives are. Some of her ideas and ideas generated by
conversation were:
Flyers in mailboxes introducing each department to its representatives
Personal emails sent by representatives in each department doing the same
Meet the GEC event with GEC members wearing nametags (or on display in cages :)
GEC members attending orientations and 1st year departmental meetings
GEC sponsored raffle prizes at events
Picnics
Post signage in lounges and at fall BBQ
Retreat:
Before adjourning, Ronny realized we’d forgotten all about discussing a
retreat. A canoe outing was proposed at the cost of approximately $200 to
get GEC members together as a team-building or social capital investment.
We’ll bring it up next meeting and hopefully find a date and time that we
all can make it.
June 2, 2005
GEC Executive Board Briefing
Attendees : : SEAS Dean for Graduate Affairs Stephen Friedfeld, GEC Account Overseer and All-around Superwoman
Jo Kelly, Phil Shilane (treasurer), Ellen Taylor (chair),
Forrest Bradbury (secretary)
Jo and Stephen present the 2005/2006 budget request to the board before they
submit it to the PU Accounting and Finance department for approval. The
budget up for approval is:
acct # ***-**** GEC general fund
-lecture series $1150 (presentations by PU grad alums, in conjunction
with GWISE-grad women in science and engineeering)
-special GEC meetings $690 (to pay for lunch meetings which facilitate
discussions with administrators, etc)
-SEAS fall BBQ t-shirts $2400
-parties/get togethers $300
-additional $960 for slush fund and new ideas
Total requested: $5500
acct # ***-**** Graduate Lounge (Common Room) fund
-Jo and Phil have the breakdown of the monthly bills, like satellite service,
coffee machine rental, coffee purchasing, etc
Total requested: $3400
Both budgets were approved by the board, with the following discussions:
The line item, "Parties/get-togethers" may
include, but is not limited to Xmas party for custodial services, bagel
breakfast social for grads to increase GEC visibility, GEC canoe trip?
Phil suggested that GEC meetings with DGSs (directors
of graduate study) and grad administrators could be very beneficial.
We should distribute flyers in mailboxes, send emails from GEC reps to grads in
their respective departments, and post signage in lounges and at fall
BBQ; all to increase GEC visibility.
grad lounge discussion:
Phil suggested an event at the grad lounge to showcase its amenities.
Especially useful to showcase is the ability to buy satellite priviledges to watch cricket matches, the World Cup,
etc. Free coffee/food could be served at said event.
Ellen suggested coffee being served free for a couple of weeks to draw people
back to the lounge, and she also suggested sending an email that listed the
grad lounge amenities, with example prices for satellite usage.
Stephen suggested the following additions to the grad lounge:
-nontechnical books to fill the shelves (procured via
donations or $1 Macawber bin)
-board games (Taboo, chess, Boggle, Go, cards, etc)
-plants
-frisbee, outdoor games* (secretary added this after
the meeting)
-new carpet in TV room or area rug?
These additions could be solicited as donations from faculty/staff/students
or...
Jo pointed out that the trickle of money made by the coffee machine could be
used to finance these additions.
Forrest suggested a suggestion box next to the coffee machine which explained
where the money was going, and asked for suggestions from patrons.
To Do:
-late this summer, need to begin inviting grad alums for GEC lecture series
-t-shirt design (subcommittee?)
-2005/2006 activities brainstorming session
-find a web guru to revamp the webpage and show Forrest (secretary) how to edit
and post minutes
-Jo Kelly will email the GEC exec board with the GEC@princeton.edu account info
-schedule next meeting
September 15, 2004
Attendees : Sarah, Sara, Fan, Ellen, Chris, Jamey, Shona,
Julia
Satellite
Still working on getting an online registration form
Need to come up with rules so that people do not misuse it
Other issues of interest
DCC status and its problem. Look into it at departmental level and see what the
percentage of students who actually get to this status. Discuss with the Dean
Seminar series
CHM and ORF have not had speakers in their fields so the representatives from
those departments should
look into finding someone.
August 26, 2004
Attendees : Sarah, Sara, Fan,
Orientation
It will be on Sept. 8 outside Bowen Hall
Need volunteers to bartender and also give away GEC freebies and T-shirts
Sarah will send an email and ask GEC members
Also if anyone is interested there is an orientation on Sept. 3 for
international students and we can have a table
Satellite
Is in fact hooked up but not installed yet, waiting for the installation kit
Will send an email and print out flyers to advertise
Need to look into a web base signing system (sara)
Seminar series
Aim for mid october before midterms start
Need to find speakers ( have couple of names from the last mixer, need to
contact them)
Another option is to look into the alumni database and find local alumni
Other stuff to take care is food, advertisement and setup
Apply for funding through Dean Montero's office (sara)
Get GWISE involved with the seminars since this is a joint effort
August 5, 2004
Attendees: Sarah, Sara, Junu, Jamey, Shona, Ellen
T-shirt design was discussed, still don't have a definite one.
Couple of ideas were discussed and at the end the decision was to make a simple
grey t-shirt with the SEAS logo on the left pocket. Sarah will talk to Sara
Peters from E-quad news about the design.
Common Room: Sarah and Ellen will take care of it for the next month.
Satellite issues:
It was not installed since we are not residential
Installation will cost us between $500-1000
May be we can install it ourselves or ask the facility department to do it for
us. Check the warranty for that first.
Before doing that see if the Dean is willing to pay for the installation in
that case we can
Just go right ahead with DirctTV installation
Seminar series (Engineering beyond grad school)
Start thinking about seminars and potential speakers. We need people to contact
alumni, arrange room reservation , publicity and food. Next meeting we shall discuss
this in more detail.
July 8, 2004
Attendees: Sarah, Sara, Junu, Fan,Shona,
1- First item to talk about is missing statement. It needs to be written and
given to the Dean. Sarah will look into doing that soon. Our activities to be
included in the statement:
a. Social activities such as common room, mixer
b. Academic and informative activities such as seminar series and orientation
2-We probably should have once a term Open meeting where we invite all students to bring their concerns and issues to the table and address them.
3-Jamey and Sarah will try to get the budget together for next year.
4-Satellite
Direct TV (39.99/month or 42.99/moth)
Free instillation , Sarah and Jamey are looking into that as well, a proposal
for the Dean is under way
5- T-shirt design
Needs to done by August
Sara will look into that
Talk to Jo about ordering