BISC Grad Caucus Meeting Minutes
Friday February 27, 2004
In attendance:
Allison Henderson, Kim Mathot, Andrea Pomeroy, Christiana Cheng, Sandra Webster, Mateas, Danielle, Erika, Linda, Raoul, Maxim, Jen Perry, Brian Ma, Bruce
- Grad Symposium
- volunteers for set up at 11 am next Friday: Kim, Sandra, Andrea
- volunteers for clean up: Andrea, Max
- Lockable cupboard
- we have a lockable cupboard in the graduate area on the 7000 level of biology
- Allison with track down the key so that we can buy cups and dishes and store them there for functions such as the grad symposium
- Travel awards
- travel awards are coming up soon
- Bisc grad caucus should have 11 or 12 $100 rewards to give away
- Andrea will send out an e-mail asking for names of people who would like to be included in the draw
- draw will be at the next caucus meeting
- Search committees
- search committees for cell physiologist, developmental biologist, and CRC health chair are underway
- 6 interviews have been completed, and there are 6 more to go
- many of the candidates are applying for jobs at other institutions as well, so search committee will likely make quick decision in order to make an offer before the candidates become unavailable
- Karen Romish is a favored candidate
- a search committee for CRC in environment will be needed this spring. Please e-mail Allison Henderson (Allison_henderson@sfu.ca) is you are interested in being on the committee. Allison will also be sending out a general e-mail to bisc-grads
- Student nominations for Departmental speaker
- Paul Sherman could not make it this year, but will hopefully be re-scheduled for next year
- grad students still get to nominate a new speaker for next year, so labs should begin discussing who they might like to have brought out
- Draft report of funding support for graduate students
- encourage all to read and send comments to John Driver
- Graduate Issues Committee
- non-Scotiabank ATM will be installed in the Maggie Benston in the coming months
- grad student lounge in MBC is open 7am-10pm 7 days a week
- new position available: graduate commissions officer
- $1500/month, 120hrs/month, must sit on 2 committees
- Research Forest
- a group of individuals is trying to protect part of the forest near SFU from development
- the area needs to be surveyed to determine how large it is, and the diversity of flora presents
- more details to follow
- Faculty mole updates
- tuition increases have been due to government budget cuts. Recent cuts were not as big as expected, so there is a possibility that tuition raises won’t be as steep as predicted either.
- support level required from an advisor for a graduate student increased to $9000/1.5 semesters, equivalent to a $500/semester increase
- support issues to be reassessed periodically as tuition fees increase
