Graduate Community Initiative Working Group

Graduate Community Initiative Working Group
Meeting Minutes
June 11, 2007

Attendees

Joe Burke, Kris Corda, Ellen Gainor, Kent Hubbell, Michelle Leinfelder, Susan Murphy, Kevin Nagel (via telephone), Brendan O’Brien, Sunny Power, Janet Vertesi (via telephone), and Yu Yu (via telephone)

Susan Murphy welcomed attendees and reviewed the meeting agenda.

Donna Wilczynski announced the address of the listserv designated for the working group (grad_comm_init-L@cornell.edu). Messages sent to this address will be received by subscribing members and messages will not be moderated.

Susan Murphy distributed the Table of Contents page from the book Supporting Graduate and Professional Students: The Role of Student Affairs. [copy attached]

Short term Initiatives

• Office space. A location on central campus is key.
• Graduate Programming Space. Possibly at Hasbrouck or Maplewood, however parking is an issue at those locations. The Memorial Room in Willard Straight Hall was determined to be an ideal space for GPSA meetings and reserving that space ahead of time would ensure its availability.
• Communication. Explore what Community Centers do to promote communication. Ensure that the community is aware of the Working Group and what it is doing.
• Subcommittees of Working Group. In the fall ‘07 develop subcommittees, specifically one to work with the career services.
• Hasbrouck. Inform graduate students of what is happening with Hasbrouck.
• Transportation. Carpooling for graduate students — OmniRide. Lower carpool rate for graduate students; work with Bill Wendt and Transportation Advisory Board.
• Get graduate students on North Campus — invite graduate students and become role models in residential communities.
• Center for Learning and Teaching. Invite Helene Selco to discuss the hiring of the replacement for the TA training position.

Short-Medium Term Initiatives

• A communication board in the Big Red Barn, Maplewood, Hasbrouck, Schuyler and the Grad School to connect students and community.
• Career Resources Center. A dedicated person focused on graduate students. University Career Services does work with graduate students already. Sunny Power will work on this item.

Long term Initiatives

• How to fit into long-range Campus Master Plan overall.
• Integrating the graduate and professional student experience.
• Accommodation Leave Policy
• Childcare. Costs for graduate students, limited space and mechanism in place to ensure spots held for graduate students.

Other Action Items:

• Working Group co-chairs will meet during the summer to discuss topics to be worked on.
• Begin bi-weekly meetings in fall
• GPSA to speak at orientation regarding Graduate Community Initiative

Minutes submitted by: D. Wilczynski