January 19, 2022

January 19, 2022

JP Reps Meeting Minutes

Jan 19th, 2022 @ 1:00pm

 

Attendance: MJ, DM , PN, CW, LL, CD, LF, SW, SB

Guests: Natalie Nevarez, Chloe Smith, Ann Tarrant, Adam Subhas

 

  1. Open House (20mins)
    1. DEI Session Discussion
      • AT: Adam Subhas was going to lead this but he’s tied up.
      • AT: Our plan is to introduce Natalie Nevarez, and Kuhali (at MIT) and they’ll talk about DEI. Then there will be a student panel with a student moderator to ask questions. We will have pre-prompted questions for the student moderators, and students can ask at the meeting as well as submit in advance. The student section will be one half an hour. We want to have zoom breakout rooms (or a smaller group session that looks different). We’re thinking about theming each room. Or designated “approach me” rooms.
      • MJ: I’d prefer to make sure students can choose who they want to talk to. I fielded questions last year that I did not feel comfortable answering.
      • AT: Yes we want to make sure we’re organizing the breakout rooms around themes and questions.
      • MJ: I think we should make it more unstructured. Pick the person you want to speak to.
      • CD: Seconded. I did not feel comfortable going based on the format.
      • NN: This is our plan.
      • AT: How do we feel about gather-town? 
      • SW: Its fluid, but I don’t like the idea of people walking in while students are opening up.
      • LL: I don’t like that it might convey that it isn’t a formal important part of the joint program.
      • AT: How can we go forward with continuing this conversation since we’re out of time?
      • LL + SW: We are the point people for open house. Feel free to talk to us.
      • LF: Please think about what questions might be good prompts.
      • SW: I think it is a good idea to solicit questions ahead of time.
      • LF: Just to clarify, we think zoom is good for structure.
      • *lots of nods*
      • NN: And I want to clarify it will not be “themed rooms” but around what people have already mentioned they feel comfortable talking about.
      • MJ: Last year the reps mentioned the panelists would be at the socials later.
      • AS: I don’t think we mentioned it explicitly, but we can if we want to.
      • AT: Those are the higher priority topics. Thank you for letting us speak with you.
      • [Guests leave]
    2. Videos/photos
      • CD: LL and SW - any updates
      • LL: Going well. Asked to department reps to help us with the departmental sections.
      • SW: We want to make a welcome from the reps specifically. We should do this either virtually or in person so that we can all introduce ourselves.
      • LL: Can we get these to me by the weekend? I’ll need your socials before february 11th. 
      • CD: Maybe we should have a seperate open house planning session.
      • LL: That would be awesome.
      • SW: I’ll schedule the meeting.
      • LL: I’ll email the draft open house schedule.
      • LL: Sunday march 6th, monday evening, and tuesday there's discipline specific Q&A and then a final social
    3. Welcome Letter
      • LL: Haven’t started with this, but we will and then we’ll ask the reps for edits. We met with Lea last week. She mentioned to make sure that the other reps also help. We will need your help soon.
  1. Advisor/advisee relationships discussion
    • LL: Thanks to CW for starting that. Waiting to send it to students for more suggestions, but couple it with the buddy email. Should go out next week. 
    • SW: Our open house is completely separate from EAPS.
  1. Winter Meeting (5mins)
    • CD: SW volunteered to oversee this.
    • SW: It’s a good time to start thinking about soliciting questions, and scheduling with everyone. 
    • LL: Traditionally in Feb, last year it was in march. I’ll talk to Meg and Ed to when is best for them.
    • SW: My preference is March. 
    • LL: That’s my preference too.
    • SW: Is it still virtual?
    • LL: Yes, given we can’t serve food.
    • SB: since you’re going through generals, we can all help.
    • LL: Maybe other reps should help.
    • SW: That would be nice.
    • SB: I can have a more active role in the winter meeting.
  2. Pending action items (20mins)
    1. Funding page update
      • CD: We have old info on this page. Can we update it with the updated info we wrote?
      • CW: I can just delete the old stuff, and update it with the new document we wrote.
    2. TimTickets
      • CD: I tested it and its very easy to use. I made a little guide in the google drive. Important to know: you must be up to date with testing and your attestation. Important to know since sometimes WHOI students don’t have a choice on being up to date, like on monday holidays when they aren’t collected. 
      • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nr2CMjN8aM_My9fS6pmuuNeOZrk1vjyFSQ2x...
    3. COVID cramer cruise
      • CD: MJ sent out the cancellation email. I really hope it gets to happen.
      • MJ: The plan is made, we’re just waiting for the food restriction to be lifted.
  1. WHOI housing pet policy
    • https://docs.google.com/document/d/16FwsLgVKij7p_AoSzAaqyzuyKHhC-XX5LoINeSDOsWM/edit
    • CD: Lots of responses from students. No students said they would not support this initiative. 15 students said they were unable to come to WHOI.
    • MJ: I would take out the partners sections. It seems like a different problem.
    • LF + PN: We think it would be best to split it.
    • LL: But its just a memo. We might want to include the info just to make APO aware of it. 
    • CW: I think it is super important to include since so many people mentioned it unsolicited.
    • MJ: I do think they are two completely different issues, and I think a second memo would be more impactful.
    • CW: Yes, and let’s mention this at the beginning of the next memo.
    • PN: There is a whole different system for family housing at MIT.
    • CD: I don’t like when we make comparisons to graduate student housing. This is not the same.
    • MJ: 100% agree. We need to get this across to them.
  2. New safety czar
    • LL: We don’t have a new one yet. CW is acting as it for now. The former chair of the international committee retired so no one seems to know what this committee looks like.
    • LL: I will wait a week to see what’s going on with the international committee and then I will send an email soliciting students.
  3. Update about how students are selected for committees
    • LF: She first asks the student reps, and if there's a conflict of interest then she asks people specifically. 
    • MJ: That doesn’t seem true to me.
    • SW: It seems like Meg has her own decision-making process.
    • SB: Chem created a lab code of conduct committee and students were selected but we don’t know who was selected. And I am the chem rep and I just found out.
    • LL: should I reach out to Meg and call her bluff?
    • MJ: I don’t want to single Meg out, but there must be a better way to do this and I think we should convey this.
    • LL: I agree.
    • SW: It seems to be convenience or closed call. I’m not sure this is good, but I don’t know how we fix it.
    • LF: I do think it's a whole institution thing.
    • MJ: I’m sorry but this is unacceptable. It is disrespectful. I’m sorry but I feel like it's important. 
    • LF: How do they do it in EAPS?
    • MJ: I’ve gotten calls for DEI and new hires for EAPS.
    • CD: I also get these in CEE.
    • LL: For MIT-wide calls they do a formal selection process.
    • SW: But those are just the ones we heard about, and we don’t know what we don’t know.
    • CD: We have to move on. Maybe we can circle back to this.
  4. Integration of Bio Oce in EAPS
    • MOVED TO NEXT MEETING
  1. Funding requests (10mins)
    1. Library of Things: Shellfish Edition
      • SB: Good idea, but we do need to make sure we have permits work.
      • SW: Not sure what the on-ramp looks like. How accessible is this?
      • CW: Maybe we should make them do a talk on this that’s recorded to help people out.
      • LL: I think this should be a czar position to make sure its maintained and people can take advantage of it.
      • LL: I’ll follow up with them and our conditions.
    2. Guest Lecture: Jobs Outside of Academia in Climate Management
      • CD: On hold because we’re not sure about the schedule of things. Need to follow up.
    3. Snacks for JP Student Lounge
      • CD: Vetoed by the MIT covid policy!
    4. CD: Dan L. submitted a funding request for speakers for the JP but three was a problem that still came through.
  2. Unfair Trivia/The Price is Wet (5mins)
    • MJ: Anyone wanna help of have ideas?
    • PN: Feb 5th is the virtual chocolate tour and tasting! I’m going to send a reminder soon.
    • CD: Such a good idea!
    • MJ: I’ll solicit ideas in the slack.