Minutes May General meeting

May 1st, 12pm

Present: KS, MF, TN, SM, CH, NK, AM, KG, MG

1. Alumni event over graduation (Kalina’s suggestion - 10 min)
   1. Recent alumni coming back June 2nd for graduation, good timing to host a Q&A panel for current students to ask career questions
   2. Morning (10-11am?) event, graduation in the afternoon
   3. Can get formal reps funding for pastries/coffee: Kharis will reserve room (clark or carriage house?) and submit funding request
   4. Need current student point person to host: Marc can coordinate day-of, can put out a call to student body for additional help
   5. Invite email from Kalina & recent alums
   6. Hopefully could be a recurring event for future years

2. Membership plans… (15 min)
   1. Nadege will talk with ASA about specific MIT affiliate rules
   2. Affiliates are usually spouse/partner, MIT alum, retiree, …
   3. Can WHOI postdocs/techs get reimbursed for events like a subsidized baseball ticket through reps funding?
   4. JP funds are meant to build community among JP students
   5. Ok for affiliates to come to trivia and have pizza, etc.

3. Jelly talks (10)
   1. Doesn’t have to be fridays, can change based on our schedules
   2. Hybrid would be an easy, low-effort way to start including new students starting in the fall
   3. Past food options: Ice cream, pizza, day-olds
   4. Can be weekly or biweekly depending on demand
   5. Cora, Nadege, Natalie will start coordinating

4. Summer pig roast? (5)
   1. Other summer events: naming ceremony (early july?), JP ASK bbq (early aug), queer prom (mid-late aug)
      1. Megan will reach out to first years this week and ask them to start planning for naming ceremony; Anthony can help 
      2. June 22-26 is Cramer cruise - have naming event right after they get back
   2. Ben W has a big cauldron, Kharis has a pig roaster
      1. Should we make it an official reps-sponsored event? Yes
      2. Plan for end of july (avoid overlap w/ steinbach)

5. Steinbach (5)
   1. Who should be the faculty hosts? 
      1. For G&G, limited availability of G&G faculty but could maybe have chem host? - Sarah will ask Ann
      2. Megan & Marc coordinate if both reaching out to chem faculty
   2. Chem scholar got approval for sept visit
   3. AOSE visit at end of July, should finalize faculty host minimum 1 month before

6. Action items from Winter meeting (20 min) 
   1. Plan to discuss poll results at next working meeting (in 2 weeks)

Winter Meeting Action items:

Office space:

• Reps: 1. consider upgrades to Student Center workstation (likely with APO funds) and
  • 2. poll students to see who/what is the problem (especially as how MIT office is used) - ask what solution they’re looking for
    • If there are monitors, make sure we have converter cables
    • Also include mouse & keyboards
    • Is this a designated quiet space? Place for zoom calls? 
    • Library can be a backup space?
    • Poll Q: if you regularly use the MIT JP office and would be willing to help Tricia, leave your name here
    • Anthony will make poll & send it out, then reps can takeover
• APO:   Based on feedback from poll, formalize with department administrators that layout of commuter vs home students
• MIT:     formalize/remind that all JP students are allowed and welcome to use EAPS office

WHOI housing:

• Reps: 1. Assemble list of concerns from students 
  • Confusion over exemption policy for summer housing
  • Poll about if you’re post-generals and have been granted an exemption
  • Same poll can include list of concerns for housing coordinator
  • Megan can set up poll
  • 2. plan to meet with housing coordinator in the summer
• APO:   1. Create and disseminate example list of exceptions to housing policies - (clarify what is needed such as advisor buy-in, plan for permanent housing at MIT)
  • 2. SHOW hierarchy

Advisor training:

• APO:   When Ann is back from the cruise, have her share her plans, reach out to EAPS dept for what kind of trainings they are implementing

Switching advisors

• Reps: Reach out to students who have gone through the process to set up a small group to help APO with wordsmithing
  • Kharis: Send out an email to student body to collect names of students who’ve gone through this process and would be willing to help APO in small-group brainstorming
  • BCC jp student email list
• APO:  1. Create detailed written plan/flow chart/checklist about the process which is kept internal to APO and have public point people - both at MIT and at WHOI.
  • 2. Make this process (contacting a point person) common knowledge by Wordsmith what is in the handbook (and elsewhere) with students who have actually gone through the process

Teaching:

• APO:   sponsor/help organize an informal teaching training at the beginning of each school year (maybe run by the best rated profs in each department?) 

Conference $$$

• APO:   1. add guiding language to advisor handbook about expectation to fund conference and
  • 2. create clear language for students about what to do if the advisor doesn’t have 50% to offer
  • 3. Increase $750 conference fund
• Meg:    will talk to DDPSE office about policy and need for avenue for students to get funding
• Mick and Tricia -  distributing documentation on the grant moneys available for advisors and students at the end of this academic year

Orientation:

• Mostly APO: Work with academic coordinators to include department level orientations
• Sarah (and Tricia?): amass a list of list-servs students should get on

Both offices: Implement End of Year JP Offices Update or newsletter?