November 11/8/23 Minutes

Attendees: Scott, Caroline, Will, Faith, Jonas, Dan, Anthony

Housing Updates

• Serena and Caroline met with Ann. Talk about post-generals housing exemptions.
• Pets are considered under housing.
• Spouses are unsure who would make decision about. Something about the union?
• Notes are in the Housing folder. Key points:
  • Ann will clarify wording of what’s on the website. Some things grant auto exemption:
    • Taking a class at MIT or any program at MIT
    • Exemption will last for 2 semesters
    • Lab meetings or using lab facilities at MIT
    • Medical reasons
  • Ann said “being very lenient due to COVID”
  • Trying to be more strict going forward. 
  • Housing shortage on the cape. APO wants to make sure that we are held to same level as techs or staff that don’t have any option, even if they can’t find housing. Part of problem is that PIs, students, and APO aren’t on same page. 
    • Some PIs say you can stay but APO is being mean (don’t agree with that)
    • Ann will clarify with advisors APO’s policy. Not guaranteed an exemption if you choose to live somewhere else.
  • Incentivize on-call housing. If people would use it, then it would free up more of the transient housing for the in-between area. Easier to request transient housing and get it then to use on-call housing. Should find a way to make on-call more attractive so we can open the transient spots for the people who spend most of the time at WHOI. 
  • Anthony: More beds than JP students. Is there a financial burden on APO?
    • WHOI takes transient housing out of APO’s budget. More expensive to maintain transient than on-call housing. 
  • For on call housing, trying to put keys at OP so don’t have to go to the village. Same for storing bedding and such, so don’t have to carry it back and forth.
  • People can’t move to Cape because you need a car. APO can’t address our car deficiency, but should be brought up in the climate committee. 
  • To apply for the exemption, with all the turnover in housing and APO, got confusing. Email Housing saying I’d like exemption, Ann will prompt for reason, and then should get approval.
• Dan: Are there lockers where you could store stuff in OP to store bedding and such in? You could store in the living room of OP.
• Faith: Over first summer when paying 800 per month for not your own room, which doesn’t seem very aligned. I (will) agree that paying that much to share a room is ridiculous.

Stipend Discrepancies

• Caroline drafting email to Rob to clarify stipend discrepancy when paid through MIT vs through WHOI. Clarify methods and amount being paid.
• Scott: Email should also note the benefits discrepancy between the two institutions. 
• Anthony: Tricia is also working but is getting bounced back. 
• Scott: MIT isn’t willing to address or make clear when we have some people who fall both under MIT and WHOI umbrellas. Tricia is actively working on it.

Fall General Meeting Updates

• Admin stuff on website
• Most of conversation was about the postering, so irrelevant to JP

Ed Council Alternate

• We don’t currently have an ed-council alternate. Who wants it? Really would just only have to do something if Dan can’t make it.
• Scott will do it
• Dan: Last meeting was just on zoom but not sure if they will be made in person soon. 

PCard - Who at WHOI?

• Who from WHOI wants a Pcard? Dan could have it. Anyone who is in charge of social stuff should have it. 
• Will will have it at MIT.

Winter Retreat

• Any updates?
• Antoine: 
  • AirBnBs available? Deal we currently have is best deal. 2 nights, 20 beds, $800. Doubt we can find anything better.
  • Two parter. Something more local vs something more remote.
  • Anthony will send out a poll to see what they want out of winter retreat and what barriers would prevent them from attending.

OTHER STUFF

• Dan: Grad Student Symposium. Reserve Clark 5 and have food and drinks.
  • What is a symposium?
    • Poster session to see what other people in the program are doing.
    • Just a fun time to hangout and get more mileage out of posters we’ve printed for other stuff.
    • Bring your OSM poster.
  • “I like this” - Caroline
  • Financial donation or beer donation would be a fun way to provide bevs for the symposium.
  • Anthony will help out.
  • When would be a good time? IAP. December has class AGU and xmas
• Anthony: Working with the Union
  • What do the Reps want to do re: helping the union.
    • We were asked to protest independent of union but without union.
  • Caroline: We should have pros and cons so we know where Reps as an organization stands vs personal stance.
  • Open House is a lot of effort on the students. What if we as the students told APO that we are not helping with the Open House?
  • Union is talking about a strike but lots needs to happen between now and then.
  • Don’t want to spring it on APO at the beginning of February.
    • Definitely not fair to the incoming students.
  • Anthony went straight for the jugular and asked about the strike, so we didn’t dillydally when meeting with ORCA.
  • They can’t strike without legally notifying WHOI before. 
  • Any decisions about open house should be put out soon. Possibly a student vote?
  • Anthony: 
    • Boycotting Open house is a better alternative than a strike. 
    • When we call a strike our pay is cut, so union has budget to back it up, but won’t meet current compensation. 
  • Faith: 
    • Navy students can join.
  • Will:
    • My only thing is that I don't want to make the incoming students collateral damage in this, since they may not know the behind-the-scenes politics going on and just take it as a reflection of the current JP students.
  • Scott:
    • Knowing the thoughts of the student body is very important since how we act is supposed to reflect how the students feel.
    • Internal WHOI thing we put on, so tying it back to what does student body do?
    • How can we best represent the students.
  • Caroline:
    • How can we get a message out without alerting APO?
  • Jonas:
    • Union was pushing for a listserv with no admin. Maybe reach out to them?
  • Anthony:
    • Open House should be fun but should not suck up all your working hours. 
  • Jonas:
    • Might be wise to have APO on the emails. Just a generic CYA with argument of “we are representing the students”
  • Anthony:
    • Make a form and send a draft to us, so we can tweak it.

Next Working Meeting is Wednesday after Thanksgiving.