Minutes of the 1 April 2005 meeting of the Graduate Representative Board:

Present: Full Board

The topics of the meeting included the use of gradlist, the status of the survival guide, peer-mentoring, grilling sessions, and the department website.

• There has been a recent barrage of emails on gradlist concerning the appropriate use of the list. Carol expressed concern that important departmental emails will get glossed over if too many emails are sent to the list. The board feels that gradlist should be open, but agrees that a mass email list is not the appropriate means of communication. We propose to set up a PHP Bulletin Board or something similar. P.J. will look into this and see if the Physics Computer Group can host it for us.
• There are some growing pains associated with the new form of the Survival guide. Some of us feel that it is difficult to navigate. There is also fear that problems may arise if non-UT students came across it. We suggest a more traditional form of the guide, but with an additional forum. This could possibly become part of the bulletin board mentioned above.
• Peer-Mentoring: The Graduate Outreach office has some experience with setting up mentoring networks. Jesse will contact them for further details.
• Grilling Sessions - We'd like to have at least one before the end of the term. Ion will contact Janice about getting them started again.
• Ion updated us on the status of the website project. We are eager to see this move forward. A copy of the proposal can be found here. If anyone has specific problems with the department's website, please let us know, as it will make our case stronger.
• Stacy said that people want to see more recycling on the floors of RLM - she will look into getting more bins.
• Stacy asked how people can get keys for 9.222 - We recommend asking in the 8th floor Supply Shop. They should give you a form and send you to the key office.
• We would like a new bulletin board for announcements located in 9.222 - Stacy will ask Todd Tinsley if this can be included in the renovation purchase.

We agreed to have bi-weekly meetings. Next meeting scheduled for April 15th at 1 p.m. location t.b.d.

Specific comments and concerns should be sent to the GradReps.