Graduate Student Representative Meeting

10 Feb 2004

Present: Todd Tinsley, Janice Trinidad, Arban Uka, Reid Smith
We discussed the following topics (and * indicates a task that we are working on):

VISIBILITY

We feel that many graduate students do not know what we do and who we are. We want to increase our visibility within the department in order to be more useful for the students we represent.
  • *Post flyers with our names, emails and pictures in 9.222, the 3rd floor computer lab, and near the mailboxes
  • *Post minutes from our meetings (alone and with GWC) online (mention website on a flyer)
  • *Have an open house with pizza so that grad students can come and air their problems with their representatives

COMMON SPACE

There is not much space for graduate students to gather in an informal way, unlike math (entire lounge!) or astronomy (daily tea time) . Also, 9.222 is VERY crowded. There is no safe place for people in that office to stash their books, etc. We are also interested in the status of the proposed computer lab that would be on the 9th floor. Since space in our department is at a premium, perhaps we could just have a daily tea time in some conference room or classroom?
  • *We will discuss this with the GWC to determine our options.

GRILLING SESSIONS

  • *We will ask the GWC how to set these up in time for march meeting and spring qualifiers!

NO PARKING LOT

There seems to be a contingent of people angry about the front/side of RLM being turned into an impromptu parking lot while construction is being done on other buildings. They want their common space back. People used to eat lunch on the walls and benches in that place. Now there are trucks there.
  • *We will ask the GWC what our options are concerning that space.

RECRUITMENT WEEKEND

Perhaps it would be good to have more graduate student input on how recruitment weekend is set up and run, since we know what worked to get us here and why people we know went elsewhere.

Do you have issues you would like us to work on?
Email us at gradissu@physics.utexas.edu
THANKS!!!

FUTURE MEETING NOTES AT: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~gradissu