ASPS Ex-Comm Meeting
Minutes
Present: Rob Christensen, Becky Nesbit, Abby York, Ginger Elliott, David Welch, Maxine Davis, Deepali
Note: The outline was
from the meeting’s agenda and the bullet points represent points made during
discussion
I. Report from GPSO—Bertie?
v Bertie will email us appropriate GPSO items
II. SPEA PhD Conference
a. How it’s coming along
i. How many students submitted abstracts?
b. Status of award program—student judged awards?
c. Faculty participation
v SPEA PhD Conference will be on March 29th from 9:00am-ish to 1:00pm-ish
v There will be one environmental science panel and two public policy panels—of which one will be a round table-type forum. The Dean will make a small speech
v Breakfast and lunch will served at SPEA’s expense
v Rooms in SPEA have already been reserved
v Publicity Issues
Ø Post on Masters student listserv
Ø Post with GPSO and invite other campus attendees (in the hope that in a few years we can open up the conference to a wider group of students)
Ø Possible printed invitation or flyer to faculty (Roger will be “leaning” on people to get them to attend)
v Rob will ask Tina about the possibility of student awards—this might be difficult given the wide range of topics covered by student papers and the different formats of the panels
v Student paper awards are definitely something that we want to happen next year, especially as a means of involving the faculty
III. Publicity
a. Website
i. Link to GPSO insurance site?—Ginger
ii. Other changes that Ginger made
iii. Suggestions?
b. Updating Bulletin Boards
c. Listserv—how’s it coming
i. Making sure that everyone is on the listserv—Abby
v Ginger added links to the faculty hiring form and the website created by Dawn
v Ginger will put up GPSO insurance site link, send any other suggestions to Ginger
v ASPS’s homepage is www.spea.indiana.edu/asps
v Discussed putting on links to the Workshop and other centers—why not? More is more, right?
v Ginger will also put the website address on the bulletin boards when they are changed
v Carol was reluctant to give a list of students to Abby for comparison to the listserv list (to make sure that everyone is on it)
v Abby will contact Becky Snedegar about the environmental science list
v Roger’s and Carol’s email lists can also be used for comparison purposes (we talked about having Roger and Carol use the asps_all list, but they don’t use it on purpose because there are people who don’t want to be on it
v Be aware that some extraneous people are on the listserv—some faculty and others
v Bertie’s virtual suggestion was to open up a discussion forum of some kind for current policy topics—possibly a second listserv for discussion. The consensus was that since it is so low-maintenance and easy we should go ahead and do so, although many felt that there wouldn’t be a high demand for such.
v As a related issue we discussed the possibility of a student forum for discussions as well to discuss current public issues.
Ø We discussed trying either a coffee hour in the lounge or a potluck-type arrangement at someone’s house on an evening.
Ø We would like to get faculty involved.
Ø The use of outside incentives, such as food, was encouraged by several members.
Ø Brown bag lunches were also discussed. We think that students will more likely come if it is scheduled for a shorter period of time.
Ø We discussed the possibility of having it right after Roger’s colloquium on Friday, such as at 1:45pm, or after the environmental science colloquium at 5:00pm on Thursdays.
Ø We also discussed purchasing a coffee pot for the lounge—they are pretty cheap apparently.
Ø The big issue is that students say they want to get together more, but then they don’t come to scheduled activities. So we don’t know what kind of activities to have in order to get people together.
IV. Financial
a. Status of registering with Student Group Office—Maxine
b. Do we want an SOA account?
v Maxine hasn’t yet gotten any money information from Anjali, Ginger will see Anjali and will follow-up on this—no one seems to know where our money is even though we have two checking accounts
v Maxine did register us with the Student Group Office
v Maxine will check to see if we can apply for money from the Student Groups people
v We discussed the SOA account (Student Organizations Account) and it apparently has a lot of stipulations
Ø You can’t use the money to buy liquor
Ø You can’t have any other account (which we currently do)
Ø You can book rooms in the IMU for free when you have an account
Ø Account requires more paperwork and you have to sent in a request for a check to be written—this has plusses and minuses in that we won’t have to worry about the paperwork and they will give us a statement, but we have less control and more wait for money
Ø Account doesn’t come with money
Ø We decided that we will put off this decision until we figure out what is going on with our other accounts (we can’t open an SOA until we close the other ones)
V. SPEA Environment
a. Student Workspace
i. Status of Room 312
ii. Status of Lounge
b. Hiring of New professors
i. Are students giving input—using the forms?
v Rooms are currently being converted to other uses
Ø The old PhD lounge has been converted to a student consultation room for the AI’s to hold office hours in.
Ø Our new lounge is in the old printer room—code is 0015500 we think (Rob will check on this)
Ø Room 312 is being reorganized to accommodate more students—it won’t just be for AI’s anymore
v If an ASPS member goes to the faculty lunches, they will take copies of the faculty recommendation form for students to fill out
VI. Ex-Comm Events
a. Professional Workshops
i. CV Workshop?
ii. Others?
b. New Student Orientation
c. Social Activities
i. Results of David’s survey
v As far as workshops, we want to have a workshop after the PhD student conference about preparing these papers for publication—peer critiques
Ø Abby and Rob will talk to Kirsten Gronbjerg about possibly being a faculty sponsor of this event and maybe she can get a few other faculty involved
Ø These will be like small literacy groups that get together and critique each other’s papers
v Another future workshop will be on planning your dissertation year and the job hunt
Ø Possibly get an older faculty member, a younger faculty, and someone from career services to come talk to us
v Someday we’ll have a CV workshop
v David brought in a rough draft of his survey for us to look at
Ø David will send out the revised survey this weekend
Ø All ASPS members will take copies of the survey around to others that they know in order to increase the response rate—so to the colloquia, classes, the AI room, meetings with potential faculty, etc
VII. Miscellaneous
a. Any other items to discuss
b. Set Date and Time for Next Meeting
v Another virtual suggestion from Bertie was instituting a PhD student teaching and service award to go along with the excellence in doctoral student research award
v Rob will ask Roger if these awards already exist
v This idea was met with much approval
Next meeting will be held on Friday, March 28th at 9:00am again in the Dean’s Conference Room?