GSAC News : Pizza and Politics

What is the GSAC? That stands for the Graduate Student Advisory Council, which is made up of representatives from each department, and acts as a liaison body between the grad students and the University Administration, mainly through monthly meetings with the Dean Phil Feigelson or Assistant Dean Richard Abott. Comments should be directed to the e-mail form. This was reported by Alan Dove.

After some racking of brains, we have managed to remember what happened at the GSAC meetings from January through April. Perhaps the most important development is that the Dean's office is no longer buying sushi for lunches at these meetings, so if you don't like pizza, you should find another outlet for your political aspirations.

At the January meeting, the subject was cheating (on exams, not spouses) and how the Health Sciences graduate departments handle it. It seems that disciplinary proceedings on this campus are not beholden to any of the rules defined in the handbooks given to you at orientation, as those only apply south of 125th St. Here at Health Sciences, students accused of wrongdoing are presumed guilty, and a carefully selected Court of the Star Chamber holds several top-secret meetings before deciding whether or not to throw a student out of the program. If you feel that this process is anything less than perfectly just and fair, you have no recourse whatsoever. Welcome to Health Sciences.

In February, an administrator visited the GSAC meeting to talk about establishing a Teaching Resource Center here at Health Sciences. This center would provide training for graduate students and postdocs who want to improve their teaching skills. The majority of representatives present favored establishing such a center, but making courses in teaching entirely voluntary. Many students seem to favor making such courses mandatory for the faculty, but this is not likely to occur.

The March meeting focused on the prospect of establishing a course for first-year students which would teach basic molecular biology laboratory technique. Most of the representatives present favored establishing such a course, but the GSAC's Designated Curmudgeon was not present at the meeting. Sources inside that representative's head, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that he opposes the course.

April saw another visit by another administrator, this time from the Career Services Office at the downtown campus. Dierdre Hoare spoke to the representatives about services offered by her office, including resume writing assistance, lists of job openings in virtually every field, and a Web page listing the office's programs in detail. (Editor's Note: there is also the Biological Research Network, International, which Ms Hoare referred to) These services are open to Columbia students and alumni, so keep them in mind even after you graduate. After Dierdre's discussion, Phil Feigelson (who presides over these meetings) asked the representatives if they saw a need for more computer courses on this campus. If you have an opinion about this, contact your GSAC representative, and he or she will bring it up at the next meeting. If you do this, you may well be the first person ever to call your representative about an issue that was actually discussed at a GSAC meeting, and you may be eligible for valuable prizes.

This page is part of the Virtual Vector. Comments are welcome, of course. Designed by Richard Sucgang.