BGSA Meeting Minutes, October 28, 2002

Members present:

Adam Giangreco, Annie Cohen, Charlotte Smith, Vilma Decman, Damon Anderson, Amy Hartman, Lana Hanford, Mike Turner, Tara Washko, Robb Tomko, Susan Zabierowski, Stephanie Goode, Latha Malaiyandi

Apologies: Amy Sinor, Cindy Duffy and Steve Handler

  1. CALL TO ORDER at 1 pm 218 SBST by President Adam Giangreco
  2. REPORTS:

President’s Report (Adam Giangreco)

Reviewed last meeting ~ election of new officers to 2002~2003 council.

Welcomed newly elected 1st year reps, Tara Washko and Robb Tomko.

Attended dinner at the house of Chancellor Nordenberg. Stressed the concept of University’s actions to increase the number and caliber of students in the various programs. Should link the Pitt Arts website to our BGSA one.

GPSA (Charlotte Smith)

The GPSA President is asking for volunteers from various programs to get together 1-2 times a month with the Chancellor and discuss issues pertaining to graduate students (ie stipend, health insurance, etc). Susan mentioned that she would be interested.

Upcoming BGSA events: Nov 7th- Attic party. Nov 25th - Pittsburgh Chamber Music concert. Next meeting will be on November 11th.

MIRM (Mike Turner)

The McGowan Institute provides funding for researchers primarily interested in tissue regeneration. They need 4-5 students each from INTBP and Bioengineering to sit on a student committee. Once they have established their website, we should place a link to it from ours.

Symposium 2002 (Amy Hartman)

Event was more successful than in the past years. More students participated, talks were well attended by students, although poorly by faculty. Suggestions for next year: name tags for all those attending/participating, limit the number of students at the lunch with speaker to 12-15 and give them the speaker’s CV ahead of time.

Happy hour ~ not very well attended, only drank a pathetic 42 pitchers of beer. Peter’s Pub may not be an ideal venue ~ no music, dead atmosphere and they charged us for the room. Perhaps the Attic may still be a better place. Other suggestions: Pub IG or La Fiesta.

Treasurer’s Report (Annie Cohen)

We’re doing OK on funds, but we should still spend carefully (ie the last Happy Hour was a bit too pricey). Still waiting on final amounts for food from Symposium. Adam still waiting for a fax of Pymatuning costs. Working on new account ~ don’t know exactly how much is in our University account. Good news ~ saved $$ on poster board costs this year.

New ideas:

♦ Webpage Revisions (Adam Giangreco) Design two calendars: social events (GPSA, Pitt Arts) and academic events (student seminars, defenses). Include a list of all student publications.

♦ Student Directory (Adam Giangreco) Have a contact list of all students (on a voluntary basis) to include name, class year, program, PI, campus contact info and one sentence project description.

♦ Rotation Series Seminar (Charlotte Smith) Program directors are currently giving brief talks to the Foundations class about each discipline. Some individuals are still having problems choosing labs for rotations. Maybe 1st year reps should remind class about the lab rotations page on the INTBP website.

♦ Committees:

Webpage/directory ~ Steve Handler and Latha Malaiyandi

Bulletin board/signs ~ Lana Hanford

Ski trip/Pymatuning ~ Agam Giangreco

BGSA Symposium ~ Latha Malaiyandi

Happy Hours ~ Susan Zabierowski

Outstanding Faculty Award (Kirk Dineley)

Interest in establishing an award for one advisor every year selected by the graduate students. Need two committees: (1) to create the award and (2) to give the award. Need to give strong consideration to the name of award, the first person to receive it will determine what the award means. The candidate should be chosen based on his/her mentoring, teaching, serving the department, etc “well-rounded” individual. To be awarded at the Symposium every year. Senior-most grad students should serve on committees. May include a monetary incentive ~$500-1000 which go towards a travel award for a grad student in the lab. First committee will be chaired by Kirk, in addition to including Steve Phillips, Sandi Honick and 3-4 grad students. Damon, Stephanie and Latha have volunteered.

Upcoming Events:

November ?? ~ Penquins Hockey Tickets (Damon Anderson)

December 14th ~ Ice Skating @ PPG followed by Happy Hour in Market Square (Vilma Decman)

January ?? ~ Ski trip to Seven Springs (Adam Giangreco) Evening skiing from 4:30-10:30. $16 lift tix + $10 rental. Rent a charter bus leaving from Oakland. Happy hour afterwards.

Early February ~ Super Bowl Party @ Dave & Buster’s (Mike Turner)

Meeting adjourned @ 2:45 pm.