Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes
Vice-President Student Services
UBC Graduate Student Society
May Executive Report
1. Introduction: May 2008 GSS VP Student Services Executive Report.
I am very happy to announce that the executive has made many needed hiring decisions, after a very intense interview period. We are introducing to council the incoming AVP Student Services, Stephania Swartz, and the editor for the Graduate Magazine, Megan Raschig.
2. Meetings with the Administration and FoGs: Orientations and Consultations.
-Every month, the GSS executive meets with representatives of the UBC administration, and with the executive of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
-The GSS has been urged by the administration to revise our current (2005) documents and set up a new “strategy plan”. We have decided to go ahead and strike an ad-hoc committee in the May meeting to deal with the revision and draft of a new strategy plan. The main objective of the this committee should be, according to their suggestions, to bring forward the most important projects for this year. As far as the Student Services department goes, our priorities will revolve on Orientation week and everything that we have to put together for that important occasion.
-I met with Jennifer Phelps, Assistant Dean and Director of Graduate Enrollment Services, to deal with Orientations 2008, which held jointly with FoGs, and the VP Students department. For instance, the VP Students takes care of the Chan Centre bill for us. We can count on that venue to receive the incoming graduate students. For the May council meeting, we hope to open direct consultation with councilors and students on what to have and what not to have in the next Orientations. I have pledged to design and set up a registration form for FoGs, that will be sent to all the incoming graduate students for the 2008-2009 academic year. This will be an amazing opportunity to reach and inform new students about our (and their) society.
-FoGs would like us to figure out what is ‘useful information for graduate students’. This task of ‘informing’ is something that we hope the synchronicity and coherence of all our publications (the Graduate Magazine, The Handbook, the Website) and the collaborative student media network will be step of the process.
In our meeting with the administration, I brought forward discussions about a few of the projects the GSS services department is currently engaged with, including orientations, the community garden, the collaborative student media network project, the ‘seminar surfing’ concept interdisciplinary course, custom advising sessions, and survey design for consultations. Some of the these projects are already in an advanced stage and have gathered social momentum (e.g., ad-hoc community garden committee), and other projects are reaching the point of maturity for presentation to the public (e.g., collaborative student media network, the ‘seminar surfing seminar’), and yet other projects are still in the design (e.g., the peer review board for an interdisciplinary graduate journal). I am also hoping that interested GSS members would set up an information package regarding the official transcript reward for politically engaged students.
3. Vancouver Campus Plan Steering Committee.
I have also participated in a meeting of the Vancouver Campus Plan Steering Committee: this has been quite learning experience on the design of space and the future of the UBC campus. There is quite a lot of material to be read, and because of my passion for having student voices properly heard, I have been invited to help design the upcoming consultation period that shall be launched sometime by late September or early October. My notes on this are available upon request.
4. Student Services Committee Work and Upcoming Events:
The ad-hoc community garden committee is yet to meet, and this will be happening this Friday, May 16th, starting at 1pm. I mentioned to both FoGs and to the administration that we were hoping to have an edible landscape garden, and they were very supportive. In another meeting with VP Students Brian Sullivan, we were encouraged to get started. I believe we have covered all our bases when it comes to making sure there is approval with the garden. Now it is time to make design decisions and then move on to implement them in the near future.
The Programs committee met and was able to set up the dates and priorities for most of the upcoming and regular events of the society until after Orientations 2008:
*On Monday nights, we will be having a live music, coffee and board games at Thea’s Lounge. For this to happen, I will have the piano tuned as soon as possible, and inspect our musical equipment and make sure the sound is dealt with properly.
*We have begun setting up the Sports Leagues for the summer, and the games should begin by Monday, June 2nd, 2008. We shall have a Summer Party to commemorate the GSS Sports Leagues at Koerner’s Pub, possibly on June 14th, and we shall hold either a Guitar Hero or a Mario Kart competition with prizes (we are currently looking for volunteers to help set this up).
*There shall be a movie night every month, at the Penthouse.
*We will support a monthly interdisciplinary discussion panel, academic conference style: participants have to come together as a group of no more than 5 people, and no less than 3, and present abstracts for each 15 minute long (maximum) presentations, and a theme for their panel. The GSS will take care of booking the space and providing food, promotion and so on. We were hoping this could be held more frequently.
*Orientations week will start with the Graduate Magazine Release Party on August 25th, 2008.
*Orientations 2008 CORE DAY will be August 28th.
*The GSS will have a booth at the Alumni Weekend, starting Friday, May 26th, and we are looking for volunteers to help run and design our booth.
The Graduate Magazine Committee met and began cleaning and setting up the office for operations, getting acquainted with each other, setting up the detailed schedule of publications, submissions, and advertising rates. There are over 5000 copies of undistributed magazines, including over 4300 of the April 2007 issue. The process of carting it all down to the dump for recycling has begun, but it is slow and cumbersome . The committee decided to keep some of the oldest issues we have and offer them to the Alumni Office, hoping that they could send them as memento gifts to graduate alumni who were students in those periods. This would perhaps motivate them to support, contribute, and perhaps participate with us. It would be a good idea that addresses some of our advertising needs.
The Website committee had an intense meeting, and began working on several tasks, including the coherence of design, CSS editing, setting up a ‘ghost’ website for testing purposes, and making sure the informational structure we have respects the needs and expectations of current graduate students. I have set up several blogs to enhance our communication capabilities, and to conform with the ideals set up by councilors at the 2007 Vision Saturday.
5. Updates on ‘Bloggified’Communication and Information Structures:
-I have created several blogs for GSS with the idea of transparency and communication in mind, and I am preparing a fuller report on the applications available and on how to operate the websites. So far this has been a very long one-man job, and we are hoping to get more people involved as soon as possible.
-The GSS is going through an important transition in its information system, and it is important to get involved with the Graduate Student Society and make sure your input makes a difference in this process.
-Please visit the website of each committee you are in, visit the blog and post a single line comment so that you can sign up and participate. You can forward these links to your friends and constituents if you are a councilor. Everyone is invited to comment even if you are not officially in the committee. If you wish to join a committee, just let the chair of the committee know. If any number of details in the list below is innacurate, please let me know. If you are a member of these committees or projects and have not been contacted yet with an invitation to join the respective blog, please send an email to <gssvpservice@gmail.com>. Once invited, you will become an official contributor to the blog, and will be allowed to post original content.
1. The GSS Executive Committee:
www.gssexec.wordpress.com
-The executive committee website is designed as a place for communication with society members, council, and the public at large. Here, all the members of the GSS executive are able to publish posts, make comments and enter dialogue with the public.
Chair: Mona Maghsoodi, President
-Rajesh Jampala, VP Academic and External Affairs
-Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
-Hamed Shafia, VP Administration
-Pooria Assadi, VP Finance
-Michael Begg, AVP Administration
-Rick Carre, Food and Beverages Manager
-Jeffrey Smith, Bookings Manager (outgoing)
2. GSS Programs Committee:
www.gssprograms.wordpress.com
Chair: Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
-Stephania Schwartz, AVP Student Services
-Winnie Xiao, Chemistry
-Sardar Malekmohammadi, Mechanical Engineering
-Jelena Brcic, Psychology
3. Orientations 2008-2009 Committee:
www.gssorientation.wordpress.com
Chair, Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, Anthropology
-Stephania Schwartz, AVP Student Services
-Kisha Supernant, Anthropology
-Andrew Patterson, ?
4. GSS Sports Leagues:
www.sportsgss.wordpress.com
-Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
-Sports Coordinator [VACANT]
5. GSS Bands League:
www.gssbandsleague.wordpress.com
-Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
6. Koerner’s Pub:
www.koerners.wordpress.com
-Rick Carre, Food and Beverages Manager
-Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
-Hamed Shafia, VP Administration
7. The GSS Publications Committee:
www.gsspublications.wordpress.com
-Chair: Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
-Stephania Schwartz, AVP Student Services
-Jean Francois, Physics
8. The GSS Website Committee:
www.gsswebsite.wordpress.com
-Chair: Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
-Stephania Schwartz, AVP Student Services
-Webmaster: Brent Chamberlain
-Ali Baghani, Engineering
-Brad Atcheson
-Jean Francois, Physics
9. The Graduate Magazine Committee:
www.ubcgraduate.wordpress.com
-Chair: Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
-Editor: Megan Raschig, UBC Alumna
-Stephania Schwartz, AVP Student Service
-Irene L.Y. Yu, Cellular and Physiological Sciences
-Taryn Klarner (handbook editor), Human Kinetics
10. GSS Handbook Committee:
www.gsshandbook.wordpress.com
-Chair: Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
-Stephania Schwartz, AVP Student Services
-Taryn Klarner, Human Kinetics
11. GSS Bookings:
www.gssbookings.wordpress.com
-Jeffrey Smith, Bookings Manager
-Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes, VP Student Services
12. GSS Academic Affairs Committee:
www.gssacademicaffairs.wordpress.com
13. GSS External Affairs Committee:
www.gssexternalaffairs.wordpress.com
14. GSS Safety and Sustainability Committee:
www.safesustain.wordpress.com
-Chair: Hamed Shafia
-Simone Gross, Chemistry, GSS Council
15. GSS House and Finance Committee:
www.housefinance.wordpress.com
-Abdol R. Rasuli, ECE PhD
-Mike Juan
-Andrew Patterson
16. GSS Code and Policy Committee:
www.gsscodeandpolicy.wordpress.com
-Mona Maghsoodi, President
-Hamed Shafia, VP Administration
-Michael Begg, AVP Administration
-Sardar Malekmohammadi, Mechanical Engineering
Please keep in mind that we are working on setting up a definite look and feel of our blogs, and all suggestions are welcome. We encourage you to post comments and to communicate through the blogs. Do not hesitate to contact us anytime with feedback through the blogs.
Yours,
Rodrigo Ferrari Nunes
VP Student Services (2008-2009)
UBC Graduate Student Society
