Committee Updates

Classification: Internal GSS Committee

Purpose: To plan and execute GSS-sponsored social events, such as Grad Night Out at Jillian's

Frequency of Meetings: As needed

Updates: This is a standing committee of the GSS to organize and plan all the events (charitable, social, fun, PFF/PFP) of the academic year.  The past year was a great success with the harvest for hunger campaign and the grad night out at Jillians. Also, the spring semester was ended with a large BBQ sponsored by GSS with attendees in number potentially near 250.

The committee meets irregularly as the members decide to plan and coordinate the events.  PFF/PFP was converted from it’s own committee to a subcommittee of activities, as outlined below.

Last Updated: May, 2007

Classification: Internal GSS Committee

Purpose: Review request by organizations for official GSS recognition and request for funds from those organizations.

Frequency of Meetings: As needed throughout the year.

Updates: The committee distributed more than 10 student group awards (ranging from $100-$250) this year to graduate student organizations. In addition, the group raised the maximum V-Fund award amount from $100 to $200 (for conference presentation fees) and distributed more than 20 awards to students.

Last Updated: May, 2007

Classification: Internal GSS Committee

Purpose: To arrange lectures that contribute to the continuing education of graduate students to prepare them for future employment in academia or industry

Frequency of Meetings: Once per month

Updates: We have joined with the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women and the ACES Program to help coordinate 3 PFF/PFP meetings through the Fall 2006 semester that focus on gender and diversity in academia and the workforce.
More information can be found here

Last Updated: Oct. 12, 2006

Classification: Internal GSS Committee

Purpose: Review requests for VFund awards and pass along accepted applications to the GSS Treasurer for funding.

Frequency of Meetings: As needed throughout the year.

Updates: To date, 10 people have received VFund grants for the 05-06 school year.

Last Updated: Feb. 13, 2006

Classification: Internal GSS Committee

Purpose: Solicits and evaluates nominations for the Diekhoff Award and makes a final recommendation to the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies for Diekhoff Award recipients.

Frequency of Meetings: As needed in the Spring Semester

Updates: This year, nominees from departments in Engineering and (hard) sciences will be considered.

Last Updated: Feb. 13, 2006

Classification: Internal GSS Committee

Purpose: To provide graduate student representation on matters pertinent to Health insurance provided to the student population by the University.

Frequency of Meetings: Once per month and via email as needed

Updates: We will ask senators to help us gather data regarding what graduate students like/dislike about our current healthcare options and communicate with administration to determine what options we have. Information gathering will include age, number of dependents, and number of insurance claims made by the average graduate student.

Last Updated: Mar. 7, 2006

Classification: Internal GSS Committee

Purpose: None provided

Frequency of Meetings: None provided

Updates: None provided

Last Updated: Never

Classification: Faculty Senate Committee

Purpose: Address issues related to all things graduate studies: These can include everything from reviewing newly-proposed graduate programs in various fields to tuition policy revisions to grievance issues.

Frequency of Meetings: Once per month for 1.5 hrs

Updates: Has recently put forward a motion to establish "fellowship" courses, which, in theory, are all courses at the university. A fellowship course can be taken by any graduate student without cost to the student or advisor, provided the course is not on the student's Plan of Study and does not fulfill any graduation requirements. Courses would be taken with the permission of the student's advisor, the instructor, and the Dean of Graduate Studies and are intended to add breadth to the student's education. Courses would appear on the student's transcript, along the grade achieved, but the grade would not affect the student's GPA. The faculty senate approved the motion with some discussion as to the inclusion of professional students. At this time, professional students are not eligible for fellowship courses. Even after approval by the faculty senate, Interim President Eastwood sent the motion back for clarification of the term "graduate student." The committee has defined "graduate student" as any student falling under the jurisdiction of the School of Graduate Studies. These courses are expected to come online in August 2007.

Last Updated: Nov. 29, 2006

Classification: Faculty Senate Committee

Purpose: None provided

Frequency of Meetings: None provided

Updates: None provided

Last Updated: Never

Classification: Faculty Senate Committee

Purpose: Committee of faculty and staff and student representatives, both graduate and undergraduate meet to discuss and take action on issues pertinent to the University Libraries and general dissemination of scholarly information.

Frequency of Meetings: Once per month

Updates: Currently, it is an exciting time to be a member of the committee on unversity libraries. Work is being done in the planning stages towards the new Kelvin Smith "Master Plan". Most of the discussion of the committee for the '05-'06 academic year has focussed on the implementation of "Digital Case", which is a digital repository for all scholarly work pub! ! lished by the faculty, students, and research staff of this university. Currently, it is in the beta testing phase of implementation. More info can be found on the library's website: http://library.case.edu/digitalcase.

The committee was mostly bogged down with its own budgetary problems and spent most of their efforts attempting to sell the administration on pursuing non traditional sources of funding.  The rolling out of Digital Case went on without difficulty although author’s rights were still debated.  The issue of author’s rights to the scholarly information contained within journal articles is one of copyrights and whether or not the publisher can maintain a position of not allowing the author to post the material elsewhere.  This is an interesting topic which will be revisited again.  The committee members were all delightful to deal with and enjoyed listening to the graduate student perspective.  They also deeply cared about the issues of concern for the library.  

Meetings were held once per month for about 90 minutes, lunch was provided.

Last Updated: May, 2007

Classification: Faculty Senate Committee

Purpose: From the By-Laws of the Faculty Senate, By-Law VII., Item l., Par. 3:
?The Committee shall act in an oversight and advisory capacity and shall monitor matters concerning minority affairs by bringing suggestions and strategic plans to the Faculty Senate about teaching, research, and the quality of academic life at Case so that all minorities will feel this university is a powerful place to live, work, learn, and teach."

Frequency of Meetings: Monthly

Updates: This year was a big one for the faculty senate minority affairs committee as we sought to change the entire nature of the way in which the university commits to respect and retain persons of minority status.  New language was added to both the non-discriminatory policy of the university and the sexual harassment policy as composed by the members of the committee, and also the introduction of a vice-presidential position was entertained to act as a university ombuds-person to interact with the diversity officers.  Although this idea was ultimately rejected, look for it to resurface in different forms in the future either from the president’s office or the minority affairs committee again.

The committee was excellent in their willingness to hear graduate student concerns, and act in a manner according to those concerns.  Meetings were held once per month and were roughly one hour in length.  This committee should be stronger in the future

Last Updated: May, 2007

Classification: Faculty Senate Committee

Purpose: Address university research issues on levels ranging from individual topics to interdepartmental collaboration, such as data custody policy revisions and procedural and documental changes to collaborative research proposals and award guidelines.

Frequency of Meetings: Once per month for 1.5 hrs

Updates: Order of the meeting was accepted.

1st item in the agenda were last meeting minutes, which were accepted.

2nd item in the agenda. The Executive Committee charge the FSRC to consider to develop a statement of policy on openness in research for CWRU. The chair of the FSCR passed a copy with some points to consider, as well as some universities web sites that the committee members could visit to get information and prepare for the next meeting in Dec.

3rd item in the agenda was the conflict of commitment and conflict of interest Case policy for faculty. The actual policy was brought up to by E. Cottington, he also presented the draft from the School of Medicine, which is planing to make changes internally to this two important issues. Copies of different policies in these two issues were given to the members of the FSRC for further discussion in the next meeting.

4th item in the agenda was the Avian Flu Case task force. Dean Rozek passed a copy "Draft Avian Flu Pandemic Preparations - Academic Plan - Core Questions", for our information and ask the members of the committee to think about possible scenarios in which graduate students are involved in the event of an avian flu pandemic. For the Dec meeting this will be a point of discussion in the agenda.

Next meeting will be on Dec. 7th at 9:30 am, the meeting it is schedule for 1.5 h.

Important information for graduate students: Liz, Jose and Olivier are your representatives to the FSRC. If you have any concerns regarding the work of this committee, or other research-related concerns, you should email us directly. We will be your main line of communication with this committee.

Last Updated: Dec. 4, 2006

Classification: University Committee

Purpose: To evaluate and oversee the implementation of the academic program of the University and keep the Board of Trustees informed about academic affairs. Other responsibilities include overseeing strategies for the enrichment of the quality of student lfie, making recommendations on related policies, and providing the Board with continuing knowledge of research activities.

Frequency of Meetings: Monthly

Updates: Has only met once that I can remember this semester and they discussed topics only relevant to undergrad 1st year admissions rates/numbers.

Last Updated: Nov. 29, 2006

Classification: University Committee

Purpose: None provided

Frequency of Meetings: None provided

Updates: None provided

Last Updated: Never

Classification: University Committee

Purpose: None provided

Frequency of Meetings: None provided

Updates: None provided

Last Updated: Never

Classification: University Committee

Purpose: None provided

Frequency of Meetings: None provided

Updates: This committee has not met yet, but would plan on meeting once per semester. The committe representative is waiting to hear back from Mary Beth [Katitus].

Last Updated: Nov. 7, 2006

Classification: University Committee

Purpose: See update.

Frequency of Meetings: None provided

Updates: The A&S CEP is a very important committee, and one in which graduate students can have a direct hand in deciding issues of central import to them and the university as a whole.  The committee is designed to review and decide the validity of any changes to the current courses, structure, and degree programs contained within either SAGES or the college of arts and sciences.  It would e extremely helpful to the student if he/she were involved in a program in the college of arts and sciences.  Meetings were monthly and typically lasted 90 min in duration.  This year the committee voted on far too many courses to be described here, all of which came with detailed discussions in a respectful and decisive manner.  The graduate student input was treated on par with any other member of the committee.  This committee long was absent of a graduate student rep and most members were glad to see one this year.

Last Updated: May, 2007

Classification: Other

Purpose: The primary purpose of the Research Council is to advance discovery and creative endeavors at the university, especially at the boundaries between disciplines, by providing advice to the senior administration of the university through the provost's office. The focus is not only on resources for research, including infrastructure, but also on administrative processes that influence our research productivity and effectiveness. The connection between research and education (graduate and undergraduate, post-doctoral training) is generally an important part of the discussion.

Frequency of Meetings: 2 times per semester

Updates: None provided

Last Updated: Never

Classification: Other

Purpose: In the summer of 2004, Case began a university-wide strategic planning process. This important initiative is designed to establish the priorities that will guide Case over the next five years. The steering committee's goal is to take a statement of institutional direction and priorities, now renamed the University Plan, to the Board of Trustees for its review and approval in October 2006.

Frequency of Meetings: Unknown

Updates: None provided

Last Updated: Never

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