Sage Minutes
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
3:00 p.m., 3132 Wescoe

Attending: Keri Behre, Nate Williams, Stephanie Scurto, Kristen Lillvis, Amy Sherman, Karla Knutson, Katie Egging, Jessica Isaac

Call to Order. Minutes amended and approved.

Presidents:

1. Elections are coming soon for next year. Look at the website for position descriptions. Nominations and self-nominations are encouraged. If you know someone who'd be good for a particular position, pass that info along. We want as much representation from a large number of grad students.

2. Wescoe Mixer is at Louise's on Friday 4/18 from 6-9 p.m. Seven departments will be there. We contributed $30, with some reimbursement from a few other departments, in order to reserve the upstairs of Louise's just for Wescoe grad students.

3. The Presidents encourage graduate student turnout at all remaining voting department meetings for the year. It is likely that next year's hiring decisions will be discussed at these meetings. There are two more meetings scheduled for this year.

Secretary: No report.

Treasurer: $350.62 is current account amount. Paperwork for both travel award recipients have been submitted. Booksale is about to happen. We're looking for volunteers. People who have done it before noted what a fun, low-stress event it is. Prices will be $1 per softcover, $2 for hardcover. Large, "Nortonesque" anthologies or Shakespeare hardcovers, etc. will go for $5.

First-year Liaison: No report

Academics Anonymous: Ann Martinez, via e-mail, reported that both Prof. Anatol and Brian Harries have agreed to take part in the Teaching Harry Potter meeting. The focus will be on the quick entry of Rowling's work into academia, as well as the best techniques to teach it. There will be snacks ... likely cheese and crackers. Wednesday, April 9, 3:30, 4002 Wescoe. See flier for more info.

Advisory: Alicia Sutliff, via e-mail and phone, reported that Advisory met on March 24 and she (Alicia) was not in attendance due to illness. Dorice Elliott postponed discussion of P&T because of Alicia’s absence; it will be discussed at next meeting. Alicia encourages e-mail from anyone who is interested. She has not yet received minutes from March 24 meeting.

FSE: Heather Bastian, via e-mail, reported on two issues.

1. Handbooks: Please vote and rank the handbooks. We currently have four choices. We will have a raffle for those who hand in their forms (the prizes include gift certificates to bookstores). Voting will close next week (I believe). Be on the lookout for an email soon.

2. Assessment of the FSE Program--At the request of the university, we are assessing all aspects of the English Department, including the FSE program. The FSE committee has devised a plan of attack for the assessment that includes e-portfolios. The details and specifics will be worked out later (see the proposed schedule), but essentially students would be selected at random to submit their work in a course and then the work will be assessed based on a rubric. To be clear, this is a program assessment not an instructor assessment. Scurto read from the sheet with the specifics of the proposed schedule. Several FSE committees will be involved in rubric creation and approval during Fall 2009. In early Spring, a program meeting will be held to apprise teachers of the changes. In Summer 2009, FSE will need graduate student help to set up the assessment. Fall 2009, a pilot program will be run using the rubric, then assessed in Spring 2010. In Fall 2010, a final, full assessment will be done. Some discussion of prior experiences with this kind of rollout ensued. If anyone has further questions or wants more detailed info, please feel free to email Heather.

Grad Assembly: Justin Sevenker, via e-mail, reported on two issues.

1. The deadline for spending money has passed; any unspent GSO money has been put in a new pool to be allocated, so if we have any expenses that we want some funds for, we can shoot an email to the GPA financial director. Scurto mentioned that funds for a construction of a SAGE banner to use at booksale and other events would be really beneficial. There is a push to make sure funds are used. Scurto volunteered to contact them about the banner.

2. There are some openings on the Grad Exec committee next year if anyone is interested. The time commitment is pretty low (about 30 minutes prior to each GPA meeting), and duties are few (organizing some events, tweaking the constitution . . .).

Grad Committee: No report.

GTAL: Knutson stated they met last week. They put on hold Sonya Lancaster’s proposals for lecturers to review. Committee clarified GTA guidelines and will go back for more discussion. They are very committed to supporting the graduate students in terms of giving them sections to teach.

Lecturers and Readers: No report. Williams mentioned that James Gunn will be reading from his fiction on April 11th at 4:00 p.m. from his fiction.

Library: No report.

MFA: No report.

Professionalization skills: Egging mentioned email from earlier in the week. The upcoming workshop is on job talks and campus visits. Anatol, Conrad, Neil and Unferth will speak in Wescoe 4019, Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.

Public & Alumni relations: No report.

SAGE Advice: No report.

Social committee: No report.

Summer Institutes: No report.

Supplemental funds: Egging noted that they're trying to get the Angela Jones award figured out. Be looking for more info in the next few weeks. Regarding departmental funds for travel, Lori Warner noted that grad students are only awarded travel funds every two years, based on fiscal years. We're not sure who in the department keeps tracks of it. Behre noted that the SAGE travel award was based on this idea. Behre suggested that some kind of form should include indicating when a person last received travel funds. Scurto asked if the same rules that applied to departmental travel awards applied to Angela Jones (every two years). Several attendees at the meeting mentioned the possibility of a more formal process (with an actual form and a clearer deadline) to prevent applicants from applying for awards they can't receive.

Website: Bovaird-Abbo, via e-mail, stated that she has no report for the website, other than it's been updated with all the upcoming events, minutes, etc., about which she has been notified.

Old business: None.

New business: Lillvis mentioned the social gathering last night for new graduate students.

Discussion: None.

Meeting adjourned. Scurto moved, Knutson seconded.

Next meeting will be in the Fall.

Minutes submitted by Nathaniel Williams, Secretary.