Present: Kristin Bovaird-Abbo, Karla Knutson, Jennifer Balke, Mindi McMann, Becky Miller, Jen Humphries, Beth Lagaron, Lesley Bartlett, John Wiehl, Alicia Sutliff, Lisa St. Ledger, Brian Harries, Joe Sommers

I. Call to order.

II. Approval of Minutes. – Correction noted from last minutes –Lisa was not listed as present, and she was.

III. President’s Report.

a. Meeting with Department Chair

i. Update on printers

1. Is there a preference to have the printer on the 1st floor or on the 3rd?

There was a preference for a printer on the first floor, though the issue of non GTA’s having reading access to the printer was raised.

ii. 24-hour access to the department mailroom

A keypad for the SAGE lab has been ordered, but we will not be having 24 hour access to the mailroom.

iii. Call for Mentor System evaluation – form a committee?

While no formal committee was formed for this, the topic was discussed. Some points made were:

1. Can we reinstitute the Master GTA program, which would be a peer mentoring of sorts – it would not replace the mentoring program, but is an alternative. This would not be taken into account when considering merit raises, as this would not be an evaluative system.

2. Issue of specificity in evaluating GTAs for merit raises. There is no standard rubric for evaluating GTAs, though the letters mentors write is used, as well as student evaluations.

3. There is interest in the Master GTA idea, but no committee was formed. It was decided we should discuss this with Dorice to see what our options are.

b. Department Voting Meeting

i. Special Hire update

The department is hiring Terese Monberg. It was decided that a national search would be done later for a new MFA.

ii. Wescoe Renovation

1. School Specific Tuition – Dean will be contacting us for informational meeting

2. GTA stipend will cover any tuition increase

a. As a side note, when discussing the tuition increases, the issue of the five semester limit for GTAs was raised. SAGE and the department cannot change this – if you are interested in participating in contract renegotiations, please contact GTAC (GTA Union).

IV. Secretary’s Report. – No report

V. Treasurer’s Report.

a. Jennifer met with the new financial director

b. Report on Graduate Assembly Funds – based on attendance from last years Graduate Assembly, we have $425.00

c. Alternatives means of getting money – Student Senate was recommended

d. The deadline for expenditures for this year is May 15th

VI. First Year Liaisons. – No report

VII. Committee Reports.

a. Advisory Committee

i. John Wiehl: Regarding the new offices when Wescoe is renovated, more people wanted to be more spread out, if it means nicer offices, and fewer people in each office. However, there was a considerable amount who was apathetic.

b. FSE Committee

i. Joe Sommers – Revamping of 102 classes

1. The FSE committee is looking at different ways of teaching 102 to meet general education requirements. 102 would not be genre specific; they are examining four options – WAC, Inquiry based, Argument based, critical literacies

2. The tentative time frame for this is: New books now, some models will be tested next semester, possibly implementing changes for next fall.

3. There was much speculation regarding the changes this would cause for 200 level classes, which we could not fully answer, but it seems they should stay the same.

c. Graduate Assembly

i. Kristin/Matthew C.

1. Graduate Women’s Forum: November 11th and December 9th

2. Pedagogy Workshop for Preparing Future Faculty: November 4th

3. American Studies Graduate conference for 2005

d. Graduate Committee – No report

e. GTA/Lecturers Committee

i. Brooke:

1. Discussion regarding the full time lecturer position. It would provide more job security for lecturers (three year contracts) with a 4/4 teaching load paying $20,000. This is less than the guaranteed rate.

2. Lukewarm interest in this at the open meeting.

3. Bill Carpenter is soliciting feedback on this and to see what peer institutions are also doing.

4. Not clear what impact this would have on graduate students who are lecturers.

f. Lecturers/Readers Committee – No report

g. Library Committee – no formal request for time – No report

h. New Literacies Conference

i. Kristin encouraged people to apply for this conference – the deadline is 11/15

i. Supplemental Funds

i. Karla – Two people received supplemental travel funds this semester

j. Academics Anonymous

i. John Wiehl – Thursday’s session – 12:30 p.m., 4022 Wescoe

1. Giselle Anatol will be speaking about women in folktales – side note – it was really interesting!

ii. Call for upcoming sessions – advanced graduate students/faculty – please speak to John if you have ideas of who you would like to see do this.

k. Social Committee

i. Halloween Party

1. Time, date, and place

2. Solicit snacks

3. Costume contest! – Ryan McCarty and Lisa St. Ledger won the contest!

ii. Creative Readings

1. Time, date, and place – November 13th

2. Solicit readers

l. SAGE Advice – no report – fall issue will be out sometime

VIII. Old Business.

a. Joe Sommers raised the issue of doing some sort of “thank you” for all of the faculty and staff who have assisted graduate students in recent years.

i. It was discussed and decided that gift certificates of some sort for a variety of faculty and staff who have been helpful to graduate student would be a good idea. Rather than taking a large amount of SAGE funds, it was decided that a collection would be taken up from graduate students.

b. Jen Humphrey spoke with Professors Barnard and Susan Harris about workshops for the development of professional skills.

i. The idea of a committee for this was raised, as we have professors who are willing to lead workshops, but would like feedback before doing this, regarding interest in general, and what areas should be covered.

IX. New Business.

a. A spring social event

b. Some sort of mixer with graduate students from other departments

X. Meeting adjourned.