SAGE Executive Offices

Co-President (2) – Those eligible to be Co-President must have reasonable understanding of and experience as a graduate student in KU’s English department. The Presidents are responsible for conducting organization business including, but not limited to, overseeing SAGE projects and sub-committees, organizing and facilitating executive meetings, acting as a liaison between SAGE and the chair of the department, and providing general overall guidance to the Organization. The Presidents shall also prepare a semester and year-end report documenting the Executive Committee’s progress towards its stated goals and assessment of work still to be done.

Secretary (1) – This officer shall record and distribute minutes of executive committee and all other SAGE meetings; shall maintain records of officer attendance; shall be responsible for distribution of agendas, meeting notifications and other official announcements; and shall administer the SAGE e-mail discussion list.

Treasurer (1) – This officer primarily focuses on the management of SAGE funds. S/he should ensure that the money is in a secure place (e.g. a checking account). The Treasurer always uses a separate SAGE account rather than a personal account that could be or is used for additional groups or persons. The Executive Committee should always approve the distribution of SAGE funds, or at the very least the Presidents should be informed, before the money is allotted to anyone or for anything. In accordance with the mission of SAGE, these funds are reserved for the promotion of graduate student professionalism in the form of reimbursing conference registration feels of presenters and to finance social events that promote graduate student interaction.

SAGE Committees

Briefly, the SAGE committees (with the number of open positions indicated in parentheses) are:

Academics Anonymous (1-3) – this committee is responsible for conducting 2-3 sessions per semester (at least one faculty member and one advanced graduate student); duties include soliciting nominations, approaching possible presenters, making room arrangements, publicizing the events, and of course, attending the Academics Anonymous sessions.

Advisory Committee (1) - this committee represents the English department as a whole; past issues dealt with include evaluating the goals for the biannual department conference (the New Literacies Conference), and discussing concerns about hiring practices in the department. In the past, this committee has met every 1-2 weeks on Monday afternoons. English Voting Department member.

FSE Committee (3) – this committee deals with issues pertaining to the Freshman-Sophomore English office, such as handbook adoption; CAL revisions; the structure of English 101, 102, and 200-level classes, etc. Ideally, the SAGE representatives on this committee will represent the three major areas of Rhetoric and Composition, Creative Writing, and Literature. English Voting Department member.

Graduate Assembly Representative (1) - this position is probably the most important of all the committees in that through attending the biweekly meetings, our representative ensures that SAGE receives University funding (which we then use for travel support, awards, etc.). More information may be found at: http://www.ku.edu/~gpa/, and a listing of their duties here: http://www.ku.edu/~gpa/charges.shtml.

Graduate Committee (3) - this committee examines the structure of the graduate program in English; past issues have been language requirements (for example, they added Old English to the list of possible foreign languages a few years ago), the structure of the MA oral examination, etc. Ideally, the SAGE representatives on this committee will represent the three major areas of Rhetoric and Composition, Creative Writing, and Literature. English Voting Department member.

GTA/Lecturers Committee (3) - as the name suggests, this committee represents the department's GTAs and lecturers; previous issues that have been discussed are professional development and flipping the order of GTA teaching schedule so that new GTAs would teach 101 first. Ideally, the SAGE representatives on this committee will represent the three major areas of Rhetoric and Composition, Creative Writing, and Literature. English Voting Department member.

Lecturers/Readers Committee (3) - this committee, which consists of both faculty and graduate students, determines the program of visiting lecturers and writers to the English department each year. Ideally, the SAGE representatives on this committee will represent the three major areas of Rhetoric and Composition, Creative Writing, and Literature. English Voting Department member.

Library Committee (1) - this is a fairly new committee, created by Emily Wicktor in the fall of 2002. This committee allows graduate students in the department to have a voice in the decisions of the University's libraries (purchasing policies, etc.). English Voting Department member.

MFA Committee (1)

Professionalization Workshop Committee (3) – this committee is dedicated to identifying and creating workshops which will, as its name suggest, aid graduate students in becoming more professional. Past workshops have dealt with preparation for conferences, scholarly publishing, creative publishing, etc.

Public and Alumni Relations (1)

Summer Institutes Committee (1)

Supplemental Funds (1) – this committee allocates departmental funds for travel to scholarly conferences. English Voting Department member.

SAGE Advice Editor (1-2) - our newsletter is published 3-4 times a year; previous issues are archived on the SAGE web.

SAGE Events Committee (3-4) - these are the students who plan social events, such as the SAGE Halloween Party, creative readings, etc., for the graduate students. A very vital committee!

SAGE Web Master (1) – this person is responsible for maintaining and updating information on the organization’s web site.

Your responsibility as a member of one of these committees would be to attend the meetings (or find a substitute), participate in the meeting, and take notes on the proceedings, which you will then report back to SAGE, either orally at the next SAGE meeting, or in writing (e-mail, etc.).

The schedules vary greatly from committee to committee; some meet several times a semester (as does the Graduate Assembly), while others only meet once a year. What I would recommend that interested parties should do is visit the SAGE website at http://www.ku.edu/~sage/, and click on "Officers". Under "2005-2006 SAGE Representatives and other officers", you will find the names and e-mail addresses of last year's officers. Please feel free to contact any of the former representatives with any questions that you might have about their particular committee.

Page Last Updated: June 11, 2008