BGSA Meeting 2-2-2015
Call to order: 1:35 pm
Approval of January Minutes: approved
Graduate office report: Clare
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Still looking for 7 more student hosts for Friday, 2/6. If available, email Clare.
BICP: Rob Allen (President; raa32@pitt.edu ) and Mitali Patil (incoming President)
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Bioengineering Innovation & Commercialization Program
o http://bicppitt.wix.com/bicp
o bcip.pitt@gmail.com
o http://twitter.com/PittBICP
o http://www.facebook.com/PITTBICP
Currently housed in BioE
Programming is networking/experiential learning for careers in industry and
entrepreneurship.
Events:
o Networking events, ie “Bridges to Bio”, a semi-annual event that recruits
professionals from startups and industry in the Pittsburgh area to network with
students
o Happy hours
o Matchmaking for internships (stems out of networking events)
o Panther Tank
o Discussion panels (ie Career Paths in Entrepreneurship)
Funded externally- currently taking no money from the University to maintain autonomy
Involved with Biomedical Breakfast, which takes place weekly at Marty’s Market in the
Strip. https://www.facebook.com/BioBreakfast
WSMA: Rachael and Nyla
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Women in Science and Medicine Conference (Rachael)
o March 5 & 6
o Registration opened last week- everyone in BGSA should have received an email
invitation.
o Registration is free to Pittsburgh students using code BURGHSALE
o BGSA members at the meeting obtained posters to hang up in research facilities
o Please help recruit postdocs to lead table discussions at the Thursday night dinner
 Looking for 15 postdocs total
 ~3 hours of their time on March 5
 Does not have to be a “traditional”/academic postdoc
 WSMA has an email template ready
 Please email Rachael with your suggestions: their name and a 1-2
sentence description of why you think they’d be good at facilitating
discussion between students.
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o WSMA will follow up with Jenn Boatz about the BGSA-hosted breakout session.
Will need somebody on site on Friday to manage that breakout session and the
speaker.
o WSMA is looking for volunteers to introduce speakers on Thursday and Friday at
the conference. More info is forthcoming but email Rachael if you are interested.
o The Friday lunch will have tables focused on different topics in biomedical
careers. If you have an idea for a topic you’d like to see, email Rachael.
Writing Seminar (Nyla)
o Series went well
o Good feedback: seemed particularly useful for students who are in the process of
preparing manuscripts.
o Looking to be a yearly event.
GPSG: Aliyah
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PhD Comics event will tentatively be Wednesday, April 8- pending approval of a
supplemental funding application from GPSG.
o If the full amount is not approved, BGSA will work with Public Health and
Engineering to cover the remaining amount.
Graduate Student Appreciation Week is April 6-12. GPSG is planning a number of fun
events: more info forthcoming.
TEDx will be Sunday, April 12 from 11 am-3 pm in the WPU.
o Title of event: “Reformation in the State of Assimilation”
o Still looking for volunteers to help organize; email
communications.pittgpsg@gmail.com.
o Current speakers (either lined up or in the works) are Chancellor Gallagher,
Mayor Bill Peduto, and Terrance Hayes, a Pitt professor who recently won the
MacArthur Genius Award.
 Looking for 6 speakers total
 Student speakers are a possibility; more info closer to the event.
o Event is open to undergraduate and graduate/professional students.
Panthers and Politics
o Upcoming talks will focus on communicating to political representatives
(probably in March) and how the government works
o Leading up to Harrisburg Day
 On a Tuesday in March (no specific date yet)
 Grad students will speak to committees related to higher education and
funding.
o DC Day on Monday-Tuesday April 13-14
 Speak to federal government representatives and agencies on higher
education policy and funding
o If sign-ups for Harrisburg Day and DC Day exceed capacity, priority will go to
students who have attended the Panthers and Politics talks this semester
All travel grants still are getting funded. Next cycle opens March 1 for travel in May and
June.
o Students can receive 1 travel grant per fiscal year July 1-June 30.
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Was not mentioned at the meeting: If anyone is interested in running for a GPSG
Executive Board position for the 2015-16 academic year, visit
http://gpsg.pitt.edu/elections and email pittgpsg@gmail.com with any questions. The
deadline for applications is February 13.
Tresaurer’s report: Abhishek – not in attendance – prepared statement
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We have $3398.83 in our First Niagara account and $7646.85 in our SORC
account.
The letters requesting funding from the various departments will be going out at
the end of this week. I’ll probably slash the amount we request by $50-100 since
we do have a larger influx coming in from SORC (but not too much either).
o BGSA council feels that this is a bad idea. We already do not get a lot of
money from the departments, and if we ask for less it will be harder to get
an increase if ever necessary in the future.
I would like to request the WSMA reps to give me a price tag for one of the subevents that is around $700-1000 as I want to ask Pharm money for a specific thing
and that would be an easy way to do it.
Events and Publicity: Mayowa & Chelsea
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Ski Trip (Mayowa)
o February 28 from 4-10 pm
o Bus availability for 55 people
o Subsidized skiing, snowboarding, & snowtubing. Lessons are not subsidized.
There are lots of other activities going on at Seven Springs too, including mini
golf, bowling, swimming, and roller skating.
o ~20 tickets have been sold already
o Mayowa/Greg will send out a reminder email weekly leading up to each
remaining date to purchase tickets.
Dave and Busters (Chelsea)
o Wednesday March 18
o BGSA will charge $3 to reserve your space.
o Wednesdays are 50% off games and drinks and a discount on food. We don’t
need to reserve a space there, we can just go as a group.
o If less than 20 people sign up, each will get a $15 game card.
o If more than 20 people sign up, the $3 fee will go towards purchasing additional
$15 game cards.
o Remaining money will go towards food.
Symposium (Chelsea & Mike)
o October 28
o Students who were interested collated a list of potential speakers, which has now
been voted on and narrowed down.
 Top choice is Shirley Tilghman
 First female president of Princeton/second female president of an
Ivy League school
 Currently is incoming president of ASCB
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Into advocacy
Chelsea has heard her speak previously on Opinions on the Future
Direction of Research, including NIH funding, academia, etc.
 Second choice is Mary-Claire King
 Discoverer of BRCA1
 Currently working at UC Berkeley
o Lindsey Kelly suggested informing students that lactation rooms are available if
requested. This is a suggestion not just for the symposium, but for any long event
in the future.
Comps panel (Chelsea)
o Target is to host in early April
o Program reps: please suggest students in your program who can speak at the
panel. We would like a student from each program- this has been a problem in
the past.
Other event ideas
o Greg: BGSA in the past has done something for Graduate Student Appreciation
Week, ie leaving bagels in the lobby. We have a few meetings before we need to
plan something, but just to throw the idea out for now.
o Lindsey: Similar to comps panel event but geared towards students who are
preparing to write their thesis.
o Nilesh: Do any programs have a student-organized forum to discuss research or
papers, at which no faculty are in attendance? Pharm has one in place. The
consensus is that if one were to be organized by the BGSA that it would be too
many students; this is something that should be organized on a program level.
Immunology students will talk about starting something.
Community service: Greg
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Not anything imminent, but BGSA should think about organizing its own
community service projects
Already involved with Pitt Science Outreach, Sciencepalooza, science fair
judging.
Grounds for Grades: Greg Buchan – not in attendance
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Working with Dave Gau and GPSG
Potentially starting a pilot program this March
Constitution: Greg and Aliyah
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Sections to be voted on: BGSA Officers (Executive Board and Representatives) &
Membership
Questions
o How many program reps per program?
 1-3. This answer is in a subsequent section of the Constitution that will be
reviewed in March.
o How often will program reps be required to send out information?
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No need (at the moment) to send minutes out to the entire program every
month. The program reps will be required to send out information about
upcoming BGSA events as the information becomes available.
Comments
o Council liked the new structure of the board. Felt that the “VP” titles will look
nice on a CV, and differentiate well from the current titles so that the offices
embrace their new roles instead of falling into old habits.
Vote to approve the abovementioned sections: unanimous. (Voting members in
attendance: Greg Logan, Aliyah Weinstein, Chelsea Merkel, Venky Raghavan, Adetunji
Fayomi, Mansi Shah, Mike Calderon, Nilesh Amatya, Nyla Naim, Lindsey Kelly)
We will continue to review and vote on small portions of the Constitution throughout the
spring. Next section will be on Voting.
Attendance
Greg Logan
Aliyah Weinstein
Rob Allen (guest, BICP)
Mitali Patil (guest, BICP)
Chelsea Merkel
Venky Raghavan
Ademayowa Balogun
Puja Parekh
Adetunji Fayomi
Mansi Shah
Mike Calderon
Nilesh Amatya
Agustin Cruz
Myla Naim
Rachael Gordon
Lindsey Kelly
Noah Peyser
Clare Gauss (grad office)