GEA Meeting 4 December 2015
1) The President called the meeting to order.
Members in attendance:
Nicole Birch-Bayley
Veronica Litt
Katherine Shwetz
Christina Turner
Olivia Pellegrino
Joel Faber
2) A motion to approve the agenda was proposed (Joel), seconded (Veronica), and passed.
3) Motion to approve the minutes of Sept. 16 & Nov. 5 was introduced (Katherine),
seconded (Olivia), and passed.
4) General announcements
 Regrets: Margeaux Feldman, Cristina D’Amico, Chris Kelleher, Anastasia Maryukova
5) Reports
a) President’s report – Nicole Birch-Bayley
 Thanks to Olivia & the social committee for very successful events throughout
the term, especially last night’s Holiday Party; thanks for how the social
committee’s events
 Huge thank you to English department staff for their multifarious helps
throughout the semester – Marguerite, Sangeeta, and Debra. Also to Alan &
Lynne for their interest and openness to engage with the GEA.
 Looking ahead to next semester – continued health/wellness, job talks and
related coffee hours; Academics Read Things They Wrote As Kids, hosted by
Margeaux and the GEA
 Equity Rep: we’ll have to postpone the creation of that position because we don’t
have quorum in this meeting
 Possible changes to the study carrel system; promoting transparency about
where people can work regularly
o Q: First-come, first-serve?
A: More like Massey College: put in an application that explains why a
desk would be valuable to you. Re-applications just to ensure that space is
continuing to be used.
o Q: Is it the GEA’s position that students should be guaranteed space?
A: No, it’s simply not possible, since there aren’t enough carrels. We’d like
to promote efficient and respectful use of the space(s).
o It might be beneficial to designate space for MA students, to ensure that
they do get space. We’re considering designating a room or two for MA
use, perhaps also for drop-in
o Good for the culture of the building to be upfront and straightforward
about how we’re using our study space.
o Other doctoral programs in the country guarantee office space! Let’s do
our best to settle good claims.
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Graduate Student Conference: theme “Movements & Migrancies”
Date: April 27 & 28
-> if anyone wants to help, please contact Nicole or another conference
committee member
b) Vice-President’s report – Veronica Litt
 Brown Bag Lunches have been going AMAZINGLY – thanks to Thom Dancer &
Andrea Charise for exciting, engaging talks and to everyone who came to listen.
Next semester Alex, Denise, and Naomi
 the Siblings Program continues to function; good to notice that this is fostering
relationships between PhDs and MAs, too
 surveys! comps & committee formation experience – more to come from the
Secretary
 Multipurpose Room: is being taken up a LOT by dissertation writing groups,
much too much since reading groups/other GEA entities are having to meet
elsewhere
o Let’s redirect the dissertation writing groups to Sangeeta to ask about
meeting space on the 6th floor – she’s been very helpful and receptive to
arranging space for other groups, and this would suit the needs of the
dissertation writing group(s) perfectly
 PLEASE DO YOUR DISHES #disshues
c) Treasurer’s report – Katherine Shwetz
 Treasuring continues apace. We’re still a little broke but things are fine.
#gradstudentlife
 This year’s project is to stay under budget so as to leave next year’s exec with a
stronger starting position – reading groups and cohorts will receive slightly less
this year
 Over the last couple years the carry-over from one year to the next has gone
down bit by bit, so the goal is to reverse that trend
d) Secretary’s report – Joel Faber
 Topic of my report is a pair of surveys dealing with two concerns: comps &
committee formation
 53 responses to date to the comps survey, from a wide range of years; I’ll
provide a brief summary here but for further details please catch me after the
meeting/get in touch and I’ll be happy to talk
o Re: prep for the exam. Roughly 25% of respondents thought they were
well prepared, 30% neither well/poorly, 45% poorly. Most commented
that the dep’t’s instructions were vague/unhelpful
o Re: assessment criteria. 10% thought the dep’t communicated criteria
well, 15% neither well/poorly, and 75% poorly. Comments can be
summarized by quoting a word often used: the evaluation process is
“opaque”
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o Re: possibility of failure. 20% thought the dep’t prepared them well for
the possibility of failing, 20% neither well/poorly, and 60% poorly.
Respondents who commented on re-taking described receiving “almost
no” support from the dep’t, with the exception of one person who
identified Deidre Lynch as having been very helpful
o Re: helpful resources. Many respondents commented on how useful it
was to see sample papers, though it would’ve been really useful to also
see a fail paper, and/or received some evaluative commentary on the
papers
In general people want to see comps improved rather than removed entirely,
especially by having it frankly described (it’s ok that the list is huge and the exam
is stressful – just make that clear rather than describing the summer as one of
sunshine & roses) and targeted more intentionally at being useful to our
professional development (e.g. with oral element, or more explicitly shaped
around survey course reading/teaching)
Immediate action points arising from the survey: we the exec will meet in
January to settle on the best course of action . . . probably beginning by talking to
Alan/Lynne/Cannon, and perhaps with some official presentation to the spring
GEC. Any comments/advice welcome, especially from senior GEA members
familiar with how the dep’t works
o Also we’ll keep the idea of a GEA repository of comps papers & resources
going – this is something I’d particularly like to get together this winter
Second survey is in the works, on the topic of committee formation – COMING
SOON TO AN INBOX NEAR YOU
o this survey is designed to help express and clarify GEA members’
concerns with how difficult/problematic the process of forming a
committee can be
o its goals will be 1) to communicate this concern to the dep’t and 2) to help
the GEA understand what kind of support we can offer to students
heading into committee formation
o while I’ll be monitoring responses over the winter, our intention is to
focus on dealing with the comps survey results and leave the committee
formation survey to next year’s exec
conclude with a note on the status of these surveys & results: while not topsecret the dep’t doesn’t officially know about them, and we’d prefer that they
hear it first via the GEA exec, in an official and comprehensive manner – if you
could refrain from talking about the surveys too widely that’d be wise (thanks!)
o similarly, I won’t be publishing the results officially yet, so while I’m
happy to share them with GEA members I won’t be e-mailing anything – if
you’re curious please e-mail me and I’d be happy to share/discuss the
surveys & results in person
e) Other reports
 GSU: everything is getting restructured to bring things in line with usual nonprofit practices for meetings, sizes of council, etc.
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CUPE (Cristina D’Amico in absentia): at the Unit 1 meeting last night the union
decided not to send the question of whether or not to distribute the existing
funds in the GSBF to a referendum. CUPE has officially filed its complaint
regarding the university’s failure to administer that fund as promised.
Demonstration on Dec. 15 – stay tuned for details
MA (Anastasia Maryukova in absentia): bonding! over shared dislike of Critical
Topographies. some great events this term, thanks for social committee/Olivia’s
work on events 
PhD 1 (Olivia Pellegrino): good year so far; TTA good for bringing the cohort
together, but its book history and medieval-style focus isn’t that helpful or
practical for this year’s contemporary-heavy cohort . . . what about a stronger
emphasis on professionalization? grant/abstract writing, conference papers,
workshops on academic writing, etc. This reading for this course has been a LOT
of work, for some the most stressful course this semester.
PhD 2 (Christina Turner): committee formation was a serious challenge for some
of the PhD 2s this year – a minority seems to have had an easy time, while most
had some kind of difficulty; several felt like
o some faculty members refused to meet with prospective students
o lack of clarity about who is responsible for finding a student a supervisor
o Christina has a sense that the process is somewhat confusing for faculty
members, too
o it would be good to talk about the timeline, too, since it can be tough to
clear the comps hurdle and then run into committee formation. if the
dep’t wants special fields to happen in the spring, committee formation
has to start happening before September of second year
6. No New Business.
7. Motion to adjourn is introduced (Katherine), seconded (Christina), and passed. Meeting
is adjourned.