COMMGrads Meeting Minutes 9/14
I. Attendance: Jade Olson, Elizabeth Gardner, Jessica Lu, Kelly Madden, Lauren Windt,
Mike Paquette, Katie Kuhn, Tim Penn, Annie Laurie Nichols, Michael Steudeman,
Meridith Styers, Monica Zhan, Sheena Chien, Jenny Shi, Yvonne Slosarski, Kim Hannah,
Thomas McCloskey, Irina Isles, Ning Xie, Julia Fraustino, Amanda Kennedy, Rachel
Elrom
II. Departmental Assembly (Sean)
A. Highlights from September 7 meeting
1. Faculty Advisory Committee will be comprised of J. Klumpp (chair), B. F. Liu
(secretary), E. Fink
2. Translation & Interpretation program is fully approved to launch in 2013, and
we’re trying to secure both money and a Director
3. Shady Grove has now been profitable two years in a row!
4. E. Toth will be appointing a task force to re-envision our undergraduate
curriculum
5. Personnel Update: We’re looking for…
a. Tenure-track rhetoric faculty
b. Director of Translation & Interpretation Program
c. Assistant to the Shady Grove Coordinator (Ahnlee Jang currently
stepping up while Lyndsi Baltz has babies)
d. “Contingency I” personnel for COMM Advising Office
6. Give S. Khamis your social fund money
7. Department is moving to an electronic scheduling system for Conference
Rooms, Risk Center space, Media Center, etc.
8. Risk Center should be up and running by the end of this semester. There will
be tours/trainings, and folks should consider using it.
III. ARHU report (Elizabeth)
A. Worldwise (arhuinsights.umd.edu) – Website for research in humanities
1. Video clips of faculty explaining their research related to humanities to
better articulate what humanities researchers do
2. Clips will be rolled out during the semester on the website
3. Dr. Khamis is one of the researchers highlighted
B. Library of Congress research orientation
1. We will get emails about this
C. ARHU travel award deadlines
1. Graduate students can apply for ARHU travel money through the
department
2. Materials for application due to Shawn (grad director) by Sept. 24 for
this round
a. Travel award competitions occur several times throughout the
year
3. Awards available to travel to NCA, ICA, or AEJMC
4. Shawn sent out an email with more details
D. Reminder of the + and – grading system for this semester
1. B+, B- you receive different grade points toward your GPA
E. Open Scholar – resource for students/faculty to find other scholars in other
departments who are doing similar research
1. Do we think this would be a good resource? Do we want to go forward
with this
F. ARHU will be holding panel discussions about working outside academia,
working at community colleges
1. Students at meeting suggested consulting, outside work would be other
panel discussion options
III. Colloquium
A. Dr. Erich Sommerfeldt now chair of colloquium committee
B. Colloquium series is now geared toward graduate students
C. Upcoming colloquia
1. Friday, Oct 5 – Two doctoral students giving job talks
2. Friday, Nov. 9 – NCA presentations
3. Friday, Dec. 7 – Dr. Carl Botan from George Mason
4. Times to be determined
D. Big NEWS! Pizza will be provided
E. Dr. Sommerfeldt would like to hear from graduate students about colloquium
ideas for the spring
1. We do have funds to bring in outside speakers from nearby
colleges/universities, or those outside of academia
2. Also will consider professors from other departments
F. Big takeaway – you need to show up!
IV. Fundraising and Philanthropy
A. Mike asked for ideas
1. Fundraising
a. Creating t-shirts with sayings on them and selling to undergrads
b. Selling coffee
c. People cook food and others pay for it
d. Do we want to set a goal for how much to raise?
2. Philanthropy
a. Book drive
b. Canned food drive
c. Lake Cleanup
d. MTR to knock on doors
e. Participating in philanthropy our grad students already involved
with (serving meals, running 5Ks, etc.)
B. Any additional ideas, send them to Mike
1. Mike looking to create a small committee of fundraising/philanthropy
V. Social events (Jess)
A. Thanks for coming to the potluck picnic on the Mall!
B. More local events are planned (around College Park)
1. Check out Grad Pub
2. Debate watching parties planned (more details to come)
3. Taste of DC – Jess sent out email with details
4. Social committee would love suggestions (Jess, Elizabeth, Shawn)
VI. MTR (Ning)
A. What rights do we want as graduate students?
B. How should they contact us?
1. Students asked for pamphlets or flyers rather than MTR reps showing
up at our classes
VII. Miscellaneous
A. Vote for Yvonne for Graduate Student Government representative
1. You can vote at gsg.umd.edu
B. Grad student/faculty happy hour
1. Friday, Oct. 5 – tentative time 3 p.m.
C. Pepsi Grant update
1. Department of Communication graduate students will be holding miniworkshops on Saturday, Oct. 27 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., in Skinner building
2. Expect faculty to come
3. Appreciate any help graduate students can offer that Saturday and
preparing for the workshops
D. COMM Prom
1. Possible social event/winter formal where we get to dress up
2. People showed interest
3. Some expressed beginning of spring semester would be the best time
E. Held vote for graduate student to serve on graduate studies committee
1. Nominated students: Adam Richards, Julia Fraustino, Kelly Madden,
Mike Paquette
F. Note – Revision to dates for upcoming Comm Grads meetings
1. Friday, Oct. 19
2. Friday, Nov. 9
3. Friday, Dec. 7