COMMGrads Meeting Minutes
October 4, 2013
In Attendance: Rachel Elrom, Lauren Harris, Melissa Janoske, Julia Daisy Fraustino,
Irina Iles, Meridith Styer, Michael Steudeman, Jacqueline Bissell, Annie Laurie Nichols,
Devin Scott, Stephanie Madden, Yvonne Slosarski, Jessica Lu, Kim Hannah, Will Howell,
Amanda Irions, Megan Fitzmaurice, Sean Leuchtefeld
Melissa Welcomed Everybody
Everybody told Melissa CONGRATS on an AMAZING job talk colloquium
earlier today!
Announcement from Rachel
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Her friend is starting campaign for cervical cancer awareness
“Unmentionables for Awareness” is an art installation
She is collecting clean panties for this artwork during the next year
Officer Reports
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Congrats to Kim Hannah, our newest member of the Social Committee!
ARHU: Irina for Thomas
o Introductory meeting
 ARHU wants the career center to be geared more toward graduate
students – interested parties can talk to them about internship
searches, etc.
 ARHU emphasized their writing initiatives, including upcoming winter
dissertation writing retreat
 ARHU mentioned we can nominate people for the Grad Assistant
Advisory Committee (each college in ARHU forwards up to four
different names to the graduate school)
 ARHU wants us to go to their website
 ARHU wants to remind us about Travel $$$ available three times a
year – look for their emails about this
 ARHU wants us to know about the available graduate ombudsperson
office, info on the website – if you feel uncomfortable going to
somebody in the Dept., go to the ombudsperson
GSG: Irina
o GLO (law office) asking for more money, which means increase in our fees
(voted: NO.)
 Went over last year’s budget
 Goal for the year: housing literacy for international students
 Grad Pubs scheduled
 Possible Halloween party
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They give $15,000/year for events funding, so we should keep that in
mind
GSG asking whether we need wifi on busses. DOTS will financially
sponsor part for first year, nothing second year
 Cannot determine quality
 No pilot, no quality check, not on every bus
 $5 fee increase first year, plus [?$$?] next year to pay for this
 What we approve now cannot be revoked in the future
We voted: No.
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Dept. Assembly: Jade’s report TBD
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MTR: Yvonne and Will spoke about unionizing efforts
o Yvonne and Will working on their list
o Yvonne said that if you have any time even just for a second to talk to another
person, she’d love the help
 Goal: 2,500 signatures by January
o Will went to the meeting – goal is to talk to more people, COMM is pretty
much complete (in terms of signatures)
 Biggest problem is that there are entire schools and departments
where there is nobody on board (e.g., 0 business school students, 2
public policy students)
 Those in support need to make connections: think about people you
know in other departments/schools within the Grad School, reach out
to them to help collect signatures in their departments
o Melissa suggested we get public testimony from last year and have that
available for anybody discussing, others agreed
 Yvonne will work on this
Old Business
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Timely Pay Request. Thomas was the voice for many people last meeting regarding
desire for timely pay!
o Jade and Jess drafted a letter to Dr. Toth
 Jade and Melissa went to a meeting
 Dr. Toth was very supportive
 She was unaware of just how big of a problem this was, so we
were able to provide some concrete examples to her to let her
know how large and widespread an issue this is
 Dr. Toth agreed to ask the business office to give us a clearer
understanding of each step of the process
 She told Jade and Melissa she is committed to taking steps and
will keep us informed of those steps
o Yvonne suggested we be provided with a timeline (e.g., approx. how long
does X take and why?)
 Melissa will request and update on this
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NCA Volunteer Request. Kim spoke about need for NCA Volunteers
o Needed for Friday, November 22, 7:30-9:30 p.m. event
o Volunteers needed at the door, 3-4 people at each, 30 min. shifts
o NCA Marriott location
o Look for a Doodle from Kim
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Research in Real Life. Meridith spoke about Research in Real Life Colloquium
o Purpose is to share research as it is naturally related to our lives (how our
research influences real life, practical applications)
o Planning/scheduling coffee date: Jacqueline and Megan will get coffee and
decide what to do from there
 Email Meridith if you want to help put together some of these events
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FILL OUT JADE’S SURVEY!!!
o For department evaluation (confidential!)
o Talk about the awesome stuff and the not-so-awesome stuff
o Also, anonymous feedback may be submitted to Jade or Irina
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Blog. Check out the commgrads blog (http://commgrads.wordpress.com/)
o Let Julia know if you have any info you want up on the blog, want to link to
things, if you achieve something we can showcase, etc.
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SONA and the Under-18s. Yvonne spoke about alternate assignments
o Yvonne is setting up an alternate SONA assignment for under-18s
o If you have items you need help with (e.g., research, coding, etc.), let Yvonne
know
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Other thoughts/ideas? If you have other things you want to see us accomplish or
take on, talk to Melissa! Shoot her an email, see her in the hall, etc.
Meeting adjourned.
Let Julia Daisy Fraustino know if you have any questions (jdf@umd.edu).