January 28, 2004
Minutes of the GABS meeting held January 28, 2004
I. Jennifer Barwick, President, called the meeting to order at 1:34 pm.
II. Jennifer Barwick formally thanked Susanne Hauswaldt and Jennifer Jost for organizing and executing the annual Families Helping Families event. Jennifer Jost informed GABS that >$500.00 was raised and >100 presents were purchased.
III. Baruch Graduate Student. The retreat will be held from April 23 – 25, 2004. Topics discussed included encouragement of other departments (aside from biology) to participate in the retreat, committee member recruitment for retreat logistics and planning (for which sign-up sheets were circulated) and the need for student talk judges.
IV. Seminar Speakers. Both of GABS’ first choice speakers accepted this semester’s invitations. Gavin Naylor will be visiting on February 16 and Fred Nijhout will be visiting May 3. Fall 2004 seminar speaker nominations will be solicited via email by Jenn Barwick.
V. Preparing Future Faculty (PFF). A greater enrollment in PFF is desired by GABS.
VI. Dr. Woodin. Dr. Woodin answered GABS student questions for approximately 15 minutes. Kim Schneider inquired as to the status of graduate student representatives on various faculty committees. Dr. Woodin replied by there have been no significant changes on graduate student participation in faculty committees over the past ~ 9 months. Ken Oswald inquired as to the status of the departmental chair search. Dr. Woodin informed GABS that the faculty voted to discontinue the chair search and meld it into Center of Excellence proposals to hire a plant-oriented researcher (headed by Dr. Vance) and a molecular/cancer researcher (headed by Dr. Berger). Susanne Hauswaldt asked Dr. Woodin how the merger among Arts and Sciences would affect the biology graduate students? Dr. Woodin then informed GABS that this merger will have minimal, if any, impact upon graduate students in biology.
Ken Oswald, GABS Secretary