Food for Thought

Please share your thoughts on this month's Food for Thought Discussion

It is important to keep GSS a very active organization. This can only be achieved through members who actively participate in events and give of their time for the betterment of the Graduate Student Experience at The University of Iowa. The GSS Constitution explains that senators are expected to be active on at least one committee [IV.A.3.d]. During a goal-setting and team building event, the Executive Council and Committee Chairs discussed the need to explicitly offer senators tangible benefits for being actively involved. One way in which we are proposing is to keep better track of the service hours senators spend on GSS-related activities. We propose to have different levels of recognition as follows:

October 2008 Food for Thought
Topics for the Graduate Enrichment Series

The Educational Outreach Committee would like your thoughts on what topics and specific lectures you think would be interesting for the Graduate Enrichment Series. Please post your comments and help shape the lectures GSS provides to all graduate students. Thank you!

November 2008 Food for Thought
Mentors and Mentees Responsibilities and Expectations

The Academic Mentoring Committee would like your input regarding the responsibilities that a graduate student mentor would have and the expectations that a students who wishes to be mentored would have.

In other words: if you want to be a mentor to an undergraduate or a first year graduate student, what are your expectations in terms of the type of advise that you would have to give and what should be your responsibilities as a mentor.

January 2009 Food for Thought
GSS Fundraiser

 We would like to have a fundraiser that will help cover the cost of the service reward system, provide funds for committee work not funded by student activity fees, and to give back to community organizations and agencies.  We want your input.  What would you buy?  What might your advisor or staff in your department buy?  How much is too much?  How should we advertise this?  Who will work on this?

February 2009 Food for Thought
Graduate College Programming

 The Graduate college has been inquiring with GSS about different types of programming that we as graduate students would like to have on campus.  Some types of programming includes teaching topics, CV resources, and others mentioned by Dean Keller.  What do you want?  What types of seminars would you like to see offered by the graduate college?  Do you have any specific speakers you would like to suggest to the Graduate College?  Blog it!