PACT Meeting 2020-08-06

Meeting Notes

Pandemic

• Follow up on what we know about previous questions and concerns about summer and fall?  (Anthony)
  • What is the plan for when Bloomberg will open again as an office space?
    • Still unknown.
  • How will first year students be welcomed to campus?
    • Online orientation and Info Fairs.  Entirely online instruction, moving in on a case by case basis for PhDs.
  • Will the campus schedule or reopening schedule for fall differ from Ithaca?
    • Yes, remaining on the original 2020-2021 calendar.
  • What form will fall semester take?
    • Online instruction, except for a couple exceptions (ex: Studio).
  • Will funding for PACT be impacted by reductions in discretionary spending?
    • Not impacted.

New Business

• House experiences with COVID-19.  (Alane)
  • There are a lot of long-standing issues that impact the experience of students living in the House.
    • TODO [Alane]: Create a doc for people to list issues.
    • TODO [Amy]: Send doc to Masters students’ Slack channel to solicit additional responses.

• Requesting volunteers for staffing orientation and info fair events.  (Anthony)
  • Travers to cover Info Fair on Tuesday August 25th: 8-9.
  • Anthony to cover Info Fair on Wednesday August 26th: 2-3.
    • TODO [Anthony]: Send volunteer assignments to Sarah Rubin.

• • Orientation Student Panel on Tuesday September 1st: 11-12.
    • TODO [Anthony]: Will ask again closer to date (Anthony).

• • • TODO [Anthony]: Ask Jackie for a list of new PhD students (or at least a count).

• Scheduling virtual happy hour.  (Alane)
  • Will hold it every other week virtually, to encourage more participation.
    • TODO [Alane]: Create a Slack poll to schedule time (Alane).

• Starting the GPSA funding application process.  (Travers)
  • • TODO [Travers]: Schedule meeting with Jackie to discuss requirements.
      

• Starting a PACT Google Drive folder.  (Anthony)
  • We have an existing Drive folder started by Eugene.

• Scheduling recurring PACT meetings.  (Anthony)
  • • TODO [Anthony]: Will ask closer to the end of August.
      

• Need a new ECE representative.  (Anthony)
  • • TODO [Anthony]: Ask Jackie for a list of current ECE PhD students.

• Broad plans for using our money this year.  (Anthony)
  • Though we continue to have money, it’s challenging to think of what to spend it on due to Bloomberg closure and the lack of shared physical spaces.
  • We can spend money in Spring more heavily, assuming students are able to work in-person.
  • We can also think about activities to spend money on that could be done remotely.