PACT Meeting 2020-09-02

Meeting Notes

Pandemic

• Concerns, issues, and uncertainties starting this semester.  [Anthony]
  • How do you get things from Bloomberg or print stuff?
    • Ask student services what the norm is. [Anthony]
    • How to get into Bloomberg on a daily basis. [Anthony]

Old Business

• Orientation.  [Anthony]
  • 6 incoming CS students and 6 incoming IS students.
  • Student services believe they cannot release student names due to FERPA.
    • Ask student services to update the PhD listing on website: https://tech.cornell.edu/people/phd-students/ [Anthony]

• Need a new ECE representative.  [Anthony]
  • One ECE student who is not available for this position.
  • Leaving this position empty.

• House experiences with COVID-19.  [Alane]
  • One issue so far around getting small furniture allowed.
  • Furniture policy is too strict and unwieldy for case-by-case basis.
  • A lot of furniture was moved in earlier when House was less strict, and the rule then was existing, provided furniture could not be removed.
    • • Push for more input on the House Experience document.  [Alane]
      • We’ll expect to review this and publish by the next PACT meeting.

• Scheduling virtual happy hours or other social events.  [Alane]
  • Most available time to schedule a happy hour seems to be every-other Friday @ 5 PM.
    • Schedule happy hour. [Alane ask Wenqi]

• Well-Being updates.  [Natalie]
  • PhD matching program, which sent out a survey last week.
  • Natalie will be sending out the matches for the matching program.

New Business

• Asking Cornell Tech if we could fund a CitiBike corporate membership program for students.  [Rama]
  • https://www.citibikenyc.com/pricing/bike-for-business
  • Opt-in after 10 minimum membership.
  • Unknown if Cornell Tech will have the money to pay for the corporate membership.
  • Verification requires a program manager to notify CitiBike customer service within 72 hours.
  • Could PACT pay for this?  It would use the money we need to use, but also it’s a large commitment compared to existing money.
    • Ask about faculty interest in signing up for this?  [Rama]

• Add all new students to the PhD slack channel.  [Eugene]
  • There is an email list that is maintained by student services that reaches all PhDs, but includes administration.
    • Ask IS dept for a new student list and add them to the channel. [Rama]
    • Ask CS dept for a new student list and add them to the channel. [Alane]