UW Physics Graduate Student Representatives

12X Coordinating Committee Representative
The 12X committee determines the policy for the Physics 12X course sequence, including determining the textbook and syllabus, grading policy, coordination of lectures, labs, and tutorials, and study center. Since most graduate students serve as TA's for this course sequence at some point, many of these policies have a large impact on us. Also, since we often interact with students in these courses more than their professors do, through teaching in labs, tutorials, and the study center, as well as through grading exams, graduate students may have unique and important insights into how these courses are or are not serving the students. The role of the 12X committee representative is to communicate the insights and interests of the graduate students to the committee.

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ASE Committee Representative
The ASE Committee meets as needed to discuss issues pertaining to Academic Student Employees (TA's and RA's) and to make sure that all policies and procedures in the Department follow the union rules (GSEAC/UAW Contract). This year they met a few times during the fall quarter to discuss changes of wording to bring offer letters and other ASE related documents into compliance with union rules.

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Diversity Committee Representative
This new committee will be meeting for the first time this year (2005) and the composition of the committee is a work in progress. Most likely, though, members of the faculty, 1 or 2 grad students and probably some staff members will sit on this committee. This committee's task is to advise the chair on 1.) the recruitment and retention of women and minority faculty and students and 2.) steps needed to ensure that the Department provide an atmosphere in which all members are encouraged and enabled to be highly professionally productive while balancing the demands of family and career.

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Events Committee
The Events Committee is responsible for the Blair outing to introduce new graduate students to the Department and the Northwest and also advises on the Spring Barbecue. Grad students on this committee also help organize the Final Friday Flings.

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Examination (Qual) Committee Representative
The Qual Committee Student Representatives have two main responsibilities. The Rep should express the views and opinions of UW physics students to the Qual Committee at any meetings, which the chair of the Qual Committee call as needed. The second role of the student rep is to provide support to students taking the exam. This can be done with informational sessions, cookies, and generally making oneself available to students. In addition, the qual committee rep should survey students after taking the qual and report the student's impression (was it too long? was it fair? which sections were the hardest? etc.) to the Qual Committee. In spring, when fewer students take the qual, this may be done via email or online survey. In the autumn, when more students take the qual, a meeting (with food) might be a better idea.

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Faculty Spy
The major responsibility of the faculty spy is to attend faculty meetings and take good notes about any and all issues that may be of interest to graduate students, then to send these notes out to all the graduate students. Faculty meetings can actually be quite lively at times, and you get a good sense of the departmental dynamics by attending them. From time to time, Boulware will ask you for your opinion on an issue that pertains to graduate students (sometimes on the spot during the meeting without any warning in front of the whole faculty). This can be quite difficult unless you know how to best represent the entire graduate student body on that issue off the top of your head. Boulware is learning that the faculty spy is not the correct person to ask these questions of and that he needs to be going through the PGSC spokesperson, so this aspect of the job is getting much better. The faculty meetings are once a month, usually on the first Wednesday at 3:30 pm, and typically last about an hour or an hour and a half (there's a closed session after that, but they kick the faculty spy out).

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Graduate Committee Representative
The Grad Committee Rep will attend graduate committee meetings regularly. These take about 1 hour every 2 weeks. Reps try to represent how students feel about issues that really affect them, using informal conversations, surveys, or whatever seems to work to get feedback and ideas. You should also report to students (through the PGSC) on major issues that are being discussed. Hence, the actual time commitment is larger than just the meetings. Notes: This is a more challenging position, but also very important. The grad committee makes decisions about graduate curriculum, requirements, and improvements for the graduate program.

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GPSS Senators
Two people needed to be our senators to the Graduate and Professional Student Senate. Your job would be to go to monthly meetings, keep up on whatever issues are at hand, and inform physics students of things that are going on. Since GPSS also has money that we can apply for every year, you should also find out what we need to buy to improve grad student life (couches, ping-pong tables, grills, etc.) and write a proposal to GPSS for this money. Notes: the GPSS is the official student government for grads and professional students. They deal with issues in the university that affect us, as well as issues with the state legislature that affect us. Go to the Graduate & Professional Student Senate (GPSS) page for more info.

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Organizer of Grad Student Colloquium Speakers
The grad students get to select one colloquium speaker for quarter (this is distinct from the once-annual, but also grad-student-selected Boris Jacohbsen Memorial Lecturer). This person's job is 1.) to poll the students and find out who they want to speak 2.) to work with the colloquium organizer to invite the speakers and 3.) to find students who will show the visiting speaker around the department (should be easy since the students picked the speaker!). Since it can take a long time to find speakers and schedule their colloquium date, this person should start early- over the summer!

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PGSC Spokesperson
The PGSC Spokesperson should form an agenda at the Autumn meeting with the chair of the department for what the grad students consider the most important issues to address that year. The Spokesperson should then work closely with the PGSC Committee reps, the chair of the department, any department committees, the Graduate Program Coordinator and the Graduate Adviser to address the issues raised in the Autumn meeting. This includes holding meetings with PGSC reps and with the graduate student body at large, surveying student opinion (via email, online surveys, chatting with people, etc.) and providing student feedback when the chair or committees ask for student opinions. In addition, the Spokesperson should organize the Fall Barbecue, manage the PGSC email account and run the Spring meeting with the chair, where the year's progress can be assessed and new issues raised for the coming year. For more on the Spokesperson, consult the PGSC constitution.

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PGSC Secretary/Treasurer
The PGSC Secretary/Treasurer's job is 1.) to manage the PGSC's money, which comes from a department fund controlled by the Department Administrator. Primarily, this means making sure people are reimbursed from this fund when they buy stuff for the PGSC (like food) and keeping track of how much money the PGSC has at any time, and 2.) taking notes at PGSC meetings and maintaining PGSC records (most of which are in the PGSC email account).

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Safety Committee Representative
The Safety Committee is responsible for maintaining a safe working environment and insuring compliance with University and federal safety rules. In particular, the Safety Committee is concerned with safety of students in labs and hence would like grad student input.

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Search Committee Liaison
Due to recent estimates that approximately 20 faculty members will retire in the next decade, the department will most likely go through the search and staffing process every year for the next 10 years. The Search Committee is formed as needed to 1.) decide when and how to search for candidates and in what areas to search (astro, condensed matter, etc.), write and place an ad announcing the search, read resumes and bring staffing candidates to the department for colloquia and interviews with all the groups in the department, the chair, and with the Search Committee. To involve grad students in this staffing process, the Search Committee Liaison will: 1.) organize lunches for grad students to meet with staffing candidates. Whatever group is hosting the candidate should also be invited to attend these lunches and should help organize them. 2.) administer online surveys of the grad students to get their impression of visiting candidates following the candidate's visit. This means writing the survey (very easy with Catalyst) and sending email reminders to phys-grads before and after the candidate's visit. 3.) organize and present the results of the online surveys to the Search Committee and answer any questions they have about the grad students' opinion of the candidate.

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STF Proposal Writer
The Student Technology Fee is a fund that all UW students pay $35 to every quarter (look at your tuition statement!). A committee of 6 undergrads and 3 grads elected through ASUW and GPSS, respectively, is then charged with deciding how to spend this money, where, by law, the money must be spent on technology (not limited to computers) that will be used exclusively students. Student groups must submit proposals to STF explaining their technology needs and detailing exactly what they need to buy to meet those needs. Historically, the STF Committee has roughly $4 million to spend and receives 60 to 80 proposals annually, funding roughly half of them fully and about 1/3 partially. In the past, the physics department has won funds for a radio telescope, a student lathe at CENPA and computers in the open labs in the A-wing, B-wing and bullpen. The STF Proposal writer should: 1.) determine in the autumn what computing/technology needs the grad students have (via email, online surveys, or by in-person interviews) 2.) write or find and help somebody to write the actual proposal (which is entirely online) before the December deadline and 3.) usher the proposal through the STF review process, which may mean going to the STF meetings and answering any questions the STF Committee has.

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