Fifth Report of the University and Academic Affairs Coordinator

Note to councillors: Unfortunately, I will be out of town for November Council. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. academic@pgss.mcgill.ca.

The month of October was certainly very busy, as you can see below. I will ask one of the Senators to provide a brief report to council on the proceedings of Senate. Most other meetings have reports attached to them below for further details..

Other Happenings

Failure Policy

Senate passed a new failure policy for graduate studies courses- students are given a total of one opportunity to write a supplemental or retake the first failed course. Failure on the second chance or any other course results in expulsion.

Failure to register

Beware of taking a course without registering: if you do all the work and yet somehow manage to fail, you might be automatically registered for the course as a failure. I'm not happy with this policy dreamed up by CSA (see report below).

GSO Supplemental Fees

Please report to me any incidents where the GSO tries to charge you a supplemental fee for letters, etc. Dr Crago has promised to put an end to this practise.

Supervision Seminars

On November 13th, the FGSR and PGSS will be hosting a workshop on building a positive working relationship with your supervisor. I am working on this workshop with Dr Crago- more details are to follow.

Research Ethics

RPC will be reviewing the research ethics policy in the coming months.

Academic Integrity

Expect to hear from me on this issue in the coming months. A workgroup has been formed to address certain on-campus issues. We play a two-fold role- first to act responsibly as researchers and students, but also to enforce University Policy as TA's.

Committee Rep Luncheon

The luncheon was poorly attended. :-( All committee reps should be sure they've read this.

CAPS

I am meeting with the CAPS Director and Dr Crago to discuss an improvement to services for grad students.

Away

I will be away for the week of Oct 30 to Nov 2. I hope the ship can float for a few days without me. :-)

Meetings

October 4: Committee on Student Affairs. Report.
October 5: Aaron Windsor and CRO.
October 10: Dean Crago.
October 10: Executive.
October 10: Senate Caucus.
October 11: Research Policy Committee.
October 11: Graduate Secretaries' Lunch.
October 11: Senate.
October 12: APPC. Report.
October 13: Academic Issues Committee. Report.
October 13: Graduate Faculty Council. Report.
October 16: Council.
October 17: CSA Subcommittee on Academic Integrity. Report.
October 18: University Affairs Committee (Rep Luncheon). Report.
October 18: CGSS.
October 23: Budget Planning Group (cancelled).
October 24: Dean Crago and CAPS Director Gregg Blatchford.
October 24: CUTL Workshop on Graduate Supervision.
October 24: Executive.
October 25: Women Students' Issues
October 25: Senate.
October 26: APPC.
October 30: Grad Faculty Exec (will miss).
October 31: Grad Studies Policy (will miss).
November 1: Council (will miss).

Robert Sim, UAC