Date: 04/05/2005
Time: 6:00pm
Place: 56-402
Attendees
Bree Aldridge, Kathryn Armstrong, Jon Behr, Ricardo Brau, Diana Chai, Barry Canton, Brian Cook, Ben Cosgrove, Shawdee Eshghi, Jordan Green, Maxine Jonas, Hyungdo Kim, Ricardo Llamas Vidales, Nick Marcantonio, Megan McBee, Amy Nichols, Reshma Shetty, Samantha Sutton, Nate Tedford, Shan Wu, Ben Zeskind
BE Women’s Career Event (Reshma & Shawdee)
- Reshma & Shawdee are putting together a “strategy counseling for women in academia” event, which will be sponsored by the BE Board. Female BE faculty will share their stories on how they became professors, and will mediate discussions related to various career choices as women.
BE Coffee Machine (HD)
- Since it creates financial deficit, since non-BE students are its most frequent users, since its maintenance is demanding, BE is getting rid of
the BE coffee machine in the 56-3rd lunchroom.
- The water machine in the same room will remain available.
- The first year students would like a water machine to be installed in their lounge. They’ll contact Mariann Murray.
BE/CEE Faculty Search
- BE and the department of Civil & Environmental Engineering are jointly seeking to recruit new faculty members. Candidates include James
Galagan, Eric Alm, Barbara Methe.
- The attendance of BE students to the corresponding seminars and/or to the Thursday lunches with the guest speakers is highly
desirable, since the BE recruiting committee values the student feedback.
- Ricardo will collect weekly our opinions on these candidates, and will summarize our comments before forwarding them to the faculty in charge.
- No faculty search in the field of neuroscience is intended for this year.
Industrial Liaison Program
- Dan Darling from the BPEC office, is in charge of setting up summer internships at biotech companies for undergraduate students, a service
that he wishes to expand to graduate students.
- Additionally, in collaboration with the BE Industrial Seminar Series committee (Nick, Nate & Maxine), research opportunities will be identified through contacts established during/via the BE Industrial Seminar, a database of which will be created to ensure continuity and hiring possibilities.
- Dan Darling, collaborating with Darlene Ray, also orchestrates internships required for students under certain types of fellowship.
BE Diversity (Jon, Nate & Maxine)
- BE Diversity is starting a series of cultural days to celebrate & enjoy diversity in our Division.
- On Friday, April 8, 2005, “Meet the Indian Culture” will feature an Indian lunch and an Indian movie.
- RSVPs will be asked via email to gage interest for these cultural lunches.
IM Sports (Barry & Brian)
- BE is involved in a few spring IM sports: softball, water polo, table tennis (need a home table), volleyball, pistol (our BE team is in the quarter-
finals).
- BE t-shirts will be distributed to the IM teams.
BE Undergraduate Major
- Although Charles & Nick spearheaded a student-run seminar initiative to inform undergrads about the new BE flavors & characteristics, there doesn’t seem to exist any need for it at this point, since MIT agreed with the BE enrollment limit & lottery policies, and since the BE undergraduate
curriculum already includes such informative sessions.
- A couple of BE graduate students will sit on a panel for curriculum development. How should these individuals be chosen? Elections fueled by
short application forms will be held. We may want to assess the desired nature of these students: former MIT undergraduates? Former BE/BME
undergraduates? BE Board members? They should report to the BE Student Board on the curriculum addenda and evolutions.
BE Retreat
- The academic representatives are currently editing last year’s web feedback form for the BE Retreat (Portland, ME, March 20-22, 2005).
- Who would be on the organizing team next year? It should be open to all BE students, the process of soliciting help should start earlier next year.
- Tenure process: following discussions held at the BE Retreat, letters from students will potentially be added to the tenure decision process. The
academic representatives (Ben & Nick) will look into this.
Social Activities (Kathryn, Megan & Nate)
- The Social Chairs are working on an April TGIF (at the MFA?), and on a BE Night on the Town
- On May 22, 2005, another Bread & Jam volunteering day will be organized.
- Later this year, some outdoor volunteering event, as well as a community food bank event will follow.
GSC (Jordan & Ben)
- the Massachusetts Avenue reconstruction plan raises concerns about pedestrian security and about the bike lanes disappearing.
- Elections for new GSC officers will be held on April 6, 2005.
- Does BE want to create a database of all BE- owned systems/instruments? Assess faculty interest.
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