[Gsc-anno] GSC Announcement 29AUG06

[GSC Vice President]

**************************  GSC ANNOUNCEMENTS  *************************
  more extensive annoucements online: http://gsc.mit.edu
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headlines (details below):

            1. Graduate Orientation 2006
               Enjoy events, meet new students, and volunteer

            2. BU Dental School Dental Plan
               Open to MIT students

            3. Students on Graduate Curriculum Options (SCGO) Committee
               Calling for members


details:
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*Grad Orientation 2006*

Graduate Orientation kicked off to a great start this week with BBQs,
seminars, information booth, tours, and much much more.

Volunteers are still needed!  For the full schedule of events, please visit
http://gsc.mit.edu/orientation.  The following events are particularly in
need of volunteers:

Carmen Sandiego Orientation Party (Friday, September 1)
Residence Day Carnival (Saturday, September 9)
Dance Fusion V Orientation Party (Friday, September 8)
Graduate Student Volunteer Day (Saturday, September 16)

For a full volunteers-needed list, go to the Orientation Volunteers page:
http://web.mit.edu/gsc/www/firstyear/orientation/volunteers.shtml or contact
the GSC Orientation Committee Chairs directly by email: gsc-oc at mit.edu.

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*BU Dental School Dental Plan*

The Boston University Dental School has opened enrollment for its Student
Dental Plan.  Many MIT students have found this to be an affordable way of
obtaining dental care while enrolled here.  Enrollment is open to all
graduate and undergraduate students and their spouses.  Spaces are limited
and BU expects them to fill up quickly, so sign up now if you are
interested.  The plan costs $239 for coverage starting Sept. 1, 2006 and
ending on Aug. 31, 2007.

For more details and to register, see http://dentalschool.bu.edu/sdp or call
the Student Dental Plan office, 617/638-4698, Monday through Friday, from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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*Students on Graduate Curriculum Options (SGCO) Committee*

Two graduate students, Emily Fox and Stephen Hou, are working to implement a
Pass/D/Fail option for courses taken beyond the core graduate requirements.
This issue stemmed from within the Course 6 Education Committee (SixEd), but
this effort has to be institute wide. Thus, the Students on Graduate
Curriculum Options (SGCO) committee was formed in order to organize this
effort and gain broad support to take the proposal to the appropriate
Institute committees.  The committee would meet for one hour every other
week and on an as-needed basis.

Currently, a graduate student may register to take classes only on grades
(A/B/C/D/F) or as a listener.  The issues SGCO sees with the system as it
stands are primarily:
* Many graduate students opt not to take classes that interest them beyond
the core requirements because of the amount of time it would take away from
their research if they were to take the subject on grades
* Research is becoming more multi-disciplinary and students interested in
exploring tangential fields may not have all the background for a subject,
but would still benefit from the material covered.  Anxiety about grades may
deter students from signing up for the subject in the first place.
* Most subjects at MIT rely on problem sets or other assignments as a
significant portion of the learning process.  Even if a listener is
motivated enough to do the work (which is rare), they do not receive
feedback nor does the subject show up on the external transcript (even
though it counts against the student's course load)
* Graduate seminars and classes end up getting cancelled because there are
not enough students taking them for credit, even though there are often many
students who want to learn the material
* Classes and office hours may become overcrowded with listeners, and
departments may not supply the correct amount of support staff to some
subjects because of inaccurate student counts.

If this is an issue you care about, and you would be interested in joining
the SGCO, please email sgco at mit.edu.  Also, please direct all questions to
sgco at mit.edu.

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-- 
Shan Wu
Vice President
Graduate Student Council
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

gsc-vice-president at mit.edu | http://gsc.mit.edu
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