[Gsc-hca-family] [Gsc-hca-all] HCA 12/19 Meeting Minutes

[Nathaniel Schafheimer]

Forgot that this list strips attachments.  Here is the minutes text for 12/19.

^Nathaniel

Housing and Community Affairs (HCA) Meeting

                                                  Thursday December 19, 2012  

Meeting Minutes

 

 

Introductions
Attending: Anders, Andrea, Kevin, Kelsey, Pierre, Brian, Prof. Jonathan King, Nathaniel
 

Project Updates          
On-Campus Rental Renegotiation
Report on HSG GRC proceedings

   2nd meeting of GRC happened this week.  Housing financial presented a 5-year budget history and projections for the next year. GSC HCA will present student

   Andrea, Anders, and Pierre noted a feeling of pushback on data requests.  Nathaniel agreed, noting though that the items requested, undergrad vs. grad breakdowns in the budget, were relatively small chunks of housing’s budget.

   Question arose: how shall we get the GRC the 3rd perspective on graduate rents, faculty? Suggestion: ask Roger Marke, the faculty co-chair of the committee for presenters or ideas.

GSC Presentation to CSL – Dec 21st

   HCA will be presenting, per invitation, on the student perspective on graduate on-campus housing to CSL Friday.  The presentation will focus on the value of graduate on-campus to student life, and MIT at large, and ask CSL to examine the issue and lend its voice to articulating an explicit set of guiding principles/standards for graduate housing.

 

Cost of Living – Stipend recommendation
Cost of Living Team Formation

Timeline of CoL Project

A CoL working group is being organized to update the 2011 CoL numbers with new analyses and prepare our recommendation presentation to Academic Council.  All interested students are welcome to come and help.

Question: How do peer institutions handle stipends, estimating CoL, etc? Is how MIT does it superior?

We’re the only school we know that has student input so heavily on stipend recommendations, and our CoL data is more comprehensive and higher quality than that we’ve seen of our peer institutions.

CoL and stipend recommendation will come to a head in February when we present to Academic Council.  A draft proposal presentation will be going to Dean Ortiz in ODGE before winter break, and meetings with administrators will continue through January to fine tune.

 

Standing Subcommittee Reports
Families Subcommittee
                                               i.     The family subcommittee wrote a letter to EBOC before Thanksgiving with recommendations for policies for the new Vassar St. childcare center.  We recommended egalitarian enrollment policies, blind to the population (faculty, student, staff, postdoc) that a parent came from, and ability-to-pay based tuition that recognizes the incredible diversity of incomes at MIT and the extreme difficulty of affording childcare for graduate students.

                                             ii.     The subcommittee is now working on gathering data to start a conversation with administrators on what peer institutions do for grads with children, and what MIT can do.  Our first step, after gathering data, will be to schedule a meeting with Dean Ortiz, in ODGE, and share thoughts and ideas for better supporting grads with families at MIT.

Off-Campus Subcommittee
                                               i.     Kevin and Kelsey report that budget spending is on track.  There will be a lull in off-campus organized events until mid January when more students will be back in the area.  MIT Spouses and the Canadian students club are organizing an ice rink outing in Kendall. A recent “very” off-campus event in Woodshole was a success, with more to follow.

                                             ii.     It was mentioned that the administration’s focus on interdisciplinary social options and mingling students from different departments makes them happy to support the neighborhood approach of off-campus to events.

                                            iii.     Dean Ortiz had asked previously whether a way to evaluate/encourage post-event socializing, cementing connections made, could be done.

 

Open Floor
Prof. Jonathan King spoke as chair of the Faculty Newsletter Editorial Board on MIT’s history with Cambridge development, graduate housing, and on the inner workings of the Institute.  He requested to add a presentation (~20 minutes long) to next HCA agenda for FNL editorial board to present their thoughts on Kendall Square, graduate housing, and the recently filed zoning petition by MITIMCo.

 

 

On Dec 21, 2012, at 2:09 PM, Nathaniel Schafheimer wrote:

> Greetings all,
> 
> Please find our 12/19 HCA meeting minutes attached.  If you have questions about an item or want to learn more/get involved, please email gsc-hca at mit.edu.
> 
> Have a wonderful and relaxing winter break!
> 
> Nathaniel Schafheimer
> GSC HCA Co-Chair
> 
> 
> <2012.12.19.Minutes.doc>


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