April 2024 Meeting Minutes

  Attached are the BISC Caucus meeting minutes from the meeting held on April 18^th, 2024. Detailed minutes of meeting can be found here. 

Highlights

- Discussion on what to do with Les Ecol (Caucus potentially to take over) 

- GPR issues

- Survey for courses to be discussed with Mike

- MSc. NSERC Awardees should have received answers by now, PhD still pending

- CGSD and CGSM are going up in $$

- GSS Health plan fees structure in discussion 

- Nick Dulvy is the new faculty person in charge of EDI 

- Next Caucus event is Fall 2024 Welcome party (Sept); Debating a potential end of sem casual event (we have the money - why not?) 

March 2024 Meeting Minutes

  Attached are the BISC Caucus meeting minutes from the meeting held on March 22^nd, 2024. Detailed minutes of meeting can be found here. 

February 2024 Minutes

 Attached are the BISC Caucus meeting minutes from the meeting held on February 16^th, 2024. Detailed minutes of meeting can be found here. 

Highlights

Faculty of Science 1st Annual Career Fair organization/participation

    • The Physics grad caucus is looking to set up a Faculty of Science career fair for graduate students and post-docs in all science departments. Each faculty propose what companies they want to come (2-4 companies from each department)
    • Send list of companies to invite to the event (any of interest to BISC and other departments)
        • DFO
        • BC Genome
        • Send more suggestions of companies to invite to Miranda Dennis at miranda_dennis@sfu.ca in the next couple of days, please! (We don’t need to know anyone from the company, just a list of ideas.)

Please consider joining myself and other grads in meeting the candidates for the Thelma Finlayson Chair in Biological Control. 

    • March 6, 8, 20th there will be pizza lunches paid for by the department by Biology Candidate Meetups

Minimum funding policy

    • PhD scholarship is within our minimum funding, not on top

    • There was a misunderstanding at the entire University level

    • Policy details are still being organized

    • More details to come with what has been proposed

APR forms to GPR transition

    • Do not panic about your GPR, there are technical difficulties at the moment

    • Hopefully will be sorted out by May

January 2024 Meeting Minutes

 

Attached are the BISC Caucus meeting minutes from the meeting held on January 15^th, 2024. Detailed minutes of meeting can be found here. 

 

Highlights from the meeting:

• Inter-Disciplinary Ecology and Aquatic Systems (IDEAs) symposium is coming up on February 3^rd at SFU Burnaby. Everyone is welcome to attend, register for the FREE symposium here.
• Grad hosted speaker has been postponed to February 12^th with lunch at Biercraft afterwards.
• More information in minutes on the TSSU campaign regarding wages lost during picketing in the summer.
• Motion was carried to increase funding for Masters and PhD students.

August 2023 Meeting Minutes

The meeting minutes from the BISC caucus August 2023 meeting can be found here.

Key Updates

Chair: 

- New BISC grad caucus chair needed ASAP.

- Miranda Dennis is currently running unopposed.

GSS:

- PHD students (specifically if you’ve rolled up) in the program for less than 4 years look out for an email, if you did not receive an email please reach out to Mike Hart

TSSU:

- The tssu submitted RA union cards to the labour board and on august 17th were waiting for the final decision on whether Ras are going to unionize. Look out for emails to stay informed.

Events:

- Fall Welcome BBQ, Faculty and Grad students invited!

- The BBQ will be hosted 4 to 10pm on Thursday, September 6

- Currently looking for volunteers to help setup and cleanup after the event. Please reach out (ramis.rafay@sfu.ca) if you would be interested in helping out.

July 2023 Meeting Minutes

 

Link to the full meeting minutes can be found here

Key Updates

Chair:

- Looking for an individual that would be eager to take over the chair position! Brett is resigning at the end of the semester. Email Brett with any questions about the position.

DGSC:

- Eligible students Masters (within the first two years) and PHDs (within their first four years) should keep an eye out a random TARA in the fall, as this is the BISC bump up. More information on if you will actually need to accept the TARA is coming.

GSS:

- PHD students within the first four years and a CGPA of 3.5 and higher will be eligible for an award of 5400$ for the year (split between the semesters). More announcements will follow closer to September.

- Senate graduate studies have proposed changes on leaves of work to no longer require doctors’ notes and remove the 3 term leave limit

TSSU:

- TSSU is trying to get RAs recognized as part of the union, so if you haven’t already, they are asking for you to sign the RA card. Come to our next meeting to learn more!

Events:

- Further planning on Fall Welcome BBQ will happen over Slack, will be held the first week of September. Don’t hesitate to join the slack if you have a passion for event planning or join the next meeting!

April 2023 Meeting Minutes

 The link to the April Meeting Minutes can be found here

May 2023 Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes can be found here