February Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the February 2020 BISC Graduate Caucus meeting are available here.

The DGSC student reps, currently Melissa Orobko and Sarah Johnson, will be inserting important updates from the committee into Caucus update emails from now on! To begin, Melissa and Sarah would like to emphasize that they are both open to hearing any individual graduate student concerns, especially with student-supervisor conflict, and assisting in any way they are able to. They keep any information 100% confidential and may be able to assist with mediation through the DGSC.

Also, to help address confusion about degree requirements:

• The SFU Calendar has the most formal, binding requirements for completing your degree program. Any changes to these SFU Calendar requirements that happen after your start date do not apply to you. Note that the link to the most current calendar changes each semester.
• Therefore, we highly recommend you look at the degree requirements in the SFU Calendar for your program for the semester in which you started (archived versions are HERE).
• Information that is only found on the Biology website can be updated on an ongoing basis and these updates do apply to you on an ongoing basis.
• Therefore, we highly recommend that you review this page on the Biology website, especially before starting to prepare for any major upcoming event (e.g. transfer to PhD, Master's proposal, APR details, candidacy exam) to find the most up-to-date information on it. Jenny Cory (the DGSC Chair) is in the process of re-organizing this page so it should look different in a month or two.

January Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the January 2020 BISC Graduate Caucus meeting are available here.

Highlights:

• TMRA and PS applications due Feb ^16th
• MSP campaign: We won!!! Please see tssu.ca/msp for information of the settlement. The settlement has two key parts:
  • Invoices from Sept 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 will need to be submitted to SFU by March 31, 2020 and you will be retroactively reimbursed by SFU Admin with payments to come by July 31, 2020.
  • From April 1, 2020 onwards those still being charged premiums for MSP will be able to enroll in a group plan through SFU, who will pay their bills just like under the old system.
• Please join the TSSU RA mailing list if you have been, are or will be a research assistant at SFU by registering at researchiswork.com/signup

December Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the December 2019 BISC Graduate Caucus meeting are available here.

Highlights:

• TSSU emergency meeting about SFU refusing to pay international member MSP premiums/fees. Dec 12 at 4:30pm in room AQ6229. Sign TSSU open letter to SFU Administration responsible for this decision.
• Diversity and Inclusion Committee are having a meeting Tuesday, December 17th at 1:30 in the BISC 7000-level lounge. Come join the team!

November Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the November 2019 BISC Graduate Caucus meeting are available here.

Highlights:

• Research Assistants unionized! On Nov 15, SFU and TSSU agreed to make RAs employees of the University and voluntarily recognize them as TSSU members. Collective bargaining will commence May 1st
• MSP Changes: The system for charging MSP premiums is changing, resulting in major increases in costs for international students, particularly for international students with families, who could end up paying hundreds of dollars per month. TSSU is organizing to make sure SFU continues to cover the costs for TSSU members, as clearly stated in the Collective Agreement. To stay updated of further info or future actions, please see: http://www.tssu.ca/mspfees

October Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the October 2019 BISC Graduate Caucus meeting are available here.

Highlights:

• Information on new and exciting campaign to unionize research assistants! Actively signing cards to be able to vote on unionization at end of November. Contact your TSSU representative (tesia_forstner@sfu.ca) or TSSU directly (vtao@tssu.ca) if you’re interested in participating in the campaign or would like to sign a card.
• Workshop committee members are a bit busy, so if you’re looking for a way to get involved with the caucus or just have an awesome idea for a workshop, please get in touch!

September Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the regular September 2019 BISC Graduate Caucus meeting are available here as well as the minutes for the September 5th short meeting.

August Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the August 2019 BISC Graduate Caucus meeting are available here.

If you haven't already please take two minutes for the Diversity and Inclusion committee's anonymous survey. It will close this Friday.

June Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the June 2019 BISC Graduate Caucus meeting are available here.