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

March Meeting Minutes

Full BISC Caucus Minutes of Meeting for March, 2023 can be found here.

TL;DR Highlights

• TSSU

• Strike vote is happening now on in until march 28th, vote yes. We want to construct a unified front
• Voting dates:

• Burnaby: March: 22, 23, 24, 27, 28
• Surrey: March 23, 27
• Vancouver: March: 22, 28

• Email Sherry Young if there were areas you were concerned about for health and safety reasons during the snow storms (areas that were not cleared). We also want to know if there are labs that are too hot or too cold.

• GSS

• Another donation to the grocery fund, now means there are more grocery cards available. You can apply each semester for the emergency grocery card program.

• DGSC

• Talk of having 2000$ increment to the stipend (from BASS funds) distributed via TARA awards, therefore if you will need a TARA award in the fall apply early.

• Faculty Meeting

• In fall $28,000 to all eligible students with the method of Tara awards, coming from BASS funding
• MPM admissions have been paused until future notice due to retirement of professors.

• DGS: Talk about a better alert system to show that students aren’t meeting their annual progress report.
• DUCC: Biology Day! On thursday march 23 from 4:30 to 6pm.

• Lab tours from 3:30 to 4:30

February Meeting Minutes

The meeting minutes for the February 9, 2023 caucus meeting can be found here.

TLDR:

• The general elections were held for the 2023-2024 BISC grad caucus executive. Check out the minutes to see all the new (and returning) execs!
• The new BISC Slack server is now live and can be accessed with a temporary join link (so long as you have an SFU email address). Feel free to reach out to our new webmaster Ramis at ramis_rafay@sfu.ca if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.
  
• All BISC grads should have received an email from Kathryn regarding a one-time payment of $300(likely to be disbursed on Feb 24) to each eligible student. Please see the minutes if you're uncertain about eligibility.

January Meeting Minutes

 The meeting minutes from the BISC caucus January 19th meeting can be found here.

Some highlights include:

• The BISC EDI committee is looking for graduate representatives! If you’re interested in one of these positions, please reach out to Kevin Lam at klamf@sfu.ca or Isabelle Côté at imcote@sfu.ca.
• Spring General Elections will be held at this month's upcoming meeting!!! Nominations are currently open and all are invited to self-nominate on the sign-up sheet
• Dig into the minutes if you want to learn more about (i) a prospective department-wide BioRender account, (ii) plans to host a BISC Graduate Symposium, or (iii) the treasurer's super dope account updates.

December Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the December 8th BISC grad caucus meeting can be found here.

Highlights include:

The Cost of Living survey is still open! Please consider adding in your input so that the community can get a better understanding of graduate student living costs and situations across SFU departments.

The wage subsidy's full amount has now come in. Students who are active (not on leave or graduated) in the Spring 2023 semester should expect to receive ~$300!

The BISC Outreach & Engagement Committee and BISC EDI Committee are looking for graduate students to fill Student Representative positions. Please see the meeting minutes for further details and who to contact if interested.

An anonymous donation to the GSS Emergency Grocery Card program adds support to provide up to 400 graduate students in need with two $70 gift cards. GSS Professional Development Grants ($500) are also now back! 

November Meeting Minutes

 The minutes from the November 10 BISC grad caucus can be found here.

Highlights include:

• Megan Barker dropped in to discuss her idea for a new graduate course on undergraduate teaching and learning in the science. Feel free to reach out to her at barker@sfu.ca if you have any thoughts or suggestions!
• Ramis would like to revive the BISC slack channel – an easier digital means of communication which could be helpful for the grad community.
  Anyone interested in helping out or joining the channel can reach Ramis at ramis_rafay@sfu.ca.
• The graduate student caucus from the Physics Department have put together a Cost of Living survey in attempts to get a better understanding of graduate student living costs across all SFU departments in the Sciences. You can take the survey now at http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/430551472!