| 2014.11.06.12:30-1:30.Rm2019 |
Attendance: Kunnal Mohan, Karine Quigley, Qinyu Lu, Zak Fish, Kimberley Adamek, Vikki Chen, Dan Kwak, Ali Takook, Christina, Stephen Wenzel, Amanda Ghantous
| MEETING ADMIN | ||
| 1 | SWAG Leadership transition for the winter term-We need a new set of leadership, perhaps admin helps with the transition.-There is serious funding coming into SWAG from Main Campus, this is something that can’t just be dropped off.-Elections? This can be finalized at the Grad Soiree.-All Grad Meeting: Tuesday 25th of November, will bring coffee and treats, waffles and present all that SWAG does in order to recruit new leadership. | ALL |
| NEWS | ||
| 2 | Student Societies Updates: BRIDGE, F_RMlab, WA Film Club, Garden Club, Photo Club, WAC, On Empathy | ALL |
| NEW DISCUSSIONS OVERVIEW | ||
| 3 | Open Forum Recap and responses Discussions have been relayed to Emily and Ila who have responded to many of the concerns and are looking into solutions for many of them. -TA-ships: Full and Half T.A ships are being implemented to balance the workload, it’s tricky to find this balance therefore timesheets have become mandatory so that courses that seem understaffed can be compensated accordingly. The allocation of TA’s for each class is still being worked out.-Will students TA in M1? how does the one year program work, who will TA in September-December. This may overwhelm M1 students if it becomes the rule. This is not something that has been determined at this time. -Office Space: Admin is looking at locker options, or other storage options for the masters studios and for the common work space in Rm. 2019. Students may have to purchase own lockers, this is not something that is common to UW, even on main campus there are lockers. We reiterated that the high standard of our offices spaces and furniture are appreciated and we hope that going forward this is something that can be maintained. -Advisors: the M1, M2 profs will have the heaviest load of students that they are advising to create continual contact. In terms of making meeting with profs, it seems most meetings happen during the lunch hour rather than becoming scheduled into a part of the profs day where they can actually devote a reasonable amount of time for each student. Some profs are better than others at scheduling in students. This should improve with the new M2 studio set-up. Is there a potential for students that are not in M2 to join in some of the activities of this new studio? -Electives: Permission numbers are useful in the fall term because 4B students cannot enroll on quest. The mistake that occurred this term was that students were asked for the elective choices, not necessarily their first choice. From now on this will work in rounds so that everyone that wants a class will get one and then we will move down the list. All students will be given an equal opportunity regardless if they have already completed elective requirements. In the Winter and Spring terms, permission numbers are unnecessary and open enrollment through quest will be used for fair course selection. |
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| ONGOING DISCUSSION OVERVIEW | ||
| 4 | Undergrad curriculum changes final approval Administration is looking for SWAG and WASA to write a letter to the Dean of Undergraduate studies endorsing the changes to the curriculum and acknowledging the student feedback in forming the new curriculum. The main changes are as follows:-Ico weighting shifts slightly to allow for more study in contemporary theory and 5 courses are compressed into 4-Landscape theory class moves to 2B to coincide with the landscape based studio that runs in the summer-Integrated environmental systems: HVAC lighting and acoustics become combined into one course-Two new classes become mandatory : One on Digital fabrication, the other is Advanced Visualization (includes BIM, GIS and parametric design among other advanced subjects)-These changes create more spaces for electives in Third and Fourth year. Comments: -Misgivings about Advanced Visualization course becoming a mandatory credit. Much will depend on the curriculum and how it fits into the 3A studio. -The group also reiterated that the first Ico class with Robert Jan Van Pelt was an incredibly rewarding experience, there was some concern that changing it to a half credit would reduce the quality of the class. -In terms of the letter, we are generally on board but we want to make sure our concerns are noted. -We we should post the schedule online publicly for a little while on LEARN, shouldn’t rush the letter. Result: Given specific concerns of grad students and a general feeling of a lack of awareness about the changes among the grad body, we felt that we could not sign an endorsement letter on behalf of all grads at this time. We would first like the final curriculum to be made available for all students to see and respond too, not just the small group of 11 students who attend the SWAG meetings. As a result, due to time constraints, the office decided to proceed solely with WASA’s endorsement. |
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| 5 | GSA Updates-No updates at this meeting | VC |
| 6 | Grad Directory Update-Kassie is working on updating the tiles | CM |
| 7 | unCOVERED Lecture Series and RePost Symposium-Meetings on-going, Zak, Peter, Christina, Nada Kyle and Sarah to Co-ordinate-Theme: transition from thesis to practice, looking for ideas, format options etc-will be in March or February | ZF |
| Fall 2014 Events | ||
| 7 | Grad Christmas Soiree Updates-will happen at 60 Main st, after much cleaning and decorating-have talked to the table and chair rental place-the date will be the 11th of December (a thursday) around 7pm-tickets will be around 15-20$ and tickets sales will begin soon-catering place hasn’t called back yet.
-event budget will be submitted soon so that swag contribution can be calculated -BRIDGE space should be free after the night of postcards on the 4th of December |
KM |
| 8 | Peer Reviews Recap and potential for second session-last peer review was very successful, will another one be useful?-could happen near the end this month in a more informal way?-Potentially revive Peer Beer Reviews, no prepared presentations. Could do a wall of general pin ups.-Date NOVEMBER 27th-suggestion to have some professors come to these things and talk to people in groups. Could also do formal questions that are pre-prepared.
-Qinyu and Dan and Kim to work together on this. |
DK |
| 9 | Mx Reviews-are taking place on the 18th of December, this will coincide with the open studio event-as the graduate program is changing for the new M1’s the format of Mx may no longer be as useful, this may put more pressure on peer reviews. | SW |
| SWAG ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS | ||
| 10 | Budget Status and surplus | AG |
| + | OTHER BUSINESS? |
Follow-up tasks:
Stephen and Karine: Prepare presentation for all-grad meeting on November 25th
Kassie: Update Grad directory tiles
Zak: Continue to work with Adrian and the RePost team to plan for symposium
Kuni, Karine and Peter: Continue with planning for Grad Soiree. Send out “save the date” notice or ticket sales notice ASAP. submit rough event budget.
Kim and Qinyu: Organize next peer review for November 27th
Upcoming Events:
SWAG All-Grad presentation (to find new members for the winter) – November 25th 9:30am
Peer Reviews – November 27th
Grad Christmas Soiree – December 11th 7:00pm
![[SWAG] December Meeting Minutes](http://waterlooarchitecture.com/bridge/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/swag_logo-e1410273844246-300x200.jpg){kind=logo}
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