January 6th Student Government Meeting Minutes

Posted on by kpouns

MS2019 Student Government Cabinet Meeting

Secretary: Hannah Justice

3:00pm Roll Call

Cheers and Jeers:

  1. Cheers:
    • Reed Macy: Thank you to everyone who helped with the Candlelight Vigil and to those who attended. The speakers were impressed by the turnout.
    • Anisha did a great job with the Spanish-English translation yesterday in the colleges lecture!
    • Organisms and the Host is over!!!
  2. Jeers:
    • Katherine Pouns: There aren’t page numbers on the new syllabus.
    • Caroline Flowers: The student center wasn’t very fast communicating about the fitness calendar for January.

Announcements:

  1. Class Jackets: Katherine Pouns
    • Remind people to pick them up at the Student Center!
    • They look great!
  2. Tuition Survey/Recommendation Recap: Reed Macy
    • There was information regarding this posted in the blog post this week.
    • The administration recommended a 4% increase in tuition. The student body survey countered with a desired 2% inflationary-only increase for the designated tuition.
    • It looks like 1.2% increase for the next two years would cover inflationary-only increases.
    • The other 2.8% was not clearly designated, so it was difficult to support that increase.
    • The presidents are waiting to hear back from administration regarding what the resulting increase will actually be.
  3. Sign “Thank You” card for Dr. Harper: Katherine Pouns
    • There are thank-you notes for the candlelight speaker, Dr. Harper, which will be signed by the cabinet. This is easier than passing them around to the class.
    • Harper is the head of the Literature and Medicine conference. The conference is January 19th at Dallas Presbyterian Hospital. This is free for students, so please attend if interested!
    • The keynote speaker wrote the book: Cutting for Stone.
    • Harper was very impressed by the student performers and attendees at the candlelight vigil.

Agenda Items:

  1. Faculty Roast / Faculty Excellence Reception: Reed Macy
    • Currently we are working on: How do we want it to look? Who should be invited? How can we ensure attendance and responses and a good layout?
    • It won’t be successful if it isn’t organized. We need people to step up to help orchestrate it!
    • There will be a survey for faculty jokes and faculty excellence.
    • Currently this is planned for March 9th or 10th, the Wednesday and Thursday before Spring Break.
    • Right now, it is planned for 12:00pm after our final lecture of the day to improve class attendance and participation. Ideally this will be held in D1.700.
    • Katherine and Reed will send out a map/layout similar to candlelight vigil.
    • Helpers:
      1. Gene Hu and Shivani Gaitonde: Establish a list of professors by class. We need to review what each professor did and taught for the various classes.
      2. Christopher Warne and Nikki Thrikutam: Set-up crew on the day of the event.
      3. Arjun Aggarwal and Alice Jean: Food crew on the day of the event.
      4. Sherin John and Vanessa Norris: Faculty liasons, mostly on the day of the event. Please remind faculty of the event a few days in advance. Be aware of faculty arrival and help facilitate their comfort.
  2. Education IT Rep Update: Matthew Schreiber
    • STEP Update
      1. There is a survey that can be forwarded to the whole class from the MS3 class that just took STEP.
      2. Resources:
        • First Aid 2016 is now available.
        • Firecracker and USMLE Rx Question Bank are the two resources the survey found to most improve people’s scores.
      3. Preparations:
        • People who went through First Aid four times performed the best; however, those who went through it more than that did worst.
        • The highest scoring people completed the entire question bank at least once.
        • Most people did about four practice tests.
        • The average money spent on STEP preparation was between 600 and 1000 dollars.
        • The highest scoring people started studying over Spring Break – about 4 months ahead of time.
      4. OUR CURRICULUM:
        • They will discuss STEP at the next M&M.
        • There will be multiple class schedules that combine clerkships, study periods, scholarly activity, etc… There is a lot of wiggle room for when you take STEP.
        • You may want to get FIRST AID now, but don’t concern yourself overly with preparation until more information comes from the M&M.
        • Some of the survey information may not be applicable to our class.
      5. Can Katherine and Reed email Dr. Mihalic and Dr. Wagner about presenting the survey information at the M&M? The contact that emailed the survey to Matthew could also present the survey results.
      6. We could also email out or link the survey in the class blog.
      7. There is a more detailed version of the survey on the Student Affairs Moodle Page that can be accessed currently.
  3. TBL Room – Updates and Discussion: Reed Macy
    • Noise in library post TBL tests
      1. We haven’t received any more complaints regarding this.
      2. Christopher Faulkner hadn’t heard any more complaints in the last week of last semester.
      3. Preliminarily, we may have improved. Time will tell.
    • Water/coffee in the TBL
      1. Reed Macy put together a 10 page proposal over the Christmas Break about the water in TBL.
      2. That has been submitted as of this week and hopefully a response will be received shortly.
      3. This will likely look like a few approved kinds of water bottles that are labeled with a decal sticker. We would be able to keep them on the floor in the TBL room.
      4. We can address doing a fundraiser using the water bottles later on although we may face concerns. Can we find a cheaper one as a group purchase?
      5. Fundraisers are difficult in that we can only collect money one day per month.
    • Evan Barrios: Can Chris Faulkner come to a Cabinet Meeting?
      • Note: Next cabinet Dr. Arlene Saz and Carole Wortham will be in attendance.
  4. Odds and Ends from Last Semester
    1. Global Health: Tochi Ajiwe
      • We submitted applications for Global Health Mentor Matching. The deadline was 12/30/15. These are being processed.
      • Spring Break Trips: The office is looking at applications for stipends.
      • There was a meeting before last semester ended about changing the way Global Health appears to new applicants. UT Southwestern hasn’t been known for Global Health, so they are working on a better brochure and website. They are also working to improve the database regarding past trips and research projects.
    2. Convergence: Alice Jean and Sherin John
      • Dates: March 2 or 3 and March 23 or 24
      • This will be during Colleges time but not the day that is your college.
      • Planning has been continuing, there will be more updates in February.
    3. Electives: Bethany Werner and Connie Wang
      • They attended a meeting with Dr. Wagner and the Elective Enrichment Committee.
      • We need to recruit MS1s to lead electives that they may not have led before. There are issues, but it may be the only way with the new preclinical curriculum to handle things.
      • We largely face this problem because electives are only offered in the fall or spring semester. They are thinking about working towards offering classes during both semesters to avoid the problems. This requires more leadership, however.
      • Overall note, leadership for electives and student organizations is changing with the new preclinical curriculum, and recruitment needs to begin in August with the new class!
    4. Senators: Wellness Extravaganza 2016 – Evan Barrios
      • We are looking into two foundational changes to wellness week:
        1. It will now be a wellness month – not necessarily more busy, but to prevent eating up an entire week of school.
          • There will be theme weeks with 1-2 activities per week.
          • The four categories of wellness are mind, body, nutrition, and social.
        2. They are looking at ways to bring in different schools, including the allied health and graduate students.
          • How integrated do we want it to be? Do we want integrated or separate events.
          • The MS1 class is leading this wellness month, so suggestions are welcome to be addressed to the Senators.
          • They are considering directing events to specific subgroups based on events happening each week (i.e. tests for the MS1 class).
        3. The plan is for the Wellness Month to occur in April. Earlier planning will prevent conflicts.
      • Other Items
        1. Caroline Flowers: Reminder that the Colleges Survey was sent out on December 21st. It is due tomorrow. Senators will be going through that and presenting feedback regarding any need for changes.
        2. Medical School Prom is happening this semester. More information will be forthcoming.
        3. Katherine Pouns and Reed Macy: We would like another Class Bonding Event this semester (like the Thanksgiving Potluck). Suggestions on a theme or a time are welcome!
  • Adjourn

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