Summer is well underway and the new TGSA is looking forward to the upcoming academic year. We remain committed to ensuring that our needs as grad students are heard.

Although the TGSA does not have office hours during the summer, we are working on ways to better support both your academic and career goals (details to follow in the fall).

There has also been an interest from some members to get more involved and we are looking forward to collaborating with you!

Until then, let’s enjoy the summer! We hope that you can join us on Tuesday June 25 from 12-2pm at Symons (Gzowski College Quad) for our first BBQ of the season. Vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available.

If you have questions at any time, do not hesitate to contact us at gsa@trentu.ca

Cheers!

Your 2013-2014 TGSA Executive
Karen Everett – President
Jason Rae – VP Internal Affairs
Gozde Kilic – VP Operations
Jenilee Gobin – VP Finance
Veronica Lai – VP Student Affairs

Join the Summer Thesis Writers’ Group!!

A thesis writers’ group organized by Trent Academic Skills Center offers peer support through a challenging, and sometimes isolating, process. Each session will be split into two parts:  round table discussions about organization, motivation, writer’s block, perfectionism and revising; and peer review and discussion about drafts and works-in-progress.

The first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 4th at 2pm in Otonabee 207. Please register online: http://www2.trentu.ca/cgi-bin/tutorials.cgi/asc-workshop6

At this meeting a schedule will be determined for the summer that works for participants. If you are unable to attend this first meeting, but you are still interested in participating, please contact Erin Stewart Eves via email (estewarteves@trentu.ca)

We had 124 voters for the referendum questions and 118 for the elections. This is approximately 25% of our membership which is a WONDERFUL turn out! Thank you for participating!

The results are as follows:

TGSA 2013 Election Results:

The next big vote will be the Fall General meeting, usually held in October. I hope to see everyone there!

If you have any questions or concerns please e-mail us at gsa@trentu.ca.

TGSA Bylaw One March 2013

Through a referendum process, the TGSA has put forward fee levy proposals for a vote by graduate students. If a fee levy referendum question is passed, the fee levy is presented to the Dean of Graduate Studies for approval by the University Board of Governors. If approved by the Board of Governors, the University becomes responsible for the billing and collection of the levy fee and the associated group (eg. TGSA, Seasoned Spoon) becomes responsible for the administration of the fee.

Levy fees are charged once every year. The proposed levy fees for the TGSA Levy Increase and the Student Centre are non-refundable. The Seasoned Spoon Levy fee is refundable. 

The Seasoned Spoon levy and TGSA levy will be charged each year and increase each year to reflect cost of living increases. The Student Centre levy fee, if passed, will be collected until the construction of the centre is complete.

In depth rationale for each of the proposed questions will be provided at the AGM and online during the voting period April 3th-April 7th. Follow the links in each question to find out more about the reasoning behind the proposed fee. Here are the referenda questions that we will be voting at our Spring AGM:

OGSA Rationale: Since December of 2012, Graduate student associations from across Ontario have been working on a research and provincial post-secondary education policy group. This group has in this short time met with and formed working relationships with graduate student groups at 9 universities, and has even met with Kevin Flynn from the Ministry of Training and Universities. Your endorsement of the Trent GSA working with OGSA will amount to just that at this time; an endorsement that this collaboration be maintained and continued with future TGSAs.

1)Do you endorse the TGSA to be an official non-paying member of OGSA (Ontario Graduate Student Alliance)?

YES/NO

2)Do you endorse the one time TGSA Levy Fee $13 increase from $27 to $40?

YES/NO

3) Pending the outcome of the TCSA Student Centre referendum, do you endorse the levy fee of $80/$90/$100 per graduate student for the construction of the Student Centre?

(select one option)

$80
$90
$100
NO

4)Do you endorse the levy fee of $3.00 per graduate student to support the Seasoned Spoon Cafe?

YES/NO

Our Bylaw question can only be voted on in person at the Spring AGM.

5) Do you approve the amended TGSA Bylaws? 

YES/NO

You may nominate yourself for only one (1) position. Each position is entitled to one (1) vote. One person cannot hold two positions and thus have two (2) votes.

TGSA Positions Open for Election on our Board of Directors (Exec and Directors compose the BoD):

Executive Positions:

Director Positions:

E-mail gsa@trentu.ca to nominate yourself or somebody else for a position on the Trent GSA!

March 12, 2013

It has come to my attention from Lionel Rubinoff who is the chair of the ethics committee at PRHC that two studies seem to be running at the hospital that did not go through the proper channels and have not received ethics approval by the hospital ethics committee. I am assuming that these studies were approved at the departmental level. This threatens to undermine relations with the community and may damage Trent’s reputation if more careful processes are not followed. All undergraduate ethics representatives need to make sure and receive assurances from the supervisors of any project that they have checked to make sure no other community ethics process needs to be followed.

Please keep in mind that you must find out what ethics provisions have to be made when working with the community and especially in health and educational institutions. Also approval of any undergraduate research must be made dependent on approval of any community process.

Please keep in mind that without proper approval ALL funding to the university can be suspended whether the project is funded or not. This includes Tri-Council funding and ICOR funding that is heavily relied on by many departments in the University.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact myself at extension 7896 or by email at kmauro@trentu.ca or Rory Coughlan, Chair REB at rorycoughlan@trenu.ca or extension 7779.  If in the future, you would like Rory and myself to come and do a talk on Research Ethics for your department, we would be more that glad to do so.

The REB committee greatly appreciates your attention in this matter.

Sincerely,

Karen Mauro
Certification and Regulatory Compliance Officer
Research Office
c.c R. Coughlan

Enter to win by completing the TGSA’s survey on your first year graduate student experience. It is NOT JUST FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS, so whether you’re in your first or last year of studies, we want to hear from you! It will only take a few minutes, and you’ll be helping the Trent GSA serve you better. Plus, you might win a giftcard!

Please click on the link below to complete the survey:

http://kwiksurveys.com/s.asp?sid=2nvbtbebbcvc0b678938

College Planning Committee Recommendations – Jan 2013

http://trentgsa.ca/grants-bursaries/

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2. Library Materials due back January 15th.

Please be aware that library materials checked out in the Fall semester are due January 15th. There have been some issues with overdue notices going to Gmail spam folders, so please renew or return your materials by January 15th as a failure to receive a courtesy overdue notice is not an eligible reason to appeal your late fine. The issue has been brought to the attention of IT and the Library Advisory Committee. To find out how to renew items online, or look into the Fines Appeal Policy, follow this link:

http://www.trentu.ca/library/about/policies.htm

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3. New health benefits Opt Out period

Green Shield has agreed to have the health benefits opt-out option opened up for the new semester. This is for any new grad students starting out this semester who wish to opt-out and for any of the students who opted out through the TCSA website in the fall.

The opt-out period will be open from January 7th – January 18th and can be accessed through this link:

http://trentgsa.ca/health-dental-plan/

In order to complete the opt-out process you need to provide 3 pieces of information. 1) a valid student number; 2) a functional email address; and 3) Proof of comparable coverage from another insurance plan.

If you have any questions please e-mail gradhealth@trentu.ca

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4. Volleyball
Interested in getting involved in intramural sports this semester? There are a few people interested in playing volleyball, but not enough for a team yet. Games are Wednesday nights, between 7 and 10 pm.  Please e-mail Kaiti for more information or to join the team! (katrinanixon@trentu.ca)

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5. What do YOU want in a Student Centre?

Hello graduate students,

What would you, as a Grad Student, like to see in a centralized Student Centre? I am the Grad Student Rep on a Task Force looking at planning a Student Centre for Trent University. The idea is that the Student Centre will be a stand-alone building fulfilling a variety of student needs on campus.

So far ideas for this Student Centre include (in no particular order):

Common space (e.g. social space)
Office space for clubs and groups
Centralized location for student services (including university-delivered and student-delivered services)
Bookable rooms
Pub space
More food services

If you have ideas about what you would like in a Student Centre or any questions, please e mail me at sarapieper@trentu.caand/or check out the post on the Trent Graduate Students’ Association Facebook page. I will set up an in-person open forum/discussion type of thing in the near future, but hopefully this will do in the interim. I look forward to your suggestions.

Opt out cheques can up picked up at the following times and locations this week:

Tuesday January 8th
Time: 10am-12pm
Location: WH 223 (GSA office Traill College)

Wednesday January 9th & Thursday January 10th
Time: 1pm-4pm
Location:LHS D203

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail gradhealth@trentu.ca