Email Bulletins
GPSA e-Bulletin- October Issue 3
Wednesday October 28, 2009
In This Issue:
- GPSA Night at the Movies this Thursday
- Nominations for Provost's Excellence in Mentoring Award due Soon!
- GPSA Masquerade Ball Date Moved
- Mandatory New Pitt ID cards for Graduate and Professional Students!
- GPSA G-20 Resolution
- GPSA and PUMP Health Care Forum Recap
Trouble viewing this e-bulletin? Please visit www.gpsa.pitt.edu/bulletin.php.
GPSA Fright Night at the Movies
 |
The GPSA still has a few FREE tickets left for the all-grad-student screenings of Where The Wild Things Are and Paranormal Activity for midnight, Thursday October 29th. We can still reserve one or two for people who email
 |
communications.pittgpsa@gmail.com with the name of the movie they want to see and how many
tickets to reserve (as long as tickets are available). Look for me, PJ Dillon, to claim your tickets at the Waterfront AMC
theater tonight. Event details can be found at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?
eid=193657815324&ref=mf
Thanks,
PJ
Nominations for Provost's Award for Excellence in Mentoring due Soon!
Letters of nomination for the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring are now being accepted until November 13, 2009.
This Award annually recognizes up to four graduate faculty members for outstanding mentoring of graduate students seeking a research doctorate degree. Each Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring will consist of a cash prize to the graduate faculty member of $2,500 to recognize excellence in mentoring. All persons selected for this award will be honored at a reception held in spring 2010.
Eligibility: Any current, active graduate faculty member who supervises graduate students pursuing PhD degrees or other research doctoral degrees, such as the EdD or the DrPH, and who has graduated and placed five or more doctoral students is eligible to be nominated.
Nominations: Written nominations may be made by any individual or group of faculty, graduate students, or alumni who have evidence of the nominee’s mentoringcapabilities.
Please see the guidelines at http://www.pitt.edu/~graduate/ucgsmentoring.html for specific details and contact graduate@pitt.edu if you have any questions.
GPSA Masquerade Ball Date Moved
Due to circumstances beyond our control, The GPSA Masquerade Ball is postponed. We will instead host this event at another appropriate time - during the Carnival of Venice. This international event, which popularized Masquerades, is traditionally held several days before Ash Wednesday (in February of this year). Save your masks, then, for our Valentine's Masquerade Ball. We are truly sorry for any inconvenience this postponment may cause, and we hope that you can join us both for our Halloween movie night and the new Ball we'll host in February.
Mandatory New Pitt ID cards for Graduate and Professional Students!
New ID cards will be given out to all graduate and professional students via their department administrators between November 23rd and December 11th. If you cannot view the important information below, please visit http://www.gpsa.pitt.edu/bulletin.php or email pittgpsa@gmail.com for more details.
GPSA G-20 Resolution
GRADUATE & PROFESSIONAL STUDENT ASSEMBLY
University of Pittsburgh
14 October 2009
WHEREAS, The Graduate & Professional Student Assembly exists to promote the concerns, interests, needs and welfare of the advanced degree seeking student body.
WHEREAS, The Graduate & Professional Student Assembly recognizes the constitutional right of the aforementioned students to assembly, which was exercised in a predominately peaceful manner by those participating in the events of the G-20 Summit.
WHEREAS, A lapse in communication between the students and University administration led to an irregular use of the Emergency Notification System, an understatement of the severity of potential police action during the G-20 Summit and an ineffective effort to familiarize non-University law officers with the dynamics of law enforcement on an urban collegiate campus.
WHEREAS, Non-University law officers charged with maintaining order in the Oakland community during the events of the G-20 Summit did, in the eyes of many of the aforementioned students, act with undue aggression, disproportionate use of force, and unwarranted detainment of law-abiding students.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, On this the 14th day of October, in the year 2009, the Graduate & Professional Student Assembly of the University of Pittsburgh hereby pledges to:
1. Request that the University perform an internal review of the on campus G20 events and demonstrations. This review should include representatives from the graduate & professional students, undergraduate students, Faculty, the University of Pittsburgh police department, the Counseling Center, Student Affairs, and the Chancellors office. This review should be reported to a public committee on campus in the spring semester of 2010.
2. Request that graduate & professional students be included in the planning, preparation, and execution of future large unique events at the University of Pittsburgh.
3. Request that the University of Pittsburgh and Student Affairs in particular work with GPSA to adequately inform graduate students of support services such as counseling following the G20 demonstrations. Realizing that traditional methods of communication such as posts onmy.pitt.edu and ads in The Pitt News are likely to bypass the majority of the graduate student population.
4. Strive to mend a fractured relationship between the aforementioned students, the University community and the City of Pittsburgh as a result of the police action during the G-20 Summit.
GPSA and PUMP Healthcare Forum Recap
 |
138 students, professors, and members of the community gathered last Friday, October 23rd, in the Public Health Auditorium for the 2009 Health Care Forum. GPSA and the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project (PUMP) hosted the event to allow attendees to interact with a panel of esteemed guests, including Representative Jason Altmire (D - PA 4), Representative Tim Murphy PhD (R - PA 18), and Secretary Paul O'Neill. The moderator for the event was Dr. Beaufort Longest, the M. Allen Pond Professor of Health Policy & Management and Director of the Pitt Health Policy Institute. The forum proved to offer key insights and exchange of ideas between the panelists and audience members.