ALISS Open Meeting, 28 April 2003

11:30am-1:00pm

17 people in attendance

 

Introductions (attendees & new ALISS officers).

 

Announcements

 

Jennifer Carter (ALISS president) will soon be creating a committee for selecting the winner of the 21st Century Student Award.  Students are nominated by iSchool peers for the award, then selection committee picks the winner. 

 

Class Reports

 

LIS 537:  Good things were said about this Thesaurus Construction course.  Students commended the instructor (Trent Hill) & appreciated the guest speakers brought in for the class.  Students enthusiastically recommend the class to other students.

 

LIS 545:  Programming for Information Systems also was recommended – particularly for “non-techie” students.  Students commented that instructor Terry Brooks “can make anyone learn programming.”

 

LIS 550:  Students had concern over the online discussion forum in Stuart Sutton’s Info in the Social Context class.  They felt that the syllabus for the class was designed for a distance environment where online discussion was necessary.  Students felt that discussion was adequately taking place during class time and that they “had nothing to discuss” on the online discussion forum. 

 

LIS 569:  Student commented that this class isn’t meeting expectations & seems like more work than a 3 credit course should be.

 

One student related positive experiences in taking an advocacy class through the School of Social Work.

 

Students raised concerns over not receiving their projects back from last quarter’s LIS 540 class (taught by Jeffrey Kim). 

 

Faculty Meeting

 

Jennifer Carter reviewed items from the latest faculty meeting of potential interest for LIS students.  She passed around copies of the new GA policy & the guidelines for “Satisfactory Progress to Degree.”  The GA policy is newly established.  The guidelines are revised, but not much of substance has changed within them.

 

 

 

Spring Fling

 

SJ Alexander (ALISS vice president) reiterated the need for volunteers for Spring Fling committees.  She also related some of the activities proposed for the Fling (library trivia, door prizes, possible dunk tank???).

 

Issues Raised by Students

 

Advisor response:  A student is having problems getting in contact with her advisor (Maurice Green).  Question was raised:  is there any official policy regarding advisor-advisee communications?  Should there be? 

 

Portfolios:  Why is it not possible to get credit hours for portfolio preparation?   Several second year students related difficulties related to this topic – in particular, having to take needless coursework in winter/spring quarter to keep credit hours up (for purposes of financial aid/GA eligibility).  Ideas were floated:  e.g., 1-2 credits could be taken during the quarter directly before portfolio is due, advisors could monitor progress & make sure students are progressing on portfolio.  Students commented that a discussion about this needs to be started & ALISS should get feedback from LISers.

 

Storage in MGH:  Why isn’t there somewhere for students to store stuff during the day?  Many students bring laptops for class & then need secure place to leave them.  Others related that they spend all day on campus & have to lug around loads of stuff.  General consensus is that some type of storage would be welcome.

 

Silverfish:  Editor-to-be Katy Shaw announced that there will not be a summer issue of Silverfish this year.  She discussed her intention to make Silverfish more inclusive of all student groups in the iSchool (Informatics, MSIM, PhDs & MLIS).  She also suggested that perhaps the name of the Silverfish be changed to something less book-oriented.  This idea met with positive comments by some students; others were opposed to it.