Collective Meeting - February 18, 2014

Collective Meeting, Tuesday February 18, 2014

4:30 pm 

Minutes from Tuesday's meeting include plans for Admit Day and updates on the Collective Speaker.

Attendance: Ben Smuin, Cherry Lui, Alina Mendez, Paul Tchir, Johanna Peterson, Sky Johnston, Alexis Meza, Lance Mylonakis, Teresa Walch, Mary Klann, Jorge Leal, Johnathan Abreu

Admit Day 

The department admitted 33 new students. (East Asia = 7, Europe = 8, Latin America = 6, Near East = 5, Science = 1, and US = 6) Not sure at this point how many admits will be coming for Admit Day. 

Location for Sunday Night Drinks (March 2)

Suggestions included Pizza Port, Ballast Point Tasting Room, Stone Brewery (Liberty Station), restaurants at the Headquarters, Tiger Tiger, or Green Flash Brewery

As a group we decided tentatively on the Ballast Point Tasting Room in Little Italy for drinks after each individual field group goes out to dinner with their admits. Ballast Point closes at 9 pm, so if many peoples’ flights don’t arrive until later in the evening, our second choice was Pizza Port in OB, which closes a little later, at 10 pm. 

The department will pay for our dinner, but not drinks, so be sure not to put alcohol on the same tab as dinner, for reimbursement. 

Individual field groups will decide on locations for dinners once flight info from the admits has come in. 

Admit Day (March 3) 

Jorge and Sky volunteered to lead campus tours on Admit Day. 

Suzanne volunteered to arrange logistics for a trip to the beach at some point during the day (possibly at the end of the day), via the shuttle that goes to SIO. 

Other activities suggested included going to a lecture or section in one of the colleges where many History grads TA outside the department (MMW, DOC, etc.); a tour of graduate housing (Rita); tour of the library and a chance to talk to a librarian; opportunity to see a student office. 

Thoughts about how to improve on last year’s Admit Day: 

For admits that are driving themselves or meeting us at the dinner or the bar, provide more concrete directions and contact information. 

Designate a contact person for each field group, in case there is a problem figuring out where to go, for field group dinners and for meeting at the bar as a larger group. 

Reception at the end of the day might be too late, possible to push it to 3 or 4 pm? 

Airport Pickups: field group reps to coordinate volunteers to pick up and drop people off at the airport, but we will coordinate times as much as we can ahead of time, if two or more admits are arriving at the same time. East Asia will need help with pick ups/drop offs, due to the size of their field group. 

Johanna suggested that the Collective send a welcome email to students who accept the offer, welcoming them to UCSD, inviting them to join the Collective on Facebook, and sending them a link to the Collective blog. 

Could also include student emails, for them to contact if they have more questions. 

Discussed a possible page on the blog with a “cheat sheet” of things to know about moving to San Diego (neighborhoods, FAQ). 

New admits should also be added to the email list earlier. 

Collective Speaker 

Johnathan talked to Jaime, who has forms for Dr. Goldstein to fill out to get him into the system, in order to expedite reimbursement.

Hotel - Jaime can help with hotel set up, getting us a better rate. 

Informal lunch workshop - In addition to the talk, Dr. Goldstein has expressed interest in participating in a more informal lunch workshop with graduate students to discuss professionalization issues, the job market, graduate school in general, etc. Jorge has volunteered to compile a list of questions to get the workshop started, so please send suggestions. 

Hopefully we can get lunch paid for (possibly through the Center for the Humanities?)

GSA funds will help cover the cost of airfare and hotel for Dr. Goldstein. Also discussed a dinner  after his talk on Thursday.