KDSA Annual Town Hall Meeting

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KDSA Annual Town Hall Meeting

• February 9, 2007 Agenda
• Lunch
• Introductions
• Presentation of Class Gift
• Presentation of Annual Survey Results
• Question and Answer Session

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Introductions

• Special guests
• KDSA officers

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KDSA Activities for 06-07

• Orientation week
• Social gatherings
• Blood Drive successes
• KDSA bi-monthly lunches
• KDSA Friday breakfasts
• KDSA Annual Survey

• Changes from last year
• Gifts and Summer Reception for Graduates
• Print Quota and Printing Pool
• KDSA lounge
• Peer Instructional Feedback Program
• Volunteer call-outs
• Still to come
• Silent Spring Cleaning Auction
• Blood Drive
• Spring Elections

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Presentation of Class Gifts

• Every year the Doctoral Programs Office helps
  KDSA purchase a class gift for all Krannert
  Doctoral Students
  
• Hongfei Tang and Diane Denis

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Annual Survey Results

• Approximately 60 response rate

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Annual Survey Results

• Doctoral student perceptions and comments
• Current policies and procedures
• Benefits and programs
• Today we will review results regarding
• Stipends and benefits
• Computer storage
• The print quota the printing pool
• Research progress and aspirations
• Teaching
• Relationships with advisors
• Administrative Support
• Retrospective questions and turnover indicators
• Philanthropic Activities

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Stipends and Benefits
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Competitive Stipends?
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Pay Periods
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Additional Benefits Requested

• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Guaranteed 5th year funding
• Financial help for grad students to buy
  data/software
  
• Wave the tuition every semester
• We should get to print as much as we want. Also,
  why do we have the Krannert quota, and the Purdue
  quota?
  
• Legal insurance
• Of course, more stipend...(x4)

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• Better offices (more computers, more space)
• Waiver of the graduate staff fee or a subsidy
  towards it. (x2)
  
• Dental insurance
• Subsidized health insurance to spouses
• Additional stipends for students who teach as
  instructors.
  
• Make sure at least every PhD student has a
  computer in their office
  
• Better travel policy
• Single students should not have to pay more for
  insurance just to benefit the married students
  
• Krannert should provide the health insurance

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Computer Storage Print Quota
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KCC Help Desk

• Overall, students felt that Computer problems
  which are addressed through the Help Desk are
  handled in a timely manner. Average 4.0 / 5.0
  
• Although, 15 of respondents indicated that KCC
  responses to their concerns were not timely.

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Computer Storage
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Additional Computer Resources

• Endnotes software on office computers (x3)
• Sigmaplot
• Given the low cost of disk space - more on the H
  drive would be appreciated...but is not strictly
  necessary
  
• One computer per student in a office (x2)
• More software installed on computers as required
  for courses or research
  
• Computers with higher memory
• SPSS (x2)

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• Personal computers which are not managed by the
  central computer office. This is so important
  especially because it is really hard to contact
  and get help from computer staff
• STATA
• Macintoshes in the office and computer labs!
• Efficient spam filter
• Better/newer/faster/more attractive office
  desktop computers (x3)
  
• AMOS (x2)
• More virtual disk space
• Please don't erase the desktop content!!!

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Print Quota
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Average 3.4 / 5.0 Median 3.0
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Specific Comments Relating to Print Quota and
Printing Pool

• It is a problem when rushing a job and copy
  center people have the printer blocked for a big
  job. The queue does not tell us that the 4th
  floor machine is currently being used to make
  copies (x2)
• Often, the free printers are out-of-order, and
  we have to wait until they are fixed. We must
  then use our quota for jobs done during normal
  business hours.

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• Works great - except closed at certain
  times...then I have to print to the computer lab
  upstairs. This is somewhat inconvenient, but I
  can walk up there. However, it is frustrating
  when the computer lab printer is either not
  working properly or, even worse, out of paper -
  particularly Friday evenings A partial fix would
  be to make in policy for someone to check the
  printer ensure it is filled with paper before
  leaving for the weekend
• Sometimes 4th floor printer prohibits PhD student
  printing. The 4th floor is closed after 5 or 6
  during weekdays. Therefore I need to go to 7th
  floor to print something. It breaks the flow of
  work
• I can use only one machine at the printing pool
  to make copies. There is another machine there,
  but when the first one is busy I have to wait
  even though the second is idle
• Why do we have a quota when Faculty and Staff do
  not? I use my quota to print-out outputs for my
  advisor and I to discuss during spontaneous
  meetings. I also found myself using my quota to
  print off last minute teaching materials.

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• My request was printed through blue colored
  sheets at times
  
• When the stapler was broke, articles were thrown
  in the trash instead of just shelving them
  without a staple
  
• Sometimes they put all documents together and I
  need to spend time finding what I have printed
  
• Cannot print at that room from any computer
• It would be great to see when classes are in
  session in Lab 1 and Lab 2. There have been a
  couple of occasions when I printed something to
  the printing pool, went there and found out it
  was out-of-order or being used for a copying job,
  went back to my computer to print up to Lab 1,
  walked upstairs to find out that Lab 1 was having
  class, walked back downstairs to print to Lab 2,
  walked back up to find out that someone
  accidentally took my output, and then had to
  print from my quota at another machine.

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Suggestions for Improvement

• Tell us what it will cost if we run over on our
  print quota
  
• To be able to collect copies from the copy center
  during the weekend or off-hours
  
• Make 4th floor coping viewable from on-line
• Make Lab 1 and 2 classes viewable from on-line
• Allow a separate account to print and copy from
  for teaching-related materials
  
• What about creating a market where print quotas
  can be bought and sold?

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• The Krannert vs Purdue quotas were never clearly
  explained to me until I ran out of Krannert
  quota. I kept checking Purdue quota on the ITAP
  site and seemed to have pages available. Then,
  suddenly, I could no longer print If this had
  been explained at the beginning, I would have
  been happier
• Remove it (x2)
• Last semester I ran out of printing pages out of
  a misunderstanding about the quota. Anyways...
  apart from your own responsibility to check your
  status, maybe it would be useful to receive an
  e-mail message telling you when your quota is
  almost reached. Then you could manage your
  printing better
• Please allow more printing quota when we work as
  instructors
  
• We should not have a quota for the 4th floor copy
  room (not the copy center). As far as I know, a
  1000 page quota has been assigned for the copy
  machine as well

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Research Productivity
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Research and Productivity

• Number of projects Average 1.6
• Revise Re-submit Average 0.4
• Accepted Average 0.12

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Need in Order to be More Productive Researcher

• More direct mentoring
• Have more speaker seminars to get new ideas (x2)
• Guaranteed fifth year funding
• More joint work and useful RA duties
• More balanced class schedule In some semesters,
  students should take too many classes because of
  the limited class availability (some courses are
  open only once in two years)
• We need more professors

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• To take more classes REALLY related to my field
  interest
  
• Administrative rights on office computer,
  particularly for installing programs
  
• Interactive discussion among students, with
  professors
  
• Possibility to waive core courses (macro and
  micro)
  
• Professors showing a genuine interest in the
  progress of students
  
• Please lessen the teaching loads. Teaching every
  semester prevents me to focus on research
  progress
  

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• Aside from the methods classes, a more
  disciplined approach to research in the seminars
  would be helpful. Research should be a focus of
  discussion in every seminar, not just an
  afterthought after the class is done discussing
  articles. Strategies and research development
  would be helpful
• More time to concentrate on research
• Less TA work. Teaching and TAing takes up all my
  time. TAs should not be made to sit in every
  section of every class that they are assigned to.
  Assigning 10 hours of TA for instructing and
  another 10 hours for being a grader/assistant is
  not realistic. Being an instructor takes up much
  more than 10 hours. In all the time I have been
  here, I haven't been assigned RA a single time.
  All the research I have to do is in my own time,
  in addition to the extremely heavy course load
  and the teaching load
• Give less work on the RA assignments

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Teaching
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Need in Order to be More Effective in the
Classroom

• More coordination across sections/instructors
• A third arm
• I am fine teaching because I had previous
  experience, but I think it would be wise to have
  TA's sit in on lectures by other TA's for a
  semester before they teach on their own. A lot
  of TAs are unprepared
• Yes

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Peer Feedback

• I think it is a good idea but it does not address
  concerns that some may have about the consistency
  of teaching. Merely winning a teaching award
  does not mean that you are doing a good job
  teaching.
• Good idea
• I think I am one of the peer feedback people but
  I've never been asked to help out yet
  
• I think it was good
• Very useful

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Relationships with Advisors
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Wish our advisors understood

• I need good advice, sometimes without having to
  ask it. I would like more involvement from the
  advisor and also motivation talks
  
• I wish he was more accessible
• Couldn't be better
• I need more time to dedicate to my own projects
  (this includes not to take classes unrelated to
  my field)
  
• Show devotion in explaining things to students

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Administration Staff Support
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What Admin Does Well

• The PhD office knows all the answers to my
  questions - they are always very helpful,
  courteous, and fun to talk with!
  
• PhD Office -- Responds to student requests for
  help - GREAT!
  
• Support
• KCC and the PhD office are wonderful!!! Anything
  I need, they make happen, and anything I want...
  they at least think about it. )
  
• Kelly is awesome! (x4)
• Admissions
• Friday breakfasts...more generally, I have not
  had any issues with the administration - thus,
  they are doing a good job...

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• They seem to be very friendly
• The PhD office brings in a positive spirit
• PhD office is the best
• There is very little bureaucracy
• PhD office is very helpful
• Are available at any time
• Respond promptly
• Kelly and the rest of the gang do an outstanding
  job keeping up with all the administrative tasks
  and keeping students on track
  

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What Admin Does Worst

• Inform students about benefits we might have and
  most of the students do not know
  
• Except for Dave Hoover I have nothing positive to
  say about most people in KCC. Dave Hoover rocks
  
• Choosing a company making a PhD bag and the style
  of the bag (if this is decided by PhD office)
  
• I like the bag given in the past
• KCC can't finish their job in a timely fashion
• It would be beneficial if the staffs in KCC treat
  us in kind manner. Sometimes they seemed to be
  annoyed by the request

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Looking Ahead and Looking Back
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Wish You Knew?

• How I could have started to prepare for
  conducting research and mastering my field's body
  of knowledge before arriving. For example, a
  reading list would have been great
• That it is a very friendly, yet challenging,
  environment
  
• How hard it would be in the first year
• There are no good restaurant near the school
• The topics covered in the mandatory classes
• Personal nature of the faculty, weird behavior,
  people who take pleasure in putting down a
  student
  
• That it was going to be so hard all the time
• Teaching load
• Stipend and job market history

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Why Would You Quit?

• Because of what I've invested in it, short of a
  nuclear holocaust, a call from God, or major
  family problems, I will complete this program!
  
• A sharp blow to the head
• Professors that did not support an
  apprentice-type developmental learning
  environment
  
• Health problems or family issues
• A major delay in defending my dissertation
• Lack of interest in my work from committee
  members
  

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• Distance from girlfriend...especially makes it
  difficult to come back after break...
  
• I hope we can have 5th year funding
• The classes I have to take. Many of them are not
  related to my field interest. I'm wasting time. I
  could be doing researching and writing papers
  
• The low value of the scholarship
• Job opportunity
• Lack of maturity on part of faculty
• Mismatch between me and advisor
• If faculty support was not where it should be for
  the Ph.D. program

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Philanthropic Activities
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Philanthropic Activities

• BBBS
• None...there are other outlets for philanthropic
  activity and such endeavors are not central to
  KDSAs purpose
  
• Help poor children
• Involving with the poor in the neighborhood

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Upcoming Philanthropic Activities

• KGSA Charity Ball
• KDSA Silent Spring Cleaning Auction

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Questions