Is it already the start of the semester?

Hi Collective Brain!

It's almost the start of the semester (sorry to be raining on your (somewhat grey) Sunday!)!

We know it's a bit short notice, but we are looking for people willing to lend a hand during Orientation this week and/or next week.

Remember when it was you and you were all like "woot"?

Well, orientation starts this week, and with it, its cohort of disoriented people. To help them get their bearings, we--the GSC exec--will be at hand for International and General Orientations (watch out for the traditional Welcome Back Party announcement!

International Orientation is on Friday August 23, 2013 and General Orientation is on August 30, 2013. 

If you happen to have some free time on these days, we would love help! In particularm we are looking for volunteers who would be willing to share their favorite spots on campus and experiences as grad students.

We are looking for volunteer tour guides on campus for International Orientation on Friday August 23, 2013. You would get a group of incoming international grads from the International House (next door to the OMAC and the gym), to the Grad Lounge, touring campus and answering questions along the way. If you don't know what to say, it's okay, we have a quick-fact sheet with anecdotes and histories about campus and Providence. Tours start at 2pm and finish at 3pm. There will be ice cream and cake at the Lounge after, and you will be of course invited to it!

We are also looking for discussion leaders for General Orientation on August 30, 2013. There is a small group discussion with incoming students planned, and we are looking for people who would be willing to be discussion leaders: you would introduce yourself and have the students introduce themselves, and talk a bit about what's it like to be a grad student at Brown. Don't worry, we will give a quick-fact sheet about common questions that might be asked and how to answer them. It is likely that they will also ask about your social experiences at Brown (where to eat, where to dance, what's fun to do here?), etc. Discussions start at 1pm and finish at 2pm, but as it is their last session of the day, if some of the incoming hang out, feel free to stay a bit too!

If you are interested in this, please get in touch with us at gsc_vpsocial@brown.edu

Cheers!
Acey Sieffert
GSC VP Student Life and Socials

Open House for International Graduate Students

Hey Brunonians!

My friend and International Advocate for the GSC, Ryan Hartigan, wants you to know this:

Re: Spread the Word! Open House for International Graduate Students at Brown

To all incoming international graduate students,

Welcome to Brown! 

To help you get your bearings, the Graduate Student Council, Graduate School and Office of Campus Life and Student Services will be hosting Open Houses each week leading up to International Students Orientation (August 23rd). 

They will take place on Wednesday 7 August (this Wednesday!), Wednesday 14 Augustand Monday 19 August between 12 and 1:30pm. Each Open House will be held in Room 411 in the J. Walter WilsonBuilding. If you're yet to visit campus, this is on the corner of Brown Street and Waterman Street; it's the same building where you'll need to visit OISSS and check in with your paperwork.

These are not only a great way to start meeting people on campus, but a perfect opportunity to begin finding out more about what you'll need to know in settling in and setting up in Providence!

 

Guests, including deans from the Grad School, staff from Campus Life and OISSS, members of the GSC,  current graduate students, and the Summer Project Coordinator in International Graduate Student Experience will be available to take any questions you might have and welcome you to campus. So arrive early and enjoy snacks and coffee or tea with us as we regale you with stories of Brown!

  

Who: International Graduate Students

When: Wed. 08/07/2013; Wed. 08/14/2013; Monday 08/14/2013 

Where: J. Walter Wilson, Room 411

So come and visit, we look forward to seeing you!

Ryan Hartigan 

  

Summer Project Coordinator in International Graduate Student Experience

International Graduate Student Advocate, GSC

PhD Candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies 

Brown University Providence, RI 02912

Creepy image courtesy of the World Wide Webz. 

Happy rest of the summer,

Acey Sieffert

Weekly Links: The Highest Calling

• Totally interesting, you guys. Stanford is going to start gearing their humanities Ph.D.s toward teaching high school. It's also trying to get time-to-completion to five years. This kind of reform seems great for many reasons and for many students. But what if it becomes the next big thing?
• I've seen a lot of "how to be more productive" blog posts out there, and I think this is one of the good ones. 
• The University World News has been focusing a number of articles on the global flow of credentialed people. While China and Italy try to plug up years of brain drain, the Dutch are trying to get foreign grad students to stay and work. Germany wants to do the same, even though they've previously viewed catch and release as part of their aid mission. And others, like Russia, are trying to become education destinations.
• The plight of the overly-hyped public intellectual. We in America should be so lucky. 

Weekly Links!

• OMG you guys I hit the motherlode. Of dissertation resources, that is. The Online Ph.D. Program blog (which is actually about online Ph.D. programs) has put together a great list of their "Top 100 Thesis and Dissertation References on the Web." It's got everything from databases to workflow tools to writing communities. But please, as you delve in, make sure you don't end up meta-dissertating. 
• Need a little beach reading this summer? Here's a good list of newish books on the state of higher education.
• Worried about "administrative bloat" in the academy? Don't, says Matt Reed. (Or do, say some of the commenters).
• All the gloom and doom getting you down? This guy says the key to being a happy graduate student may be to stop complaining, think positive, and manage your expectations. What, you mean like people with real jobs?
• A new report finds that blacks and hispanics take out more loans for grad school than whites and Asians. This article should be read on two levels: first, as an important reminder that racialized class inequality persists through graduate school, and second, because the report apparently is baffled by why  this may be the case, and suggests it may have to do with differences in future salary expectations, while not even considering private access to resources. 

Summertime, and the living is eeeeeeeeasy.

Welp, we've pretty much reached the end of the semester, and I'm going to start easing into summer by easing up on the rate of Daily Links. I'm thinking Weekly Links. Not much happens in academia over the summer (or so its critics say) so you won't be missing much anyway. I hope you'll continue to come here for fascinating little tidbits from this strange, troubled, and lovely world of ours. 

Meanwhile, please enjoy today's Links.

• So, a 2009 Harvard dissertation has become an object of controversy lately. It claims that "Hispanics" may never get their IQ scores up, probably due to some genetic factors. All aspects of the affair, including the dissertation, the criticism, the press coverage, and the comment threads, are both disturbing and fascinating. 
• This is so meta. It's about how to be an academic blogger.
• Got any good ed tech ideas? Instructure (maker of our very own Canvas LMS), will pay you lots of money.  

To Market, to Market. Daily Links.

• Nice Morning Edition piece summarizing the market revolution in higher ed, as it's playing out in Texas.
• A new Florida U plans to do away with tenure altogether, replacing it with renewable contracts. (Obvi, not everyone's psyched. The comments section is pretty interesting). 
• A new U Penn report looks at the state and future of HBCUs, which have been attacked of late.
• A Brookings report tried to finally answer the "should everyone go to college" question once and for all. Judging from the response, they failed to convince everyone. 
• In other news, in the wake of the Boston Bombings, student visas have become the focus of Homeland Security  (even though neither suspect was on one). Unclear whether it'll make it harder to study here, but some worry that the issue might get dragged into larger immigration debates. 

Daily Links: International Edition

• Australia is (also) cutting dough for higher ed, and this writer worries about the health effects on the health of academics themselves.  
• From England, a young PhD student wonders why there aren't more black women in the humanities. She holds up UNC as a favorable example of diversity. Speaking of which, here's a spotlight on how CA is finding alternatives to affirmative action, as the practice seems threatened in the Supreme Court. 
• In Mali, scholars literally preserved knowledge by hiding away medieval manuscripts from those who would destroy them. 
• And is Virginia a foreign country? If you're trying to file a Freedom of Information Act request, it might as well be. A librarian's take on how a quietly important recent SCOTUS ruling might affect academic research.