GPSO E-Newsletter: March 13, 2014

In this Issue:

From the President's Desk

News: GPSO Officers 2014-2015

Student Spotlight: Fileve Palmer, Outstanding Graduate Student Nominee

GPSO Research Award Winners: Congratulations!

Service Opportunity: Indiana Commission for Higher Education

Reminder: SAA Healthcare Program Information

GPSO plans your SPRING BREAK weekend!

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From the President's Desk

• Congratulations to those elected to serve as GPSO Officers for 2014-2015!  I'm excited and honored to continue to serve as your President for one more year.
• Provost Robel spoke to the GPSO Assembly last week.  If you have any feedback/comments on the campus Strategic Plan that you would like me to include in my report to the Provost, please send me your input by sometime today.
• The Dean of Students Advisory Board met last Friday.  President McRobbie spoke about the Strategic Plan and answered questions about the direction of IU.
• I met with the Associate VP of International Services and discussed issues facing graduate international students.  

For more information on any of these points, please feel free to contact Brady Harman, GPSO President.

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News: GPSO Officers 2014-2015

Congratulations to our new elected officers for the upcoming academic year!

• Brady Harman, President
• Justin Vasel, Vice President
• Zach Bailey, Treasurer
• Skyler Hutto, Parliamentarian
• Juliana Gjonaj, Liaison

Appointed officers will be selected by the end of the semester and include Awards Officer, Benefits Officer, and Sustainability Officer.

Awards Officer - oversees the awarding GPSO Travel and Research Grants, currently held by Josh DeLeeuw (gpsofnds@indiana.edu).

Benefits Officer - addresses the benefit needs of Student Academic Appointees (SAA’s) and student employees, specifically health insurance, stipends, fee remission structure and related employment issues; currently held by Katherine Wheatle (gpsobene@indiana.edu)

Sustainability Officer - addresses issues related to sustainability within the GPSO and campus communities, currently held by Jeff Meek (gpsosus@indiana.edu)

To be considered for appointment, interested students should email gpsopres@indiana.edu by Wed. March 26th at 5pm with a resume and a short statement explaining what they would like to do within the position they are seeking.

To read more about all positions, please visit our Executive Committee webpage.

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Student Spotlight: Outstanding Graduate Student Nominee

The Graduate and Professional Student Organization (GPSO) and The University Graduate School (UGS) have teamed up to formally recognize an outstanding graduate student each semester. Students are nominated by faculty and GPSO representatives from across the university, and a competitive review process decides who will be honored. We will spotlight two nominees each month, bringing you excerpts from their nominators' statements.

Fileve Palmer is a graduate student in the anthropology department nominated in the field of community building. Fileve's nominator notes that stands out among her students as the one with the deepest and most long standing commitment to helping others, particularly those in ethnically diverse situations.

During her time at IU, Fileve has volunteered for various events at the First Nations Education and Cultural Center and the Latino Cultural Center, participated in outreach programs through the African Studies Program and performed and taught South African gumboot dancing at several local schools and at public events to entertain and teach about Zulu culture. Her award of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship was based on these kinds of social concerns and while in South Africa doing her PhD research, she gave numerous public presentations about ethnic/racial identity. Fileve’s work and volunteer activities have regularly put her in positions of leadership in which she has performed successfully.

Want to nominate a fellow outstanding student? Contact your Assembly representative!

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GPSO Research Award Winners

After review of 70 highly competitive applications for the spring GPSO Research Awards, we are thrilled to offer funding for the following graduate researchers:

• Ozen Bas, Telecommunications - "Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Potential of Protest Photographs in Motivating Citizens for Collective Action"
• Thomas Bunting, Arts Administration - "The Impact of Influence Structures on the Arts and Cultural Landscape in Urban Areas"
• Danielle Diadone, Second Language Studies/Spanish and Portuguese - "Second Language Learners' Mental Representations of Words: Alternate or Fuzzy?"
• Kristin Francoeur, Religious Studies/Gender Studies - "Toward a Re-Evaluation of Gender and Empowerment in 'Development': The Impact of Religion on North Indian NGOs"
• Steven Green, Psychology - "Identifying the Neural Correlates of Frustration"
• Chelsea Hamm, Music Theory - "Inter-Opus Associations of Recurring Borrowings in the Music of Charles Ives"
• Kaeleigh Herstad, Anthropology - "Detroit Reassembled: An ethnographic investigation of blight removal and 'ruin porn' in the Motor City"
• Tamara Kharroub, Telecommunications - "Social identity and self-categorization in transnational Arab television: Identification with characters and adoption of their gender roles"
• Sarah Monson, Anthropology - "Akan Bargaining Strategies: Language as an Instrument of Trading Negotiations in a Ghanaian Market"
• Evanna Singh, Anthropology - "Play? Chores? Work? The nature of children’s domestic activities in Guyana"

Congratulations to all applicants on your fantastic projects!

For information on the fall awards process, check the Research Award webpage over the summer months.

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Service Opportunity: Indiana Commission for Higher Education

Applications for the student member of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education are now open.

This position is a governor-appointed two-year commitment with great opportunities to learn more about and to influence the higher education system as applied to all of the State of Indiana's public colleges and universities. The current student member is an IU student, and we would love to be represented for the next two years!

Complete information about the ICHE, the role of the student member, and the application can be found here.

Deadline: Friday, March 21

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Reminder: SAA Healthcare Program Information

Upcoming IU GA PPO Healthcare Program Online Webinars:       

Friday, March 14, 2014                            
10:00 – 11:00 am

To attend a session:
1.     Go to: https://connect.iu.edu/grad-appointee/
2.     Connect to the meeting as a “guest’.
3.     Use the chat feature to ask questions during the presentation

IU Transparency Tool

Indiana University provides a Transparency tool to employees and their adult family members enrolled in IU-sponsored medical plans to find in-network providers based on price, quality of care, convenience, and more. Castlight’s Transparency tool is personalized to each member. Learn more about the Transparency tool and how to register at http://hr.iu.edu/benefits/castlight.html. 

Additional Assistance

Additional information including benefit summaries, temporary ID cards, information on specific benefit plans, and premium information for dependent coverage is available at http://hr.iu.edu/benefits/grad_appointees.html. Graduate Appointees can also contact enews@iu.edu for assistance

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GPSO plans your SPRING BREAK!

March 14 - 16:

• March 14, 10:30am-5pm: "Our Students' Creativity," works by MCCS students (By Hand Gallery, free)
• March 15, 9am-12pm: Winter Farmers' Market (Harmony School, free)
• March 16, 4pm: IU Softball vs. Wright State (Andy Mohr Field, 866-IUSPORTS)

Nothing look good to you?

Check out the ongoing exhibits featured in the sidebar or visit www.bloomingtonscene.com and www.visitbloomington.com for the full on- and off-campus scoop.

Have an event to promote?

Email me at gpso@indiana.edu, and I can help you spread the e-word to our fellow grad students.

Go have some fun!

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