GPSO E-Newsletter: September 5, 2013

In this Issue:

Upcoming GPSO Events: Assembly, "First Friday" Social Hour

Funding Opportunity: GPSO Fall Travel Awards

Call for Applications: GPSO Awards Committee

Service Opportunity: IU Campus Committees

Guest Article: Are You Disappointing the Right People?

GPSO plans your weekend!

Upcoming GPSO Events

Assembly Meeting

All are welcome to the first Assembly meeting of the 2013–14 academic year - voting representatives and any interested students alike! We will confirm appointed officers, elect our Vice President and Treasurer, meet the Deans of the University Graduate School and hear directly from the President of the Bloomington Faculty Council.

The meeting will be held from 3–5pm TOMORROW in Woodburn 100.  If you have the time, please join us afterwards for a brief behind-the-scenes tour of the new Graduate Commons in the Wells Library.

"First Friday" Social Hour

Join us for the first social hour of the school year. TOMORROW from 7-9pm, we will be rocking out The Vid with free Pizza X!

Please RSVP to our Facebook event so we can order plenty of food.

Back to top

Funding Opportunity: GPSO Fall Travel Awards

The GPSO Travel Award is offered through a competitive process for graduate and professional students at Indiana University Bloomington. Up to $500 is given to help support travel expenses to conferences at which the student’s work will be presented (i.e. speeches, posters or interactive design), or to help support travel to workshops, special trainings, competitions and auditions that will benefit the student professionally. Funds may be used for registration fees, presentation materials, transportation, and lodging/food associated with the conference, workshop, training, competition or audition.

Please read the GPSO Travel Awards page carefully for information on eligibility, funding disbursement, and application procedure. After reviewing this information, interested students should complete the online application.

All fall applications must be received by October 20 at 11:59pm.

Back to top

Call for Applications: GPSO Awards Committee

Each fall, GPSO awards grants to IU graduate and professional students who are traveling to present research or participate in extraordinary professional opportunities. These awards are very competitive and the applications are peer-reviewed by IU students on the GPSO Awards Committee.

We welcome you to join the GPSO Awards Committee and review grant applications this semester, improving your own grant-writing skills and distinguishing yourself on the job market by performing valuable professional service for Indiana University. The time committment is approximately 3-5 hours via distance (online, email-based).

Interested students should complete this brief application to join the GPSO Awards Committee. Students who are members of the Awards Committee are ineligible to receive awards during their tenure, but the experience provides invaluable insight into any future applications they may submit after their service.

Please visit GPSO Travel Awards to learn more about the travel award. If you have any questions or would like more information about being a reviewer, please email Josh de Leeuw, GPSO Awards Officer, at gpsofnds@indiana.edu.

Back to top

Service Opportunity: IU Campus Committees

Are there certain issues you are passionate about?  You cannot commit a large amount of time, but still want to serve your campus?  Do you like networking and learning about issues affecting campus?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will likely want to serve on a campus committee.  GPSO is charged with appointing graduate students to various committees to represent all graduate.  These positions typically do not require a large time commitment but are essential to ensuring that the graduate student voice is heard by administration and faculty.  You also typically learn quite a bit, network with some great faculty and staff, and have the chance to make significant changes on campus.

These positions are limited and fill fast.  Follow this link to see a list of the committee seats that need to be filled.  Email gpsopres@indiana.edu if you are interested in any of these positions; they will be filled on a rolling basis.

Back to top

Guest Article: Are You Disappointing the Right People?

By Allison M. Vaillancourt, via The Chronicle for Higher Education

Managing an academic career often feels like an endless set of hard choices. Do I meet with the student who is struggling, or the one who shows great promise? Should I make an appearance at the often-pointless department meeting, or could I use the time to finish my manuscript? Will anyone notice if I skip the ribbon-cutting ceremony to meet with a high-potential donor instead? With more demands than time available to meet them, we must constantly evaluate where to invest our time and energy.

Over time I have come to rely on five questions to determine when it makes sense to accept an invitation and when it’s wiser to send regrets.

1. Will this activity move me toward my long-term goals? Selfish single-mindedness can lead to a bad reputation and missed opportunities, but the most effective people I know are generally strategic about how they use their time.

2. Will this activity be energizing, or will it suck the life out of me? If a meeting is likely to lead to new ideas, a productive collaboration, a fresh way of seeing an old problem, or even a psychological mood boost, consider saying “yes.”

3. Will anyone notice or care if I am missing? This is a key question to ask yourself when standing meetings are on your calendar. Is not going an option? Is going for just part of the meeting a possibility? Can you contribute in a more meaningful way than sitting in a chair for an hour?

4. Will this be the same old conversation? Does a colleague want to have lunch again to rehash all the reasons your dean should be ousted? Does a former student keep asking for advice he never takes? If so, you might want to invest your time elsewhere.

5. Will this choice disappoint the right people? Choosing one option over another is likely to disappoint someone, so the goal is to make sure that the right party is feels let down. I learned this lesson the hard way a few years ago when a grandmother I adored passed away two days before we were about to launch a new and high-profile academic leadership institute.

Because I was an institute organizer rather than a presenter, I could have relied on my institute co-director to be in charge and flown to Atlanta to attend my grandmother’s memorial service, but I didn’t. Instead, I decided I needed to be visible and available during the institute’s kickoff and told my family that I couldn’t make the trip. I rationalized that I was an attentive granddaughter while my grandmother was alive and convinced myself that missing the gathering was an appropriate sacrifice for an opportunity to demonstrate my professional commitment. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

That memorial service was probably the final time my extended family would ever be together, and my father was crushed by my absence. There is no question that I disappointed the wrong people, and I count this as one of my very worst decisions.

When faced with competing demands, what framework do you use to decide how to spend your time and energy?

Back to top

GPSO plans your weekend!

September 6 - 8

• September 6, 7pm: GPSO First Friday Social Hour (The Vid, free with dinner provided by Pizza X)

• September 7, 2pm and 7:30pm: Urinetown, presented by Bloomington Playwright's Project (Monroe County Civic Theater, $5-15)

• September 8, 1-6pm: Picnics at Creekbend (Oliver Winery, free to picnic/$5 tastings)

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!

Back to top