Meeting with Mike Purdy:

The following list of issues was brought up by the students and discussed during the meeting with Mike Purdy. The list does not reflect the order of importance nor the sequence in which the issues were discussed at the meeting.

  • Research

    Weekend computer support

    Computers for student research

    Reduce Lamont's susceptibility to power outages

    Student financial support to attend conferences

    Student salaries (including, e.g., sea pay)

  • Recent rise in student attrition. Why?

    at-tri-tion (n.):
    1) The act of wearing or grinding down by friction
    2) The act of weakening or exhausting by constant harassment, abuse, or attack
    3) A reduction in numbers usually as a result of resignation, retirement, or death

    Mentoring classes for faculty & staff

    Provide students a way out of bad research/advisor situations

    Students need a strong advocate at faculty and administrative levels

  • Bus schedule

    More bus runs, particularly on weekends

  • Earth Science Colloquium and TGIF

    Encouraging more faculty, staff, & students to attend

    Holding TGIF reception in Monell after colloquium

  • Recreation

    Soccer field

Minutes from the meeting:

Mike Purdy's introduction:
Among the list of student concerns, Mike Purdy pointed out that they fell under two general categories:
1) Money problems
ex. shuttle bus, soccer field, computer support
2) Policy and procedural problems
ex. Earth Science Colloquium attendance, student attrition

Bus schedule:
The students suggested an additional run of the Lamont shuttle bus on weekdays at 6:30 PM to close the large gap between the 5:10 and 7:45 bus runs as well as a midday run on Saturdays and Sundays. Mike agreed to look into the issue but noted that the cost of the shuttle bus service, paid by DEES and Lamont, is about $150,000 per year, of which $60,000 are paid by DEES which receives $40,000 in ticket sales.

Soccer field:
Mike noted that the new soccer field is on his 'list' but not at the very top since more urgent issues have to be addressed first (e.g., leaking roofs). There appears to have been some misunderstanding about what the students wanted done about the soccer field. To paraphrase, the students don't want to host the World Cup; we just want to remove the rocks that were left behind by the Monell building construction crews. We could restore the soccer field in a multi-stage process, starting with the removal of stones and gravel. This would have the advantage of being less expensive and would make the soccer field, if small, available much sooner.

Student attrition
The next issue was the recent rise in the number of student drop-outs at Lamont. Students criticized that there is no central means of getting advice concerning the advisor-student relationship. It was suggested that one should make a determined effort to understand why students leave (e.g., exit interviews). Many students were/are not aware that there is a student-faculty relations committee in place to deal with these problems. Mike Purdy mentioned that at Woods Hole, each student has a mandatory meeting with an independent committee each year, made up of three faculty members, who are not the student's advisors, to check up on the students.

Drop in attendance of the Earth Science Colloquium:
Liz Cottrell presented the Colloquium survey results.
One additional comment about the low student attendance that came up during the meeting was the notion that the Lamont community is now so diversified that it is very hard to develop a 'single community feeling.' The importance of the colloquium as a social event where everybody gets together seems to have decreased during the last few years. Students generally agreed that it is not the quality of the colloquium speakers that is responsible for the low attendance.

Cafeteria:
Some students are unsatisfied with the quality of food offered at the Cafeteria. Several cases of food poisonings have been reported. Other students think that the Cafeteria is too expensive. Mike noted that there should be a survey sent out shortly that tries to address these questions among other things.

Weekend computer support:
The students strongly suggested having computer support available on the weekends to deal with computer problems, particularly those that occur as a result of power outages. It is very frustrating for students who come into work on Saturdays only to find that they can't use their computers, and then have to hang around until the 7 PM bus. (There's that bus problem again.)

Student financial support to attend conferences:
It was suggested that there be a DEES/Lamont fund to support students who want to go to conferences. In general, the money for the conference is taken out of the advisor's grant money.