Mission and Structure

The mission of the student advisory board is to increase communication and collaboration between students and the faculty in the School of PPPM. Past topics have included: facilities, resources, curriculum planning, and community building. The group is convened for several meetings each term, and the School will provide support for the committee.

 

Role and Expectations of Student Members

The role of members is to help with communication between students and faculty

• Members are expected to participate in meetings unless there is a scheduling conflict
• Members are asked to communicate with their peers using a range of methods

 

Department Role and Responses

We try to respond to all of the issues raised, which may include a range of responses:

• Solve the issue: add new software to computers in our lab
• Raise issue with faculty: ask faculty to do a better job of posting regular office hours
• Find resources: increase the amount and frequency of research and travel grants
• Seek more information: to ensure inclusiveness, we may seek input from all students
• No action: we can’t always take action due to constraints such as resources, policy, law or time. We don’t like to say no, but we will try to be clear about these.

 

Topics not appropriate for the SAB

• Cases of harassment, discrimination, or inappropriate activity must follow UO procedures
• Feedback about specific instructors in their classes. There are established anonymous mechanisms for providing instructor feedback.
• The actions of specific faculty or staff. Issues can be raised privately with a School Head or Program Head, but there are personnel procedures that must be followed.

 

Group representatives have been selected in the following manner, which can be altered:

• Graduate Students: 2 representatives of the three Masters programs
  • A call for nominations is sent out by the School
  • Nominations are posted and students vote within their program
• Undergraduate Students: Each Spring there is a call for nominations and self-nominations. We aim for a cross section of majors and minors across the program with a goal of 8 total representatives. If there are more nominations than spots, we will create a waitlist to fill spots that may come open. Current members can stay on the board for additional years.

 

Meeting times (based on 2018-19 feedback)

• One meeting per term for the entire group
• One meeting per term for graduate students only
• One meeting per term for under graduate students only