-Smoking ban all over campus for all tobacco products. Student government proposed alternate plan: smoking gazebo, etc? input from different grad orgs welcome
-Senate approved funding for grad conference!
-Healthcare subcommittee investigating the recent changes in policy; a lot of official support from graduate program directors across the board regarding the effects of healthcare changes on the graduate student population (talking points specifically regarding English graduate students: significant financial burden spec for Eng grads, due to the stipend rate, which is one of the lowest on campus; recent increase in workload, teaching in the dorms)

GEO Update

-UHS healthcare cuts: UHS head admitted this is to fund a new building; grievance filed with state commission
-Demand of increase in transparency

GSC

-Faculty admission committee: Course Evaluations (change in phrasing of one question); Foreign Language Requirement: preselecting text to establish uniformity (primary or theoretical texts), create a regular exam schedule to encourage people to get this out of the way, clarifying changes in handbook

Meeting Times for Spring ‘12: EGO meetings and events for this semester will be on Mondays from 2-3 pm with a few exceptions (locations TBA).

by EgO at UMass

• Advisory Session PDS, Areas PDS, Job Market PDS (spearheaded by Joe Black and Jocelyn Almeida-Beveridge), Summer Jobs PDS, Managing Research PDS
• Department-sponsored (mixed faculty/grad students) or regular PDS format (only graduate students)? A PDS-like “supersession” workshop, co-led by students and professors: trying to get department to provide a space for talking about important department issues applicable to all.
• CO-DEPT/EGO SUPERSESSION TOPICS: advisory session and areas, job market, a day in the life of a professor

GSS

• The Voice: Grad student Newspaper is now soliciting articles that pertain to graduate student life.
• GSS meeting updates: increase in graduate fee passed, constitution ratified. Healthcare Rally, pharmacy closed/UHS hours reduced.
• GEO increase in graduate stipend ($21.24)

Fall Events

• Last PDS: Attending Conferences (Mon, 11/14)
• Conference Committee Bake Sale (Mon, 11/21)
• End of semester party (Ye Olde Watering Hole 7 pm December 8th, 2011)

Graduate Studies Committe Follow-Up

• COURSES: Fall 2012 mostly 700s, Spring 2013 mostly 800s.
• Advisory session doesn’t have to include period requirements
• Department Website Recommendations: department can offer a graduate student assistantship?; EGO should have a stronger web presence with more prominent link to EGO on website; current and previous graduate student list; graduate students’ achievements, recent dissertation titles and committee chairs

by EgO at UMass

by EgO at UMass

“Reality”—as a state of mind or as an embodied experience—is not a unified or universal plane; from surrealism to social networks to the “real” housewives of New Jersey, we are constantly constructing, confronting, and negotiating diverse realities. These varied and often contending sites of reality are sometimes socially accepted and sometimes labeled “alternative,” but they are always central to our sense of self and our place in the world. What, then, does it mean to locate, or dislocate, a particular kind of “reality”? What are the implications of deeming some realities alternate, or altered? What are the different realities enacted within and through, for example, cybercommunities, the space of the theater, dream states, discourses of identity politics? What are the boundaries of these realities, and what are their purposes?

The English Graduate Organization of the University of Massachusetts Amherst invites submissions to the 2011 graduate interdisciplinary conference. This year's conference will explore multiple realities, how they are formed and demarcated, and the problems inherent in this practice. At question are states of mind, lived experiences, and subcultures that complicate or challenge traditional notions of reality and perceived states of normalcy. We urge submitters to consider the multiplicity of realities and how cultural phenomena impact our experience of those realities.

We invite submissions from a diverse range of disciplines and critical perspectives. Projects may include papers and/or panel presentations, performance pieces, and multi-media approaches.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Film and television
• The stage, theatricality, theater production
• Literary worlds (dystopias/utopias, science fiction, realism, and fantasy)
• Constructions of gender
• Social spaces and institutions (academia, the classroom, politics)
• Representations of madness
• Digital spaces (gaming communities, social networks, internet sex-industry)
• Drug culture and altered consciousness
• Rhetorical spaces, notions of audience, meaning-making
• National boundaries (globalism, postcolonialism, and migrant communities)
• Visual and performance arts
• Theoretical approaches to reality

SUBMISSIONS:
We accept three different types of submissions:

1. Individual papers/projects: please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words. Include your name, paper title, institution, and email address.
2. Panels: please submit an 800 word proposal for an entire panel of presentations (3-4 presenters). Included in this proposal should be abstracts of all presentations, an abstract of the panel itself, title of the panel, and information for each presenter (name, paper title, institution, and email address). If you are forming your own panel, you have the option of providing your own chair.
3. Performances and creative presentations/panels: we welcome submission of creative works, including creative writing, visual art, and dramatic performance. Please include a brief description of your project, as well as your name, project title, institution, and email address.

Email submissions to moc.liamg|fnocgnessamu#moc.liamg|fnocgnessamu no later than January 31st, 2011.

by EgO at UMass

The topic of the first post in our series is jobs outside of higher ed. If you find that prospect more than a bit scary, you’re not alone. Though many of us have second jobs, it’s likely to support our eventual career goal to become a college teacher and scholar. I haven't opened an Excel spreadsheet in half a decade. Is it possible to do something else with our graduate degree?

In this short—totally readable on a your iPhone during a bus ride—article, Susan Basalla May interviews John Fox, who is putting his PhD in anthropology to use outside of higher ed. he encourages us to broaden the scope of the job search.

In my conversations with faculty and grad students, I’ve noticed that we tend to view the job search myopically, with a tenure track job being the only positive outcome. Our nightmare scenario is also pretty narrow: adjuncting 6 different sections at 4 different colleges just to make the rent. What if we do neither? In the interview, Fox views the job search as a much broader process, and encourages us to look beyond teaching jobs in higher ed.

The closer one gets to the end of the MA or PhD process, the more likely we are to reflect on the hard questions that the job search poses. How far away from my family and friends can I reasonably live? Do I want to have a family (and how soon)? How do my partner’s career goals square with mine? Etc. It comes as a relief, if not a radical transformation in our thinking, then, to view our career paths as wide ones. Fox is encouraging: “You've got a Ph.D., and you're smart as hell!”

You’ll also see links to other articles May has written dealing with this topic. She and Maggie Debelius wrote the book So What Are You Going to Do With That?: Finding Careers Outside Academia, from the U of Chicago Press. I’ve not read her book, so please comment if you can speak to its credentials.

What are your thoughts?

by juliemb

Second Edition
Authors’ Preface

Introduction: The following pages present the first edition of the constitution for the English Graduate Organization (EGO). This document was drafted to meet the needs of EGO in the context of standard practices and policies of analogous organizations in peer institutions.

Rationale: The motivation for producing this document was to meet the procedural needs of EGO and to fulfill the requirement of the Graduate Student Senate (GSS), the campus-wide governmental body on which our legitimacy depends, that each graduate student organization has in place an effective constitution.

Status: This document should be understood as a transitional instrument for practical purposes. Amendments can and should be allowed when their need arises. These needs can and should be determined by the members of EGO.
Ultimately, we leave it to EGO under the leadership of each yearly body of members to decide on which amendments, if any, to pursue.

Sincerely,
Amy Brady
Chair 2010
EGO
Department of English
University of Massachusetts Amherst
September 09, 2010
CONSTITUTION OF THE ENGLISH GRADUATE ORGANIATION, SECOND EDITION

ARTICLE I - Name and Purpose

Section 1: Name of the Organization
The organization shall be named the English Graduate Organization (EGO)

Section 2: Purpose
The UMass Amherst English Graduate Organization (EGO) is a student-run organization dedicated to enhancing the academic experience of all English graduate students here at UMass Amherst. The goals of EGO are advocacy for graduate students with and to the faculty, enhanced communication within the graduate student community, and professionalization of the English graduate body. EGO also seeks to coordinate its activities with other English department committees such as the Graduate Studies Committee, and to deliver graduate students’ ideas and concerns to these
other committees.

ARTICLE II - Membership, Non-Discrimination Policy

Section 1: General Definition of Membership
Membership shall be open to all English graduate students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Section 2: Non-Discrimination Policy
EGO does not discriminate for any purpose on the basis of race, ethnicity, linguistic abilities, religion, sexual identity, political affiliation, disability status, or marital status.

ARTICLE III - Officers, Duties, and Terms

Section 1: Titles
Five or six individuals will be duly elected for either 5 or 6 positions which will form the standing executive committee of EGO. The number of co-chairs elected will be voted by the committee.

Co-Chair
Co-Chair (optional)
2 Wiki Moderators
Treasurer
Communications Officer

Section 2: Duties
The duties of each officer will be as follows:

1. Chair/Co-Chair
The co-chair serves as an internal coordinator for the English Graduate Organization. He or she (or both co-chairs) will track the overall business and functioning of the Graduate Student Association. This/these person(s) will call and announce meetings, request and prioritize agenda items (with input from GSA members), facilitate meetings, create special subcommittees, place appointees, monitor ongoing and new issues, and maintain regular communication with other representatives such as the Department Chair and GPD, members of the Graduate Student Committee, and GEO representatives on graduate student issues. The co-chair will be available to attend faculty meetings as a graduate student representative when appropriate.

2. Co-Chair (optional position)
(As above under description 1.)

3. Wiki moderators (2)
Generally responsible for the accurate and impartial documentation, collection, and dissemination of information as well as relevant news via the wiki site and Facebook.

4. Treasurer
Maintaining a bank account. When EGO is looking for funding s/he is responsible for submitting proposals to the English department and/or GSS one week prior to any Senate meeting and should attend that meeting in order to make a presentation to the full Senate. S/he is also responsible for keeping and organizing the budget for the annual graduate student conference.

5. Communications Officer
Generally responsible for publicity, postings, and maintaining an EGO email listserv.

Section 3: General Terms of Office
Each executive officer's term will begin on July 1 and end on June 30. No elected officer is binded by a given length of time for their elected term, but 2 years is highly encouraged.

Section 4: Special Term Requirements of Outgoing Chair
The outgoing Chair shall remain an honorary member of the executive committee to serve as an advisor to the incoming Chair until the end of the first general meeting of the new executive committee, or until the outgoing Chair and committee feel that the incoming chair is fully comfortable with taking over the position.

ARTICLE IV - Election and Appointment Procedures

Section 1: Election Schedule
The election for all executive committee positions shall be held toward the end of each school year. The election day shall be announced in the immediately prior general meeting.

Section 2: Nomination Eligibility
Any EGO member may be nominated for any position. Any member may nominate any member including her/himself.

Section 3: Nomination Acceptance
Each nominee may accept or decline the nomination of her/his name during the meeting at which s/he is nominated.

Section 4: Votes Counting
Votes shall be counted by a suitable, impartial third person, who is also a member of EGO.

Section 5: Determinations
A winner shall receive a majority of votes. In the event of a tie, the leading candidates sharing the tie may choose to share the position.

Section 6: Appointment Procedures
In the event of a sudden or continued vacancy in an executive position, the Chair or Co-Chairs may choose to appoint a member to the position in a temporary manner until an election can be held for the position. The appointed member may remain in his/her position throughout the year by a majority vote among EGO members.

ARTICLE V - Meetings

Section 1: General Meetings
General Meetings shall be held at least once a month.

Section 2: Special Meetings
Executive meetings and special meetings may be called by the Chair.

Section 3: Professional Development Seminars (PDS)
PDS may be determined by a majority vote amongst EGO members. All graduate students can and should be allowed to attend PDS without having to officially join EGO or attend EGO meetings.

Section 4: Proposing Topics and Actions for Discussion
Any member during any general meeting shall be permitted to suggest any topic or action for discussion during an appropriate time as indicated by the agenda set for that particular general meeting. The actual discussion shall begin after a move to pursue a discussion has been presented by another member, and seconded by yet another member.

ARTICLE VI - Rights and Privileges of Members

Section 1: General Rights of Members
All members are permitted to attend general meetings.

Section 2: Voting Rights of Members
All members shall have the right to vote in any general meeting.

ARTICLE VII - Amendments to the Constitution

Section 1: Proposal
A member may propose an amendment by distributing it in written format and reading it aloud in a meeting. Voting of a proposal can but does not have to take place in the same meeting as that in which the proposal was made. Following the meeting, the proposal shall be made known to all members of EGO.

Section 2: Approval
During the next general meeting, and only after a thorough discussion to the satisfaction of all members present for the voting of a proposal, a vote shall be taken on its approval. The amendment must secure two thirds of the votes available during the meeting.

Section 3: Recording
Any successful amendment shall be recorded and copies of the new constitution shall be presented on the EGO website.

ARTICLE VIII - Committees

Section 1: EGO members may authorize the creation of any standing or ad hoc committees as they deem necessary.

Section 2: The leadership of any standing or ad hoc committee may be decided by the EGO Chair or by any member of the committee.

Section 3: The English Graduate Conference (EGC) shall be a committee both recognized and organized by members of EGO. A member of the EGC shall attend all general EGO meetings.

Last modified on September 09, 2010.

by albrady

Look for EGO on Google Buzz, Google's new social networking service (built into Gmail). You'll get all the latest news from the English grad wiki's News, Blog, and Discussion Board.

UMass EGO Amherst on Buzz

by EgO at UMass

Email Listserve

Any grad student can send email to the listserve at gradlistserve AT english.umass.edu. All current English MA/PhD students have been subscribed. MFAs and alum are welcome. Manage your subscription or subscribe with an alternate email address.

English Graduate Wiki

The English grad wiki has a new look! Site members can create or edit almost any page, post Events, or write in the Blog. Some of our most important features include:

• The News and Blog sections on the homepage to keep you updated.
• How-To Guides with advice on everything from surviving exams to the best bars in the Valley.
• Syllabi of English courses other grad students have taught.
• Community resources, including bios of current grad students, a space for Reading Groups, a Discussion Board, CFPs, and more.

Learn more.
Click here to join.

Google Calendar

For a quick visual on what’s going on, visit EGO’s Google Calendar. (Also linked from the Calendar icon on the homepage.) To get an event in the calendar, post an Event on the wiki.

Social Networking

Friend EGO on Facebook, follow on Twitter, or subscribe with RSS to keep updated.
Learn more about your options for staying updated.

by EgO at UMass

Remember: EGO is for YOU. Is the new layout attractive, user-friendly, and suitable to your needs as an English graduate student? Please let your voice be heard by telling us what you think.

by EgO at UMass

by EgO at UMass

The listserve is open to any English graduate student. Any user can send emails directly to the list.

Manage your subscription.

by EgO at UMass

The big changes in our health plan are:
(1) You will pay an annual deductible, with or without a referral, for
services outside of UHS. If you go to the ER, you will pay the
deductible. The deductible is $200 for those on individual plans.
For families, the deductible is $200 for yourself, $200 for your
partner, and $200 for the children covered, so up to $600. Before
this fall, no such deductible existed.

(2) The cap has been halved, from $500,000 to $250,000. A medical
crisis (breaking your back, getting a brain tumor, etc) will rack up
bills quickly so the $250,000 is inadequate.

(3) Co-pays for prescription drugs have gone up from $7.50 to $10.

(4) UHS is now closed between the hours of midnight and 8am. Before
this fall, UHS urgent care was open 24 hours.

The university made the cuts to the health plan with no consultation
with any of the students affected, or with GEO. GEO filed a grievance
and requested that UMass release any records on how they shopped for
the plan and what discussions were held with Aetna and other insurance
companies. Susan Chinmann's response was that such records were
irrelevant to GEO, and "in any case, no such records exist."

Visit the GEO website for more information
Read the a related article on the changes in the Gazette.

by EgO at UMass

Present: Queequeg, Miss Bennett, Margo Dowling, E.A. Poe, Lolita, Puck, Penelope, Wife of Bath, Mr. English

Conference updates: Conference committee reporting by proxy:
-Bake sale total proceeds: 229.35
-budget for conference has been met
-conference website now on wiki: http://umassenglishgrad.wikidot.com/2010-conference
-A.E. Poe suggested inquiring about web space available through GSS

Ego Budget: Questions were raised about the budget, whether it has been incorporated
into the conference budget.

Wiki updates:
-Miss Bennett suggested photos for next meeting, will bring camera
-Miss Bennett will send out another email to the department regarding the
photo contest
-group agreed to continue with wiki updates

Seminar committee: A sub-committee of EGO, will be responsible for choosing subjects of interest to graduate students, planning workshops, and enlisting faculty support: Penelope, Puck, Poe, and Queequeg.
-Ideas for seminars include: writing abstracts/choosing conferences, navigating
publishing and journals, job market, job talks/interviews, field specific research strategies (including archival research)
-committee will meet to form schedule for talks

Movie Night: Ideas for a movie series were presented
-first one for Feb.
-possible locations: the Renaissance center, the campus center, Bartlett
-Poe will create an online poll for people to suggest and vote on prospective
movies

Other updates:
-EGO will have a presence at the Dec 4th meeting “Everything you need to know
about the department”, scheduled from 12-2
-Queequeg will schedule a final meeting this semester, which will be more informal and at a location t.b.d.

by AmandaCarr

by EgO at UMass

by AmandaCarr

Just last month after running a Google search on myself, I found myself listed, unauthorized, on a website called Spock. The site had lifted my full name, location, birthday, age, a silly photo, and friend list from my centuries-old, password-protected MySpace profile (which had been set to private) and posted that information in a public listing. Happily, after emailing the company, the information was immediately removed. But a lesson was learned. It's probably no longer realistic to be anonymous on the web. But what can you do to limit the circulation of damaging information and even professionalize your web presence?

Facebook Friend Lists
Articles with tips to protect yourself on Facebook abound and include such no-brainers as "set your profile to private" and "don't post images of yourself drunk and dancing on bar tables." But I have found that one of the most useful but underused strategies is to create "Friend Lists" and then assign each list different privacy settings. For instance, while your 10 closest friends might have access to your full account, you can keep separate Friend Lists for acquaintances, old high school friends you wished hadn't found you, and your mother, who recently and inexplicably set up an account.

To do this, from the top menu, go to "Friends." On the left-side menu, at the bottom of the "Lists" already created, you'll see a little plus sign. Click it to create a new Friend List. Once you've created the lists you want, from the top menu go to Settings —> Privacy Settings —> Profile. From each drop-down menu (i.e., Profile, Status, Photos Tagged of You), choose "Customize." Under "Who Can See This?" choose "Some Friends." You will now have the option to type in a friend list. Facebook even allows you to preview your profile as a certain friend would see it so there is no doubt about who has access to what.

By the time you're finished here, that professor who friended you will be able to see little more than your name.

(Caveat: customizing Friend List privacy settings does not necessarily give you free license; anything on the web is still, well, on the web.)

Delete Accounts on Old Social Networking Sites
Do you have a Friendster account you haven't looked at in 5 years? You were 5 years younger; it probably has something embarrassing on it. Delete accounts for any social networking sites you are no longer using (and monitoring) regularly.

Run a Narrow Google Search
You should (and probably do) Google yourself occasionally. But don't take false comfort in the fact that your name is John Smith and therefore no one will ever be able to find you. In addition to your general Google search, attach keywords that any self-respecting stalker would use to narrow the results. "John Smith UMass" is a pretty good start. Then take action. Remove offending content you have control over; contact websites that are posting hazardous information and ask them to remove it. (See incident with Spock above.)

Build a Professional Web Presence
Finally, taking control of your web presence is not just purging questionable content; it is also a personal PR campaign to define how you want the world to see you. The Chronicle article has some great suggestions to that end. But you might also consider creating a simple, concise professional webpage on UMass's server or writing a blog addressing your research interests via one of the numerous blog hosts, including Blogger, Wordpress.com, or UMass's own Blogs at UMass Amherst. I have a friend, for instance, whose professional interests blog, which she listed on her resume and business card, helped her land a (nonacademic) job.

And of course, post a blurb about your research and teaching interests on our wiki's Grad Student Bio page.

by EgO at UMass

2. Other plans discussed to get current and incoming students involved: weekly social events; class visits.

3. Book sale details finalized; plans for next year's English Graduate Conference underway.

4. Amy Brady and Joe Mason elected co-chairs of EGO. Thanks to Lisha Daniels Storey for serving as chair this year!

See minutes for all meetings:
About EGO

by Joe Mason

I've often wished for just such a service. And then I found it…right under my nose. It's called an RSS reader, and you've probably seen the little orange squares that signal its feeds everywhere.

I'd like to take away some of the mystery from RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication) and get you to try it out! You'll wonder how you lived without it.

Here's a brief summary of how it works: most news, opinion, and blog websites generate constantly updating "feeds" of all their latest content. An RSS reader tracks your favorite feeds and delivers them to you in one location. Think of it as an email inbox filled with your very own, personalized web content. Just imagine…no more checking the same websites day in and day out to see if anything new has popped up. And you'll never miss a thing.

For example, in my RSS reader, I am tracking the New York Times's Most Emailed Stories, my best friend's blog, the comments my students post on our course website, and— of course —UMass EGO website. As soon as a student posts a comment or another story moves into the NY Times's most emailed list, it appears in my reader, complete with a description (and sometimes the full text), a link, and an option to share by email.

Click the little orange buttons on the UMass EGO website to receive updates directly to your reader.

Although there are many RSS readers available, I use Google Reader because it is straightforward and requires no download. All you need to do is create a free Google account (with which you will also be able to use Google's email, photo, calendar, and other services).

Once you have set up your reader, you can start adding "subscriptions" to your favorite websites by clicking on the site's RSS link (that orange button again). Or you can add the site's URL directly in your reader.

That's it! Turns out, RSS really is Really Simple.

EGO Feeds
Blog
Discussion Board
EGO Site Updates
News and Events!

by EgO at UMass

Arts
Doctoral Candidates Anticipate Hard Times
By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: March 7, 2009
Full-time faculty jobs have not been easy to come by in recent decades, but this year the new crop of Ph.D. candidates is finding the prospects worse than ever.
Read Article

by stacita

by EgO at UMass