I continue to be concerned about the attempts I see to ghettoize graduate students within AoIR. These proposals are usual presented as ways to increase student participation but if approved would serve to separate graduate students into group's of lower status within the organization or at minimum would create a secondary administrative structure. AoIR has an excellent history of graduate student inclusion at all levels of the organization. In my five years of membership, I have done a wide variety of things to assist the organization and have never been hindered because I am a graduate student. During that time I have, likewise, seen other graduate student members who have been involved in all levels of the organization. The only separation of graduate students from the general membership that I find is the decreased organizational dues cost, a status that is available to other classes scholars as well. I think this proposal is an excellent example of the issue that concerns me. Graduate students are being asked to step forward and volunteer to be members of a pool to conduct research projects that sound more like organizational evaluation efforts than academic research. The title of the project separates these assignments from any other work the organization might choice to have done by an ad hoc committee, one that would not be burdened with a titling limitation on membership. If the work needs to be done then create ad hoc committees/working groups to fulfill the need, that way membership could be sought throughout the organization. This would also allow for those who are truly interested in the project to volunteer their service to the organization, rather than the current proposal that requires a graduate student to volunteer their service to the Graduate Student Representative for later assignment to currently ill-defined projects. This would create organizational transparency something I feel has been a core value of AoIR. I believe that before projects to include graduate students should be undertaken those making the decision should conduct an analysis of the roadblocks that are impeding graduate students from involvement. First, are there in fact roadblocks? If so, are the roadblocks you find ones we can control organizationally? If they are outside our control can we help members find work-arounds for the specific issue? One of the ways to assess the existence of and potentially the types of roadblocks involved is to talk to those who you perceive to be affected, which could have been done on the graduate student list. In truth, the low activity on the graduate student list may answer the question in part, students are active in the main list and likely see no need for a separate list. However, since the infrastructure is in place it would have been good to use it to start the discussion even if the discussion then needed to move to the main list. In short, to protect from the perception of ghettoization first a analysis should be done to establish that a true need exists. Then a more persuasive argument must be presented that establishes the value of even pilot projects within the organization. Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA Future Faculty Teaching Fellow (2005-2006) - School of Informatics, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Indianapolis IN USA Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com Quoting Ted M Coopman <coopman@u.washington.edu>:
See in-line comments.
Ted M. Coopman Department of Communication University of Washington
On Mon, 20 Mar 2006, Jeremy Hunsinger wrote:
I have a few questions:
What sort of things are to be produced?
Currently, we are trying to get a better picture on who attends the conferences. Please see the list of potential projects in the CFP.
What is this new organizational structure's relationship to AoIR working groups?
No specific relationship. These are more ad hoc.
Is AoIR going to become some sort of research consultancy, where AoIR produces research instead of the members producing research?
No. I don't know where this question is coming from. Please refer to the terms in the CFP.
What is the audience of this research?
This depends on the project. Mainly the exec, secondly the membership, lastly the general population interested in internet research.
will it be vetted? by whom?
The exec and members that the exec may tap with specific expertise.
Who decides who gets to be on which project, given the natural tendency for some projects to be more interesting than others?
Anyone who qualifies (a student and a member) wants to participate in s GSRT will be able to, so it's self-selection. Many hands make light work. In the case of topics that may not seem interesting I will likely ask people to step up. I have faith that those who volunteer for the GSRG will during the year feel obligated to be a member of a GSRT. Overall, I will manage the project as Grad rep.
How does this fit with the mission and bylaws?
Looks like it fits right in there to me, do you have some specific concerns that this project steps out-of-bounds in specific or in general?
-TED
On Mar 20, 2006, at 4:08 PM, elw@stderr.org wrote:
1) What, exactly, does the exec have in mind?
2) Wouldn't it have been a good idea to discuss the formation of such a group on the air-grad list *first*, to see if there's interest in it? (I haven't seen any such discussion, which is why I'm asking...)
--elijah
jeremy hunsinger jhuns@vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu jeremy.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com
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