BGSA Fall Meeting 2024-25
Date: 12-5-24, 10:00 AM

 

Position	Name	Email
President	} Kara Taylor	k.taylor2@ufl.edu
ZooJoe/Botantea
Awards Committee	Wenyi Zhou	wenyi.zhou@ufl.edu
	Zuania Colon-Pineiro	colonpineiro.z@ufl.edu
	} Lisa Coe	lcoe@ufl.edu
Vice President
Zoocial
	Joshua Doby	jdoby@floridamuseum.ufl.edu
	Joseph Miguez	j.miguez@ufl.edu
	} Steven Cassidy	stevencassidy@ufl.edu
Colloquium Representative
Secretary/Treasurer	} Kate Davis	ka.davis@ufl.edu
Public Relations and Fundraising
Curriculum Representative	} Chris Nolte	c.nolte@ufl.edu
Graduate Student Council
Graduate Representative	Ana Lopez	ana.lopez@ufl.edu
Space and Facilities Representative	Brittaney Buchanan	bbuchanan1@ufl.edu
Greenhouse Representative	} Emeline Pano	e.pano@ufl.edu
Recruitment Committee
	Wesley Dillard	wdillard@ufl.edu
International Student Representative	Claudia Garnica Diaz	claudia.garnicad@ufl.edu
IT Representative	Rebecca Key	rebeccakey@ufl.edu
Mental Health Committee	Malu Ore Rengifo	m.orerengifo@ufl.edu
	} Manasee Weerathunga	w.weerathunga@ufl.edu
Climate Committee
	Izu Ezukanma	iezukanma@ufl.edu
	Palash Sethi	palash.sethi@ufl.edu
URAP Committee	Susannah Lohmann	s.lohmann@ufl.edu
	Lillian Hendrick	lhendrick@ufl.edu
	Eric Trotman	eric.trotman@ufl.edu
Welcoming Committee	Yuanming Lu	yuanming.lu@ufl.edu
	} Shelby Palmer	shelbypalmer@ufl.edu
Code of Conduct Representative
Bartram-Carr Woods Representative	Gihan Athapaththu	a.athapaththu@ufl.edu
Whitney Lab Representative	Sue Xu	xu.q@ufl.edu
Bylaws Revision Representative	Sikander Khare	s.khare@ufl.edu
Mentorship Committee Graduate Representative	Szu-Hsuan (Adrian) Lee	sz.lee@ufl.edu

Agenda

1. Member Updates
   1. President (Kara Taylor)

Suggestions for expanding the International Student Rep position to have multiple reps on different committees (i.e. Welcoming, Recruitment, Mentoring/Climate/Personnel Support) to be discussed with the current ISR.

1. Vice President (Lisa Coe)

No updates

1. Secretary/Treasurer (Kate Davis)

Kate found $1000 in paypal account—able to fund Quals meals through forseeable future, created 2 $250 DEI grants.

1. Public Relations and Fundraising Rep (Kate Davis)
   Kate suggests Fundraising rep and Treasurer should be shared position
2. Curriculum Rep (Chris Nolte)

Spoke to Jose Miguel, had a faculty meeting but Chris was only informed 2 days prior

1. GSC Rep (Chris Nolte)

Biology had the most grants from GSC out of the entire university

1. Graduate Rep (Ana Lopez)

Discussed travel awards—instructions have not been clear/consistent–wrote out more specific instructions to be more competitive. Discussions on how quals are not consistent between labs/students–some pair with proposal defense, some do not. Trying to decide which components to keep to standardize through the department

1. Space and Facilities Rep (Brittaney Buchanan)

No updates, Kara recommends discussing spaces for grad students with Susan, Steve thinks we should have a database for it so we know what spaces are available. Supposed to be the job of the grad coordinator—but that changes every year and some professors are less involved when it’s their turn.

1. Colloquium Rep (Steven Cassidy)

Steve will send survey in the spring about the next speaker. Trying to bring back snacks. But snacks fall on host, so it’s been inconsistent.

1. IT Rep (Becca Key)

Available grants on website were updated with # of students and amount. Contact info on BGSA people updated on website. Kara suggests updating graduate student page, right now it stops at 2017 cohort

1. Greenhouse Rep (Emeline Pano) – not present
2. Whitney Lab Rep (Sue Xu)                              

Whitney lab had symposium this fall, great turn out—planning on another in fall 2025. Going to have Whitney speaker thing March 28^th. Fundraiser next Friday “Whitney magnified” microscope images and such turned into art—silent auction. New director starting in January, new building, wants more connection between Whitney and main campus

1. Bartram-Carr Woods Rep (Gihan Athapaththu)
   No updates for Fall semester, but plans to organize a bioblitz for spring.
2. Bylaws Revision Rep (Sikander Khare) – not present
3. Mentorship Committee (Adrian Lee) – not present
4. International Student Rep (Claudia Garnica Diaz) – not present
5. URAP Committee (Susannah Lohmann, Lillian Hendrick, Eric Trotman)

Someone from Florida Museum reached out to partner with biology about URAP—TBD on details. Museum is putting together poster symposium, said Bio can join and TESI. BGSA voted in support in partnering with museum for URAP and joining poster session.

1. Awards Committee (Lisa Coe, Wenyi Zhou, Zuania Colón-Piñeiro)

Nominations are due tomorrow. Apps due 12/27. Adding 2 new awards—DEI service awards.

1. Welcoming Committee (Yuanming Lu, Shelby Palmer)

Spring event handed out packets and had special Zocial welcoming new kids. Didn’t have off campus gathering. Would like 3-4 people in the committee. Kara suggests having international student rep included on Welcoming Committee—but doesn’t want to overwhelm person in that position.

1. Recruitment Committee (Emeline Pano, Wesley Dillard)

Reached out to Brad about a budget—currently unknown. Admissions committee usually has numbers for invitations by mid-January

1. Mental Health Committee (Malu Ore Rengifo, Manasee Weerathunga)

People who took quals (7people!) all received $25 Ubergift/Doordash cards, and sent qualtrics survey out to department, got 15 responses—people don’t seem to be doing great, may have a mental health speaker come. Thanksgiving walk was cancelled due to low interest.

1. Climate Committee Reps               (Manasee Weerathunga, Izu Ezukanma, Palash Sethi)

Discussing combining mentorship, personal support, and climate committee into one—concern about adding extra work on grad student rep. Want to have 3 grad student reps and 3 faculty reps to alleviate workloads—with 1:1 ratio of student and faculty for each sub committee. Perhaps psychology department can help us with survey results to maintain confidentiality.

1. Code of Conduct Rep (Shelby Palmer)

Reviewed code of conduct, does not recommend removing anything. Kara suggests developing a google form for students to anonymously submit complaint/concern to Code of Conduct rep.

1. Zoocial Committee                        (Steven Cassidy, Josh Doby, Lisa Coe, Joseph Miguez)

Keg on Friday! No more dunkin donut alcohol y’all. We seem to be ending up $10-15 short each week between inventory and sales. Considering changing pricing to be able to stock more things.

1. Zoojoe/Botantea Committee (Kara Taylor)

Thursday afternoon seems to be working-will stick with for the time being. Gets small budget from department – coffee stock draining quickly since we are pairing it with seminars.

2. Updates on hiring committees
   1. Arindam Sarkar (Mechanistic Cell Biologist Faculty Search)
      137 applicants in total; shortlist 12 applicants to present to the faculty; Brad wants to invite 4 to interview; Keith will talk to Brad about getting more time for the shortlist; rule out the molecular biologists to keep the list concise and focused (de-emphasize transcription/translation focused applicants)
   2. Revised by AS: Shortlist of 8 applicants to be voted by the faculty, out of which 3 will be invited for interview. Interviews are scheduled for February (tentatively).
3. Updates from GAU
   1. Katie Feerst – Not present
4. Faculty Chair search
   1. Brad’s self-nomination for a renewed contract has been received favorably by the faculty and the Dean, so it’s likely to progress; no other nominations have been received
5. General comments & concerns
   1. None reported
6. Contact Kara &/or Lisa for items to bring to Brad!
   1. Brittaney to get info about databasing student office space
   2. Becca to update cohort links on grad student directory
   3. Wesley to get numbers from Admissions committee and budget for recruitment from Brad
7. Items for the Spring 2025 meeting
   1. Promotion of underclassman involvement in BGSA
   2. Nominations and voting for the 2025-26 academic year
   3. Combining Secretary/Treasurer and Fundraising positions (nixing PR?)
   4. Dividing the International Student Rep position into its own committee with representatives on other committees (Personnel Support/Climate/Mentoring, Welcoming, Recruitment)

 

Position	Name	Email
President	} Kara Taylor	k.taylor2@ufl.edu
ZooJoe/Botantea
Awards Committee	Wenyi Zhou	wenyi.zhou@ufl.edu
	Zuania Colon-Pineiro	colonpineiro.z@ufl.edu
	} Lisa Coe	lcoe@ufl.edu
Vice President
Zoocial
	Joshua Doby	jdoby@floridamuseum.ufl.edu
	Joseph Miguez	j.miguez@ufl.edu
	} Steven Cassidy	stevencassidy@ufl.edu
Colloquium Representative
Secretary/Treasurer	} Kate Davis	ka.davis@ufl.edu
Public Relations and Fundraising
Curriculum Representative	} Chris Nolte	c.nolte@ufl.edu
Graduate Student Council
Graduate Representative	Ana Lopez	ana.lopez@ufl.edu
Space and Facilities Representative	Brittaney Buchanan	bbuchanan1@ufl.edu
Greenhouse Representative	} Emeline Pano	e.pano@ufl.edu
Recruitment Committee
	Wesley Dillard	wdillard@ufl.edu
International Student Representative	Claudia Garnica Diaz	claudia.garnicad@ufl.edu
IT Representative	Rebecca Key	rebeccakey@ufl.edu
Mental Health Committee	Malu Ore Rengifo	m.orerengifo@ufl.edu
	} Manasee Weerathunga	w.weerathunga@ufl.edu
Climate Committee
	Izu Ezukanma	iezukanma@ufl.edu
	Palash Sethi	palash.sethi@ufl.edu
URAP Committee	Susannah Lohmann	s.lohmann@ufl.edu
	Lillian Hendrick	lhendrick@ufl.edu
	Eric Trotman	eric.trotman@ufl.edu
Welcoming Committee	Yuanming Lu	yuanming.lu@ufl.edu
	} Shelby Palmer	shelbypalmer@ufl.edu
Code of Conduct Representative
Bartram-Carr Woods Representative	Gihan Athapaththu	a.athapaththu@ufl.edu
Whitney Lab Representative	Sue Xu	xu.q@ufl.edu
Bylaws Revision Representative	Sikander Khare	s.khare@ufl.edu
Mentorship Committee Graduate Representative	Szu-Hsuan (Adrian) Lee	sz.lee@ufl.edu

 

BGSA Spring Meeting 2024-25
Date: 4-10-25, 4:00 PM

Agenda

1. Member updates
   1. President (Kara Taylor)
      Nominations and voting for the 2025-26 academic year have gone surprisingly well. I will send out the results of the voting tomorrow. Many of the first years stepped up, which means they’ll need quite a lot of guidance on their duties for next year. Also, we are reviving the Department Retreat committee for next year. Brad wants to have it in the fall, which might mean that the grad student reps will have to start their work earlier than the rest of BGSA. Safe to share new PDF for international student recommendations—by student for student reference sheet
   2. Vice President (Lisa Coe)

Awards happened.

1. Secretary/Treasurer (Kate Davis)

Still have ~$1,300 in the bank

1. Public Relations and Fundraising Rep (Kate Davis)

Gave two $250 DEI awards out this spring! Also been funding graduate student quals meals. When new person takes over, I’m going to suggest he does a design competition for new designs. Though we still have a fair amount of merch left.

1. Curriculum Rep (Chris Nolte)

Nothing to report

1. GSC Rep (Chris Nolte)

Travel grants-woo! If travelling internationally for the university, must fill out the travel form with international center regardless of if you are international or domestic student-Chris will send email

1. Graduate Rep (Ana Lopez)

We discussed whether or not to require enrollment in Colloquium (ZOO6920) for potentially a second semester. To increase attendance to the Biology seminar (not confirmed yet).

1. Space and Facilities Rep (Brittaney Buchanan)

One room (Carr 318) for grad student use, some desks taken. Other wise advisors may provide desk space in their labs

1. Colloquium Rep (Steven Cassidy)

Nominations are completed with 6 speakers nominated. Grad student invited speaker vote sent out and results will be in next week. This committee has expanded to also get coffee and tea ready for the seminar each week. This is expanded from just coordinating the invited speaker vote.

1. IT Rep (Becca Key)

Nothing to report

1. Greenhouse Rep (Emeline Pano) – not present
2. Whitney Lab Rep (Sue Xu)

The Whitney Lab graduate students will host the annual Science by the Shore symposium around September (or sometime in the Fall). It is a science symposium for trainees and students from local and regional institutes, and it is also in general a fun opportunity to hang out at the Whitney Lab and at the beach. Please stay tuned for more updates.

1. Bartram-Carr Woods Rep (Gihan Athapaththu) – not present
2. Bylaws Revision Rep (Sikander Khare)

New version of the bylaws have been finalized by the committee. Here is a link to the new version with track changes: Department of Biology Bylaws and Operating Procedures Tracked Change Jan23.docx

• We are required by law to remove any reference to the term “diversity”, so:
  • “Personnel support committee” is the replacement for the “diversity and inclusion committee”
  • “Hiring liaison” is the replacement for “diversity liaison” in the Faculty Search Committee
• Changes to the Faculty Search Committee bylaws:
  • New policy on conflicts of interest
  • According to HR, the department is not allowed to give out the application materials of all applicants, only of the applicants in the “shortlist” selected by the faculty search committee
  • The “shortlist” will be roughly twice the number of people expected to be invited for an interview (3-5 interviewees is expected normally)
• Formalization of Personnel Support Committee
  • Merged with the climate committee
• Graduate Student committees:
  • Used to be that the three grad committee were recruiting, welcoming, and URAP
  • Now it says they are defined and operated by BGSA
  • Now there is no explicit reference to URAP, recruitment, or welcoming committees

1. Mentorship Committee (Adrian Lee)- not present
2. International Student Rep (Claudia Garnica Diaz)

Shared the notes on the faculty meeting from this week, where Marta Wayne came to clarify some questions regarding both international faculty and students. On the other hand, I have been in contact with two of the new international students that are incoming (contact shared by Savannah) in terms of legal arrival to the US and housing. Savannah and Karen said they will share the final list of international students that accepted and signed the appointment letter. No further modification of the international student welcoming package has been made since last semester.

1. URAP Committee (Susannah Lohmann, Lillian Hendrick, Eric Trotman)

Symposium is tomorrow (4/11) afternoon. Posters will be in courtyard from 2-5 and presentations are at 3:30 in 611 Carr. $100 for poster winner $200 for best presentation.

1. Awards Committee (Lisa Coe, Wenyi Zhou, Zuania Colón-Piñeiro)

Committee doesn’t control money after awardees are selected. Students have been asking about if they could spend award money before letter received. Funding comes from different sources, so not standard/uniform when letters are sent/steps they have to take to spend the money.

1. Welcoming Committee (Yuanming Lu, Shelby Palmer)

No update, actively thinking of throwing another potluck mid-end April with collaboration of PS  committee.

1. Recruitment Committee (Emeline Pano, Wesley Dillard)

We done did it. Set up for 12 TA spots to be filled by incoming cohort, 2 RAs. A fair # of students have declined offer letters to UF

1. Mental Health Committee (Malu Ore Rengifo, Manasee Weerathunga)

Continuing to send quals $25 food gift cards. Sending email summaries of mental health tips.

1. Climate Committee Reps                                  (Manasee Weerathunga, Izu Ezukanma, Palash Sethi)

Organized faculty/student lunch outings, not sustained

1. Code of Conduct Rep (Shelby Palmer)

Link is broken-will talk to someone to fix

1. Zoocial Committee                                              (Steven Cassidy, Josh Doby, Lisa Coe, Joseph Miguez)

Beer continues to be popular 9,000 years after it was created.

1. Zoojoe/Botantea Committee (Kara Taylor)

Can get Publix tax free card from Tammy–$100 for us per semester to use, keep receipt. $100= ~6 16 oz starbucks, creamer, tea, etc.

 

2. Motions for voting
3. Reshuffling Secretary/Treasurer and PR/Fundraising positions –> Secretary/PR and Treasurer/Fundraising
   1. Votes in favor: All
   2. Votes against: None
4. Adding a second International Student Rep to the roster
   1. Votes in favor: Majority
   2. Votes against: One—concerns about taking away from welcoming committee

Zuania points out that the description online is more limited than the actual duties

Izu points out that this rep is often the primary point of contact for new international students

Yuanming suggests collaborating with other subcommittees to reduce amount of duties and clarify duties of international student rep

Sikander suggests welcoming committee and international student rep meet up and discuss

General consensus—codify more of the stuff Claudia has done, Suggested summer meeting for peaceful transfer of power instead of a hostile government take over

_____________________________________________________

Claudia’s comments on International student conversation:

1. Potluck & Event Regulations

A potluck cannot be managed solely by one student, especially not by the international student representative.

There are legal and logistical restrictions that prevent organizing a potluck in the Bartram-Dickinson Hall courtyard.

Recommendation: Any such event should be co-developed with other committees, including the Climate Committee, Mental Health Committee, and Personal Support Committee. This collaborative approach distributes responsibility and ensures compliance with institutional policies.

2. Peer Support & Communication

New international students often feel more comfortable speaking with fellow students, especially those who have similar experiences.

It’s helpful when the international student rep shares advice from personal experience or confirms information with others (e.g., Savannah or committee members) to provide accurate guidance.

3. Representation & Inclusion

Including another international student (especially from a different nationality or background) improves representation and creates a more welcoming environment for incoming students.

This reflects the diverse backgrounds of the student body and helps newcomers feel seen and supported.

4. Role of the International Student Representative

Maintains a living list of housing options for incoming international students.

Helps locate local resources that can support international students during their transition.

Facilitates connection with current students from similar backgrounds or home countries.

These efforts should be closely coordinated with the Welcoming Committee to ensure a smooth and supportive arrival experience.