My meeting with the chancellor was postponed until August 18, a lunch meeting with a little more time than the 9 a.m. slot that his office had offered for August 1.

That gives me a little more time to research some issues that we will be discussing at the meeting, including plans for AGS events that UCI can help through material support, and ways that the administration can help address mentoring standards and practices.

Speaking of those, I had a great meeting with Lydia Soleil, UCI's graduate student career services consultant. She has already set up a "page on AGS":http://www.ags.uci.edu/Members/lydias with several helpful links.

Among the things we discussed:

--Future programs, beyond the standard and very popular personal consultations on CV and cover letter writing, workshops on interviewing, CVs, "networking," and negotiating for salary, housing, spousal support, etc.

There are discipline-specific workshops scheduled throughout the year, and Lydia was very interested in tying AGS social events to these workshops. For example, we might have a dean or associate dean address a group, then have workshops on academic and extra-academic job preparation and research, and then smaller discussion groups and a wine-and-cheese kind of social hour sponsored in part by the schools, in part by AGS. The social hour could be used to practice your thirty-second version of your dissertation topic, in addition to actually being social!

--Training the trainers: as part of the mentoring issue, in coming years, Lydia will try to develop workshops for faculty members: what do their students need from them in terms of job market preparation? what are faculty able and willing to do, and what services might help them accomplish those things? An information-gathering process for this goal will start soon.

--Lydia was also very helpful in explaining the links between the First Year Initiative and campus services for graduate students. This has been a contentious issue for many grad students, especially on-campus residents confused about why their rent money is funding a "co-curricular" coordination office. For many students, the administration and funding of such a program seem strange coming from Housing and Administrative Services, instead of from campus units dedicated to academic and non-housing-related offices, such as the Career Center. AGS will continue to look into the structure and purpose of FYI and its connections to other services on campus.

On the social events tip, yesterday I started setting up a to-do list for party planning and did some research into catering options for the Welcome Week party, currently scheduled for Friday, September 22. Save the date! The party will likely start at around 5:30!