|
To: Directors of Graduate Studies and Chairs in the College of Engineering
Last fall, the Engineering Graduate Student Association (EGSA) conducted an informal poll of more than 200 graduate students in the college of Engineering in order to gauge the extent to which they are satisfied with the research-related resources available to them. We queried on the following issues: phones, office space, privacy, and on the issue of overall satisfaction. EGSA is pleased to note that, for the most part, Engineering graduate students at Cornell appear to be reasonably satisfied with respect to these issues. We present a few statistics and then outline several items that came up repeatedly in the surveys. We bring these items to your attention as areas for improvement.
General statistics: 17% of the respondents would like more immediate access to a campus phone, 23% had privacy concerns with respect to their office space, and 50% of the respondents indicated that they had difficulty, either occasionally or consistently, working in their offices.
Some best practices that are not satisfied college-wide and that we would encourage are described below. Some of these practices are implemented inconsistently even within departments. All of these suggestions came from graduate students who took our poll.
Phones:
· Phones should be available in all of the labs.
· Graduate students should have the ability to be able to make long distance calls and should have unique phone codes when applicable.
· Graduate student phones should be equipped with voice mail accounts (per student, not per office) or an equivalent technology.
Desk/Office:
· Several students requested better (ergonomic) chairs. Since this can occasionally become a health concern, EGSA supports reasonable accommodation for those students who require ergonomic chairs or keyboards.
· Many students indicated the need for a pool of office supplies that graduate students could draw on. EGSA would like to see this instituted on a broad basis; in particular we feel that TAs should not have to buy their own office supplies.
Miscellaneous:
· Photocopiers from which graduate students get a certain number of copies free or at low cost should be made available in each department.
· Video/teleconferencing equipment, head phones, and scanners should be made available where appropriate.
Insufficient or outdated computer resources were a concern for many students; clearly, any evaluation of what computer resources are necessary will be department- and research-based.
Offices and labs should be cleaned on a regular basis.
As previously indicated, most students are, in general, satisfied with their situation. We think the College of Engineering should be commended for this. We present the above suggestions as possible areas of improvement and look forward to your response. The poll and this statement are available on the EGSA website at http://www.engr2.cornell.edu/egsa/ If you are interested in seeing more detailed results from the poll, please contact egsa@cornell.edu with any specific questions you might have. In some instances we have enough data to provide department-specific information.
This is the third in an ongoing series of EGSA position statements. Our last statement regarded semesterly appointment letters for graduate students. Please see the EGSA website for a copy of that statement and for information on a university-wide policy has been instituted related to this issue. We look forward to all departments in the Engineering College complying with university policy and issuing appointment letters for graduate students.
Thank you.
|
|
