Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Students Association
Meeting Minutes
Monday January 26, 2015
Opening:
The meeting of the BPKSA was called to order by Loryn at 12:30 pm in the BPK Conference Room
In attendance:
Josh, Ian, Garveen, Ran, Megan, Erina, Loryn, Spencer, Steven O, Shaila, Sam, Matt, Garrett, Darleen, Sabrina, Kirstin, Bogdan
Career Event
-final attendance count: >150 people attended, not including exhibitors!
-we need to get thank you letters back to anyone who helped us plan BPK Career Night (i.e the Dean, SFSS, Dr. Tibbits (BPK Chair))
-Sabrina has uploaded the pictures and videos from the night onto the BPK webpage for viewing
Pros & Cons
-wraps and desserts went out at the same time, therefore not a lot of people got dessert; something to watch out for next time
-organization of the booths during the exhibit was well done
-with the grants, we can try to get different food for next year
-could also try to video tape the breakout sessions next time to put up on the BPK webpage
-this way those who weren’t able to attend can watch these videos
-OVERALL: JOB WELL DONE!
CCR:
– Co-curricular record; essentially a record of volunteer hours dedicated by each individual in the BPKSA
-Need to make a list of events we’ve volunteered for since July 2014 (i.e peer mentorship, Terry Fox BBQ, BPK Kick-off); can also include any volunteering for Faculty of Sciences
-include who, when, what, how long and then send this to Darleen
-Darleen will then add it to myinvolvement.sfu to give each individual the appropriate credit
-descriptions of events, who was there, how many hours (set-up for the events
can count); meeting attendance will also count
-Sabrina will assist and Darleen will verify everything once its in
Meeting with Dr. Glen Tibbits
-Dr. Tibbits would like to come out to a BPKSA meeting to discuss things going on in BPK
-He wants to know what we like about the program, what we don’t, ideas for improvement, etc.
-Please come up with a list of topics you think should be addressed and email them to Loryn @ lbohne@sfu.ca
-try to focus on BOTH the positives and the negatives
Ideas that came up:
-BPK 201: not very applicable for Biomedical Physiology majors; maybe consider taking it out of the BP program?
-could be problematic for BP students who want to take 400 levels with this as a prerequisite
-the course should be more application based
-upper division wet-labs that are similar to upper division MBB labs and more practical would be a great addition to the program
-maybe talk to MBB and get prerequisites removed for BPK students so they can
take MBB 308 (MBB 331 is a prerequisite)
-but then they’ll have to make seats for BPK students, therefore its better to have
our own wet-lab
-but also can’t have identical courses in 2 different departments; need to be careful about the design of these courses
-maybe have a 4th year Neurophysiology course like BISC 405, courses more oriented towards research, how to communicate scientific research, how to read research papers
-allow students to have influence how a course is being made; this will allow for the inclusion of certain topics in the courses that students find super interesting
-USRAs:
-requirements could be changed to allow more students to hold a USRA (i.e
NSERCs are only given to people who have held one before, GPA etc)
-not enough opportunities which is why its super competitive (due to a lower number of research faculty in the department compared to the number of students)
-in addition, not having enough faculty causes a lot of problems with
enrollment too
-BISC 202 addition is good to the BP program; also, making BPK 207 a prerequisite to BPK 306 was a good idea; BPK 304W becoming a prerequisite for many courses was also a good idea
-could look into adding more focuses in the degrees; add streams in BP like KIN does
-have cardiovascular physiology streams, neurophysiology streams,
-this could work well when looking for jobs the future
-potentially remodel BPK 461
-need to address how any students are coming into the program and how many are transferring out
-help BPK get more funding (which would allow for more faculty to be hired)
-regulate sabbaticals taken by BPK faculty and also
-KIN has more choices for upper division electives; BP majors need more choices too since classes counting for their major are offered less frequently
-remove classes not offered anymore from the courses webpage
-more notice on when required courses wont be offered; i.e when they will be offered officially or when they are traditionally offered
Motions
-Erina made a motion to reminburse Sam for a gift to Ty for designing the BPK t-shirts. Matt seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved.
-Garveen made a motion to reimburse Loryn $54.84 for the pizza provided during the meeting. Matt seconded the motion. The motion as unanimously approved.
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned by Loryn at 1:20 pm at the BPK Conference Room. The next meeting of the BPKSA will be on Monday February 2nd 2015 at 12:30 pm in the BPK Conference Room.