Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Student Association
Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Opening:
The meeting of the BPKSA was called to order at 12:30pm by Garveen in room K9622.
In Attendance:
Garveen, Matt, Megan, Erina, Sabrina, Kirstin, Alam, Jimmy, Caleb, Elaine
Open Issues:
1) Exec Positions for Summer
-President (Garveen)
-Vice President (Megan)
-Treasurer (Kirstin)
-Secretary (Megan)
-Department Reps (Erina and Meghan)
-Promotional Coordinator (Matt)
-External Relations Officer (Ashly)
-SFSS Council Rep (Alam)
-Matt will contact Omid to see if he is able to act as the SUS rep over summer
-for new execs (or ones who want a refresher) please remember to attend a Nuts & Bolts Workshop!
2) SUS
-every Wednesday @ 12:30pm they hold their meetings in the Fishbowl near the Physics Main Office
-at a recent SUS meeting they discussed making a change in core spending, DSU’s currently can’t use grant money for alcohol but can use core money instead but now the SFSS wants standardize how core money is being used and they have recommended eliminating core spending on alcohol
-Jimmy is wondering what our opinion is on this matter as he is bringing it to the board tomorrow: we don’t agree with it, think it is adding another hurdle for event planning
-our opinion is in line with the rest of SUS
3) Motions
-Garveen motioned to reimburse Kirstin $11.18 for flowers and cards purchased for the YEP. Megan seconded it. The motion was unanimously approved.
4) SFU Info Night
-May 26th for all newly admitted students, are information booths and presentations given by each faculty
-Sophie, Darleen or Cheri will be there and they already have a student Kin rep to help but they still need a BP and BNS rep
-email Garveen (bpksa@sfu.ca) if you are interested!
5) Web Survey
-Erina & Meghan have been talking to Angie about the undergrad program and the responses to the survey will help identify key areas to discuss further
-so far have had 28 responses to the survey from Kin, BP & BNS undergrads
-the issues that were brought up are as follows:
-busy schedules and intense studying are getting in the way of becoming more involved in the department
-people don’t know when the BPKSA events are happening and the timing of events aren’t convenient
-our email timing can be better
-need to expand our email lists so that the undeclared majors can get the emails as well (for ex. when you take a Psyc class you are automatically added onto their email list)
-we can try to send out a calendar of our events for the upcoming semester (or more of a guideline for when we have our events, as venues may not be booked)
-need to start using our Facebook group more as well
-get profs involved so they can put a slide up while students are coming in to class before they start lecture
-will get on top of class visits & AQ table bookings this year as well
-BPK Orientation & Peer Mentorship are avenues that we can use to talk more about research opportunities in labs
-had split results for the question “Do you feel adequately prepared for your career after your degree?”
-issues with the grading scheme came up often; because of many of our students have graduate school goals we work very hard to maintain a high GPA (i.e. last semester BPK 458 had a very high average and people ended up with lower grades then they expected)
-also a lot of issues when changing grades from our 4.33 to 4.00 scale, would be very beneficial to get our grades in percentages
-for Career Night this year:
-need to look at local trends and global trends in the job force/industry (for ex. Physician Assistant is a job that is popular in the States and is becoming more popular in Canada)
-choose more unusual/unknown careers; ones that don’t require graduate degrees
-Brenda Badgero is our Career Advisor, maybe we could have her speak at BPK Orientation or hold a specialized workshop for BPK students; need to advertise her services better
-lots of students would like to see more opportunities for practical experience in our degree
-a lot of concern with course offerings (not offered frequently, issues with profs away on sabbatical, wait lists and issues being able to enroll in required courses)
-some people mentioned that there are knowledge gaps in the program (i.e. immunology, viral infections, and bacteria)
-brought up possibility of having more joint major programs (for ex. BPK and business, BPK and MBB for example)
-Erina will invite Angie to attend one of our meetings to discuss these topics with her further
6) Upcoming Event
-the Whitecaps have offered to come and give a presentation on Kinesiology
-UBC MPT and two alumni are interested is coming as well
-Darleen is thinking of organizing this talk around Kin Week in October
Adjournment:
The meeting of the BPKSA was adjourned by Garveen at 2:30pm in room K9622. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 1:30pm in room K9622.