Farewell week 1, greetings week 2

Well, here I am at the end of week one of the new academic year. I must say I was quite nervous walking through the Stables at the beginning of this week, I had clean forgotten just how busy UL is! So what, pray tell, have you been doing to occupy your time this week I hear you cry? Well settle in and all will be revealed ...

Monday - I went in to meet Declan and Ger in Mojos in the city centre to discuss possible postgrad nights there. I have to say that they were extremely obliging and if any postgrad classes wish to hold class parties I would ask that you come in to me and discuss it, and we can work a deal with Mojos. Monday evening, I attended my first meeting of SU exec. These meetings will run weekly throughout the academic year. As the PSA and the SU are separate entities in UL, I am a non-voting member of the SU exec. When the PSA exec gets elected, the SU will also have a representative on this and Frank Fogarty, Deputy President/Welfare Officer of the SU has agreed to be the SU rep on the PSA executive. I'm glad that Frank will be the representative as he is a postgraduate student and will be able to give pertinent advice to the PSA exec.

Tuesday - I attended Governing Authority and this is one of the meetings where I have to wear a suit. Governing Authority approves all policy matters relating to UL, approves all employees, and aims to advance and expand the aims and objectives of UL. It is made up of a variety of groups, the president of UL, senior officers of the University, staff, faculty, student reps (two from the Students' Union and one from PSA), the Mayor of Limerick, Chairperson of Limerick County Council and lots more besides! As you can imagine, with such a diverse group of people and interests, meetings tend to take a long time. The meeting started at 10 am and by the time lunch was over, it was 3pm!

Wednesday - I had no meetings! Just my regular work, and on Wednesday I got a chance to go through the Financial Aid applications for the hardship fund. The PSA is in the process of transferring it's accounts to the Ulster Bank and the transition period is confusing and messy.

Thursday - Most of my time on Thursday was spent preparing for the postgrad 'meet and greet' on Thursday night. I must thank Jenny, Denise and Shane for helping and facilitating me with lugging stuff to the PSA. Above all though, I must thank Liz for being fabulous on the night, for running around making sure everyone was topped up and helping me clean at the end of the night. She was just brilliant and I am very grateful. Thursday night went exceptionally well, and I think it was a complete success. The PSA was full to capacity and decorated with candles and fairy lights. A 2year old child called Sean provided the entertainment and thoroughly charmed everyone! It was nothing fancy, I provided some drinks, the Stables provided some food, people ate, drank and most importantly mingled! There was such a night atmosphere there and everyone was very relaxed and chatty. I thoroughly enjoyed the night and for many it continued afterwards in the Stables.

Friday - I met up with Frank Fogarty today to update the Financial Aid booklet and most of my day is spent sorting out the Financial Aid applications.

NEXT WEEK -
No rest for the wicked and I will be just as busy next week. Class Reps Council on Tuesday, Academic Council on Wednesday and other meetings that crop up during the week. I am aware that many of the postgrad events are not very family friendly and for this reason on Thursday I am organising a tea party for postgrad parents. There will be tea, coffee and most importantly cake! This will run from 5.30 until 7 and is an informal forum for postgrad parents. Any questions, email them to the usual address.

Workshop success!

The training workshop for tutors and TAs was held this morning and the session was facilitiated by Dr. Sarah Moore, Dean of Teaching and Learning. I attended the session this morning and I found it excellent and engaging. Sarah went through techniques for holding the attention of a class and tricks for engaging the students. She also noted that if she had to give one piece of advice to tutors it would be to accept that you, as a tutor, are entitled to be at the top of the class teaching. You may feel nervous, or believe that you don't have sufficient expertise to be instructing students. You do! You are entitled to be there!

All the feedback from the workshop was generally positive, however it was difficult to get everything covered in such a short amount of time. For this reason, it is planned to hold some more sessions during the semester. These will be advertised on the PSA webpage, this blog and in the postgraduate page in An Focal. You can also email Sarah Moore [sarah.moore@ul.ie] to be included on the distrubution list for these classes.

Orientation Week

So this week is orientation week and the increasing number of people on campus is already noticeable. Postgrad orientation is on Thursday and Friday and on Friday I will be going down to the concert hall and making a (brief) speech about what I do and what I do for postgrads.

As for the rest of the week, well it's shaping up to be fairly busy also. Today I'm going down to speak to the postgrad orientation guides. There is a peer quality review of the library on Wednesday, and I'm joining the taught postgrad group to give some feedback about the library and the services that it provides to postgraduate students. The tutor workshop that I helped set up is taking place on Thursday and I'm attending that also. I'm pleased to say that the workshop has been full since early last week, and this alone shows the need for such a service for tutors and TAs. I was a little apprehensive when Sarah Moore (Dean of Teaching and Learning) informed me that the class was full, as I had intended for this service to be offered to very new tutors. However Sarah assured me that if there is enough of an interest in another workshop, she will run one in due course.

Thursday and Friday I'll be on a stall for the Environment Committee in the foundation building answering questions about recycling facilities and the like in UL. On Thursday I will also be sitting on a ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) committee. Friday I also have my first meeting of Academic Programme Review Committee (APRC) and my spiel in the concert hall.

Whew ... lots of meetings. And in addition to all this I have my regular work too! Keep checking the blog to see what else I'm up to as your representative.

They both won!

Well, you'll be happy to know that the cupboards are now painted a lovely muted shade of blue (all except the last two because I ran out of paint - no fear, it will be rectified) and the bookshelf is a dazzing shade of azure. Just to let you know ...

What wins? You decide ...

Those of you who use the PSA room for lunches and coffees and teas will have noticed a daring new experiment! Well maybe not daring, but finally, finally, the grey dingy cupboards are about to get a new lease of life. So in the interests of fairness I've picked two colours that I think will suit the room and the mural. The colours are azure blue (light blue) and bermuda cocktail (darker blue). There is a sheet in the PSA for you to indicate what colour you would prefer. Initially I preferred the light blue, but now I'm dizzy from my about-turn and I am voting for bermuda cocktail.

So what else have I been doing besides whiling my time away in Homebase? Well the couches in the PSA have been cleaned, the date for Reel Loco has been set and that event will be on Thursday 27 October upstairs in Dolans. I've also been sorting out some accommodation disputes for postgrad students and I've met with Claire McCarthy, the Student Affairs officer to discuss the postgrad experience of orientation week. Orientation week is next week and I will be attending the workshop for orientation postgrad guides. I will also be going to the concert hall on Friday with the SU and give a small spiel about me and what I do.

This week I'm busy with graduations and I'm attending the graduations on Wednesday and Thursday. I've environmental committee this afternoon and I'm trying to get sponsorship for the postgrad page in An Focal.

So that's my life, how's yours?

Chess and scrabble

Dear all,

Well finally the PSA centre is coming into shape. I bought a chess/draughts set and also a scrabble set to further entertain users of the PSA. As if procrastinating postgrads need any further excuse to while their time away in the PSA ... or maybe that was just me!

I mentioned in the last post that I was meeting Sarah Moore, the Dean for Teaching and Learning, this week to discuss some sort of training for tutors. Those of you who receive ITD Subscriber Mail will have seen the email that went around yesterday evening regarding starter advise for tutors and TAs. This workshop arose as a direct result from my meeting with Sarah, who was extremely receptive to my ideas. I urge people to attend this workshop, as even if you are an experienced tutor you may still pick up some useful advise about teaching.

As for other news, I attended Academic Council this week. This meeting was primarily for the ratification of exam results, and as student reps are not allowed into that, it was a very short meeting. I also met with Ray who books events in Dolans, and we are in the midst of putting together Reel Loco, a night devoted to celebrating Latin American and Irish culture. It's all pie in the sky at the moment, but I'll let you know more as things get firmed up.

That's all for now, keep in touch

Maria