GSO Meeting: This Wednesday, June 3rd, 5:15 PM

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We still need to resolve the GSO leadership for the 2009-2010 academic year. If you're interested in a Presidential or Vice Presidential role next year, please "Step Up". You can contact me, Dustin Johnsen, at johnsend@ohsu.edu for more information.

Also, weather permitting (which looks likely), this final meeting of the 2008-2009 academic year will be outside in the Vollum Courtyard. If it's raining, the meeting will be at its usual location, the Vollum 2M Synapse.

2009/2010 GSO Leadership Needed!

Greetings, graduate student friends. I ask that you please read the following in detail:

As I've mentioned, I will not be maintaining my GSO President position next year. I have served as GSO Vice President for two years and GSO President for one year, and it is now time for me to pass the governmental baton and focus solely on completing my thesis research. Furthermore, Annie Powell, the current GSO Vice President, will be graduating and will not be assuming the GSO President position.

Despite my requests, I've currently received zero verified nominations for next year's GSO President or Vice President positions. The GSO is an important voice for students, influencing the breadth of graduate student life from University services, health insurance, MARCH and incidental fees, community outreach, student research, and student activities, among others. But in order for the graduate students to maintain their often fragile, yet increasingly vocal presence at OHSU, they need strong leadership.

The final GSO meeting for the 2008/2009 academic years will be next Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 5:15 in the Vollum Synapse. This will be the last meeting that both Annie and myself will host. The GSO will have to supplant our retired voices with fresh ones if the GSO is to survive as a valid organization. I ask that you seriously consider taking this opportunity to serve the students, make a lasting impact at OHSU, and bolster your experience with administration and politics. Please consider that an effective scientist is also an effective leader and administrator; and being a GSO officer provides invaluable experience with both of those roles. Also consider that my research has not once suffered from my GSO involvement. Effective time management can easily accommodate both roles as full-time, hard-working student and GSO officer. That said, I will be forthcoming that GSO President, and to a lesser extent Vice President, certainly are time commitments. I will be happy to provide a thorough list of Presidential and Vice Presidential duties to anyone interested. But I will still be at OHSU next year and will be happy to assist any newcomers as they find their feet governing the GSO.

Please contact me directly with interest at johnsend@ohsu.edu

Best regards,
Dustin

Media Room Movie Night: May 21st

Missing Time from the flier: 5:30 till 7:30 PM.

Student Research Forum 2009, May 14th & 15th

The 2009 Student Research Forum begins tomorrow! Please register and support OHSU student research.

Register and find more information HERE

Download the program with full abstracts HERE

Download the program without abstracts HERE

Important Changes to Student Health Insurance

From Eric Stoffregen and the OHSU Student Health Advisory Board:
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Here's the info about the health insurance changes for next year:

From 1999 to present, additional benefits had been added to the student health insurance plan that had gradually made the plan more expensive with the result that student health plan insurance rates were set to increase 19% for the upcoming ’09-10 year. To prevent such a large increase a lengthy discussion followed concerning ways to prevent such a large, almost prohibitively expensive change in rates. The following changes in plan provisions were approved by amendment and vote in committee in order to contain the insurance premium increase to a more modest 7%.

Changes in plan voted and approved by committee:

Deductible is going from $250.00 to $500.00

Out of pocket maximum increasing from $1,000.00 to $2,000.00(not including deductible)

Out of network deductible from $250.00 to $1,000.00

RX benefits from $0/$15/$25 to $5/$15/$25

These changes will be in effect for next school year (changes start Sept. 1st).


Eric

The March Wellness MOU

Below is a link to download the unsigned copy of the 2003 March Wellness Memorandum of Understanding. This was the copy handed to Nina Katovic, the OHSU Student Council President, by Dr. Robert Vieira, the OHSU Vice Provost. Many students have expressed interest in reading this document (including me), as it is responsible for our $139/term March Wellness membership. I want to make a note specifically about section 4(a) in that last year the student council and Incidental Fee Task Force requested that the March Wellness membership be optional (well below the quoted $700,000/year in the MOU); this proposal was rejected by the OHSU administration.

We can discuss the document at this Wednesday's GSO Meeting (see flier in below posting).

Download the March Wellness MOU

-Dustin Johnsen, GSO President

GSO Meeting: May 6, 2009, 5:15 PM Vollum Synapse

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