[Grads] Notes from last week's Town Hall

Wed Apr 22 10:52:53 PDT 2020

In lieu of tonight’s town hall meeting, you could replay last week’s meeting and/or read my notes (below).

Topic: CCRMA Town Hall / Lightning talk(s)? / Check-in
Date: Apr 15, 2020 05:22 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Meeting Recording:
https://stanford.zoom.us/rec/share/zMlbJJHqzUlOY43t7kv8C68iLKrsX6a8hncW_voFzR5CVccDaMU--otlPdXsc547

Best,
-Matt
-- 
CCRMA Technical Director
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~matt
650-723-4971 x304
Pronouns:  he, his, him

[Jonathan Berger already had 5 hours on Zoom today; excused himself from coming tonight.]

Maureen Chowning wants to acquire a feline

Mark shaved off his beard (to wear a mask on the plane), using the CDC “Frank Zappa” style (see https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/pdfs/FacialHairWmask11282017-508.pdf)

Report from Matt on our beloved custodian Cynthia: she’s been working at CCRMA (which is currently at historic levels of cleanliness); last week was her last time at the Knoll, but for the time being she’s been assigned to do “deep cleaning” at various other campus buildings; she and Matt exchanged cell phone numbers and she’s promised to text Matt to let us know if she’s furloughed or laid off.

— Are there discussions of PhD funding extensions for delays caused by COVID-19? Is this a department or university wide issue? 
          Nette asked this question in a meeting yesterday. Dan King (Assistant Dean of Graduate Financial Support) responded. This is a known school (Humanities & Sciences) issue, and solutions are being discussed among many different offices. The Deans are analyzing the possible cost, and there should be some updates in the coming week or two.

Acknowledged and known problem of delays preventing dissertation research, considered a school problem.  They’re asking departments to make lists of potentially affected PhD students.  “Being actively considered.”  “Unfortunately all in a wait-and-see mode”.  

Board of trustees will meet April 20 to decide about endowment payout.

Also encouraging incoming students to defer.

Nette will try to get more info and share.

Do we have an incoming PhD class?

NW:  Today was the deadline.  CCRMA offered two PhD slots; both were accepted.  At least one is a foreign national who may want/need to defer because of visa issues.  NW predicts there may not be an incoming cohort; the 2020 incoming people might actually come in 2021.

— Capstone projects for MAs and program requirements - clarifications? (any faculty who will be with us)
          Language from bulletin: "Capstone Project: At least nine units of work are required to complete the capstone project."

NW “to be perfectly honest, most people don’t have specifics about it”. Was talked about in faculty meetings and has now made it into the Bulletin as of 2018-2019,

Takako: Capstone had been mentioned as reframing 220D or equivalent to any kind of independent project “but that’s about it”.  “As a form of encouragement to engage independent projects, it made it into the bulletin that way,  but not a change to the existing framework of the curriculum”.

Matriculation happens in September.

NF asks if there will be a timeline for more guidance on it?  JOS nominates Jonathan Berger to describe this.

It’s not an additional 9 units; you do the 9 units of capstone work within the existing required 45 units.

Ge recalls it not being controversial among faculty.  It should be molded after your own interests.  Time set aside for you as a masters student to pursue something in a sustained and focused way across multiple quarters.  Maybe not even one thing, but a common theme that pursues your genuine interest.  Also relating to community-building aspect of CCRMA.  A way to say “spend more time at CCRMA with your fellow CCRMAlites and work on what interests you”.  Could be scientific research, art/composition, building a software tool.  As long as it’s thoughtful and musically minded and you are on the same page with your advisor.  

JOS says 9 units “designed with your advisor”.  Doesn’t want to stipulate it happens in Y2 (e.g., to accommodate shortened MA/MST timelines)

It’s not a specific course number.  Could be 220D.

Takako: could schedule a meeting with faculty, Nette, Matt to draft language for next year’s bulletin and to help clarify for current masters students.  TF feels that a class final project could grow into a larger and longer term project.  If advisor and student can come to that agreement that this will be a major achievement in MA degree, then we can have some kind of flexibility as to what is considered part of the capstone.

Kim - is there any thought of setting aside funding for masters students to execute projects?  E.g., Kim is doing a study that Takako is funding out of her lab.  TF: “that’s a really brilliant suggestion”. JOS: historically faculty have used their discretionary research accounts for things like that.

— Request for guest speakers to Colloquiua (Barbara)
          FYI, Mark Rau already reached out to speakers who were invited to come in spring, and all declined doing a remote talk. Suggest folks to your colloquium crew: Mark Rau, Vidya Rangasayee, Camille Noufi, Scott Oshiro. Julius is also working on some special seminars.

BN surprised none of the speakers wanted to do a virtual talk.

Moving forward we envision more of a normal CCRMA colloq format with presentations, etc., and have less frequent town halls.

— CCRMA t-shirt design winner?

Voting closes tonight

— Virtual room for CCRMA community to “drop by” for a conversation? Any suggestions on platform? Host? Timing? (Hassan)

Nando: we installed our own Jitsi server.

https://cm-jitsi.stanford.edu

Jitsi meetings remain open forever - you can reenter the room, e.g., cm-jitsi.stanford.edu/ccrma-hangout or https://cm-jitsi.stanford.edu/NettesDesk
After the last person leaves the meeting stops, but then if somebody rejoins in the future (likely needing to authenticate with CCRMA login/pw) that same URL will re-open.

Also we can use Zoom (but we need to research the persistence of Zoom meetings)

Shift Town Halls earlier in the work day, like to be done by 4:30 or 5?

JOS worked hard to find a time for the DSP seminar; no other time was possible.

Takako: A couple people went back to Asia.  Around 5:30 it’s the next morning in Asia.  “It’s a little hard for European time but this might be the sweet spot to accommodate different places.”

Elena: fun trends on social media to build community.  One is to make a bingo board for your student group, major, etc.  It’s been on instagram; she screen shared and then emailed to the users list.

> On Apr 22, 2020, at 9:59 AM, Nette Worthey <networth at ccrma.Stanford.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Good morning, CCRMA!
> 
> Apologies if some of you are getting this multiple times - just wanting to make sure we contact everyone who might be interested in knowing this.
> 
> There were no new submissions for Town Hall  <https://forms.gle/YYfQ1vtwkFYLke9m7>topics so we won’t be holding our Wednesday meeting today. I will have my Nette’s Desk Jitsi <https://cm-jitsi.stanford.edu/NettesDesk> open from 11 to noon today, if you’d like to stop by and say hi. You will need to log in with your CCRMA username and password to join.
> 
> Please let us know if there’s anything you need! The Town Hall topic <https://forms.gle/HGEkP8YpNL1XgXUCA> submission form is open and will continue to be throughout the term, so feel free to post there or reach out directly.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Nette
> 
> <~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>
> Nette Worthey
> CCRMA Administrator
> Dept. of Music, Stanford
> 660 Lomita Dr.
> Stanford CA 94305
> networth at ccrma.stanford.edu <mailto:networth at ccrma.stanford.edu>
> 650.723.4971 x320
> 650.723.8468 fax
> 
> pronouns: she/her
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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