University of California Council of Postdoctoral Scholars Meeting
April 1, 2007, Berkeley, CA

Attendance:

UC Postdocs/Council Members: Jon Soderholm, UCB, Selva Sukumar, UCB, Jerry Breslin, UCD, Ajay Gopal, UCLA, Sarah Warburton, UCLA, Jason Triplett, UCSC, Michele Juarez, UCSD

Consultants: Chris Gandhi, CalTech, Lucia Mokres, Stanford, Dan Cao, Stanford, Sam Casteneda, UCB, Tom Garnett, Garnett and Powers, Alberto Roca, UCI

This meeting was held after the conclusion of the National Postdoctoral Association meeting at UC Berkeley.

After the introductions, Tom Garnett gave an update about benefits for postdocs, providing statistics of participation at UC campuses. Tom also remarked that more campuses around the nation are signing up for special benefit packages tailored for postdocs. As of January 2007 J-1 and J-2 visa holders are provided with medical evacuation and repatriation insurance to comply with federal guidelines. He also reminded us that all postdocs automatically are enrolled in life insurance ($50K) and accidental death insurance ($100K) polices.

Discussions about future directions of the CPS:
There was a discussion about improving dialogue between the CPS and UCOP, and that UCOP has requested more frequent discussions about postdoc matters. There was some discussion regarding how campus PDAs interact with their campus administration. For example, Stanford, which has 1500 postdocs, has 8 staff members working for their PDO and PDA to coordinate postdoc affairs. Most UC campuses do not have this kind of structure.

JS brought up issue of Sam acting as a staff person for the CPS. CG supported the idea, noting that permanence of staff person is important. The issues of space, staff people, etc. and funding for PDAs were further discussed, as well as whether GSAs and PDAs interact on the different campuses.

Campus Reports

UCI has no formal postdoctoral association. Jason and Jaan couldn’t make it to the NPA/CPS meeting. UCI has a new Dean of the Graduate School, Research Division. There is a new emeritus professor grant program ($25000/year). Barbara Hamkalo at UCI has received one and is in the NPA mentoring program. She will be addressing postdoc issues and will try to start setting up a PDO. UCI also has a new institutionalized NSF Advance grant program.

UCSC is in the process of starting a new PDA.

UCSD hosted CPS last time – 5 postdocs helped out. MJ is working with Jennifer Oh in getting their PDA revitalized. People are volunteering and she will probably bring an additional person to CPS in the near future.

Stanford: Many of the officers are preparing to move on and they are working on recruiting new people, like Dan, to maintain continuity.

UCB: Marianne has stepped down and there is transition process going on. Recent focus was helping Sam with NPA meeting. The PDA still has a good size core that is fairly active. The last big social was a holiday party. Sam puts on event called “postdoc pizza parlor” which is a sort of town hall meeting.

UCD: Most of the officers will be moving on soon, and efforts have been mainly focused on maintaining structures such as the annual awards for excellence in postdoctoral research and travel grants programs, as well as finding volunteers to become the new leaders of the PDA. The monthly pub night is still a good draw.

CalTech is also in maintenance mode. They lost one staff person in HR who deals with postdocs. They presented their annual survey, including demographic data, asked about postdoc experiences, what kind of programming wanted. The return rate was about 50%. An iPod raffle associated with survey. The tool used was Zoomerang survey – it’s a dynamic survey with special questions for particular groups. Up to 150 questions. The Sigma Xi survey was used as a template. Recent events including the Annual town meeting (state of the postdoc association), Halloween party last fall, monthly beer hour, off-campus theatre trips, and other social activities. Recently there have also been meetings with Provost, career programming, and a meeting with new President on campus. There is still no PDO on campus.

UCLA: The PDA is in a state of transition/reorganization. Graham has departed and some committees were defunct. AG is setting up a salary survey on the website. Goals are to lobby for career center access and a PDO. The PDA will become an advisory group but want to work with a PDO. May raffle iPod shuffle with survey.

Next meeting: Stanford, tentatively for August. Michelle Juarez will chair. Lucia and Dan will host.