Good Citizenship
As members of the Department of Geography, it is important that you consider how your actions affect the department and its personnel. Good citizenship and good stewardship of our resources is important in maintaining a healthy, congenial, and functioning community and workspace.
As graduate students, you are granted a number of privileges and resources to facilitate your successful progress through our program and towards the completion of your degree. The following items are part of these privileges, and it is important that you be aware of departmental policies and be aware of how not to misuse these privileges.
Office Keys and Office Space
As appropriate to your position, you may be issued keys to the building and a departmental key that opens the common GTA/GRA office spaces and the Keso Room. You may also be assigned an office space suitable to your position. It is important that you remember a few key details:
Keys
- Keys are to be checked out and in through the main office, with the Administrative Assistant. This is important so that we know where all the keys are, who has them, etc. Do not “trade” keys with fellow graduate students; arrange for this transfer with the Administrative Assistant so they can maintain proper records.
- Be sure to surrender all keys when you separate from the department, hopefully due to graduation but any time that you will no longer be an active student.
- Maintain high security with your keys; be careful not to lose them, do not loan them to anyone, and be mindful of their whereabouts on campus and off.
Offices
- You will be assigned an office pertinent to your position. For example, 1114 lab TAs are usually to be officed in SSH 346, and non-1114 TAs should not reside in that office. Full responsibility instructors of 1113 and 1114 are generally paired in 4th floor offices, while GIS lab TAs and GRAs are officed as appropriate on the 3rd or 4th floors. The department will accommodate personal preferences as much as possible, but please do not trade offices and/or keys without requesting permission from the graduate coordinator.
- As with keys, be conscious of office security as not only will your personal effects be at risk, but so too with others’ property as well as university property (furniture, computers, etc.). If you leave your office unattended, you should always lock up and take your keys with you. Put a note on your door if you are expecting students and only plan to step away for a few minutes (to go to the restroom, check mail, etc.).
- Do not open windows. When SSH opened they were all screwed shut, but over the years some people have removed the screws. Open windows disrupt the building’s air handling, can allow birds and insects to invade, and if unattended can lead to local water damage and flooding (this has happened on the third floor in the past during a thunderstorm).
Main Office Resources
Copier
- The main office copier is available to you for job-related duties. GTAs should consult with office staff before using the copier to determine the appropriateness of the printing job, scheduling big jobs (exams, assignments). GRAs should consult with supervisors as many grants have an allowance for copying; these jobs should be billed to the grant.
- DO NOT attempt to unjam or in any way repair the copier if it malfunctions; notify the office staff so that they may seek appropriate remedies.
- DO NOT print personal materials to the main office printer or the lab printers; this includes masters or doctoral research (e.g., journal article print-offs). The Edmon Low Library provides unlimited printing in their labs which is funded by student fees.
Scantron Forms and Machine
- Whether you are a full-responsibility GTA or an assistant for a class, you may be using SCANTRON forms for objective exams. A limited number of SCANTRON forms are available in the copier room, but we have stopped buying them so this perk will not last much longer.
- We also have a SCANTRON reader (for now) which allows us to score our own exams (it takes several days if submitted through the Testing Center), but again the machine may go away in the near future.
- Please ask for assistance from the office staff until you are familiar with the machinery.
Office Supplies
- Basic office supplies (pens/pencils, notepads, staples/binder clips, etc.) are available in reasonable quantities when related to your work duties or research activities.
- Please ask for assistance in the main office for supplies; this helps the administrative assistants to keep an eye on inventory and order more when we are running low.
Mailboxes
- All departmental personnel are assigned a mailbox in room SSH 337C; faculty and staff are on the east wall and graduate students are on the south wall.
- Please check your box weekly if not more often; please do not allow mail to pile up all semester as this makes more work for the office staff, and you might miss an important piece of campus mail.
- DO NOT have personal mail (credit card statements, shopper rewards programs, etc.) sent to the main office – your mailbox is for official university and professional purposes.
- You may deposit personal outgoing mail in the outbox, but be sure it has proper postage on it – neither the department nor the university provides postage for personal mail.
Miscellaneous
Departmental Spaces
- All Geography personnel are encouraged to make appropriate use of shared facilities – the Keso Room (327) (schedule with department administrative assistant), CAS seminar rooms (340 and 341) (controlled by CAS, request through department administrative assistant), and labs. Please keep these secure and cleaned up, do not leave personal items in them, and do not “dump” old journals or books on the assumption that someone might want them.
- The Break Room is a place for storing/preparing/consuming food. Please be mindful
of the following “good citizenship” rules:
- Wash, dry, and put away any common dishes you use.
- Clean the microwave of splatters after use (please cover food with paper towels to prevent splatters in the first place!).
- Wipe down tables and brush crumbs into the trash receptacle.
- Dispose of all uneaten foods into the trash – the sink does NOT have a garbage disposal.
- Keep the refrigerator clean and dispose of old foods. Office staff will periodically announce a fridge/freezer clean-out.
- All computer labs have an abundance of valuable equipment, and we have had very little lost
equipment or other issues. To continue this “lucky” streak:
- Never prop open lab doors or permit entry to someone who doesn’t already have access through the swipe card reader.
- Keep food and drinks out of the lab, and definitely away from computers and keyboards.
- Do not use the lap printers for personal or research jobs; these are only to be used for class lab-related jobs.
- Do not modify any software or add unauthorized software; consult with Jean Wang (309 SSH) for any software needs that may not already be met by the software suite installed on the machines.
Semester Schedule and Work Calendar
All GTAs/GRAs (with some exceptions) are “on duty” from mid-August to mid-December for the fall semester, and mid-January to mid-May for the spring semester.
This encompasses the week before classes as well as finals week. GTAs especially are expected to be available the week before classes to prepare syllabi, course notes, and/or lab materials, and are also expected to be available through the end of finals week.
GTAs may be tasked with proctoring exams for other faculty or GTAs, grading, and general departmental cleanup (cataloging or disposal of documents), and maintaining spaces in good order for the upcoming semester.