STAFF STUDENT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE

Meeting on Monday 26^th November 2007 at 1pm in Room 1.20 Malet Place Engineering Building

Staff Present

Graham Roberts (Departmental Tutor, Departmental Equal Opportunities Liaison Officer, Director of Studies, Chair), Robin Hirsch (Conversion Programmes Co-ordinator), Chris Neil (Undergraduate Administrator), Jill Saunders (Departmental Manager), Nicola Jarvis (Departmental Administrator, Academic Policy and Operations), Denis Timm (Head of Technical Support Group), JJ Giwa (Departmental Administrator, Facilities Management and Operations), Patricia Fenoy (Departmental Office Administrator).

Student Representatives Present

Casey Fitzpatrick (MSc Computer Science Rep), Carly Newman (MSc Computer Science Rep), Sam Hassanyeh (4th Year Undergraduate Rep), Richard Halliwell (4th Year UG Rep), Jemini Makwana (MSc SSE Rep), Richard Jenkin (1st Year UG Rep), Joanna Tong (1st Year UG Rep), Ateen Patel (MSc VIVE Rep), Oisin Mac Aodha (MSc IS Rep), Ali Khan (3rd Year UG Rep), Francicso Lopez-Verdone (2nd Year UG Rep), Raunak Gupta (1st Year UG Rep).

1   Apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Uloaku Ojiaku (MSc DCNDS Rep) and Michelle Pack (MSc SSE Rep). 

2   Notification of any other business.

Labs, Coursework Deadlines and Clocks

3   Approval of minutes of the last meeting (5th March 2006) - Minutes should be signed by chair and at least one student representative.

The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.  The Chair signed the minutes of the last meeting and asked representatives who have read them to sign them as well. 

Matters arising from last minutes

3.1  Online feedback form for MATH6301 (Nicola Jarvis)

The online feedback form has now been set up and will be available after the course is held in the second term. 

3.2   Cafe expensive (JJ Giwa)

The Chair informed the committee that the café on the 5^th Floor of the Robert’s Building was closed due to the building work being carried out there and that a new café area is planned to be opened with the new building.   The Chair observed that we will have to wait and see how expensive the food and drink will be when it opens. 

3.3   Lockers and water machine in common room (JJ Giwa)

Both of these facilities have now been provided in the Student Common Room. 

3.4   MScCS options timetable clashes (Nicola Jarvis)

It was noted that student’s concerns over this issue have been taken into account and as a result the number of timetable clashes has been greatly reduced this year.  However, it would be impossible to eliminate all timetable clashes. 

3.5   COMP2009 syllabus (Graham Roberts)

The Chair noted that this issue is currently being addressed and that changes have been made to the module syllabus to address feedback from students.  He also noted that he himself has taken over the responsibility of teaching two thirds of the module this year. 

4      Joint Staff-Student Consultative Committee -http://www.ucl.ac.uk/staff/committees/staff-student (Graham Roberts) - Everyone should be aware of the existence and role of the committee

The Chair reminded the student representatives of the purpose of the JSSCC and of the new Student Ambassador, (STARS), programme. 

5      Student representation on departmental teaching committee (Graham Roberts)

The Chair reminded the student reps that they are welcome to attend the Departmental Teaching Committee meetings and represent student interests. He asked that any students who wish to attend inform Nicola Jarvis beforehand, (also one place for an Ops and Premises rep). 

6      MSc SSE LBS finance module (Jemini Makwana)

The representatives noted that LBS have imposed a limit on the number of spaces available on the module and that many of the students who chose to do the module had been rejected.  Students requested that a lecturer from the London School of Business be asked to come and teach the module in the department.  Another possibility suggested was that of a week-long intensive course at the end of term.  The Chair noted that the department is currently in discussion with LBS and that we will need to wait for the outcome of these discussions before knowing if further action is necessary. 

7      Use of 1.21 lab (Richard Halliwell)

It was noted that the PC terminals in the new Financial Computing Lab were being locked by students to reserve them for later use at the start of term, but that TSG had resolved this problem by preventing them from being locked.  The Chair observed that the MSc Financial Computing students have priority use of the Lab during their sessions, but that outside of Lab times other students are free to use the machines and the room.  The representatives mentioned that outside of scheduled Lab sessions the room is not usually very busy.  The Chair concluded that students have access to all of the Labs outside of scheduled times and that students should check timetables beforehand. 

8      Lack of heating in MPEB (Jemini Makwana)

Staff and students noted that the building was very cold for the period before the heating was turned on and that there still appears to be problem with some rooms, such as the Student Common Room, Room 1.20 and the new FC Lab (room 1.21), still being very cold despite the heating being on.  JJ  noted that centrally booked rooms are outside of CS control, but if a non-centrally booked room is felt to be cold, students should email building-faults@cs.ucl.ac.uk to report the problem. 

ACTION: JJ to find out what can be done about the heating of centrally booked rooms. 

Reps also mentioned that the temperature in the new FC Lab fluctuates and seems to be either too hot or too cold.  Denis Timm responded that the new Lab has a separate heating system with a thermostat in the lab and that the variable temperature is caused by people adjusting the thermostat. 

9      Dirty keyboards and mice in labs (Richard Jenkin + Joanna Tong, Alex Gillis)

Denis Timm informed the committee that the department has new keyboards available and that new cleaning wipes have been ordered to help keep equipment and work stations clean. 

10   More computers in common room (Richard Jenkin + Joanna Tong)

The reps noted that the computers in the student common room are always in use.  It was noted that the current work-stations would be better utilised if students did not lock the keyboards when not being used, however not all of the reps agreed that this occurred frequently enough to be a problem.  The representatives agreed that, in general, the student common room has been much improved recently.  It has been observed previously that non-CS students have also been using the common room and that students should ask any non-CS students to leave immediately. 

It was also noted that there are boxes of brochures that have been in the common room for some time.  JJ informed the representatives that if they write “rubbish” on the boxes the cleaners will remove them. 

11   Unreliable projectors in MPEB 1.02 (Richard Jenkin + Joanna Tong)

The Chair noted the problem of some projectors switching off during lectures and taking approximately 5 minutes to power cycle before being able to be used again.  The issue had been previously reported and Information Systems staff called out to investigate the problem.  Their verdict was that the problem is related to the signal strength and that the Technical Support Group are able to provide hardware to improve the signal strength. 

12   Any Other Business

Lab Opening Times:

Reps asked if lab opening times could be extended close to coursework submission deadlines. 

The Chair responded that when this service was provided in the past, almost no students utilised the extra availability. It was concluded that as suitable supervisors also need to be found and paid for their time that this is not something that the department can offer in general. 

CS Software on IS Machines:

The reps asked if it is possible to use CS software on the main IS machines.  The Chair asked if anyone had checked this with the IS helpdesk and the response was that one email had been sent, but there was no reply as yet.  The Chair asked the reps to investigate.

ACTION: Student Reps to ask the IS Helpdesk if they would consider this. 

Clocks:

Several staff and students noted that the batteries had run out in clocks in various rooms around the building.  JJ responded that batteries are available from the office for CS controlled rooms and that she would notify Room Bookings about the batteries in the centrally booked rooms. 

ACTION JJ to ask Room Bookings to replace batteries. 

13   The next meeting is due in late February/early March 2008. In June 2008 there will be end of year wrap-up sessions for each undergraduate year, providing a forum similar to that of the SSCC.