General Announcements: Dean Marchionini started the meeting by congratulating Melanie Feinberg for winning an Institute for Arts and Humanities Fellowship for Fall 2018! He also mentioned  that SILS would be co-hosting a Black Girls Code event at Sitterson Hall on Saturday along with other UNC departments. PhD candidates are also going to be on campus for interviews and such in the next coming weeks, and he also encouraged faculty to talk with companies and ask them fund and provide student scholarships, in addition to hiring graduates.

Accessibility Services and Advice: Tiffany Bailey from the Office of Accessibility Resources and Services came and gave a talk with SILS faculty to talk about how students at UNC request accommodations from professors, how ARS helps students with their disabilities, and gave more general information about what faculty can do to help support students, or who to turn to in case they have questions about how to best accommodate a student.

Master’s Committee Update: Professor Losee, Chair of the Master’s Committee, updated SILS on the idea of allowing master’s students to take an additional 1.5 credit class for people who have already taken 781 but are starting on their master’s paper early. Discussion covered a variety of suggestions, and the general consensus was to not give the additional 1.5 credits, but many topics were covered regarding issues surrounding the master’s paper, such as how to better convey expectations for the paper, what the expected workload should be, how faculty can best advise master’s students, and in general how to calibrate the master’s paper process on both  the student and faculty side. No definitive decisions were made, but a proposal was made to bring up the topic again at another meeting with more time allotted to it for further discussion.

The Master’s Student Handbook was sent out to all new students through the New Student List Serv on August 8th, 2017.Now that you’ve been at SILS for a few months, you might want to look through the Handbook again and refresh you memory on things to know about SILS!

If you would like to read the Master’s Student handbook from 2017 – 2018, please click on the link below!

MS Student Handbook 2017-2018

General Announcements: Dean Marchionini updated faculty and staff on DC events, which included an alumni gathering on Thursday, October 19th, which was very successful. He also discussed SILS having more of a presence at local conferences and perhaps having people available to staff tables for alumni, if people were available. SILS is also having a gathering in Nanjing on July 4th weekend, 2018, and there might be space for two students to go. If you are interested, please reach out and let us know! A quick update was also given on admissions for new students – there are 2 new PSM students, 20 new MSIS, 8 new MSLS, 4 deferred MS students, 35 new BSIS majors, and 17 new BSIS minors starting in the spring!

EPA Update: The EPA library is thankfully running smoothly this year – recent events have not had a significant impact on their services, and they are still providing resources and help to their patrons!

SILS IT Updates: SILS is thinking of redoing Manning 214 so that it can be used for more than just a meeting room.

Independent Study for Proposals: SILS discussed the INLS 781, Proposal, for the master’s program, and the idea of extending the proposal class, offering more credits for the proposal class, or offering independent studies for extended proposal work. SILS approved a motion to have the Master’s Committee take this on, get more data on the class and its effects, and possibly propose changes in one of those directions. In general, 781 and 992 is something that SILS is working through still.

Master’s Committee Course Number Change: INLS 490’s course number was changed to INLS 570.

GRE Waiver for PSM Degree Program: PSM launches in the spring, and there has been discussion over whether or not applications should have to take the GRE. SILS discussed asking the Graduate School for a waiver for students who already have Master’s degrees/advanced degrees, or possibly asking for a five-year trial period. SILS also briefly discussed the GRE requirement for the master’s program, and whether the GRE is a good indicator of academic research potential, which is a focus of SILS’ master’s program. SILS tentatively decided on asking for a five-year trial period, but this is something that will probably be discussed again.

If you have any questions about the all-staff meeting, please email Amelea Kim at ameleak@email.unc.edu!

Dean Marchionini made a few announcements, namely saying that student recruitment numbers are slightly up from last year, which is great. He also mentioned that UNC is at net-zero use with water, which is awesome! Apparently, all the water that UNC collects in its cisterns is the same amount as what we use on campus. UNC is trying to further reduce waste by installing rideshare bikes around campus, so be on the lookout for those over the next year.

We also discussed CWS and whether instructors should receive course credit for their work. Brian Sturm asked if the faculty were interested in seeing a more formal proposal for course credit from the ad-hoc committee for CWS, and faculty agreed. I will provide another update once a more formal proposal is presented.

We also discussed recruitment for the upcoming round of PhD students. SILS is hoping to have applicants chosen for interviews by January, with a visit day in February.

If you have any questions about anything in this update, please contact Amelea Kim at ameleak@email.unc.edu!

The last all-staff meeting of spring semester happened on Wednesday, April 26th, and a few major announcements were made:

1. Congratulations are in order many faculty members!  First, Amelia Gibson and Cal Lee were awarded IMLS grants. Amelia Gibson was awarded an IMLS Career Award, and Cal Lee was awarded an IMLS grant. Zeynep Tufecki published a book, Rob Capra and Jaime Arguello won the Best Paper Award at the ECIR conference, and Amelia Gibson had a paper published in LISR. Additionally, Rob Capra was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Congratulations to them all!

2. There have been a few updates with International Programs. Three summer seminar sessions are fast approaching with the first session starting on May 20th. Students will be able to visit a variety of companies while abroad, including tours from some UNC alums. Kaitlyn Murphy is working on developing more international opportunities and internships for students and she is also working on the CRADLE seminars for the fall.

3. SILS will continue to search for new faculty in the coming year, so be on the lookout for ways to participate! Students will invited to attend presentations and more casual meetings with faculty members, so make sure to come and be involved in the hiring process!

Please fill out the 2017 SILS Peer Mentoring Program Survey to express interest in being a Peer Mentor! As a Peer Mentor, you will be matched up with an incoming SILS student so that you can help answer any questions they might have, or share your own experiences with them. Please note that being a Peer Mentor requires some time and effort. While ILSSA will help to provide some guidance on how to peer mentor successfully, this program will be largely self-determined by you and your mentee. So please keep thatin mind as you sign up!

Note: Filling out the survey is NOT a hard commitment – you are more than welcome to change your mind later on should your priorities change. This is more a way for us to gauge interest for planning purposes!

Please fill out this survey by June 6th, 2017! If you have any questions, please contact Amelea Kim (ameleak@email.unc.edu) or Alyssa Spoonts (aspoonts@live.unc.edu).

Join the SILS summer Facebook group to keep in touch with all the SILS peeps in town, and for fun hangouts 🙂 Trivia nights, picnics, and other adventurous roamings in the works!

SILS is pleased to announce the 2017 SILS Project Fair. This is the 3rd annual project fair, an event designed to showcase the work of both our graduate and undergraduate students. Students will have the opportunity to present posters or interactive demos showcasing a project they have done while at SILS.  Entries to the project fair can be based on individual or team class projects, research projects, or side projects developed for any other reason.  This is a great chance to show what you’ve done, receive recognition, and share ideas.

A panel will review the presentations and make awards in three categories:

• Best Project Award ($200, decided by awards committee)
• Social Impact Award ($100, decided by awards committee)
• People’s Choice Award ($100, decided by attendees)

To register your project (by April 14th), click HERE

For other information, visit the SILS Project Fair website HERE