IPiB’s student leadership group is called the Graduate Leadership & Development Committee (GLDC). GLDC helps to create opportunities that build IPiB students’ research, scholarship, career development, and community engagement skills by providing organized mechanisms for professional development and service to the IPiB community. Additionally, GLDC promotes an inclusive and tightly knit community of students and faculty through departmental community events, the annual IPiB Retreat, and through recruitment of future graduate students.
All students are welcome to join GLDC and their events. GLDC helps to plan professional development events such as lunch symposia, practice preliminary exams, annual awards in teaching and mentoring, and student invited speaker seminars. GLDC also plans community-building and recreational events such as the annual research retreat, Tea Time, recruitment weekends for prospective students, the annual holiday reception, and the annual IPiB welcome picnic. GLDC is also involved with prospective student visits to Madison and IPiB. Information about GLDC meetings and events goes out regularly on the IPiB listserv.
Continue reading for more information about GLDC subcommittees. Current students who would like to attend an upcoming GLDC meeting or get involved with GLDC should contact the GLDC Chair.
Current GLDC Leadership
Chair
The Chair will maintain the general operations of GLDC. They help schedule and email reminders for GLDC meetings to the GLDC officers and the IPiB community, and prepare and fill in the GLDC meeting agenda during the meetings. The Chair has access to the GLDC flexible spending account and facilitates the use of flexible spending funds.
Vice Chair
The Vice Chair serves as the representative of the graduate student body of IPiB at monthly Steering Committee meetings. They present updates to the Steering Committee on GLDC functions and activities, and provide a student voice in Steering Committee discussions. They are expected to attend the monthly Steering Committee meetings and report back to the students at the monthly GLDC meetings.
Treasurer/Fundraising Chair
The Treasurer manages the GLDC budget, which includes funding from both the Biochemistry and BMC departments as well as funds made from GLDC fundraising events. The treasurer also organizes fundraising events throughout the year which involves overseeing the IPiB logo competition.
Career & Lunch Symposia Chair
The Career and Lunch Symposia Chair plans career development events for IPiB graduate students to expose them to the variety of career paths and opportunities and to help them strengthen their scientific communication skills. Past events include: panel/roundtable discussions with guests from industry, academia, patent law, science writing, and public policy; social hours with Madison professionals from different career paths; events featuring IPiB alumni; and science-focused professional development workshops.
GLDC Events & Communications Chairs
The GLDC Events & Communications Chairs are responsible for planning departmental social gatherings for incoming and current students and faculty. The major events planned by this committee are: New Student Welcome Picnic (September), Winter Reception/celebration of year-end department successes (December), and Awards in Research and Teaching Reception (June).
Recruiting Chairs
The Recruiting Chairs help to recruit future students of IPiB. The Chairs organize the recruiting kick-off meeting, work with point-people to help plan recruiting weekends, participate in the recruiting weekends, and facilitate communication between point-people, staff, and the faculty Recruiting Chairs.
New Student Orientation Committee Representative
The New Student Orientation Committee (NSOC) Representative sits as the student representative on the NSOC, which oversees assignment of first-year students’ rotations and thesis lab matches. Additional members help plan Orientation and first semester activities for the new cohort.
Student Invited Speaker Chair
The Student Invited Speaker (SIS) Chair coordinates the selection, invitation and visit of a seminar speaker to present as part of the program seminar series. During the fall semester of their term, the Chair collects speaker nominations and facilitates voting by IPiB students. Once a speaker is selected, the Chair formally invites the speaker and is involved in planning the details of the visit, including selecting a date, reserving the appropriate accommodations for the speaker (in collaboration with office staff), scheduling meetings with IPiB labs, and hosting a lunch, reception, and dinner with the speaker and graduate students.
IPiB Retreat Chairs
The Retreat Chairs are responsible for organizing and hosting the Annual Fall IPiB Retreat, an event essential for introducing new students to research performed by IPiB faculty, staff, and students and celebrating their research accomplishments. The Retreat Chairs work with the Department Chairs to assemble a list of speakers, design the event schedule, finalize logistics for the event, and host the Retreat on the day of.