You are cordially invited on May 24th, 2013 to

NIGHTLIGHT

IHEID’s 2013 Cabaret Masquerade Ball

TICKETS FOR SALE IN THE LIBRARY EVERY DAY 12:00-14:00

Dreams…

At least for once in our lives, dreams shouldn’t be JUST dreams!

GISA will host Yoani Sánchez, a world-famous Cuban dissident blogger, in Salle Aubert on May 16th at 18:00 for a public speech and question-and-answer session.

Ms. Sánchez operates the blog Generación Y (Generation Y), through which she has received international recognition for her criticism of the Cuban government and her support for free expression. She was named in 2009 as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.” In addition to winning many international awards for journalism, Ms. Sánchez was also named by Foreign Policy as one of the “10 Most Influential Latin American Intellectuals” (2008) and one of the “10 Most Influential Ibero American Intellectuals” (2012).

Born in Cuba, Ms. Sánchez moved to Switzerland following her university education. Upon returning several years ago, she established the magazine Controdos, a forum for Cuban free expression, and the blog Generación Y for which she is best known. The blog is banned in Cuba; Ms. Sánchez e-mails photos and blog entries to friends outside of the country who post them online.

The Salle Aubert event will be held in Spanish with English translation. The event starts at 18:00 and doors will open at 17:45. The room in the venue is limited; GISA recommends arriving early to receive a good place. Refreshments (drinks and small sandwiches) will be served.

Preceding the main event, a small roundtable event will be held with Ms. Sánchez. Extremely limited space is available for this meeting; if you have personal or professional interest in Ms. Sánchez’s background please contact us at gisa@graduateinstitute.ch. Please also mention how meeting with Ms. Sanchez would be of interest to you professionally, personally, or academically.

At a well-attended General Assembly held on Thursday, the Graduate Institute student body has passed a new GISA Constitution that fundamentally changes the way students are represented at the Institute for years to come. After nearly two and a half hours of debate and discussion, the Constitution was passed with two minor amendments and no major changes.

Among other changes, the GISA Executive Board will be wholly restructured to include a President, Vice President of Masters Programmes, Vice President of PhD Programmes, Communications Director, Events Coordinator, and Treasurer, all of whom will be entitled to a tuition waiver. The Constitution also paves the way for degree-wide forums that address student concerns to take place at least once per semester, and starting next year all programmes at the Institute will elect only one GISA representative. In addition, the new constitution sets up a function for “ad-hoc” members of the executive board whose job description will center around a specific issue — for example, an environmental officer, a student residence representative, and other possible future positions.

“The new constitution equips the student association at the Institute to function better in representing students’ concerns,” said Connor Sattely, GISA’s current president. “I was thrilled to see a packed room at the meeting, and the passionate and reasonable debate that took place. The Constitution we’ve passed was approved with overwhelming support, which is important in making it a legitimate governing document for the association in the future.”

GISA is now calling for candidates for the main GISA elections, which will be held on May 14. The positions of President, Vice President of Masters Programmes, Vice President of Ph D Programmes, and Events Coordinator will be elected during the May 14 General Assembly. If you are interested in submitting your candidacy, please e-mail your name, programme, year, and a brief platform on why you wish to run for a position to gisa@graduateinstitute.ch. Additionally more information will be sent soon via e-mail.

The Graduate Institute Student Association (GISA) hereby announces the first of two General Assemblies, the Constitutional Assembly, to take place this semester on Thursday, April 25th at 18:30 in Salle Aubert (Rothschild). This is a crucial Assembly that will put the new GISA Constitution, the product of months of planning and consultation with the student body, to a vote. If approved, it will greatly strengthen GISA’s capacity to represent the IHEID student body by introducing important changes to the structure of the organization. Among other amendments to the current draft, the new Constitution will implement the following changes:

• The Vice President for Academic Affairs and Vice President for Sociocultural Affairs positions will be eliminated and replaced with a Vice President for Masters Programmes and a Vice President for PhD Programmes. An additional position will be created, called the Events Coordinator, to organise GISA events and serve as a resource for any GISA-sponsored social functions.
• In order to combat the high loss of GISA Executive Committee members due to financial obligations, the six permanent positions on the GISA Executive Committee (President, two VPs, Treasurer, Communication Director, and Events Coordinator) will receive an exemption from tuition fees from the Institute.
• There will only be one Class Representative for each year of each masters programme (14 total), and one Class Representative for each PhD programme (6 total). This Class Representative is required to hold at least one Programme Meeting per semester to address concerns, and handles a budget for their relevant students to hold events.
• In addition to the mandated Programme Meetings, the Constitution creates two additional events per semester: the Masters Forum and the PhD Forum, which are intended to be arenas for discussion of topics that span several or all academic programmes. These events will be run by the relevant Vice President.
• The new Constitution also creates what are called “GISA Specialized Committees.” These specialized committees send one member to be an “Ad hoc” member on the GISA Executive Committee (these members do not receive a tuition exemption). In order to become a Specialized Committee, a group must write a constitution which allows for internal election, pass it by the General Assembly, and must have their presence on the GISA Executive Committee deemed necessary by that General Assembly. Initially, we expect to have two: the Environmental Committee and the Maison des Etudiants Committee.

For further information about this process, feel free to consult the relevant section on our website. In the event that you have additional questions or comments, feel free to contact us.

We look forward to seeing you on the 25th.

The Environmental Committee of the Graduate Institute hereby cordially invites you to participate in the second “Green Week” of the 2012/2013 academic year from Monday 15 to Friday 19 April, 2013. Find the official program here: Green Week Spring 2013 – Final Programme. It will comprise the following events:

• Monday, 6.30 pm, CV 502: Corporate Responsibility and Natural Resources (Discussion) 

• Tuesday, 6.30 pm, CV 502: Meet the Centre for International Environmental Studies (Presentation)

• Wednesday, 6.30 pm, CV 201: Biodiversity as a Natural Resource (Discussion) 

• Thursday, 6.30 pm, CV 201: Movie Night – “The 11^th Hour”

• Friday, 2.00 pm, in front of Picciotto: Bike Repair Workshop

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

The Environmental Committee will be holding an information evening about the Work of the Committee for Sustainable Development on April 11th, 18.30, in Salle Preiswerk (Rothschild). Date and time subject to change. Everybody’s welcome to join!

As you may have read on our blog, the Graduate Institute asked SOFIES, an environmental consulting company, to assess the sustainability of the Institute. As a result, a report highlighting the strengths of the Institute and the points that need to be improved was issued in October last year.

Since then, the Committee has met several times and started working on five topics: Waste/ Recycling, Purchase policy, Energy Efficiency, IT, and Mobility.

The Committee meets every month in plenary and every two weeks in Working Groups (WG), whereby each WG deals with one of the five mentioned topics. Each month, one WG presents to the Committee a precise plan for action including responsibilities and deadlines.
Whereas only one representative of the Environmental Committee (EC) can attend plenary meetings, several interested students can attend WG meetings and bring their inputs into the process of defining the best sustainable management strategy for the Institute for the years to come.

Such student participation is very much encouraged by the EC and the members of the Committee for Sustainable Development (CSD) itself.

For all people interested in taking an active role in the CSD and everybody else who is just curious, we offer an information meeting at Salle Preiswerk (Rothschild), on Tuesday April 11th, at 6.30 pm, where Laura Crivelli – the EC’s representative in the CSD – will explain what is currently being done to “green” the Institute, and how you could contribute to that. Don’t worry, by attending the info event you’re not committing to any obligation. Come and learn how you can make a difference!

Changes to the academic policy affecting nearly every student will likely take effect in May, IHEID administrators told GISA this week.

Professor Bruno Arcidiacono, Director of Studies at the Institute, announced the changes to the College des Enseignants last Wednesday. After approached by GISA shortly thereafter, Mr. Arcidiacono confirmed that a few aspects of the overall academic policy guiding students’ academics are likely to change. He cautioned that these changes are not approved yet, but will likely be adopted in May to take effect next year.

In summary:

• All masters students would now be able to take 12 extracurricular credits within the Institute.
• All doctoral students can apply to change their programme title from “Doctorat en etudes internationales” to their relevant new title, regardless of if they have requested a prolongation of studies.
• Students who received less than a 5.0 on their masters thesis and have spent one or more years outside of the Institute are now eligible to apply for doctoral candidacy (based on their entire application and resume).

Changes to academic policy would permit masters students to take a total of 12 “hors-plan” credits (i.e. 2 classes outside of your programme) within the Institute. Previously, students were permitted to take 6 credits (1 class) outside of the programme and outside of the Institute, but only 6 credits (1 class) outside of the programme within the Institute. This change would essentially eliminate the distinction between whether a “hors-plan” class is outside or inside of the Institute.

For interdisciplinary students, since MIA/MDEV courses do not count as “hors-plan,” this means students would be able to substitute up to 2 disciplinary courses for electives. For disciplinary students, since their programmes entail taking a certain amount of credits in another disciplinary programme, these credits would either be likewise in another disciplinary programme or from MIA/MDEV.

Other changes to policy will allow some students to apply for a different title for their studies. Students who had originally started their studies in a programme under the title of “Doctorat en etudes internationales” currently receive a diploma that states “Doctorat en etudes internationales / specialisation en (droit internationale / histoire internationale / etc). Students can apply for a change in the title directly to “Doctoral en droit internationale / histoire internationale / etc”. However, previously, students were not able to apply for this change if they had requested a prolongation in studies. This change would allow all students, including those who had applied for a prolongation in studies and recent graduates, to apply for the new title.

Further changes to doctoral regulations aim to increase fairness of consideration for doctoral applicants who attended the Institute for their masters degree. Previously, former Institute masters students who received less than a 5.0 grade on their thesis could not be accepted to a doctoral programme at the Institute. These changes would make such students eligible for admission to doctoral programmes at the Institute. Students would be weighed for admission based on all criteria including the relevance and significance of work experience gained in the break between their masters degree and their doctoral application.

If you have any questions on these changes please contact us at gisa@graduateinstitute.ch.

GISA will continue to seek information on changing academic regulations and will keep students informed as soon as details emerge.