Making Friends with Yourself: Mindful Self-Compassion

Do the phrases "Fear of Failure" or "Not Good Enough" mean anything to you? We spend a lot of time anxious, depressed, and overwhelmed by judgments and expectations placed on us by school, work, loved ones, and most importantly ourselves. Based on the teachings of Tara Brach and other Mindfulness Experts, this group will focus on changing our relationship with painful emotions so we stop living lives controlled by anxiety and doubt and start living with an open and loving heart. We will use guided imagery and other mindfulness exercises to get connected with our present moment and eliminate judgment of our inner experiences.

For more information and to schedule a pre-group meeting contact Liz Schneider-Batemen

Graduate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Support

This confidential group is for registered U-M graduate students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, transgender or questioning. This group focuses on ways sexual and gender orientations and identities interact with the unique challenges of being a graduate student. In the past, this group has focused on such issues as: how “out” to be on campus, coming out later in life, being out in career, balancing relationships or pursuing relationships while in graduate school, and accepting the fluidity of one’s sexual identity. The focus of this group is truly dependent on the make-up of the group. A pre-group meeting is required.

For more information or to schedule a pre-group meeting, contact the leader Mark Sampson.

Graduate Women’s Group

This group is designed for U-M graduate women seeking a supportive therapeutic space to share their experiences at U-M and other contexts of their life, navigating their multiple identities within these contexts. Common themes include navigating academic demands, interpersonal relationships with peers, partners, family members, advisors and professors among others. This group is also a great forum for graduate women simply connecting with other graduate women. A pre-group meeting is required.

For more information or to set up a pre-group meeting contact the leader Rachel Crutchfield

Understanding Self and Others (two sections)

Would you like to enhance your personal relationships? Curious about how others perceive you? Would you like a place to share personal experiences and get feedback? These groups provide a confidential and supportive atmosphere to explore new ways of relating to others while learning about yourself and getting support from other students like you! A pre-group meeting is required. For more information or to set up a pre-group meeting contact the leaders listed below.

Graduate Section: Wednesdays from 2:00-3:30 pm, please contact Tim Davis

Undergraduate Section: Time and day to be determined by members, please contact Melissa Plaufcan.

Conquering Social Anxiety

This group is open to undergraduate and graduate male and female students. Members will learn what social anxiety is, why they experience social anxiety, discuss their social anxiety experiences, learn social anxiety reduction tools and communication skills, role play interacting with other students, and obtain skills to enable them to have a fuller campus and general life. Wednesdays 1:30-3:00 pm. A pre-group meeting is required.

For more information or to schedule a pre-group meeting, contact the leader LaReese Collins.

Eligible work may include any of the following (not an exhaustive list):

• History and theories of the nonprofit sector, voluntary action, and philanthropy
• Nonprofit governance and leadership
• Public policy issues
• Fundraising and development
• Nonprofit marketing
• Social entrepreneurship and/or social enterprises
• Impact investing and/or social funding
• Hybrid organizations (B Corp, L3C, etc.)
• Corporate community involvement
• International comparative perspectives on above

The grants will be made to support specific research project related expenses of doctoral students, such as acquisition of datasets, travel expenses to collect data, transcriptions of interviews, and other research related costs. The funds cannot be used to pay a research stipend to the student applying for the grant or to provide funding to attend conferences to present the research.

Please review our application details and be sure to include all application material. We look forward to supporting your work!

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2349 2013-05-20T12:30:04Z 2013-05-17T19:13:05Z Pat McCune phmccune@umich.edu For many of us, the summer months are often a time to change gears, slow down, and take part in at least a few of the riches available to us on campus as part of a large, thriving research university. This month we have such an opportunity with the Michigan Meetings.

These are a series of annual interdisciplinary meetings of national and international scope on topics of broad interest and contemporary importance to both the public and the academic community. This year you have the opportunity to attend all or part of The Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Research University Today: Histories, Challenges and Futures on May 22-24 and Reproductive Justice: Allies, Advocates, and Academics on May 29-31. Both take place in the Rackham Building.

The first of these, organized by Terrence McDonald, Dean of LSA, is likely to be of interest to many in our community. For example, look at the two sessions open to the general public. On Wednesday, May 22 at 7:00 p.m. in the Rackham Auditorium there will be a panel discussion of The Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Research University Today: The View from the Allies. The panelists are Earl Lewis (president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), Carol Geary Schneider (president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities), and Pauline Yu (president of the American Council of Learned Societies). Stay for the dessert reception afterward! Then on Thursday evening—same time, same place—is the presidential panel featuring some names familiar to us at Michigan: Mary Sue Coleman, James J. Duderstadt, and Teresa A. Sullivan. To learn more about this conference, and to register, go to http://www.lsa.umich.edu/las/about/theconference.

The second of these Michigan Meetings, Reproductive Justice: Allies, Advocates, Academics, also includes public events and panel sessions. And the speakers and panelists are exactly what the title promises. From film director to lawyer to non-profit director to writer, there will be a wide variety of professions and viewpoints. All sessions will be in the Rackham Building, with the exception of the pre-conference workshop taking place in the Hatcher Library Gallery. To learn more, and to register, go to https://sites.google.com/site/a3ina2/schedule-of-events.

The Rackham Graduate School has a long tradition of supporting interdisciplinary scholarship and conversation and established these meetings to provide a venue to address topics of interdisciplinary and global importance. The Michigan Meetings bring together faculty and students at U-M with colleagues from around the nation and the world to create intellectually exciting events of both scholarly and practical importance. Michigan faculty will again be invited to submit topics next year for the 2014 competition: http://www.rackham.umich.edu/academics/rii/michigan_meetings/.

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2346 2013-05-17T12:30:57Z 2013-05-10T20:34:00Z Jackie Simpson jdsimps@umich.edu Graduate students are invited to apply to the Spectrum Center Advocacy Board for the upcoming year. The Board serves as a space for students to address the needs and concerns of LGBTQA individuals on campus. Previous years' accomplishments range from the implementation of the training with the Office of Admission Staff, addition of LGBTQA Health website link, and the development of resources for international LGBTQA students. Previous student members have had the opportunity to contribute to the implementation of the Gender Inclusive Living Experience (GILE), work with higher-level university administrators across campus, and gain skills in organizing and policy change.

You can learn more and apply here. The first round of applications are due May 31, 2013.

E-mail me for more information.

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2348 2013-05-16T15:00:36Z 2013-05-16T13:35:38Z Sheila Calhoun calhous@umich.edu It's still not too late to register for many U-Move Fitness spring semester classes. The session will end on Friday, June 21. The summer session begins Thursday, June 27. You can register for those classes now too. Do you have children? We offer KidSport Summer Camp for kids ages 4-15. Remember how much fun you had in elementary gym classes? That's what the morning sessions are like. It's staffed by certified teachers as well as physical education and education majors. The afternoon session is more sport specific. Go to http://www.kines.umich.edu/programs/physical-education/our-programs to get more information on both programs. Enjoy your summer and remember to wear sunscreen!
]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2347 2013-05-16T12:52:23Z 2013-05-16T12:56:24Z Donna M. Huprich dhuprich@umich.edu Graduate Coordinators serve a critical role in helping graduate students navigate through the many administrative details and challenges that they face at U-M. They work in close partnership with the Rackham Graduate School offices to ensure that graduate students receive accurate and timely information so there are no unexpected delays or obstacles in completion. In appreciation for their commitment to Graduate Students, Rackham will again be sponsoring the 5th annual Graduate Coordinators Professional Conference designed with Graduate Coordinators/Graduate Student Services Professionals in mind. The planning committee, consisting primarily of Graduate Coordinator/Student Services Professionals, has put together a wonderful day of professional development to help you “Build Your Resources to THRIVE”!

Join us on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 from 8:00 – 3:30 on the 4th Floor of the Rackham Building. Information about the event can be found at http://www.rackham.umich.edu/gcpc. There is no cost to attend.

Simply click on the following link to register: https://secure.rackham.umich.edu/Events/coord_confreg.php.

If you have any questions, please send a message to 2013GCPCPlanningCommittee@umich.edu.

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2332 2013-05-15T12:30:25Z 2013-05-20T15:07:27Z Diane Calinski Calinski@umich.edi Diane Calinski is a Ph.D. candidate in the Pharmacology Department at the University of Michigan. She will be graduating shortly, and currently spends most of her time completing the remaining experiments for her dissertation and filling out job applications. Diane aspires to obtain a faculty position at a professional school (such as a college of pharmacy), and direct her efforts to teaching and mentoring students.


My Ride. Can't beat free parking!



My men preparing me dinner. (Norm is the one with all the fur!)

6:30am

Norman wakes me up.

7am to 7:30am

Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred Video. Who wouldn’t want to start their morning with affirmations such as “This is your last minute of cardio; I want you to feel like you’re going to die”? During graduate school I have always tried to keep in shape. At first I had time for hours at the gym, but with finishing up my thesis and wanting to have more time to spend with my family, the amount of time I can dedicate to a workout is significantly less. So I cram a 30 minute workout in before my boyfriend wakes up!

7:30 to 9am

Shower/Breakfast/Coffee/Playing on my iPhone. This includes important things for my day… like checking my calendar, my e-mail, the weather, the news, buzzfeed, etc.

9 am

Bike to lab. Ann Arbor is really bike friendly, and I take advantage of this between April and November every year (otherwise it’s too cold, and I snag a ride in).

9:05am to 12pm

Mornings in the lab equals experiment time. My research is about the metabolism of cyclophosphamide (an anticancer drug commonly used to treat breast cancer). When I perform an experiment I use purified proteins to metabolize the drug and then I analyze the samples to determine the product of those reactions (or metabolites). The goal of my research is to further our understanding of cyclophosphamide metabolism so that we can ultimately provide better dosing and treatment for patients.

I spend the next 3 hours generating ~40 samples. Half of these samples will take 10 min/sample to run, the second half (which requires different buffers) will take 20 min/sample. All of the samples are run on one HPLC. HPLC stands for "High-Performance Liquid Chromatography." The machine basically separates the metabolites that I produced in my reactions so that I can tell how much is present. In order to collect all my data in a timely manner, I will be have to return to the lab in the evening to switch those buffers!

12pm to 1pm

Lunch over yesterday’s data.

1pm to 5pm

I have four main tasks to fill my afternoon. The rest of the day is spent at my desk juggling these four things (I should say, earlier in graduate school, I was doing a lot more trouble-shooting and devising experiments… these days, all of my tasks require a lot of writing):

1. Poster Making. I’ll be presenting at a small conference next week, so I need to compile data, write the text that explains my data, and make it look great before having my PI check it over for errors.
2. Journal Article Writing. I’ve ~2 papers written, and the data collected for a third. So I’m revising the papers I’ve written prior to submitting them to a journal for publication, and pushing through to finish the third.
3. Thesis Writing. Compiling a thesis for the sciences requires an introduction, collecting all the journal articles you’ve written and making them “flow” into chapters, and a short discussion of the work at the end. I’m currently working on the second part of putting the journal articles into some kind of order.
4. Job Applications. Currently at 30+ positions applied for, 4 phone interviews, and 0 offers. I like to troll the position postings daily and apply to jobs as they appear, and I do think I’ll be getting an offer soon, but until then fingers crossed and remaining positive.

5:05pm

Bike home from work, carrying: antiquated laptop, journal articles for the evening, and printouts of my data so that I can write it up.

5:30pm to 6:30pm

Catch-up with my family, we’ll either cook dinner or take entirely too long to decide where to get take-out.

6:30pm

Drive back into lab to change my samples. Remember that pesky HPLC, and my two sets of samples that require different buffers? The time required to change buffers and restart the HPLC is about 5 minutes, but it takes another 10 minutes in commuting. So our evenings are typically broken up by this 15 minute rendezvous.

7pm to 9pm

Return home and continue with all tasks (one through four), which ever ones require the most amount of catch-up currently.

9pm to 10:30pm

Try to stay awake on the couch to watch Netflix (currently making our way through the TV shows: 24 and Cheers).

10:30pm

Boyfriend catches me falling asleep.

11pm

Read for pleasure until I fall asleep. My latest good reads have been: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver and Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan.

4am

Wake up in a panic about graduation and getting a job. Read book for pleasure/distraction until I fall asleep again.

Update: Diane did get a job – she'll be an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Manchester University's College of Pharmacy in the fall. Congratulations, Diane!

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2344 2013-05-14T12:30:27Z 2013-05-10T19:37:28Z Kim Hassan khassan@umich.edu Rackham Ph.D. candidates who are actively working on their dissertation during the spring/summer term, are registered less than half-time, and are working as a GSI, GSRA, GSSA or a temporary appointment are eligible to apply for an exemption from the FICA withholding on wages paid for those appointments. The candidate’s faculty advisor will need to certify to the candidate’s summer plans. A full description of the FICA Exemption Criteria as well as a “Request for Exemption from FICA Tax While Working on Ph.D. Dissertation” form is available on the Payroll website.

For questions about the FICA exemption, contact the University Payroll Service Center (payroll@umich.edu or 615-2000, option 2).

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2343 2013-05-13T12:30:09Z 2013-05-10T17:32:10Z Natalie Bartolacci nplosky@umich.edu This summer, Rackham is continuing its "Postcards from the Field" project. To showcase all of the exciting activities that graduate students are doing across the globe, we invite you to send a virtual postcard to Rackham from where you are studying, researching, interning, volunteering, etc. The postcards will be featured on the Rackham homepage and provide an opportunity to share your work with the graduate school community.

To see previous postcards from the field, click here.

To submit a virtual postcard, please complete this form.

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2340 2013-05-10T12:29:12Z 2013-05-13T18:26:14Z Marie Stango mstango@umich.edu As a Ph.D. Candidate in History, I'm working on the intersections between the history of American antislavery and the history of families. My dissertation traces the journey of African American families as they migrated from North America to West Africa during the early nineteenth century, locating settlers and missionaries as they established new lives for themselves in the American colonies at Liberia. These migrants often kept in close contact with family members that remained in the United States after the Atlantic crossing was made, and I have been working on uncovering the histories of these connections.

It has been a while since my last blog post – a whole semester has gone by, and quite a few of my colleagues and former students have graduated. After successfully presenting my dissertation prospectus in December, I am now “ABD” (which is academic-speak for “All But Dissertation,” meaning the only requirement I need to complete is the dissertation). After December, I left Ann Arbor to complete my research. I have been sequestered in the archives of Washington, D.C. for the past four months, holed away completing dissertation research at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and Howard University. These archives comprised part of my itinerary for research for the next year, but now I am back in Ann Arbor in order to write a dissertation chapter based on the materials I found in Washington.

Archival research can be isolating. I spent eight hours a day, each weekday, in windowless and silent rooms poring over material written during the early 1800s. This type of work is both intellectually and physically exhausting. It takes a bit of work to decipher nineteenth century handwriting, particularly when the paper has started to disintegrate and tear and the ink has faded. Similarly, it can be exhausting to lean over material that is too large to fit on a desk, or perch in a cushion-less chair for hours at a time. Some days I found nothing that I was looking for. Call slips were often returned to me instead of books, as the material I requested was long lost or damaged beyond repair. It was easy to get bogged down in the work and feel as if the volumes and pages were piling up around me. However, for the most part, I found that archival research could be immensely exciting.

I had done a lot of “legwork” before arriving in Washington – I e-mailed with archivists, read deeply in the secondary literature (and especially the footnotes!), and consulted online finding aids. But as any person who has done archival research can tell you, only a small fraction of manuscript material is actually cataloged or referenced. Among the materials that I found in the archives, I stumbled upon a stash of nineteenth century land deeds from Liberia. I had not expected that sources like these would have survived in an archive an ocean away from their origin, but there they were. I also found newspapers that listed the comings and goings of many of the important figures in my dissertation. I read through bittersweet letters from African American settlers who migrated from the United States to Liberia in search of freedom, only to be confronted by the harsh realities of disease and famine. Ultimately, the most exciting material I found was the stuff I was not expecting to find.

Now, I am back home in Michigan to write. After a few productive meetings with my advisors, I now feel ready to begin the process of writing the pieces that will become my first chapter. I’ll have help along the way – I am participating in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender’s Community of Scholars program this summer, where I will spend eight weeks reading, writing, and presenting on graduate student work related to women and gender. Writing in a collaborative space will be productive, and I am excited to be working across disciplines with other grad students who are interested in similar questions.

Doing archival work in Washington had its advantages. I was able to avoid the harsh Michigan winter. In fact, it only snowed once while I was in Washington, and the archives shut down in light of the half-inch of snow on the ground. Needless to say, I enjoyed the museums, parks, restaurants, and bars in Washington. I also had a chance to catch up with a few college friends now living in the Washington area. While I was away, my advisor was very good about checking in every other week to see how the research was going, and I Skyped with a grad school buddy who was also at the archives (in a different state). As much as I loved my experience at the archives there, I am looking forward to being back in Ann Arbor, where I am in constant contact with the intellectual community here.

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2333 2013-05-09T12:30:33Z 2013-05-03T18:27:35Z Lisa Shea lmhaake@umich.edu As you may have heard, the University’s Board of Regents formally approved a funding model to complete $173 million in facility improvements in University Unions and Recreational Sports. President Coleman, Vice President Harper, and the Executive team have been visible and vocal champions for students and the physical communities that make Michigan so great. The $65 per-term student activities fee will take effect in fall 2014.

As for updates, planning for Mitchell Fields improvements will begin this summer, followed closely by Pierpont Commons Café renovation planning. Immediately after Mitchell Fields and Pierpont Commons work we will turn our attention to plans for CCRB, IMSB, the Union, and NCRB.

It’s an exciting time around here! Hail Yes Rec Sports

For more information about this news, see http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/130418/munger and http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/130419/recsports.

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2342 2013-05-08T17:40:46Z 2013-05-08T17:45:47Z Larry Rowley llrowley@umich.edu The COLLABORATE! Initiative at the North Campus Research Complex is sponsoring a day-long workshop, Collaborating Across Disciplines: A Research Imperative, on May 13, 2013 focusing on collaborative research in the academic environment. The goal of this forum is to engage the audience with scholarly discussions of the science of and real conversations about research collaboration. Consisting of speakers, interactive working sessions, and networking opportunities, this workshop explores the critical role of interdisciplinary collaboration and team science in a successful research career. This inaugural event will initiate an ongoing dialogue on how to facilitate and implement collaborative research.

Session topics include:

• How Does Physical Space Enhance Collaboration
• Navigating the Barriers to Interdisciplinary Design Education
• COLLABORATION in Action: the 4 P’s (People, Places, Process, and Pitfalls)
• MCubed: Lowering the Barriers to Innovation

To register, visit http://collaboratingacrossdisciplines.splashthat.com/

The event is co-sponsored by Business Engagement Center, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Depression Center, MCubed, Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research, MLibrary, Samuel and Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center, The Brehm Center, and UMMS Business Development.

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2339 2013-05-08T12:30:32Z 2013-05-07T17:15:33Z Michael Benson mlbenson@umich.edu Fellow Graduate Students,

Three years ago, you elected me to serve as your President and each year since then, you've re-elected me along with a set of wonderful vice presidents to serve you.

Over the course of the last year, your graduate student government achieved a great deal on your behalf including: allocating over $16,000 to graduate student organizations to host a variety of cultural, educational, and other interesting events and programs; hosting many events for the entire student body, including town halls, an election forum focusing on the six state-wide ballot initiatives, a trip to see the Detroit Tigers last summer, numerous bar nights, and many more. All the while, we've been hard at work reviewing and striving to improve the graduate school's academic policies as well as the policies of the federal government that affect us the most.

Graduate students came to us asking for a new GPA system and now we have one! Similarly, students have approached us about changing the way that Ph.D. Candidates can take classes and the number of evaluations that GSIs receive. Additionally, with the sequester, many graduate students have expressed their concerns about research funding and the future of their chosen profession. We've taken steps to improve each of these areas this past year including working with the Student Advocates for Graduate Education to ensure that these concerns reached the highest levels of the federal government.

I hope you all had a great academic year! For those that graduated, congratulations! For those that will be in Ann Arbor over the summer and into the coming academic year, I'm excited to see you around town and at the multitude of events RSG will be hosting in the future. I encourage you to visit our website’s calendar at http://rsg.umich.edu/calendar to stay up-to-date on our upcoming events, meetings, and more.

As of May 7th, Phil Saccone is our RSG president. I hope you will join me in wishing him nothing but success as he works to improve the graduate student experience with his Vice President, Kaitlin Flynn, and a group of 22 motivated representatives.

Go Blue!

- Michael

Michael L. Benson
Ph.D. Candidate, Radiation Laboratory
President, Graduate Student Body 2010 – 2013
Chairperson, Student Advocates for Graduate Education
E-mail: mlbenson@umich.edu ]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2331 2013-05-07T12:30:38Z 2013-05-02T20:28:39Z Darlene Ray-Johnson rayj@umich.edu Did you know that Rackham Ph.D. students have year-round eligibility for University support services? Ph.D. students are required to register in the summer if they are taking a course, achieving a milestone, or defending their dissertations. Ph.D. students are eligible for University services during the summer when they may not be registered.

University services available to Ph.D. students include University Library, The Career Center, E-mail, Printing, International Center, University Housing, Counseling and Psychological Services, Services for Students with Disabilities, Spectrum Center and Parking Services. So what’s new? Rackham Ph.D. students, who were registered in the Winter 2013 semester, will have access to University Health Service, Recreational Sports, and Student Legal Services at no additional charge. Yes – no additional charge, so go ahead and try out Recreational Sports this summer!

For questions regarding access to University support services, please e-mail Darlene Ray-Johnson at rayj@umich.edu.

]]> tag:rackham.umich.edu,2013:/14.2330 2013-05-06T12:30:06Z 2013-05-02T20:24:08Z Natalie Bartolacci nplosky@umich.edu Do you love to write in your free time? Ever write about your graduate school experiences? If so, Rackham wants you to consider writing for the Graduate School Blog!

Rackham is currently seeking master’s and doctoral students to be regular bloggers for the Graduate School Blog during the 2013-2014 academic year. Student bloggers will be asked to write at least two blog posts per term on assigned topics related to life as a graduate student with the purpose of sharing advice and building community with other graduate students. For examples of posts from previous student bloggers, visit this site.

Here is what past student bloggers have had to say about their blogging experience:

Being a blogger, I got to really think about what I was doing and why. In my field, reflection is encouraged on every level, and it was nice to think about that on a human as opposed to academic level.

Being a blogger provides a creative outlet for putting out my thoughts and ideas and sharing my experiences in graduate school with the community.

I enjoyed writing for the Rackham blog because I had the chance to describe my grad school experience for a varied audience: present and former Rackham students, parents, Rackham staff, and alumni.

As a graduate student with a disability, it was important for me to raise awareness about these issues. I hope that I inspired other graduate students, not just those with disabilities, about the graduate school experience.

I felt that a lot of the campus (and broader) community doesn't have a clear idea of what life is like as a graduate student, and I wanted to be able to give a voice to many of the thoughts, concerns, and experiences that we all have!

Application Guidelines
To apply to become a blogger, please complete the application form here by Friday, May 24, 2013. Applications will be reviewed by Rackham staff, and finalists will be notified in June.

Rackham is interested in representing a broad range of student experiences in graduate school, so students from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply to serve as bloggers.

If you have questions, please contact Natalie Bartolacci at nplosky@umich.edu.

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