Facilities

Third Floor Grad Room

Room 316 serves as an informal graduate student coffee and lunch room. All grad students, staff, and faculty are welcome there. The GSA informally maintains the services provided within - which primarily means ensuring that the coffee beans never run out and that fungi don't take over the sink. The coffee maker, microwave, refrigerator, and other appliances are available for use by all grads. Systems for sharing amenities like coffee vary from year to year as grads on the Third Floor develop common systems that fit well with their work habits and caffeine needs. The responsibility for keeping the area neat and clean rests with all the grad students on the Third Floor, and generally every week or so a couple of grads will volunteer to straighten things up. This works well only when everybody takes a turn at pitching in.

The phone for all the grad students on the Third Floor is located in the Grad Room (255-3191). The phone for 312 offices is located at the end of the hall (254-7249), with an answering machine attached. The grad students in F-House also have a common phone (255-2606). As many students share these phones, a heightened level of consideration for others is necessary. All graduate students share the responsibility of answering the phone, not just those whose desks are located close to it. Whoever answers the phone "pages" the person being called - yell loudly. There is also a message board in the grad lunch room for posting messages if you cannot find someone. This board also includes a map of where each student has their office space. When taking messages, remember to write down the date and time and your name. Try and keep conversations short, limit your personal calls if possible, and try to keep incoming and outgoing calls to a minimum. These, of course, are just common courtesies. To make distance calls from these phone lines, you will need a distance code. Speak to your advisor and then to Lisa Bishop-Oltz about getting a phone code.

The Grad Room contains a refrigerator in which students can store lunch and snacks. Please label your food and don't allow it to go "dead." Nearby sources of food include: the Dairy Store in Stocking Hall (ice cream, bagels, soup, cheese, yogurt); Trillium in Kennedy Hall (cafeteria food); and the food trolley in the lobby of Biotech (sandwiches). Also, the Alfalfa Room in the basement of Warren Hall is a popular choice and provides limited seating for times when a "Fernow Escape" is needed.

There is a bulletin board just outside the Grad Room where notices of interest to graduate students are posted. These postings concern courses, fellowships, jobs, seminars, and various bits of useful information. Check them regularly. The chalk board in the Grad Room is a vehicle for more informal announcements from students to students.

Computer Lab

The graduate computer lab is in Fernow 308. There are 3 computers, a laser printer and scanner. You can print to this printer from anywhere when you are logged onto the DNR network (you need to provide your own paper). In order to be logged onto this network, you will need to speak to the computer support staff about getting a log-in password. To set up a personal computer to log in, you will also need to have them configure it for you. The computer support staff for DNR also work with Crop Soil and Atmospheric Science and Plant Science. Their names are Dan Elswit, Karen Rhodes, and Thomas Dunn. Their office is in the basement of Fernow - enter from the eastern end of the building outside. They have a website which is a good starting point for your computer support needs: http://www.css.cornell.edu/support

Other equipment available for Departmental use include a digital camera and a LCD projector (used for Powerpoint presentations). Contact Lisa Bishop-Oltz in Fernow 118 to reserve these for use.

Peaceful Cohabitation

There are approximately 50 graduate students with office spaces on the third floor of Fernow Hall or in F-House. Needless to say, it gets hectic at times, and noise can occasionally reach levels and duration that seem unnecessary and inconsiderate of others. In an effort to minimize conflicts and maximize consideration of others, we offer the following suggestions:

1) Try to keep discussion within your office space reasonably quiet, please. Thank you!

2) If you anticipate prolonged discussions (more than ten minutes) or discussions with a small group, which might disturb others within your office area, move to the Grad Room or to Room 304. Please realize that the Grad Room is a common and very informal area and that frequent interruptions are to be expected. It is not intended to be an exclusive meeting area for any group (except GSA); it cannot be "scheduled" for such meetings, nor can other persons be excluded from its use. For longer or more formal discussions, or for other uses such as practicing presentations, you can schedule use of Room 304. Be sure to check ahead of time for the room's availability by consulting staff in the Department Office (Lisa Bishop-Oltz or Kelly Tillotson) for its schedule. Other possibilities for meeting space within the building are Rooms 210 and 212 on the second floor and Bernhard's Parlor on the first floor.

3) If at any time anyone feels that the noise level from the Grad Room is too high, they may respectfully ask individuals within to be quieter and/or to close the door.

4) Third floor facilities are largely for the benefit of graduate students. Consequently, graduate students have the responsibility to ensure that the facilities are maintained and secure. If you leave the building late in the afternoon (or evening) and you seem to be the only one around, take the time to turn off the lights, computers, and coffee pot (whether you have used any of these or not), and close the windows and fire escape door. Also, you should not leave any valuables in offices that do not lock at night. Unidentified "visitors" have been seen in the past walking around Fernow.

5) Problems of a general "housekeeping" nature, such as noise, office space assignment, or a disagreement with an office partner, should be discussed first with the individual involved, and then with any one of the GSA officers. If they can't help you resolve the problem, then it is appropriate to seek help from your major professor, Graduate Faculty Representative, and/or from the Department Chairperson. The GSA can deal directly with many problems that professors will find trivial. Some judgment on your part is necessary when deciding where to turn for help resolving problems and conflicts.