On Thurs 1/20/00 we held a gripe session to good attendance. As had been
agreed in the past meeting, we started by reading the list of previous
gripes and discussing resolution. It seemed that all previous gripes
either had been satisfactorily resolved or (in the case of FRC
communication) appeared on track to improvement. The one exception was
dissemination of information about 590s (more on this below).

1. There were many complaint about the mens rest rooms, especially on
   Monday mornings, and especially on the first and second floors. Someone
   mentioned that a previous problem on the 4th floor had been fixed by the
   custodian's observation that a fan had broken and air wasn't
   circulating. Today's problem focussed more on dirty towels overflowing from
   the trash can onto the floor. Heather Dolan mentioned that people could
   mail sieg-maintenance@cs and request a custodial visit whenever a problem
   occured (during normal business hours).

[Action item: we will check to see if there is any way to install blow
 driers as an alternative to towels]

2. A related issue: people complained that the Chateau was cold and very
   dusty during construction.

3. Several people complained that it was nearly impossible for TAs to
   reserve or hold office hours because the official TA space was so tight
   and use of RA offices was discouraged. It was observed that a room with
   a computer was especially handy. It was also observed that the computers
   in the TA office space were ancient. Obviously, the real solution here
   will have to wait until we get our new building, but:

[Action item: we will see if we can reserve some rooms in Loew or EE for
some block of time and put them on the web for easy TA reservation. ]

[Action item: we will see if it is possible to upgrade the computers in the
main TA space]

4. A chorus of students expressed frustration that the official UW
registration computers listed far more 590s than were actually being
offered in any given quarter. Students would sign up for a 590 and then
discover that it wasn't really being offered, or perhaps that it was a
faculty member's research group meeting and by invitation only.

[Action item: we will attempt to create a web page, updated every quarter,
listing which 590s will really be offered in the current quarter and waht
type are they (project, reading, group meeting).]

5. Several students complained that TA assignments were often made very
late. It would help with course planning if they were made before the end
of the previous quarter or several weeks ahead of first class in the case
of Fall quarter. This would enable a TA to communicate with the professor
before leaving on vacation in between quarters.

[Action item: good idea]

6. There were several complaints regarding Microsoft software, linux sound
cards, and protection of web pages from offsite, but these were addressed
by members of the grad student lab liason committee.