One of the latest additions to the lineup of SPE events is the SPE Fall Semester Party. This event is designed to bring together the entire SPE community at CGU that they may welcome the new students. Attendees include new students, current students, alumni, faculty, board members, CGU administration and staff, and of course all friends of SPE. It's a way for the department to get the year off on a bang after the first week of classes.
Tuesday Talks
The SEC is responsible for organizing several major events. Primary is the Tuesday Talk lecture series held throughout the fall and spring semesters. This series assembles speakers from a variety of sources (public and private sectors) and places them in an intimate and personable setting with SPE students and faculty. A wide range of topics are discussed covering issues relating to political science, economics, and all fields in between.
Talks usually take place from 12:00-1:00 P.M. on Tuesdays though it is sometimes changed to accommodate other SPE and CGU events. A complimentary lunch is provided.
SPE Town Hall
The Committee is also responsible for organizing a Town Hall Meeting each Fall and Spring semester. The SPE Town Hall is a forum for students and faculty to discuss the state of their departments as well as that of the whole school and any issues incidental that may arise. The Town Hall also works in conjunction with the Graduate Student Council Strategic Student Involvement (SSI) Committee which focuses on ensuring that administrative decisions at all levels are exposed to student input as well as open to consultations with the general student leadership.
Town Halls are tentatively scheduled for mid-semester in the fall and spring.
Soup Night
One of the long standing and cherished traditions specific to the Department of Politics and Economics is affectionately referred to as simply, Soup Night. Soup Night is an old-fashioned American potluck wherein the varied SPE students and faculty according to tradition, cook their own particular pot of soup and bring it to the house of the professor hosting the event for that year. It is over the sharing of soup, a common effort, which the faculty and students interact casually and get to know each other more personally outside of the classroom setting.
Soup Night is typically held towards the middle of fall semester. Watch for information announcing the date.
The SPE Student Conference
An academic career is one in which presentations are de rigueur. As such, it proves useful for a student interested in an academic career (if not also for the sake of personal enrichment) to seeks as many opportunities as possible to practice the fine art of presenting a paper. The SPE Student Conference is one of those opportunities that essentially comes to you. The conference is held in the spring thereby giving even new students the opportunity to develop a topic for presentation. The fundamental goal of the conference is to foster a rare and valuable experience in a safe setting before fellow students and faculty members where immediate feedback is provided.
The SPE Student Conference is held during spring semester. Tentatively, the conference will be held either in late February or early March. The official date and time will be published.
The Wilson Society Newsletter
Once upon a while, there was an SPE publication called the Wilson Society Newsletter in which SPE students could submit articles for publication and local circulation. The newsletter has been on hold for the last year. For 2007 and 2008, it will be revived. For more information, or to take an active part in its revival, contact any of the SEC officers. Additional details about submission requirements will be posted by the beginning of the 2007 semester. To get a better sense of what to expect, I have posted the newsletter from 2004.
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