SGA UPDATE for Friday, 11/19/10

Student D.O. of the Year

An email was sent out this week with the nomination form for the SDOY award.  This is a very prestigious award and the selected individual will be in the running against nominees from all over the country.  If you know a fellow classmate that you think deserves recognition for their commitment to our school, the community and the osteopathic profession, please fill out a nomination form.  The deadline for all nominations is December 10, 2010 at noon.

Study Room Rules of Common Courtesy:

1. Do not cover the window or leave your belongings unattended in the room for hours at a time.

a)      Your stuff can be moved or stolen.

b)      Share. As you may have noticed, we have a limited number of study rooms. Out of consideration for others, share your room with your classmates if you are the only one in the room. Sharing is caring! 

2. Clean up after yourself.

a)      There’s a trash can in here, please use it.

b)      Also, if you eat in the room and there’s food residue on the table or walls, Wipe it!

c)       REPORT SPILLS! Call maintenance immediately so that the new stain doesn’t become another permanent decoration. 

3. If you take chairs out of this room, return them when you’re done.
4. Try to keep the noise to a minimum, so people in the rooms next door can study, too.
5. No sleeping for long periods of time – your bed at home is MUCH more comfortable. :)

We all want clean accessible study areas and by working together, we can make that happen!

Guest Speakers

-We now have TouroCOM coffee mugs to give to our guest speakers as a token of our appreciation.  Club Leaders please contact one of the SGA members if you are bringing in a speaker. 

Survey Question of the Week

I have attached your responses to last week’s question to this email.  Once again, we strongly encourage you to take the 10 seconds to the weekly survey.  This is the only way we can really get the consensus we need on certain issues that we plan to address in the future. 

Library

We want to remind you that eating and drinking beverages other than water is prohibited in the library. While SGA continues to gain more privileges for students, (i.e. exam viewing computers, extra exam viewing hours, extended library hours, etc.) we need some simple cooperation from your end.  We have been warned that if students continue to break the rules, the library may not be open when it’s not fully staffed:  7:30-8:00am and evening proctoring hours.  Please just follow the rules so it doesn’t have come down to cutting the few hours that we do have in the library.  Thanks!

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 11/12/10

Streaming

We are now able to download lectures and watch them without any streaming interruptions.  As of now, downloading can only be accessed while on the TouroCOM network.  Instructions are listed below.  Please direct any questions/technical issues to the IT department.

Windows:1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. On URL/address type: ftp://vod.med.touro.edu
3. You will be prompted for username and password
(use your MED domain username, "med\firstname.lastname") and password for MED domain. (The username and password that you use to log into the library computers).
MAC:It's same as above. Mac users has to use Firefox/Chrome or any web browser that support ftp protocol. Safari DOES NOT SUPPORT FTP protocol.

*Please note that most of videos are in the “Hidden” folder. Anything that starts with “screen_2010...wmv “is the video from the podium computer capture and there is no audio with those files.  All files that start with “video_2010...wmv” have the video from the lecture camera plus the audio.

Study Rooms

In order to be courteous to your classmates, please do not block the door windows with your belongings. It’s not fair to other students when individuals leave their belongings all over the room, cover the door windows, and then leave the rooms for hours at a time. We will be enforcing this new rule this following week. Thanks for your cooperation!

Kaplan schedule

2^nd years- Reminder: our Kaplan COMLEX prep runs from May 11^th – June 9^th 2011.  If you haven’t registered for your exam(s) yet, it’s definitely something to start looking into!

Google Groups:

Google groups have been enabled for clubs!  Clubs leaders, please make a Google Group for your club so that your emails can be directed only to your members. We have received too many complaints regarding the high volume of emails being sent through the list serve.  Now that we have finally gotten permission for this resource, please utilize it.  The link below will lead you to instructions on how to set up a group:

https://groups.google.com/a/student.touro.edu

Club calendar

Once again, please put all your club events on the calendar.  This is the only organized way that students can look up events for the week without having to search through tons of email for the date/time/location of an event.  Its purpose is to benefit your club and encourage attendance.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcalendar%2Fembed%3Fsrc%3Dstudent.touro.edu_7hp69favkj5lv48pnmeompj07s%2540group.calendar.google.com%26ctz%3DAmerica%2FNew_York

Rotation information:

The SGA is working on setting up our rotation selection mid-Feb, bringing in program directors before our selection, and making the 3^rd/4^th year evaluations available to students.  We want this process to go as smoothly as possible while keeping everyone informed. For now please look through the resources provided and stay tuned for more information to come!

Core rotations

https://sites.google.com/a/student.touro.edu/class_web/core-rotations

Elective Rotations

https://sites.google.com/a/student.touro.edu/class_web/rotations

SGA Blog:

Check out our blog for information you may have missed!

http://tourosga.blogspot.com/

TouroCOM site for current students:

https://sites.google.com/a/student.touro.edu/class_web/

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 11/05/10

Streaming
The IT department is currently working on a solution for our streaming network.  There have been many complaints regarding the speed and quality of streaming.  We hope to see some changes soon.


Study rooms
Thank you to those who have cleared their personal items out of the study rooms. If you haven’t had the chance to yet, please remove your personal belongings and keep them in your locker or at home; any items left in an unoccupied study room may be removed & thrown out. Once again, be ready to vacate the room between 7-9 PM every night for a few minutes, when facilities come through to vacuum. Make their job easier and help keep our study rooms clean!


Faculty Meeting Regarding Powerpoint Names & Posting
The SGA president, Buck Stolberg, presented at the last faculty meeting.  He went over the importance of properly naming powerpoints, since we do receive close to ~1000 presentations over 2 years.  He also has stressed the importance of putting up class material in advance and providing supplementary resources. Thanks Buck! Below is the list of filenames, per syllabus. Encourage your professors to use the names provided or something similar.


Primary Care Skills Evaluations
-This is another reminder for 2nd years to fill out the PCS faculty evaluations. They are located under assignments in your PCS folder.

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 10/29/10

COSGP Update
COSGP is the Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents and it is the group that represents
all osteopathic medical students.

Topics we addressed were:
• COMLEX/NBOME (National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners)
o Remember, COMLEX is not JUST the USMLE with OMM. It is designed differently!
o Use the COMSAE exams on the NBOME website. They contain actual COMLEX questions
that have been retired!
o Find out all kinds of information about the COMLEX tests on the NBOME website.
• Resident Duty Hours
o With the recent change in ACGME rules around intern/resident duty hours, the AOA is
considering changing to a similar standard.
• Check out the COSGP website for links to all kinds of useful interesting things:
o http://www.cosgp.aacom.org/
• An AACOM resource that might help you with COMLEX/OMM is a free resource called The
Glossary of Osteopathic Terminology. The link is below:
o http://www.aacom.org/resources/Documents/Downloads/GOT2009ed.pdf
• Updates from every COM and so much more! We will make sure to distribute information to
different students/clubs.

Study Room Cleaning and Availability
We’ve heard you loud and clear! In response to your concerns and complaints we are coordinating with
Building Services to clean out and clean up the study rooms!

Please remove all personal belongings from the study rooms by 7pm Wednesday 11/3/10. As a courtesy
to other students please keep your personal belongings in your locker or at home, any items left in an
unoccupied study room may be removed & thrown out.

Be ready to leave the room between 7-9 PM every night for a few minutes, because that is when
facilities come through to vacuum. Make their job easier and help keep our study rooms clean.

TouroCOM Club Calendar
Every event put on by a TouroCOM group will be on our TouroCOM club calendar, so check it often and
add it to your own personal google Calendar. Use this communication tool to make sure you don’t miss
out on an event!


TouroCOM Weekly Survey:
-Each week there is one new question that is asked. This gives us an idea of how many students are
interested in certain topics and what to pursue in the future. First and second years, please fill out your
surveys! We appreciate your feedback and it literally takes 10 seconds to do so. Thanks!
Here is the response to last week’s question:

Primary Care Skills Evaluations
-This is a reminder for 2nd years to fill out the PCS faculty evaluations. They are located under
assignments in your PCS folder.

Topics for Faculty Meeting
Our SGA president will be speaking at the faculty meeting next week. Please add any issues you would
like for him to address.

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 10/22/10

TouroCOM café
-The new vendor on the 4th floor is officially open. They offer a variety of breakfast, lunch and snack
options. They want to cater to our needs, as we are their only clientele. Suggestions are encouraged
(pricing is out of our hands). Weekly specials will be appearing in our updates. Hours have not been
set in stone yet. Weekdays: 7:30 am- 6ish. Weekends hours will be set based on demand; they want to
work with our exam schedule and stay open the days students need them. Also there will be a discount
if students add money to the meal card option. Stay tuned for more information to come.

SSP Coffee Mugs
-The café is offering a discount to all those who have the TouroCOM spill-proof mug. Refer to SSP’s
email for more information.

SGA Meeting Summary- Oct19
-Committee updates:
-Community service- Dan Choe
-Reminder: all clubs must complete at least one service activity. It must be signed off by
Dan, admin and SGA.
-Student services- Victoria Edwards & Michael Hoffnung
-IT is developing a program that will allow test viewing without some of the restrictions
students have now.
-Color printer may be available in the near future.
-Activities- Percy Huggins & Ellen Wasserman
-Ice skating/possible holiday shindig details coming up
-Winter formal is pushed back to beginning of January
-Facilities & Technology- Benson George & Matt Mavissakalian
-Please email FAQ ideas for TouroCOM’s website.
-Academic and Professional Development- Alyssia McEwan & James Haug
-Recruitment- Kristen Viccora
-Senator updates- Class issues were brought up and noted.

San Francisco Conferences
-There are various conferences (COSGP, SOSA, SSP, etc) in San Francisco this weekend. To all those
attending, please add your name to the form. We would like to get together for a TouroCOM dinner.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHo2VE1PMlczcEVzU0dzUWROLXMweUE6MQ

Have a great weekend everyone!

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 10/15/10

General SGA meeting- Tuesday, October 19, 12:15pm
-Save the date! We will be discussing current issues and upcoming events. This will be a
mandatory meeting for Senators, Committee chairs, and Club leaders, although everyone is
encouraged to attend!

TOUROCOM Cafeteria Vendor Meeting- Friday, October 15, 12:00 (today!)
-The caterer will be meeting with us in the cafeteria today. Please stop by if you have any
comments/suggestions/questions for him. Please note that this caterer is not affiliated with
TouroCOM. It is an independent Kosher caterer and therefore the school has no control over
the prices.

Syllabus- Class of 2013
-We are working on getting our syllabus clarified. As it stands now, there is no clear consensus
on how each class is calculating grades and we do not want to be surprised at the end of the
semester. We will be sending out an email shortly with a copy of the new syllabus once it is
available.

Kaplan
-Hopefully all of you have accessed your Kaplan accounts by now. In your account, you should
have the COMPLEX Qbank, COMPLEX Live Prep and USMLE Step 1 Webprep available. If
anyone has any problems and/or has not received the registration email from Kaplan, please let
us know as soon as possible.

Library Exam Viewing
-We have been pushing for more convenient exam viewing hours. These are the new hours as
it stands now. Please let us know your thoughts on this.
Monday-Thursday: 12-1 pm, 4-5pm
Friday: 12-2pm

Lippincott Online Book Trial
If you want to access your textbooks online, and are willing to give feedback about it, fill out
the link. We will be dividing up the offer (we have room for ~30) so that we have some people
from each class. Your feedback will be given to Lippincott in exchange for the free access, and
will influence students' decisions next year.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/student.touro.edu/viewform?
formkey=dE1jNnRvdjNDemJfUzhFTE1VNHhBWmc6MQ

TouroCOM Website FAQs
-We want our school website to have a section for FAQs that students have annually. We
would like this to include the financial aid process, school policies, etc. We want your thoughts
on what helpful materials you would like to see added to it. Please list your ideas on the
Google Doc.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?
key=0Aj_zXpzWENqBdHhTRF9FSEFZRk1xaUZWUlI3RGJqd0E&hl=en&authkey=CIDG9LQJ

Facilities
-If you have complaints about the cleanliness of our facilities, please give us exact
documentation (like date and time) so that we can bring the issue up with our head of facilities.

Class Materials
-We are working with each of our professors and urging them to send out all of the class
material one week prior to the actual lecture. Look forward to some changes!

SGA UPDATE for Friday, 10/8/10

Class of 2013 meeting with Dr. Lenihan- Tuesday, October 12, 12:15pm
-Please try to post questions on the spreadsheet beforehand so that Dr. Lenihan can address all
of our concerns as efficiently as possible.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?
key=0Aj_zXpzWENqBdHVsWWs4M2dldU4tUldfbXNJMUMtdmc&hl=en&authkey=CKqnjdYH#gid
=0

General SGA meeting- Tuesday, October 19, 12:15pm
-Save the date! We will be discussing current issues and upcoming events. This will be a
mandatory meeting for Senators, Committee chairs, and Club leaders. Everyone is encouraged
to attend because we will go over pertinent information.

TOUROCOM Cafeteria Vendor
-Please note that this caterer is not affiliated with TouroCOM. It is an independent Kosher
caterer and therefore the school has no control over the prices. However we will be meeting
with him to give suggestions. If you have any ideas/concerns, please let us know.

Approval of Budget Request Forms
-Budget review has been completed and clubs will be receiving funds soon so stay tuned for
more information. Contact Ann Long if you have any questions.

Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPEs)
-The MSPE (replacement of the commonly known “Dean’s Letter”) is an important part of
your future residency application. It is composed and sent out by Dean Goldberg, who has
advised us to start working on the “Unique Characteristics” section early on. Please take a
look at the link to familiarize yourself with the form.
http://www.aamc.org/members/gsa/mspefinalguide.pdf

Student Health Services
-If you are in need of any health services, please contact Dr. Patel’s office. His office is located
on 33W 125th street.

Reminder to Collect Mail

-Mailboxes are located on the 4th floor. Please retrieve your mail before the mailboxes are
emptied on November 1st.
***Note: Dean's section coming soon!