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The Student Affairs Committee (SAC) is a Registered Student Organization of the University of Oklahoma serving the students of the School of Meteorology. SAC’s purpose is to ensure formal communication between faculty and students regarding School of Meteorology and College issues of direct importance to both undergraduate and graduate meteorology students. SAC represents the student body at all faculty meetings and relays student input on various issues such as curricula changes, degree requirements, and School resources.

About

The Student Affairs Committee is comprised of Officers and Representatives. The Chairperson, Graduate Vice-Chairperson, Undergraduate Vice-Chairperson, Secretary, and Treasurer are considered Officers. Representatives are a single Doctoral, Masters, Senior, Junior, Sophomore, and International representative from each respective class. Get to know the current SAC members here!

Current and Recent SAC Activities

Academic Performance Review: SAC represented the SoM student body to the external reviewers during the Academic Performance Review.

Multicultural Fest: SAC held their annual Multicultural Fest, where students bring a dish representing their culture to share. SAC thanks the A&GS Diversity and Inclusivity Council for sponsoring three main dishes at this event!

Examination of Graduate Student Stipends: Continuing an effort that began as early as 2015, SAC executive board members did a complete review of the stipends of graduate students here at OU compared to those at other institutions, taking into account not only pay, but fees and cost of living expenses, to name a few. This review of how our stipend compares to others schools’ helped lead to a comprehensive review and overhaul of the graduate student pay structure here at OU. Previous efforts, in part, led to a reduction in graduate student fees on the University level.

Hurricane Relief: Students from SAC, OWL, and SCAN joined together to raise funds for those impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Students, faculty, staff, and scientists within the NWC donated money to jars with various faculty members’ names on them, and the winning (or losing?) faculty member with the most money raised would receive a pie in the face! Thanks to the generosity of everyone involved, over $2,000 was raised and four professors got pies in the face! Read more here.

International Students: The SAC international representative is continuing to work on documenting procedures and policies useful to international students. Information on this is available on the International Student resources page on this site.

SAC Lunch: This session is held to familiarize new graduate students with older graduate students and members of the SAC committee. These lunches are a cornerstone of the newly revamped SAC mentoring program for first-year graduate students.

Representation on the GSC: SAC representatives attended Graduate Studies Committee meetings to clarify student representative to committee rules.  Several changes were recommended for the Fall 2018 Grad Student handbook (available on the Graduate Student Resources page on this website) including new “best practices” for the direct-track PhD.

Research Fair: With the help of the College of A&GS, SAC hosts an annual college-wide research fair displaying current work of SoM and DGES graduate students and faculty and NWC partners. The research fair is intended to display research for first year graduate students and undergraduate students from freshman to senior years, provide ideas of the wide variety of research conducted in College and its partners, and discuss various opportunities to which students may have access (i.e. internships, jobs, grad school opportunities, Capstone projects). The most recent research fair was held this past October.

Student concerns: The SAC has heard and communicated several student/department concerns including undergraduate facility usage, graduate and undergraduate courses, length of graduate study, and other issues. These discussions have lead to several departmental changes to better suit student needs. Townhall meetings are held each year for undergraduates and each semester for graduates so students have a place to discuss their concerns or voice comments about departmental issues.

Reporting Options

Contact

School of Meteorology Student Affairs Committee
120 David L Boren Blvd Suite 5900
Norman, OK 73072

somsac@gmail.com