Here are the descriptions of some of the positions that are to be
held by students (these decriptions might be slightly out of date,
but the substance remains the same):

PhD STUDENT BUREAUCRAT  (For PhD students only)
MS STUDENT BUREAUCRAT  (For MS students only)
	There are two PhD bureaucrats at any given time.  One is chosen each
	quarter to hold office for two quarters (summer does not count).

	There is one MS bureacrat at any given time who is elected each
	quarter to hold office for the next quarter.

	The main tasks are:
	(1) Attending faculty meetings, lunches, and retreats.
	(2) Calling student meetings when there is business
		(at least once a quarter).
	(3) Acting as an ad hoc committee on committees to see that student
		positions on CSD committees are filled.
	(4) Acting as a funnel for general student input into departmental
		 business.
	(5) Attending divisional heads & administration meetings.

COMPREHENSIVE COMMITTEE
	Ten student members, one for each section of the
	exam.  Students are elected as needed to serve a term
	of one "year" (until examinations have ended for the
	year).  Members must have passed the entire
	comprehensive.  Work consists of creating the
	comprehensive and grading the answers. They are expected to
	complain to the committee chair if things go wrong.

MSCS COMMITTEE  (For MSCS students only)
	Two student members, elected in the Fall.  This committee has total
	responsibility for the MSCS program, including admissions, programs,
	awarding degrees, passing petitions, etc.  Work mostly
	consists of deciding whom to admit.

CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
	Two student members, elected in the Spring.  The duties are
	to oversee course scheduling (who and when); review courses
	currently being taught and suggest modifications, deletions, or
	insertions; make sure things are in tune with the times;
	consider proposals for new courses.

COMPUTER FORUM COMMITTEE
        There are two student members.  One is elected in the Fall of each year
        (for staggered two year terms).  Work with Carolyn Tajnai to
        discuss plans for the Computer Forum Annual Meeting (usually held
        in March). The Poster Session is organized and implemented by
        the student committee members.  Assist Suzanne Bentley in the
        conceptual planning of a job fair to be held in January. The duties
        of student members are light. Attend committee meetings held
        quarterly.  The student may get as involved as he/she would
        like.  Two former students performed marketing surveys and made
        visits to Forum companies when they travelled to Europe and Japan.
	(revised by Suzanne Bentley on Oct 9, 1997)


LIBRARY AND PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
	One student member, elected in the Fall.  The Library & Publications
	Committee has two tasks: interfacing with the CS Library and
	overseeing the CS reports program.  Mostly this entails one or
	two meetings a year to make some policy recommendations to
	either the CS Library or the CSD Academic Council.  Little or
	no work.

FACULTY SEARCH COMMITTEES
	Two or more students per Faculty Search Committee.  Elected as
	needed.

ORIENTATION COMMITTEE
	Six or more student members (hopefully), elected in the Winter
	(hopefully), Spring, or Summer.  Send out literature to new
	admittees.  Answer their questions.  Help them the first few
	days of their arrival in Palo Alto.  See /cs/orientation for
	relevant files.

RECRUITMENT COMMITTEE
	Six or more student members, elected in the Winter.  Contact new
	admittees.  Help arrange their visits to campus in the spring,
	including meetings with faculty and students.  Work with orientation
	committee.

SOCIAL COMMITTEE
	Three or more students, elected in the Fall.  Arrange quarterly
	potlucks, the spring picnic, and any other departmental social
	functions.  See /cs/social for relevant files.

TGIF [CZAR, GRAND POOBAH, etc]
	One student, elected each quarter.  Buy refreshments (with
	department money) for the weekly TGIF get-together.  Engineer
	the clean-up afterwards.  Good for new students to get to know
	people.  (Summer TGIF is intermittent).

ACM THESIS COMMITTEE
	Generally a faculty committee, but students may get involved by
	contacting the organizing faculty member.  Help select which
	recent Stanford CS (& EE) PhD theses to submit to the ACM
	thesis competition.  Good for students who wonder what a thesis
	looks like.

SPORTS
	One student, elected in the fall.  Organizes and coordinates CSD
	teams interested in playing in the various intramural offerings.


****************************WE NEED FEEDBACK*************************
If you're interested in any of these positions, or would like to
nominate someone, send us (bureaucrats@cs) email with questions, names
etc.
The competition for these elected positions is hardly intense; if
you're sufficiently interested, you should have no trouble signing up.
Reasons you may want to get involved are that somebody has to, you're
being helpful, you're help is definitely needed, and generally, that
there is free food involved.


Thanks for your time,
The PhD Bureaucrats

Keywords: important official computer science department business