UCSC Astronomy & Astrophysics Orientation Guide last update ...

2. What to do in your first days
There are a few things you should do pretty quickly upon arriving in the area.
Some will be covered in more detail later.
2.1 Find housing!
Your real task during your first few weeks is to find housing, but you didn’t need
us to tell you that, did you? For details on housing, check out 4.4 (Housing) and
5 (Santa Cruz wide info) and the list in the A.
2.2 Upon your arrival at the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department.
Unless you already have housing, you have no place from which to base
operations, so you ought to head to the Department. Things to do immediately
(order not necessary important):
• Go to the Department office (ISB 201) and introduce yourself. Try to
find Sissy Madden, the department manager (ISB 287) and Mary Kiegelis
(ISB 201) Graduate Advisor. They both can probably help you with all the
rest of this.
Get a key to the ISB and a "grad" key. Sissy will give you a key form and
direct you to the PB Sci loading dock where you can pick up your keys.
• All new grad students have a computer account on the astro.ucsc.edu
network when they arrive. If you have an advisor already, they may want
help you get an account on the ucolick.org network if you need it.
• Sign up for payroll. There are a couple of aspects here. If you will ever
TA, which of course you will, then you need to get on the Division of
Physical and Biological Sciences payroll. They're located in Physical and
Biological Sciences Building located on the Science Hill. Sissy will help you
get in touch with them. For doing research as opposed to teaching, you
will need to get on the payroll with LOBO. You can set up direct deposit
to your bank accounts at the two payroll offices. If you will be on a
fellowship, then you will be paid and do not need to sign up for payroll.
• Introduce yourself to the grad student who is in charge of office space
(Space Czar). He/she will show you where your desk is located. You
already have a mailbox in the mailroom, ISB 260. Check for mail.
2.3 Within your first couple of weeks
Other things that are not incredibly urgent but that you ought to take care of
include:
3