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 o presentations were at a more informal level, and took
   less time to prepare than a full-blown presentation
   for the PL seminar

 o first-year students were explicitly invited, and they were "more
   likely not to come, or to be intimidated by the presence of
   faculty".

I was actually quite shocked by this, and also dismayed.  (I
should note that the above remarks were in reference to the
PL reading group specifically; I don't actually know
whether they apply to the Security reading group.  However,
the Security seminar seemed to disappear at the same time
that the Security reading group was formed.)

There are a number of issues here.  

 o When the PL seminar was originally organized (circa 1986)
   it was a lunch-time meeting at which papers from
   recent conferences were presented.  (If I am not mistaken,
   this persisted up until a few years ago; I seem to
   recall helping select a reading list of outside papers
   when at least one member of the PL reading group was
   moderator of the PL seminar.)

 o The level of presentation in the PL seminar should not
   be the limiting issue, beyond some basic standard.  Moreover,
   in many cases, authors of papers are willing to provide
   their slides or a ppt file.

 o One of the major hurdles we have in the department is
   getting first-year students involved in research.  The
   area seminars are one point of contact.  In my opinion,
   if senior grad students think that first-year grad
   students need to be sheltered from faculty, they
   are doing them a disservice.

 o It is important to have the area seminars; in these
   two areas, they have completely died off.  This is
   not a good state of affairs.

 o Faculty benefit from talks on background material, too.
   (The first presentation about abstract interpretation in
   the department was a chalk talk in the PL seminar by
   Will Winsborough, when he was a grad student.)

While I don't want to force myself on a group in which my
participation is not desired, I think that current practices
are very unhealthy, from an intellectual standpoint,
and I hope that the students involved will make some changes.
As a concrete proposal for a course of action, I propose that
the present organizers of the two reading groups take over the
corresponding seminars, broadcast information about
upcoming presentations, schedule the meeting in a room
of appropriate size, and make their meetings open
to all.

Finally, I'd like to make it clear that I have no problems
with private "study groups" forming for the purpose of
studying for qualifying exams in an area; I do have a
problem with "reading groups" if they are exclusionary
and supplant the area seminars.

If I am mistaken about the true state of affairs, please
let me know.

Tom

P.S. I have been out of the country this week, and so have
not talked to other faculty about this.  The opinions
expressed are my own.