GSA Meeting Minutes--November 7, 2002

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Attendance:

Officers: Lee Ritscher (President), Emily Moberg (IVP), Marla Holt (Secretary), Behnosh Najafi (CBP)

Department Reps: Sajeemas "Mint" Pasakdee (Environmental Studies), Dirk Robinson (Electrical Engineering), Mira Maione (Politics), Lisa Downward (Physics), David Machledt (Anthropology), Yan Zhang (Computer Engineering), Wendy Williams (Psychology), Rob Lowry (Math), Susanne Altermann (Biology), Pete Alrenga (Linguistics)

Visitors: Florence Woo (Linguistics), Joni Wajnryb (Politics), Robert Conde (Linguistics), Aaron Kaplan (Linguistics), Rudy Gilmore (Physics), Yasmin Lucero (Ocean Sciences), Ge Yi (Computer Engineering)

I. Approval of Agenda and Minutes

Agenda and minutes approved with some minor changes. Last months minutes had Susanne Altermann listed as a visitor, she was in fact voted in as the Biology Dept. Rep.

II. UCSA--Leo

Encouraged GSA to elect an EVP to send to monthly UCSA meetings to vote on Action Agenda

Items include: Youth vote, No on information band (formerly RPI or Racial Privacy Initiative) written by Ward Connerly which would lead to UCs adopting a policy to no longer track race/ethnicity at all in UC system, No on fee increases & grad student taxes at state level (i.e. stop taxing grad fellowships and stipends).

Next monthly meeting is on Jan 11th and 12th at UCR Announced Women of Color and Student of Color conferences We also need to pay our dues to org which is $0.75/student but $1.25/student is encouraged Motion made to support UCSA action agenda items, 2nd with no objections

III. Funding Requests

A. Visitor--Clarence--Post-Doc in Chemistry, organizing unofficial group for Post docs on this campus, issues include lack of specific title code for post doc thus campus doesn't know how many post doc positions exists on this campus, PSA (Post Doc Scholar Assiociation), main issue is health benefits, Clarence sees opportunities to provide support and professional development opportunities to grad students.

IV. Committee Reports

Dave	Social Cte--surfing class was hit, full in 1 day, hike next Saturday has 30 people signed, working on happy hour for this monthly see/email Dave/Wendy.
Marla	Student Fee Advisory Committee--Career Center Subcte meet last week for review, Mara McDonald has been hired as the new Career Center Grad Advisor, she starts on Nov. 12th.
Florence	Travel Grant Cte--still needs more help, needs another cte member, please email her if interested.
Wendy	WEAVE--had 2nd official meeting, Rita Walker, Title IX Officer invited, discussion on women in higher education, next meeting is Tuesday 6-7:30 PM at Women's Center, next months meeting is TBA since Women's Center is being painted and starting in Jan will be on 2nd Tuesday of month to avoid schedule conflict with other women's group meetings.

V. Officer Reports

Lee	Academic Senate meetings--problem with grad student funding/Town Hall meeting, petition option to get divisional deans to commit, Grad Council--discussion on grad student funding, University Advancement used to raised outside funding and focus at divisional if not departmental level, grad student appeals also discussed with a need for timeline/guideline on appeals that stipulates how long department has to act.
Marla	No report.
Emily	No report.

VI. Elections

A. Committee Elections:
Mira nominated as DRC rep with no objections
Robert nominated as GSC rep with no objections

B. Board Rep Elections (All new positions were uncontested and approved):
Dirk: Electrical Engineering
Pete: Linguistics (replacing Florence)
Lisa: Physics (replacing Ruth)
Wendy: Psycholoy
Rob: Math

C. Officer Elections:
EVP: Emily announced that Cheryl Lemus who can't be at GSA meetings this quarter because of conflict is interested, Joni Wajnryb also interested, discussion of co-chairs, the UC regents meeting on Nov 13th/14th in SF, EVP should lobby regents, suggested that the two meet to discuss who will be EVP, motion made to do ad-hoc co-chair EVP position for both Joni and Cheryl, discussion of how stipend will be allocated, suggested that it should be contingent on attendance and that since only one month left should be $200 (of $600 for the quarter) which should be split if both go.
CPB: Behnosh Najafi nominated as new CPB rep with no objections.

VII. Grad Funding Town Hall Meeting

Joni: ad-hoc committee has not met since last meeting
Lee: Frank Talamantes is supportive, deans from some divisions resistant, target those deans that have not responded with a petition, particularly humanities and natural science deans
Dave suggested having board reps get signatures for petition
Leo suggested get CHP to publicize
Joni will have petition wording emailed out to GSA council (via Emily) by Friday for discussion and then ready for print starting Monday
Lee will schedule appointment with deans to present petition, also meeting with MRC and George Brown (academic affairs)
Motion made to do petitions, 2nd with no objections. Sign up sheet for petition circulated

VIII. SFAC Questions

Marla discussed role of Student Fee Advisory Committee--allocation of new reg fees, approx. $400,00 this year for next year's budget allocations in Student Affairs Lee discussed three funding requests made to SFAC: Staffing (0.5 FTE), Double Travel Grants, Match Officer Stipends (not in order of priority), we also have a carry forward that we could spend on social events and GSA sponsored lecture series.
Discussion of Funding Priorities:
1. Travel Grants, Florence will find out the average spending per student for travel;
2. Increase officer stipends--need to more than double CPB stipend, some officer stipends should be doubled, could add duties to other officer positions in lieu of staffing;
3. Staffing--help with organizing, institutional memory SFAC meeting tomorrow on 11 AM at GSC

IX. Old Business

Officer Election By-Laws--Emily volunteered to bring in alternate wording for next meeting.

X. Adjourn

Contact GSA: gsa@ucsc.edu