GSA COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
February 19,
2004
Attendance
Officers:
Vicky Tarumoto (EVP), Beth Daniels (IVP), Emily Robinson (President), and
Susanne Altermann (Secretary), Allison Luengen
(Treasurer).
Department Reps:
Kelly Reiner (Education), Karen Artiles
(MCD Biology), Abhijit Sen
Gupta (Economics), Nicholas Konidaris (Astronomy),
Dirk Robinson (Electrical Engineering), Meredith Armstrong (Ocean Science).
Other Grads: Kai Pommerenke
(Economics), Sina Farsiu
(Electrical Engineering), Teresa Betts (Psychology), Ignacio (Nacho) Solis
(Computer Engineering), and Jamus Lim (Economics).
Approval of Minutes and Agenda
Agenda and minutes approved
with a correction to Ignacio's name.
Announcements
GSA is sponsoring a ballot discussion on Monday March 1 at
the Graduate Student Commons, 5pm.
There is a state budget teach-in on February 23rd,
6pm at Stevenson.
GSHIP meeting
is Friday February 27th, 4:20 pm at the Health Center. Any warm body with interest in health
insurance, come to this!
The next GSA Party is March 12th.
Happy Hour
for grads at Joe's is tomorrow at 5pm.
The wine tasting trip needs more people to sign up.
The Grad Division will not be
funding the distance learning
certificate program for grads.
Committee Reports
Grad Housing
We had a long discussion
about Grad Housing. There is pressure
from the campus housing department to move all grads to the Porter In-fill
Apartments. This solves their problem of
having too much housing at Porter and too little at Kresge. Beth and Emily toured the Porter housing and
found the rooms to be quite small. A
double bed will not fit well into a bedroom (making it an odd choice for
couples), and many amenities are missing or less convenient at this new site. The view, however, is very good. Campus housing is also suggesting that there
be a reduction in resident life programs.
They say this would save us "up to 20%" in the price of
on-campus housing. Reminder: grad housing costs $927/month for four people
to share a living space. On-campus
graduate student rents should not continue to subsidize construction of new
undergraduate housing. Vicky suggested
we maintain a paper trail of our and the administration's actions on this
front.
Motion:
The Graduate Student Association strongly opposes moving Graduate
Student Housing to Porter. Graduate
student rents should be no more than 1/3 of a TA's take-home salary.
Transportation (Susi)
The transportation committee
met with some LRDP consultants about transportation issues. At this point, a lot revolves around what is
chosen as the projected total number of students at UCSC in 2020. Once that number is chosen, many scenarios
will emerge that will require review. A
public meeting will happen at the UCSC Inn on Weds Feb 25th, 6pm. Other meetings for students will emerge soon.
Tax Workshop (Nick)
We may have dates for
workshops soon. You can still email
examples of tax questions to Nick (npk@astro.ucsc.edu) so
that he can properly prepare the accountant.
Officer Reports
External Vice President (Vicky)
Vicky provided an extensive
written report. She is involved with
numerous UC-wide organizations and conferences such as SUA, the Students of
Color Conference, the Women of Color Conference, the California Statewide
Affirmative Action Coalition, and more.
She especially urges everyone to sign the petition to the governor about
the budget crisis and the increase in fees for graduate students (this email
petition is in circulation). If anyone
wants to participate in any of these organizations or conferences, contact
Vicky: ucscgsaevp@yahoo.com.
President (Emily)
The Academic Senate has
resolved to include lecturers on some academic senate committees.
Motion:
GSA supports the Academic Senate's resolution to include non-senate
faculty in senate activities.
If you want to meet with
state legislators about the state budget crunch, let Emily know as she is
coordinating with Donna Blitzer about making some meetings happen.
Treasurer (Allison)
Allison agreed to figure out
what needs to be done to have a second person have signature authority for GSA.
Adjourn