1/15/04 GSA Meeting Minutes

(Minutes taken by Chanda Rosalyn Sojourner Prescod-Weinstein)

1.Introductions

2.Elections – External Vice President. Johnny has resigned and we need a new EVP. Who?

- IVP Vicki Taramuto runs unopposed and wins a confidence vote.

- new IVP will be elected at the next meeting (February meeting)

3.Refrigerator and Copier – are these issues being dealt with? Tabled for next month. Possibly a dead issue since money already voted on.

- mac laptop has been purchased and is available for check out

- now want a pc laptop – Nacho has agreed to take charge of the search

4.Funding requests – Cathy Sandeen wants funding for a summer program to teach grads how to design distance learning programs. Class will cost ~ $1000 per person. Will GSA provide funding? Tabled until Cathy can come or put together an email describing the project.

5.Committee updates:

1.Grad commons – apparently has dissolved and needs new people. Contact Brandon Allgood. There are new computers and the old are being donated to the Student Union. There is also a mostly unused $40,000 budget for events in this space. Any grad can sit on board. Autonomous – answering directly to VC Hernandez

2.Travel Grants – problem regarding summer apps being included in fall. Fair to give them money? Decided: yes.

3.CPB – budget cutting. Acck! How to deal with cuts? Tuition hike for grads has upset the entire UC admin

4.GSHIP – met with business manager of health center and director of health center, Robert Antonio and Dr. Elkind, respectively. Discussing issues of how much of impact on grad students if premiums go up or plans get slashed. Is combining the under grad and grad plan in the long term a good idea? It is for us. Want to know how many students are on undergrad plan . . .

5.Social Committee – planning big party Feb 20. Jan 29 to meet with Dean to get liquor permit. Will need volunteers to help with party. Ideas for social events: happy hour @ Joe's, wine tasting through OPERS, keva night, surfing, hiking, treasure hunt, ice cream social

6.New/Old Business

1.Tax workshop updates – hard to find interested CPAs, will keep looking. What about personal budget workshop

2.International Student Fees- - at other state schools, after 1 years, International students pay in-state tuition. Get other UC students and faculty involved. Looking @decades from now. Nacho interested.

3.Action agenda – meeting with Grad Council, presenting GSAs action agenda 1/29/04

4.GSA bi-monthly meeting – SUA meets weekly. Any interest? Advantage – can respond faster to the governator. Decided: yes, starting in February. 1^st and 3^rd week of month there will be a meeting.

5.Tuition fee Hike – oy vey. Proposal is to increase grad fees by 40% and undergrad by 10%. can't be implemented unless Regents agree to it. Regents upset – will not increase or retain grad students, which is an obvious problem. Decided that a letter will be written to the regents describing dislike of grad fee increase (to be written by Emily) and a committee created to discuss other responses (Chanda, Vicky, and Kelly). $200 approved to fund committee.

7.Officer Reports

1.Treasurer: $80 K in budget!

2.IVP: more committees to join – UCSA is happening in Irvine Jan 24-25

3.President: UCSC is recruiting an Assistant Dean of Grad Studies, will be responsive to us. Yay! There is also a search for grad admissions chair

8.Computer Engineering Issues

1.Nacho brought up a potential ambiguous constitutional issue relating to the possible creation of an EGSA, as well as the question of how the CE representative to the GSA was elected.