GSA COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTES
March 4, 2004
Attendance
Officers and others: Emily Robinson (President),
Susanne Altermann (Secretary), Allison Luengen (Treasurer), Aarti Iyer (CPB),
Marla Holt (SFAC).
Department Reps: Karen Artiles (MCD Biology),
Abhijit Sen Gupta (Economics), Nicholas Konidaris (Astronomy), Dirk Robinson
(Electrical Engineering), Meredith Armstrong (Ocean Science), Ignacio (Nacho)
Solis (Computer Engineering), Lisa Downward (Physics), Sajeemas Pasakdee
(Environmental Studies).
Other Grads:
Kai Pommerenke (Economics), Jamus Lim (Economics), Pascha Bueno Hansen
(Politics), Sheila Willey (Music), Carrie Ryder (Earth Science).
Election
Motion: Ignacio Solis was approved as the Computer
Engineering Representative.
Approval of Minutes
and Agenda
Agenda and
minutes approved.
Announcements
The end of
the quarter party is Friday March 12th at the Graduate Student Commons, more
details to come.
Committee Reports
Grad Housing
The housing
folks have heard now that we don't want to move grad housing to Porter. There was a request from a faculty member
regarding what can be done for international students. No suggestions emerged.
GSHIP (Insurance, Allison Luengen)
Allison
wrote a letter to all grads and to the Grad Council about our plight. We want to join the pool of undergrads. If we joined them, we would pay more than the
undergrads do, but that's still less than we pay now. The fee structure could be separate between
grads and undergrads. We are tempted to
exclude spouses and children from the plan since this aspect can be costly
(uncomfortable situation). We can email
the Chancellor about our request for money.
We can collect petition signatures at the party.
SFAC (Student Fee Advisory Committee,
Marla Holt)
We got our
travel grant funds, but only as a one-time allocation. The committee is now working on priorities in
budget reduction actions. The
administration wants to cut 11.7% of spending as a whole. Committee priorities include: jobs, self supporting programs, unique
facilities, and viable programs. If
measure 7 fees are raised from the current $40/quarter to the maximum
$51/quarter, then cuts only need to be 8% overall. GSA is vulnerable to cuts because we have
rollover money.
Travel Grants (an interlude in the SFAC discussion)
There was a
debate about how to distribute the travel grants increase.
Motion: Starting in January 2004, travel grants are
increased to $300/year. People who received
$225 in Fall 2003 can apply for the additional $75 on a separate application
for a separate event/travel.
CPB (Committee on Planning and Budget,
Aarti Iyer)
The new
acting chancellor-to-be Marti Chemers wants to hold on to the budget (normally
this belongs to the Executive Vice Chancellor (EVC), and we need to hire one
still). An EVC should be hired by April
1. An Associate Dean for Graduate
Affairs position may be opened soon.
New Business
Undergrad fee diversion (Susanne Altermann)
The recent
increases in undergrad and grad fees have led to an unusual situation: some of undergrad fees are now being diverted
to pay for the increase in grad fees.
This is something to watch.
Humanities Division Student Led
Seminars
The
undergrads are organizing opposition to the Humanities Division's restrictions
on student-led seminars.
Adjourn