GSA council minutes from May 5, 05

Attendance

Officers: Kai Pommerenke (President); Lisa Downward (Internal Vice President); Allison Luengen (Secretary)

Department Reps: Marla Holt (ocean sciences); Kelly Holt (lit); Brian Dowd (ENVS); Tamara Ball (edu); Amy Dexter (psych); Berra Yazar (MCDB); Ignacio Solis (CSE); Sina Farsiu (EE); Wendy Cover (EEB); Brian Gerstenberger (chem); Brooke Crowley (earth sciences); Nick Konidaris (ASTRO)

Others: Bryna Hazelton (physics); Carolyn Berger (ocean sciences); Rajul Ravindaan (CE); Avik Chandiri (CS);

Agenda approved

New Business

1. Dan Roth (linguistics) <roth@ucsc.edu>, asked the GSA to endorse SB840, which would create a single payer system to give all residents of CA health care insurance. Our Assembly member, John Laird, is a coauthor of the bill. Both the employers and the employees would pay into the costs. We voted to endorse it, 10 in favor, 2 against, and 2 abstaining.

2. Kai asked the GSA if we wanted to endorse the National Tuition Endowment Act. The goal of that act is to reduce waste and redirect student loan interest and use that money to give students scholarships. There was some debate because students in fields of study that receive NIH or NSF funding might not be eligible. In the end, we voted to endorse it, 5 in favor, 4 opposed, and 6 abstained.

3. Tamara (edu department) asked for our advice on how to start a group that could invite speakers of color to talk on various matters in education that are not currently addressed in the department. Some suggestions included starting a student group, through SOAR. Nacho knew the details of how to start a student group through SOAR, and basically, a few students need to agree to be officers to start the new group. Kelly was also familiar with ORU (organized research units) in the humanities, but did not know if such groups existed in the social sciences.

Funding Requests

1. Bryna Hazelton <bhazelto@physics.ucsc.edu> from the swinging slugs, an on-campus swing dance club, presented a funding request for their dance on May 14 at College 8. They have invited a good band, Stompy Jones, to perform. Their total cost will be about $2000 and they asked us for $300. If the GSA sponsors the event, grad students will get a ticket discount and pay $7 per ticket. We voted to give them $150 toward the event, 7 in favor, 4 against, and asked to be listed as a sponsor.

Old Business

1) GSR steps (Kai). Those steps are negotiable. They are funded through faculty research funds.

2) Catalogue rights (Kai). Grad students will have catalogue rights beginning in 2006-2007. This means you have the right to be granted the degree if you have fulfilled the requirements outlined in the catalogue for the year in which you entered the program, or the requirements listed in any subsequent catalogue when you were in the program.

3) Structure of meetings (Allison). Allison heard that there had been some good suggestions from the last meeting about how to make the meetings more efficient. We agreed to make a change in the way funding requests are handled. By consensus, all funding requests must include a formal answer to the questions listed on the website, and should be emailed to the GSA email address three days before the meeting. Lisa will work on revising the website to reflect this new procedure. Then, the secretary will email out the funding request to the council so that people can look the requests over beforehand.

Officer Reports

1) Committees (Lisa). Anthony Tucci is looking for people to site on the good neighbor committee.

2) Presidents (Kai). The officers will meet with the Chancellor next week regarding GSHIP, housing, parking, and the ethical treatment of graduate students.

3) Student Fee Advisory Committee (Marla). The SFAC will begin the processes of allowing groups to fill out official requests for new permanent funding. This is an opportunity for the GSA to request new permanent funding for specific items. The application should address the goals of that specific item. In the past, the GSA has asked for additional money for travel grants.

4) Party (Nacho). The party will be Friday, June 3. Contact Nacho if you want to help.

5) Meeting with Senator Speiers (Marina). Marina presented the effect of the budget cuts on graduate students to the Senator. These included decreased funding for GSRS, decreased funding for lab supplies, less flexibility in choosing student projects, increasing TA burdens, and rising health care and housing costs. Marina said the Senator was amazed at the adverse effects on students.

6) GSHIP (Allison). The medical premium will have to increase from $423 per quarter to $472 per quarter to cover the cost of medical inflation. Similarly, the dental will have to rise from $66 per quarter to $89.92 per quarter for the same benefits. The GSHIP committee is pushing for an improvement in the vision coverage.

7) CETGS (Allison). Those of you who spoke about the unfair treatment of graduate students should be sure to submit your stories on the GSA’s anonymous web site.

8) Graduate Student Research Symposium (Kai). The symposium will be held on June 2. There is a May 16 deadline for registering. See http://graddiv.ucsc.edu/GradSymposiuminvite.htm.

9) Committee on Academic Freedom (Nathan). There has been resolution on the issue of funding sources for faculty. The conclusion is that faculty have the right to get funding from anywhere, unless the Regents prohibit it. Individual faculty have can pledge not to accept certain funding, and all members of a department can pledge not to accept a particular type of funding. However, new members of the department are not obligated to follow that pledge.

There is some question about academic freedom for students. Apparently, students only have academic freedom derived from their professors. A forum is being organized on academic freedom to education students about protesting.

Finally, the administration has supported the committee’s request for an investigation into the University’s response to the recent student protests.

Adjourn.