March General Body Meeting

March 13th, 2023, 6:00-7:30 PM

Newcomb South Meeting Room

1. Greetings, Call to order

2. Ice Breaker (5 min)

3. Large Group - Union Rep (Blair Wilner, 10 min)

a. PhD candidate in religious studies, Chair of Graduate Worker Committee. Started a little less than 3 years ago, working with United Campus Workers which was started in TN, GA organizing public higher education workers. Wall-to-wall: anyone receiving a paycheck from UVA, w/ a few exceptions, eligible to join. Organize people based on where they work (grad students organize with grad students). Strategy is twofold; 1) shopfloor fights, material/practical stuff. 2) political advocacy; VA is one of the worst states to be a worker, state workers do not have collective bargaining rights, right-to-work states, though municipalities and counties can grant bargaining rights difficult with current admin in Richmond. Three chapters across Virginia; UVA was first, then VCU and W&M. Somewhere around 850 members statewide.

b. Shalmi points out that funding decisions are made differently by the two bodies; rank and file members do not vote on funding decisions but all grad council reps vote on funding decisions

i. Blair clarifies: democratic in the sense that union leadership is elected democratically elected

ii. Culture of training: mobilize rank and file members

iii. It is true that executive committee makes decisions w/o involvement of rank and file members

c. Eric: to ensure more consistent communication, can we have some sort of coordination or union liaison?

i. Blair: we can make sure to have a union rep at each grad council meeting

d. Combative in the sense that they confront issues directly

e. Not on the task force; grad student representation was sought through GPC, they wanted one (1) grad student

f. We have power as workers now; but we also think laws need to change in order to empower workers more fully in the state of Virginia

g. Shalmi: points out that rank and file members have no say in how their dues are paid, paying the salary of full-time organizers who are elected.

4. GSAS Business

a. Finance Committee Votes and Budget Template (Max, 10 min)

i. Intramural request from econ dept softball team. Motion pases

ii. Art department request: novel because it is a smaller event. Motion passes.

iii. Budget template with example was sent out.

iv. Example will be adjusted to cover the case in which multiple sources fund one item (example: catering, enviroday)

b. By-law updates (Aaron, 15 min)

i. Summary of changes so far: removed some redundant language, added in info about online meetings and asynchronous votes

ii. Question for general body: finance chair responsibilities would fall under the VP of finance, it would just be one position now

iii. Another question: importing funding guidelines into bylaws, and how should the bylaws reflect those funding guidelines? If they are to only guide/dictate the finance committee’s official recommendation to the general body

iv. Kylor: wants to make sure there is wording about Robert’s rules and that ultimately anyone can bring something before the council within Robert’s rules

v. There will be a draft posted sometime soon, and a period for comment from any reps

vi. Hoping that we can have everything aired out by next meeting, and that all disagreements will be settled asynchronously or over face to face zoom calls

vii. If you feel like your feedback isn’t being heard, talk to Aaron

c. Spring Grants, Graduate Student Stipend Task Force (Eric, 15 min)

i. Historically high expenditure! We can get a lot of students financed! Will go live 3/20. Application will close three weeks after that

ii. Grad stipend task force update: please contact Eric if you have anything you want him to bring up, or if you know anyone who does. Can bring up things related to finance/stipends, not just what happened in December specifically.

iii. Task force meets weekly, so great to contact Eric with things by Wednesday evenings if you want them to be discussed as soon as possible

iv. Eric will continue to bring updates at monthly meetings, and send out a monthly recap newsletter

d. Huskey Announcement (Shalmi, 2 min)

i. Exhibition is this Friday 12-4:30 with breaks in between, would be great to see lots of people there. We don’t need bodies or volunteers for most of the confernece (s/o to research committee!), but for the very last session if volunteers want to come, help clean up, and then head over to the reception, that’d be great. Contact Shalmi if interested!

5. For the Good of the Order

a. Valentines ball was a great success, thank you all for sharing the advertisement

b. Hope you all participated in the University wide elections!

c. Next Month Elections, please reach out to leadership if you are interested in running. Specifically anyone interested in presidency, you need to set up a meeting with me.

d. Next Month administration is going to come talk with us - China and Tyisha

e. Honor reps, internal elections and trainings

i. Reps from this previous year will be voting in honor’s elections for next year

f. Working on improving student access to professional attire. The survey can be found here and it will be open for responses until 3/17.

g. More on relationship with union and grad council

i. Sometimes we have the same objectives, but no communication

ii. Caution: some faculty look down on the union, and that can put students in difficult positions