Meeting Minutes- 06 May 2013

Welcome

Co-Chair Nominations:

  • Research Committee:
    • Nominee: Crystal Richardson
      • Former co-chairs voiced their confidence in Crystal
      • Elected Unanimously
  • Pro Dev:
    • Nominee: Katie Schiermeyer
      • Various members voiced their confidence in Katie
      • Elected unanimously

Bylaws Changes

  • Summary (Ben) See website for changes
  • Accepted unanimously

Committee Updates:

  • Initiatives (Amy Grady)
    • New GSAS Enrollment Policies (Email from Tracey Mourton)
    • Solicited a testimonial from a STEM grad about how these changes will affect these students
    • Attended open strategic planning meeting with Teresa Sullivan- geared more towards undergrads, no mention of efforts to change these things for grads
    • Looking to organize an open forum with administrators about this issue as pertains to grads
      • Response from Betsy Ackerson about organizing a grad specific forum
    • Would like reps to solicit lists of questions, testimonials from students in their department to collect a large amount of material to present in a public forum
      • Looking for one-on-one contact with students in your department, general email seems to not work for this
      • If there is a universal response from the department (all affected similarly) that is ok, otherwise individual statements will be helpful
      • Statement can also include concerns about grad housing, etc…
    • Graduate Student housing has been affected (Kaycie)
      • We should invite John Evans (Housing Director) about some drastic changes that have occurred (changing leases, increasing rent, etc…)
      • No notice, force to re-sign leases with altered terms
      • Putting a 4 year limit on family housing
      • Combining family housing and regular graduate student housing
      • Postdocs will be kicked out of housing
      • Change in housing are a result of restructuring
      • Kaycie will put us in contact with housing council fellowships
    • Erika Brant: Dissertation away fellowships have been eliminated (not status, just fellowships)
    • Ellie Kaknes: health insurance costs will continue to increase with these tuition changes
    • Any other concerns, please contact Amy Grady and CC Ben
    • Initiatives meeting next Monday at 6 PM, Newcomb gallery- All are welcome
  • Pro Dev (Madison and Ellie)
    • Meeting with Phil Trella and TRC folks re: GradDays 2013, will put forth a statement soon
  • Research (Evan and Kaycie):
    • Huskey is over, Improved on a lot of feedback areas from last year
  • Social (Jake, Sara, and Mike LaForest):
    • No grad prom this year, not enough time to organize a great event
    • Replacing with winery tour, movie night, and TBD early June event
    • Foxfields went well
  • Budget (Danielle):
    • All requests received late, so will be reviewed later with no committee recommendations

Website/Comm (Ben):

  • If you are a rep that is leaving, please let us know, and we will make an effort to track down your replacement
  • Website is being migrated, will help us better interface with GSAS web requests, provide better access to resources for grads

Budget Requests (Mike Schreck):

  • Social Winery Tour:
    • Request $405
    • No recommendation, request came after deadline
    • Same as event in the past, cost for UTS bus, students will pay for their own tasting
    • Approved unanimously
  • Social movie night/BBQ:
    • Request $1250
    • Same as last year, cost is for food and licensing fee
    • Doodle poll for movie selection will be sent out, request for a movie that is kid-friendly (Kaycie)
    • Approved unanimously
  • Web Hosting:
    • Request $200
    • See reasons discussed earlier
    • Approved unanimously

UJC Reps (Madison):

  • Matt is currently our only rep, but we have 2 spots
  • We are required to fill both spots
  • Because we can be brought up on charges, it is to our benefit to have graduate student representation
    • undergrads often do not understand the demands placed on grads
  • Time Commitment:
    • 15-30 minute meeting every Sunday night
    • 7 trial commitment/semester
  • If you have any questions, contact Madison
  • Reps do not have to be members of GSASC, so recruit your friends

StudCo Reps (Trish):

  • Trish and Nivi have volunteered to be a part of the Grad Affairs committee and be our reps
  • Looking to organize  a joint happy hour with other professional schools

GSBUVA (Oat):

  • summarized what has been going on in this area
  • ~100 signatures, some are not grad students
  • claims are not true, but emphasizes a problem with our council
  • Danielle: do these departments have reps? → Yes
  • Mike:
    • Mary Hicks (GSBUVA) was not able to attend, issued the following statement:
    •  Dear colleagues and GSASC representatives. I hope by this time the report which we forwarded to your representative Kate Sanger has been widely circulated within GSASC. Tonight I want to further reiterate that  the criticisms leveled by Graduate Students for a Better UVA are not directed at any person currently serving on GSASC, and are not a reflection of our belief that the dysfunction of GSASC as an organization falls on the shoulders of any particular individual or individuals. Rather our report, we believe, is a serious critique of the political and operational culture of GSASC which we realize was created long before any currently serving member became active in the organization. We believe that this report clearly identifies our concerns with the mission and operation of GSASC, however any additional questions about the document can be forwarded to gsbuva@gmail.com. We would also like to take this opportunity to point out that since the events surrounding the unjust ouster of Teresa Sullivan last June a number of other organizations on campus have restructured and re-oriented their mission in order to more effectively respond to changes in University policy. This includes the Faculty Senate, whose reforms represent a possible model for GSASC to re-orient its mission and procedures. We would also like to inform GSASC members that we will continue to circulate this report among faculty and other graduate students throughout the summer term, therefore a timely response to this report is in the best interests of GSASC.
  • Ben:
    • It is interesting that they are stressing the need for a prompt response, when they themselves are delaying meeting with us
  • GSBUVA Representative:
    • GSBUVA did not discuss these issues with department reps before posting the petition online
    • Since Zelikow was the History DGS, restructuring took effect there before it did elsewhere
  • Ilon:
    • Meetings have been clearly publicized, if they wanted to be a part of GSASC, all they need to do is show up
    • If these people are so passionate, why can't they be bothered to show up to our meetings
    • It is insulting to us that they can’t even come to our meetings to see what we do
    • Ilon always stresses that we want people to be involved at orientation
    • Before we can make any progress, we minimally need them to communicate with us
  • Mike Schreck:
    • Statement of no confidence:
      • Tuition
        • claim that we knew these changes were coming for a year → false, we did not know until December meeting
        • no town hall, but we did discuss it at every meeting since December; all of these meetings were open
      • Health Insurance
        • Noah sent email to this body in advance of formal statement, received over 300 responses, most of which involved requests to keep costs low and services high
        • while 12 hours was not a lot of time, we had a very high level of response
      • Dissertation year fellowships
        • nobody on the exec board now was on exec or a relevant committee during the 2010/2011 year
        • 2010/2011 was one of the lowest attendance years for GSASC due to administrative issues relating to the president having to leave
        • speculates that the lack of opposition to dissertation year fellowship changes in that year can be attributed to low manpower
      • Basically, the only valid point in the no confidence statement related to this body's work in the last two years is that we sent an email out late
      • Emily Fenichel: Every GSASC meeting when a dean was present, Mike brought up the fact that the dissertation year fellowships had gone away, but never got a straight answer
        • Mike: actually, was told that the money had been returned to departments to spend on grad students in advanced years. He did not ask the administration and departments to provide receipts, budget spreadsheets, or proof of payment to document this. Admits that he could've done more, but there was little uprising from graduate students at a time in which he could do anything about it
    • Today’s document (Report from GSBUVA on GSASC):
      • It's a long report and a fascinating read. He has read it, but needs more time before fully responding to its claims.
      • Early impression: GSBUVA appears to not be aware of efforts that Grad Council has taken on the tuition issue
      • Grad Council has indeed advocated for grad students with regards to tuition increases
      • we have met with administrators, and one of the changes that resulted is the inclusion of tuition payments
      • If you'd like further details on Grad Council's efforts related to the tuition issue, let Mike know
    • Tuition survey:
      • ~50% of respondent depts indicate a lack of satisfactory communication from DGSs
      • Meeting with Zelikow soon, contact Mike if you'd like to be a part
      • The best way to influence change with the administration is through building the relationship, not being adversarial
      • this seems to be helping us make progress, this year, deans have been coming to speak with us, invited us to be a part of strategic planning
  • Oat:
    • These people have failed to offer any legitimate criticism [in their petition of no confidence], we should not formally address them.
  • Ilon:
    • We want them to show up, we want them to be a part of this. Fundamentally we need them to show up to address the concerns.
  • Madison: do we need to change the way we advertise our open meetings?
    • Ben: This is very widely advertised, not sure how we can make this any clearer --> No resolution
  • GSBUVA Representative: the perception is that GSASC is focused on planning mainly social events, not interfacing with the administration
  • Ellie: This may just be a PR problem, this may deter people who would otherwise like to be involved. Some of the main concerns include the fact that they think that because our funding comes from GSAS, we can’t push back against them. This is not true!