November General Body Meeting

November 1, 2021 6:00-7:30 PM
Newcomb Hall Commonwealth Room | Zoom

  1. Call to Order and Welcome 

  2. Guest speaker from Physics dept 

    1. Discuss effort to increase grad student wages and the response we have received from GSAS (Miller Eaton and Marybeth Beydler)

    2. Miller noticed wages hadn’t changed since 2016 and spoke up at a town hall meeting for the Physics dept → gave a 2% (~400$ per year)increase but the College denied this → asked for a %15 increase (bringing grad wages up to ~$15 per hour) → faculty and students signed the letter and it was sent to the CAS 

    3. The department is on the students’ side, so the pushback is coming from the College - in the Physics dept the later years are funded by research grants, not the college. Physics even offered to add funds.

    4. What’s the next step? In the physics dept, there is a need for more grad students (so they can’t do what the English/other depts do and reduce number of students and increase stipends)

    5. Tyler, Ed Committee: raise for a stipend is a bandaid - we need a liveable wage that accounts for costs of living. Physics students fear that if they push for more rights, they will lose the support of the faculty.

  3. Committee Reports 

    1. Graduate Education Committee 

      1. First meeting update 

        1. Ed committee met with Barnaby last week but the only thing they didn’t really talk about was grad student pay, which the Ed Comm is still very concerned over and will be sure to keep in the conversation.

      2. UCW graduate student worker campaign 

        1. United Campus Workers of VA (our union) → 3 demands: living wage, health insurance, terms of employment

        2. Not currently partnering with Union but it would be good to collaborate

      3. A reasonable ask for ~31,300 plus cost of living

      4. Do we pitch ourselves as employees or students? → Ed comm is hoping to focus on the living wage aspect and then circle back to other definable “demands”

      5. Statement: The GSASC supports all graduate students’ funding being at least equal to a living wage in Charlottesville, with annual increases for costs of living. 

      6. In formulating the statement, there was concern and much debate over how specific we should be in defining “costs of living.” Do we add a number (via the MIT wage calculator tool) or just add a general baseline ask (ie, at least 30,000) or keep it vague until negotiations become more specific? The council ultimately voted unanimously to approve the general statement above so the Ed Comm can show the GSASC support to Barnaby in their upcoming meeting. The Ed Comm will update the council on negotiations, as discussions become more specific and more nuanced definitions are needed.

    2. Research Committee 

      1. Need for evaluators for our Fall Research grant applications (Eric Donarski [edd6ym]) → need 5 people to grade grant apps

      1. Social Committee 

        1. Halloween Party Report 

        2. Overall Fall Social summary 

        3. December events (if any) 

      2. Finance Committee 

        1. Grants given so far - apps need to be in by Thanksgiving

        2. Getting the word out 

  4. Other old business

    1. Updates from Student Council Representative Representatives

    2. Updates from University Judiciary Committee Representatives 

    3. Updates from Honor Representatives

    4. Honor has been debating sanctions system

    5. Updates on In Honor of Learning Series 

    6. Applying to Page-Barbour series for funding for speakers; application due in early Nov; series probably won’t commence until spring

    7. Updates on P&T and UPD Conversations 

    8. Working on freeing up the hourly parking/increasing access to permits; Aaron is arguing that Grad students should be treated as employees when it comes to transportation - thus opening up different parking lots/spaces to them

  5. For the Good of the Order (5+ minutes) 

    1. Go vote!