November 2023 General Body Meeting
November 6th, 2023, 6:00-7:30 PM
Newcomb South Meeting Room
1. Call to Order and Remarks (Max Schnidman, 1 minutes)
2. Old Business (4 minutes)
a. 7th Year Funding Update (Max Schnidman, 4 minutes): recall Uni. Working to discourage 7th year funding assistantships, working with most depts (not all) to ensure contracts have 6th year funding. Summary of China’s replies: shift is being communicated to DGS’s as relevant, exceptionsf or students who have been delayed by covid and other circumstnaces. 7th year assistantships no longer more or less expected, but exceptional.
3. Council Business (40 minutes)
a. Update from College Foundation (Kylor Kerns, 10 minutes, communicated by Max as Kylor was not present):
i. College Foundation= boosters for A&S, focus has been on raising stipends for graduates and trying to get us more money; involved quite a bit in our increase to $30k. College foundation has been successful in raising funds, match-incentives from UVA. Collecting data on win-loss rates with recruitment/stipend competetiveness; tracking yield rates, compared to rival schools, and to what extent are we losing to certain rivals. We still ranked relatively low but are improving. Tunnel-vision on raising stipends; Max comments that this has also been the focus of Deans.
ii. Donors emphasize that their desire is for UVA to be the number one public school in the nation. They recognize that by helping us, they raise our rank as a University. 14 fully-endowed fellowships for grads spread across the depts, goal is to reach 20.
iii. $7000 deficit in minimum stipend compared to the competition. (wow!)
iv. Context from Jemima, former rep on College Foundation: once they have reached a competitive level they will completely forget about us. To echo what Kylor said; not adding new programs, no additional support until they have reached their overall graduate goal. College foundation largely sees us as a means to an end. Good news: they did reach their first funding goal this last semester, going to be making another one for the winter/early spring. We could potentially be getting another raise within a year and a half. Maybe not competitive stipend that was mentioned previously, but an improvement.
v. Some interest in baking in a COLA as well; not mentioned in previous College Foundation meeting.
vi. Next meeting in the Spring.
vii. Related note: working on visit from Christa Acampora sometime in the Spring semester.
viii. Floor opened for discussion. Q: any suggestions as to how, as a graduate body, we can be useful in this process? How we can help people like Kylor?
Action item: we can provide additional data. Ex. Chem department did a lot of good work putting together comparisons of our stipends to rival schools, became very useful for China. Metric of choice for college foundation appears to be win/loss rate; not sure if we can do something in this respect. We will ask Kylor
x. Additional perspective from Jemima: college foundation is the most high-profile donors, millions of $ per year. E.g. CFO of Roblox.
b. Discussion on University Safety Policies from GPC (Kylor Kerns and Max Schnidman, 5 minutes): safety measures and safety training measures at different universities. Seeking feedback on action items:
i. Requiring swipe access for schools
ii. People testing locks
iii. Arch has been developings shelter in place boxes, going through final approval
iv. Having more uniformed folks around, more ambassadors, they don’t really have any at business or law school.
v. Question: who is leading this push? A: grad students
vi. Question: do any buildings have swipe access required during the day?
vii. Suggestion: make clear who to talk to about getting access to a building?
viii. Question: as a public university are we obligated to a certain extent to keep our spaces public?
ix. Suggestion: want to make sure what is done is based on data, not fear/vibes. Some things make some people feel safer, but not others. Some not interested in security theatre.
x. Suggestion: swipe access for night classes is a logistical nightmare
c. Discussion on Reductions in Graduate Housing (TCA Achintya and Max Schnidman, 20 minutes)
i. 8 units in copely being demolisehd for a parking garage (wow <3) for ref., about a fourth of units being demolished. Only concern university showed is to hold an off-grounds housing fair (Achintya will share more abt this momentarily)
ii. Studnets who live there losing their housing; ResLife has accellerated renewal process. Those who are in housing that is being eliminated are being given some preference but there is no guarantee.
iii. We are losing graduate housing; ResLife gave pretty much no notice (6 months is not a lot in this town) but garage has been planned for longer than that.
iv. Seeking feedback: Max is meeting China next Tuesday to discuss a variety of issues, this foremost among them. Trying to understand what we can ask for to make this process easier for people. What other things would be useful? Opened up for discussion.
v. Question: concerned that a huge proportion of grads living in Copeley are international students, particularly vulnerable population losing their housing. Great to get a sense what the top challenges are; is it month to month, is it the challenge of finding a place?
1. Copeley resident, building will be closing next year, int’l student. Really hard to find housing; our visa status requires us to have a guarantor to demonstrate that they can pay rent; however if we don’t have a guarantor (i.e. if you don’t have any family in the united states), ask you to give the full pay up front, which basically no grad student has on them, stipend does not allow savings. Wondering: how many students can be accommodated to other housing? Answer from Max: only grad housing that currently exists is Copeley and Faulkner. Universtiy Gardens was also closed in 2020, (also turned into a parking garage). Timeline was roughly similar; notified really late (basically Thanksgiving). University is trying to build a lot of housing for the undergrads. Current 2030 plan is to require that all first and second-years live on grounds. They might say that, by 2030 we will have a lot more space, undergrads off the cville housing market. In the process of trying to buy out Ivy Garden (waiting for capital $$$, probably in the form of donations).
2. Q: Is there any way the university could be the guarantor to students that ask for off-grounds housing? Perhaps legal issues, we don’t know
3. MSC: has a special relationship with uni., grad student status is enough to get you housing (no guarantor necessary) because they know we will get stipends
vi. Max’s proposals to ask China:
1. Can Uni be a guarantor?
2. Additional notice of housing going offline? Ideally 12 months notice (perspective from former undergrad: most undergrads sign lease for following AY by sept, oct at the latest)
3. Wants to know long-term plans for grad student housing changes.
4. In a perfect world, we could have this delayed...
vii. Additional perspectives from international students: when looking or housing, don’t know what to look for in terms of geography, don’t have cars, some private landlords have extra provisions/requirements of international students. University could at least improve the off-grounds hosuing website, search engine is currently useless. Also, can only live in uni. Housing for four years, even though programs are 5-6 years. Harder and harder to get extensions. University essentially takes no responsibility, even in terms of getting you in touch with potential roommates. System is becoming increasingly hostile. Particularly problematic for new students, who are getting offers at a time when no housing is available. Concerned about our ranking? If new people can’t find housing, they can’t come.
viii. Question: Do you know why that site was chosen in particular for the parking garage? Max: P&T likely close to JPJ and commuter bus routes.
ix. Potential question for China: University has agreement with MSC about grad students; are there any other corporations that have that agreement? Can University work to establish that agreement with other companies/complexes? Potentially, would need to check: Ivy Garden, Jefferson Ridge, Shamrock, MSC will let you be your own guarantor with 2 months of rent, rather than the whol eyear. Graduate Center rents by the room.
x. Housing spreadsheet gets circulated but doesn’t reach a wide enough audience. Started by EnviSci grads, maybe not affiliated with GSAS but should be circulated to new students.
xi. International students have anecdotally had good experiences with local landlords,
xii. Student living in Copeley: apparently housing found out about the apartments being demolished around the same time students did. Concerning that there is no conversation between departmetns (housing and P&T for example), concerning that they haven’t gotten any student opinions. Even if priority is given to those who are moving out, first-years have no chance of getting into Copeley. Nearly impossible for int’l students admitted around April to have any concerete idea about what this vicinity is like; no neighbors, no family members. Seems absurd that they have no communication between departments at the Uni. Max: will ask whether students even had any input when the master plan was conceinved.
xiii. Can university share which apartments take acceptance letter as guarantee (no guarantor needed). Can we get enough apartemnts to acknowledge that the letter is enough? Esp. Given untimely nature of admissions relative to housing cycle.
xiv. Question: what is GPC doing? General consenseus: it’s an issue. We will bring it to Dean China, as opposed to other deans, GSAS also seems to be the most affected by this.
xv. We need a plan for incoming students, who can’t even react to this! Help them understand they need to move quickly
xvi. Is this something we should talk to our DGS’s about? Maybe if the pressure is coming from all possible angles, maybe they will take it more seriously? Might impact admissions/yield.
d. Dismissal Policies (Louisa Liles, 5 minutes)
i. Lack of clear policies on how dismissals occur; two students dismissed and only found out when locked out of SIS; no notification of dismissal
ii. Depts. With policies in terms of probations/warnings: Econ, French, history, poli sci. , however, none of these have requirements for HOW studnets are notified of their dismissal.
iii. ISO will be in touch if your i20 is at risk of being suspended, there are some safeguards in place there.
1. BUT: school would have to notify ISO, maybe?
iv. Perspective: some departments have rules, but that doesn’t mean they will be followed.
v. Econ: five students kicked out for failing quals, enrollment ends over the summer, (so, just a few months), relies on DGS to reply in timely and appropriate fashion.
vi. These accountability measures need to have fangs.
vii. Having a clarified timeline would be helpful, even if it’s not specific rules.
e. GrubHub requirement on Food Trucks (Jemima Elsherbini, 5 minutes)
i. Who else is annoyed?! (fair number of people admitted being annoyed by this requirement)
ii. Weird check-in feature annoying
iii. We don’t want grubhub taking a cut out of a local business’s share!
iv. Professors/staff annoyed that they can’t pay with cash anymore
v. Max can ask UVA dine.
vi. Undergrads also seem to find it annoying, according to a rep’s class.
vii. Sometiems app is buggy, go all the way there and they figure out their order didn’t go through
viii. A lot of UVA dine is linked to it, too, dependent on internet working,
ix. Also a privacy concern: people don’t necessarily want to give their credit card information to a third party app; have to have a credit card before you can even order food!
x. They also don’t update the location of the food truck as quickly as possible; ordered something, food track was at amphitheatre but was actually downtown 🙁 that’s actually so sad. Positive thing is that you can get a refund in that situation. (but ur still hungry)
4. Committee Business (26 minutes)
a. Finance Committee (Tyler Barnes, 20 minutes)
i. Funding requests and budget update (5 minutes):
1. Budget: doing really well, but wants us to spend more money! If you have events in mind, talk to Tyler! $800 allocated out of $4000. Also have $1000 for shut up and write events.
2. Reqeust from research committee: $4500 for research grants, 11 grants, 6 x $500, 5 x $300, money is already allocated. Passed.
3. Request from multidepartmental ancient studies event. Finance committee has recommended. Passes.
ii. Intramural funding language update (5 minutes): UVA Rec changed its payment policy for intramurals; paying as individuals rather than as teams. We want to update our funding language to reflect this policy. Trying to (1) make it so that you can ask for a bit more money, city leagues are getting more expensive and UVA has changed the payment policy. Also making it possible for individuals to ask for refunds from UVA Rec. Related update from Max: Haley has been doing a lot of work to get grad intramural leageus for the spring. 70+ responses. ImRec will be having some grad leagues, soccer, indoor volleyball, maybe outdoor volleyball, likely with existing payment structure.
iii. Vote on updating language: passes.
iv. Discussion on simplifying funding process (10 minutes)
1. Funding reqeusts come in late, disjointed emails about reviewing requests. Feels a bit clunky and bureuacratic. Pretty much all requests recommended by the finance committee get approved. Potentially drafting new language: request would only come to general body if finance committee disagreed on the initial decision; otherwise finance committee would just decide for us. Any concerns or questions?
2. Counterrecommendation: everybody votes, but it’s asynchronous
3. This came up during constitution and bylaws reform: idea was doing votes like this, even if they are sort of repetitive, for a sense of transparency.
4. Tyler’s suggestion: under this new system, VP Finance would still give an update on everything we are funding
5. In terms of precedent, undergrad student council also does it this way. Allocates its budget line items at the start of the academic year, done by vote, and then everything is handed off to appropriations committee.
6. Clarification: if there was a dissent among the finance committee, applicant can also appear to the general body
7. Lots of people supported this language being drafted, 3 opposed
b. Social Committee (Anderson Frailey, 2 minutes): halloween event was successful, many pumpkins went home, under budget. Next event: Prom sometime in April, looking into venues
c. Research Committee (Zoe Robertson, 2 minutes): fall research grants close soon. Next step: reviewing applications, hoping to notify people early December. Planning for Huskey has begun, tentatively scheduled for mid-March, location pending. First joint research workshop planned for Nov. 30th in collaboration with other research-oriented orgs and PhD plus. Stay tuned for an announcement to forward to your departments! This will be focused on putting together an abstract. Will go in the newsletter!
d. Graduate Education Committee (Aaron Thompson and Ian Winchester, 2 minutes):
i. Working to find permanent funding for bridge program and get deliverables to demonstrate the value of the bridge program. Want to help equip Dean China with evidence tha tthe program is worth continuning.
ii. Ian will be meeting with the diversity retreat keynote speaker about hwo to properly initiative a diversity in research conference. She has expeirence with doing this at Michigan.
iii. Whole committee to GPV diversity retreat a while back, made some good connections.
iv. Aaron is meeting with China and Tyisha Hawthorn. Will discuss how to support smaller programs and keep them afloat. They have stated a commitment to this, committee is trying to keep them accountable
v. Addressing pay schedule issue.
vi. Context: bridge program has not been ended, just paused as they search for a more sustainable source of funding.
vii. As it relates to the stipend issues. Many physics grads also had FICA withholding issues over the summer.
e. Committees: make sure you are using the correct logos. Contact Jemima if you need updated logos. Our own website was out of date; is now updated. Jemima will drop the logos in teams. Also, committee chairs please send headshots to Jemima ASAP.
5. For the Good of the Order
a. Intramurals
b. Elections: please vote if you are eligible. We have same-day registration. Election will decide control of legislature. Your vote is probably more pivotal than you try.
c. Newsletter
6. Time for Committees to Meet (As needed)