Call to order: 6:09 pm
Introductions:
* John convened the meeting at 6:09 and all present introduced themselves and identified their departments.
New Business:
* Budget Allocations:
* Andrew Brown Talk: We voted unanimously to fund this talk in full ($125) as recommended by the budget committee.
* Happy Hour on October 24th, 7-10 pm. We voted unanimously to fund in full ($500) as recommended by the budget committee.
* UVA-Duke Colloquium on Interpretation and Ethics: We voted not to fund at this time as recommended by the budget committee, because the event does not occur until February and we do not have enough information from the organizers. Matt has asked for more information, so that we can make a decision at a later date.
* We voted to approve the minutes from Sept meeting.
Reports:
Pres. (John Burke)
* Athletic fee situation: Student Council passed a motion (unanimously) to support our effort to get access to sporting events for Research Fee paying Graduate Students. There have also been several articles published in the Cavalier Daily (mostly in support of us, one negative editorial that John and Dave wrote in response to). Jonh was able to talk to Pres. Casteen at a meeting of student leaders about this issue. Pres. Casteen asked for John to write a letter, which he did. John also sent the letter to the Board of Visitors, Matt Schrimper (StudCo President), Craig Littlepage (Athletics Director) and Pat Lampkin (VP for student affairs). John had not heard back from Casteen, but Littlepaige requested a meeting to talk things over on Oct. 9.
* Meeting space: we are still looking for space on Central Grounds for a permanent meeting space.
* Dean Woo will speak at our December Meeting.
1st VP (Isaah Vincent)
* Nothing new as 1st VP, Life Committee plans to meet with the Research and Teaching Committee in order to clarify the domain of each group.
2nd VP (Elizabeth Head)
* I had been having problems with the website because of the server change over the summer. I got access by the time of the meeting and requested any information needing updating to be sent to me.
* For SHIC (Student Health Insurance Committee): Aetna planned a preliminary meeting to talk about 2009-10 premiums and plan on October 15. There was a 7% decrease in premium with no reduction of benefits for the 2008-9 school year. The meeting will be the jumping off point for negotiations for next year's plan.
Treasurer (Matt Rannals)
* Matt announced that the new person in the university budget office is stricter with documentation of expenses, so for this year it is important to have as much documentation as possible to facilitate being reimbursed for council expenses.
Stud-Co (David Hondula)
* Dave was not able to attend, but John reported for him. StudCo is working on a "Don't sign it" plan because management companies pressure students to sign leases so early for the next school year. Nothing has really happened with the plan yet. Until the election, there will be copies of USA Today and the NY Times on campus available to students for free. Dean Woo came to talk to StudCo about the importance of Graduate Students and International Initiative.
Judiciary and Social Committee (Alex Garcia)
* For social committee, Alex announced the dates and times for the next Happy Happy Hour (Oct. 24, 7-10 pm at Baja Bean Co.) and Halloween Party (Oct. 31, 9pm-2am at West Main Restaurant)
* Alex told us that IJC is trying to change their bylaws to have expulsion notes on transcripts for Judiciary offenses be different from those for Honor offenses.
Honor (Heather Mastapeter)
Research Committee (Ken Price)
* A joint meeting with the Life committee will help them to determine where they stand and what to tackle this year.
Department Concerns:
* Someone brought up the concern that Council spends a lot of money of alcohol by having Happy Hours, but this false information was corrected because alcohol can not be purchased with State money (which is where our funds come from). The money we spend on Happy Hours goes to rent the space and pay for food.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:36.
