MEETING MINUTES- 06 OCTOBER 2014

Welcome

Introduction of Dean Laushway

Will send out information about a program called Green Dot that will be implemented during J-Term

Nomination for Professional Development Committee Co-Chair Position:

  • Evan Wolfe
    • Approved Unanimously
  • Angela Zeigler
    • Approved Unanimously

StudCo Representative Vacancy

  • If interested, contact Ben and recruit people

TBD

  • Event for undergrads about what it is like to go to graduate school
  • Looking for four graduate students from GSAS
  • Contact 

 

Committee Updates:

  • Social Committee (Nick Rich):
    • Wild Wing Cafe Happy Hour with Engineering School Recap
      • Went well, great participation
    • Happy Hour with GBS Recap
      • May put food out later because it went quickly
      • May not be a good venue for an event of that size (only upstairs at Toro's)
    • Halloween Party at Escafe
      • October 31 starting at 9pm
      • Costume contest around 11pm (before DJ starts)
      • No cover
    • Will have committee meetings the Mondays following general body meetings
      • Smaller committee that could use additional help
  • Initiatives Committee (Alec Hickmott):
    • Aetna Health Insurance Gap
      • Sent out a google doc to reps to forward to departments to see who was affected by health care negatively
      • One department had a five day gap between when coverage ended and when students are eligible again
        • Might have been issues with up to 4 departments
      • Have some individuals with unique situations
      • Dean Barnaby, VPR, and other know about the situation
      • Wanting to understand the scope of the problem before having administration involved over all departments and legal issues
      • Also a degree of misunderstanding between retroactive coverage and not being covered
    • External Award Policy Update
      • FAQ for students to understand the external award policy
      • Received draft document back from administration
      • Now is in process of being revised
    • Student Advocates for Graduate Education (SAGE)
      • Spin-off of a previous umbrella program over all universities
      • No fees to be a member
      • Sole responsibility of UVa is to have one graduate student representative for the school
        • 2 annual conference calls
        • Summit in the fall
        • In the spring is in DC and lobbies for graduate student interests
      • Universities have dropped out
        • Haven't found out who they were
      • Topics include immigration and funding problems for research
      • How to communicate about SAGE with other professional schools (besides GSAS)
        • Could use StudCo or leadership listserv for communication
        • Can have more than one representative
      • Going forward as GSAS nominating Paul
        • He will reach out to other professional schools to let them know
    • GSASC exec dinner with Deans
      • Stop introducing new policies and begin evaluating them to make sure they are working
      • Review effects on individual departments & empower representatives to make sure graduate students are giving feedback to program DGS/Chairs
      • For departments that don't have reps or smaller departments, GSASC will combine groups to have more interaction and feedback
  • Research Committee (Diana Dinescu):
    • Upcoming Meeting
      • Wednesday, October 8 at 6:30pm in Gilmore 166
  • Finance Committee (Danielle Racke):
    • GSASC Halloween Party- $1300
      • ctober 31
      • Approved Unanimously
    • Environmental Sciences- $700
      • Annual research exhibition in January
      • Approved unanimously
    • Black Graduate and Professional Organization- $150
      • Halloween party on October 31
      • Approved unanimously
    • Science and Technology Policy Career Panel- $400
      • Interdisciplinary function
      • Approved unanimously

 

Meeting Adjourned, next meeting is 11/3 in Newcomb Hall Gallery Room