Rutgers University Graduate Student Association - New Brunswick
GSA Council Meeting # 3, AY 08-09
November 9, 2008


  1. Approval of agenda and meeting minutes
    1. Last meeting's minutes
      1. Approved
  2. New Business
    1. Recognition of new Graduate Student Organizations (GSOs)
      1. Gradparenting GSO
        1. No representative present
      2. CAST GSO (second call)
        1. No representative present
  3. Issues of the Day
  4. Reports
    1. GSA Officers
      1. President (Ignacia Perugorría - president@gsa.rutgers.edu)
        1. Hiring of new Admin Assistant and Events Coordinator
          1. Nachi: we have finally hired a new AA and a new EC.  Current AA is leaving next semester
          2. Benjie: we had open call for applicants, about a dozen replied.  Applications were closed, and we interviewed the four strongest candidates.  Initial intent was to hire just one candidate, but two applicants were very strong, so we hired two of them - one for AA and one for EC
          3. Nachi: Andrew Spath (PoliSci) as EE, Kaja Stevenson (GSAPP) as AA
        2. VPLC Meetings
          1. Rutgers has lobbyists in DC for us
            1. The lobbyists deal mostly with the NJ Congressional delegation to push for funding for Rutgers, as well as giving Rutgers more visibility in terms of being a research university and the type of support we can give Trenton
            2. Most AAU Universities have lobbyists - only Rutgers and Princeton do in NJ
            3. 4-5 students from Rutgers will be selected to meet with the NJ congressional delegation
          2. President McCormick
            1. Stadium expansion
            2. Nachi: surprised to see that there was no mention of grad students at all at his big speech last month
            3. State budget cut, strategies Rutgers will implement to deal with this, as well as the financial crisis
              1. Raise tuition
              2. Funding campaign for scholarships
              3. Push for further funding from Trenton for Grads
              4. Shift towards programs that will be self-sustainable - investingin business, social work, labor relations - that will bring in revenues and self-supporting in the near future
                1. This is  not good for social sciences, humanities...
            4. RU Against Hunger - food, agriculture, nutrition departments - food drives starting next Spring
          3. Media and public relationships division
            1. Rutgers Day - April 29, 2009
              1. Goal: to unify the AgField day from Cook/Douglas, and folk festival, bring in families from NJ
              2. Events all over College Ave and Busch
              3. How much do grads want to be involved in this?
            2. Lots of ads, posters, etc communicating successful stories of faculty and undergrads, but not grads
              1. Look for some next semester
        3. GSA Lists
          1. Our email lists have gone down - hopefully they'll be up next week
        4. Facebook (Search: Graduate Student Association -- Rutgers University)
          1. Join our Facebook group for updates on events, etc
        5. New officers, committee chairs, volunteers
          1. We're looking for people interested in committees or officer positions
        6. Halloween Party last night - went 'til about 3am!
          1. Join the GSA Facebook group to find other fun events
        7. Tomorrow is the first meeting for the search for a new GSNB dean - Nachi is on this committee
      2. Vice-president (Rebecca Steele - vicepres@gsa.rutgers.edu)
  1. Football tickets...
    1. Congrats everyone - nobody has sent silly emails about football tickets!
    2. The next lottery will start shortly - was delayed due to problems with GSA lists
  2. Karaoke night
    1. This Tuesday night, 8 or 9p, until around 1a
  3. Big Chill
    1. 5k run by Rutgers Recreation
    2. Can sign up as an individual or a group - we're going to have a grad student group this time
      1. Hopefully we can outrun the undergrads
    3. All information will be on the GSA Facebook group
    4. You can also walk it, rather than run
    5. Registration fee: bring an unwrapped toy, that will be donated to children in the New Brunswick area
      1. Treasurer (Sarah Murray - treasurer@gsa.rutgers.edu)
        1. Unsigned Funding Applications
          1. CAST, Oceanography, and French GSOs need to talk to Sarah after the meeting in order to get their funding - it will be rescinded if not signed soon!
        2. Funding changes
          1. If you want to make any changes to what you had in your funding application, talk to the Treasurer - this will help make sure you get reimbursed
      2. Secretary (Aaron Braver - secretary@gsa.rutgers.edu)
    1. Internal Committees
      1. International Students Affairs (Chair: Gayatree Ganu - isac@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      2. Publications (Chair: Luiz Ramos - pubchair@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      3. Social and Cultural (Chair: Carlos Diuk - social@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      4. Student Affairs (Chair: Elric Kline - affairs@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      5. Sustainability (Chair: Carolyn Barber - sustainability@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      6. TA/GA Steering Committee (Chair: Joseph Dwyer - taga@gsa.rutgers.edu)
        1. Looking for candidates to serve on the Union executive council - if you are interested, or know someone who is, contact Joseph before this Thursday
        2. Meeting with President McCormick about statements from Sep 19 about including or not graduate students in the summer/winter session organizing campaign
          1. Union contract doesn't cover us over the summer/winter sessions
          2. Nov 24 will be meeting with McCormick, and VP to make sure that when there's a bargaining unit for summer and winter, it will include grads as well
          3. Contract grievances - contract has not been enforced at Mason Gross - students being asked to work longer than their contract allows
            1. Filed official grievance, and we are working to make sure it gets enforced
            2. If Mason Gross students lose this grievance, it will set a bad precedence
            3. We are handing out time sheets so you can record your time to show that you are being asked to work more than 15 hours/week
              1. Available on rutgersaaup.org
            4. Nachi: meeting to ensure family provisions in the contract are enforced - 6+8 weeks of family leave
    2. Administrative Assistant (Benjie Peters - help@gsa.rutgers.edu)
    3. Events Coordinator (Ben Pauli - events@gsa.rutgers.edu)
    4. Publications Manager (Charlotte Whalen - puboffice@gsa.rutgers.edu)
    5. Webmaster (Audrey Devine-Eller - webmaster@gsa.rutgers.edu)
    6. Ben Hicks (delegate to Univ Senate)
      1. The budget doesn't look great...  Day to day operating expenses are not an issue, but there may be mid-year budget cuts
      2. The next senate session will vote on forming a "research and graduate and professional education committee" - to deal with graduate and professional education at Rutgers (this is something the Senate has never had!)
      3. If you have any issues you'd like brought to the senate or these committees, talk to Ben after the meeting
  1. Questions and Announcements
    1. Get involved!  Officer positions for next year
    2. Free beverages for GSO events
      1. You can get free Pepsi if you go to the RAC (with a form you can get from our website), if you bring the form 3 weeks in advance
    3. Rafael - Rutgers Against the War - Rutgers has several investments with companies that are involved in the Iraq war, including Haliburton.  RAW will be introducing a resolution to the GSA, for the next meeting