Rutgers University Graduate Student Association - New Brunswick
GSA Council Meeting May 10, 2009

  1. Determination of Quorum and Call to Order
    1. 10 Departmental Representatives
    2. 2 Elected Officers
    3. We have quorum
  2. Approval of Minutes
    1. We're not going to print minutes in the future, in order to save paper
    2. Q: Can we still print them?
      1. Let's print just a few copies, put them online
      2. Agendas: project and put online
      3. Send out via email with meeting announcements
  3. Old Business
    1. Dean search update
      1. Not hiring a dean this year, we'll keep interim dean for now
      2. Q: do we need a GSA resolution sent to the Senate about this?
      3. Q: Does the university have a limit to the number of years we can have interim deans?
        1. A: Good question, we'll try to find out
  4. New Business
    1. Funding for TA Orientation
      1. Graduate school has asked us to continue our tradition of funding part of incoming TA orientation in the fall.
      2. We do give them funds for other things, too
      3. Last year we provided $400 to the TA orientation
      4. They want more this year, if possible.  We promised to bring it to the council, so we can vote on it now
      5. What do we think about giving them more?
        1. Q: can we get advertising in for the GSA?
          1. A: they already give us a speaking slot for the new student orientation, maybe we can get one for this orientation as well
          2. A: we also have a brochure in the new student packet
      6. Vote: do we want to give them more than the 400
        1. Passes
      7. Q: If we give them $1000, we need to make sure there's a bigger GSA presence
        1. A: We need to consider that if we give them the full amount this year, they may expect it again next year
      8. Between $600-750, we'll follow up on their budget and figure it out
    2. Turkish Graduate Student Association
      1. Lots of Turkish grad students, used to have an organization until the previous president gave up.  Students want to revive the group.
      2. Meet ups, meal, cultural events, network, entertainment
      3. Q: is the goal to bring together the Turkish students, or to educate everybody?
        1. A: will invite everybody to show traditions, etc.
      4. Procedural issue: non-department GSOs -- one vote or two?
        1. Used to do two votes because of controversy
        2. Q: if they don't get recognition now, they can still act as a group, right?
          1. Yes
        3. Compromise: we can vote on whether to vote on a group, but default is 2 meetings
        4. Default: 1 meeting, can vote to make it two
      5. Turkish GSA Passes unanimously
    3. New Officers
      1. President: Aaron Braver
      2. Vice President: Chuck O'Brien
      3. Secretary: Bahareh
      4. Treasurer: Joe Conerty
      5. Senators: Andrew Spath, Sarah Murray, Ben Hicks
    4. Printed Agendas
  1. Reports
    1. GSA Executive Officers
      1. President (Ignacia Perugorría - president@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      2. Vice-president (Rebecca Steele - vicepres@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      3. Treasurer (Sarah Murray - treasurer@gsa.rutgers.edu)
        1. Please be sure to fill out a real email address on your Post Event Report forms so we can let you know when your checks are ready
        2. Every group must attend 4 GSA Council meetings a year
          1. If you don't come, the past policy was losing all funding and recognition
          2. This year we are implementing a scaled policy based on the number of meetings attended: 0 meetings = loss of recognition, etc.  If groups come to all Fall meetings, they are fully reinstated in the spring pending recognition
          3. We think this is more fair, because often officers in a given year don't know what happened with officers from the previous year
          4. Q: the threat of eliminating funding is enough to get groups to go to all meetings, won't this reduce incentive?
            1. A: yes, but scaled penalties will encourage at least *some* participation. Also, the reduced penalties are only valid for this year, as determined by this year's EAC. They might be stricter next year.
      4. Secretary (Aaron Braver - secretary@gsa.rutgers.edu)
    2. Internal Committees
      1. We need to replace this years for next year.  Current candidates - Melanie Cristfeld: TA/GA , Sri: publicity committee
      2. Still need chairs for ISAC, social/cultural, and sustainability committees, student affairs -- if you are interested or know someone, please email one of the GSA officers
      3. This year's social/cultural committee was very active, and we have a lot of great parties/karaoke nights/movie nights, etc.  If we can't replace the current chairs, who are leaving, we won't be able to have events like these.
        1. You don't need to be the chair of a committee to work on a given event -- still let us know if you'r einterested in helping out in anyw ay
      4. International Students Affairs (Chair: Gayatree Ganu - isac@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      5. Publications (Chair: Vacant - pubchair@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      6. Social and Cultural (Chair: Naomi Fleming - social@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      7. Student Affairs (Chair: Elric Kline - affairs@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      8. Sustainability (Chair: Carolyn Barber - sustainability@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      9. TA/GA Steering Committee (Chair: Joseph Dwyer - taga@gsa.rutgers.edu)
    3. Other Reports
      1. Senators
        1. Last meeting of this year's University Senate, and the organizational meeting for next year
        2. Hybrid courses (online and in the classroom) - argument: there should be at least one section of entirely traditional teaching for every class.  The whole question was tabled until the Fall.
        3. Preview for next year: academic integrity policy
      2. Administrative Assistant (Ben Pauli - help@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      3. Events Coordinator (Andrew Spath - events@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      4. Publications Manager (Charlotte Whalen - puboffice@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      5. Webmaster (Audrey Devine-Eller - webmaster@gsa.rutgers)
  2. Question Time
      1. What does GSA do for orientation?
        1. Speech, reception
      2. Announcement: Philosophers are doing intramural softball.  If anyone is interested or has a department who might want to play over the summer, talk to Andrew after the meeting
      3. ASHA for Education: Marathon training program - training for 5k, 10k, etc.  Talk to Sri after the meeting
    1. Adjournment