Rutgers University Graduate Student Association - New Brunswick
GSA Council Meeting # 1, AY 08-09 - Minutes
September 21, 2008

I. Approval of agenda and meeting minutes
    Motions passed (voice vote)

II. New Business
    1. Introduction of new GSA officers and internal committee chairs
      1. Nachi, Becki, Sarah, Aaron, Elric, Joseph, Ben Hicks, Benjie
    2. Recognition of new GSOs
      1. Asha for Education
        1. Nachi: Non-departmental GSO, therefore will be recognized at next council meeting
        2. Sri (Treasurer of Asha): Asha was previously recognized, up for re-recognition.  Already have an informal group, but are seeking formal recognition.  Works towards education for children in India.  Asha doesn't get the kind of exposure that it deserves, since it is not currently recognized.  Graduate students in the community have been active with the group.
        3. Q - Nachi: How many members?  A: 10 grad student active members
        4. Tabled until next council meeting (by Nachi)
      2. RUassis&t (American Society for Information Science & Technology)
        1. Ally Graham: Group started in SCILS doing tech workshops, and then were approached by individuals wanting similar services.  Followed by other groups nad faculty requesting their services.  Seeking to become an official GSO.  Not requesting funding at this point.
        2. Q: Only for Americans?  A: No: they are affiliated with a national organization whose name contains "American"
        3. Tabled until next council meeting
      3. Cognitive Area Student Tea
        1. Melissa: Group started last year as a way for grads in Cognitive area to talk about research ideas.  Now incorporates other areas of psychology and departments affiliated with RUCCS.  Monthly meetings, with one grad student talking about current research, ideas, or some academic topic.  Purpose: give students practice in talking about research in an informal setting.  Additional goal: facilitate projects across research groups.  Seeking recognition in order to have a formal existence.
        2. Q: How will publicity be dealt with?  A: psych and perceptual science grad students mailing list.
          1. Suggestion: post on GSA events listserv
        3. Tabled until next council meeting
      4. Theobald Smith Society Branch of the American Society for Microbiology
        1. Annette - ASM is a national group for microbioligists.  Theobald Smith branch is the New Jersey chapter.  Seek to create a group that represents Rutgers within NJ branch of ASM.  Goals: bring departments under microbiology together and organize speakers.  Draw in people not normally interested.  Currently 20+ members.
        2. Tabled until next council meeting
      5. CLISMS-DSA (Communication, Library and Information Science, and Media Studies Doctoral Students Association)
        1. Emily (treasurer): Mission - aims to serve as a platform for doctoral students in the SCILS program to engage in academic discussion and social life.  Mix among various departments in the program.  Rerecognition of a lapsed group.
        2. Q: Masters students?  A: SCILS has many groups within it to represent the various students.  The PhD students all get their degree in one area, and should therefore be recognized under a single group.
        3. Motion to recognize
          1. Passed unanimously by hand vote
      6. Pansexualia
        1. Audrey: Rerecognition of lapsed group.  Queer grad student organization.  Goal is to get queer students to talk to each other across disciplines and foster community.  Organizing panel discussions.
        2. Tabled until next council meeting

III. Issues of the Day
    1. GSNB Senators
      1. Third senator candidate: Miriam Benovitz
        1. Nachi: Miriam not present.  Approved at May council meeting to be senator
    2. Printing Policy
      1. Nachi: By now you have recieved email detailing new printing policy.  Dissertating students will get extra quota.  Visual Arts students also would like extra. If you have suggestions to the policy, please email a member of the Executive Council
      2. Q: Visual Arts student: Problem is that almost all of Visual Arts students already out of quota.  Do other programs have this problem?
        1. Nachi: Most departments have their own printing facilities.
          1. Student: no printing facilities for those doing coursework in the department
        2. Nachi: it would be helpful to have a list of departments that do not have printing facilities.  If your department is in that situation, email Nachi
      3. Q: Social Work school does not have computer lab.  They are already almost out of quota.  Most professors post readings online
      4. Q: Theater students also have this problem, especially playwriting students.
      5. Q: How do you prove that you are writing a thesis?
        1. Becki: once you are ABD
        2. Nachi: present a letter from your advisor.  Will investigate more fully.
        3. Becki: I'm ABD, and I automatically got the increase
          1. Even for people writing dissertations, if their grad director sends a letter, their quota will be extended.
      6. Q: students in some departments have quotas for their departmental labs

IV. Reports
    1. GSA Officers
      1. President (Ignacia Perugorría)
        1. EAC meetings - Lottery for future EAC meetings, officer/committee 
          1. Nachi: EAC meets 2x/year, to decide funding allocations for each GSO.  Yesterday we reviewed 65 funding applications.  The processes: first round,  treasurer checks for completion of application.  Next, 3 reviewers look at each application, checking whether what you are asking for is fundable and reasonable.  Finally, the treasurer reviews these comments and suggestions, and decides on the final allocation (overall and to each category on your application). We also look over every single events' description (4 times).  This process takes quite a while with only 7 people (there were only 2 external volunteers).  So: we are going to have to make participation in the EAC compulsory
          2. Sarah: if there were 14 people, it would have taken 3-4 hours.  This way it took 10 hours.
          3. Nachi: There are only 2 things GSA asks GSO's for help for -- these two EAC meetings.  If we don't get volunteers next time, we may have to make this compulsory.  Participation in EAC helps your GSO to understand how to come up with better applications.
          4. Q: Ben A - perhaps rotating compulsion for GSO's.
            1. Nachi: Yes, perhaps 10 GSO's per semester.  If you have suggestions, write to Nachi or Sarah.
          5. Q: Would it be a conflict of interest to have GSO's working on the EAC?
            1. Becki: Each GSO's members may not touch their own application
          6. Q - Jimmy Bruno: impression is "oh, we can't be involved in that".  People don't know that anyone can participate
            1. Nachi: You can!
            2. Becki: Free pizza!
          7. Q: Same impression from the email as Jimmy
            1. Sarah: notice was included in many emails, but perhaps many new officers are not members of the GSA events listserv
              1. Sign up for this list on GSA website.  Tell the officers of your GSO, and the officers who take over for you in the future
          8. Q - Sri: impression was that it was something your GSO would benefit from, but not that help was desperately needed
          9. Q: When is next meeting?
            1. Spring
          10. Q: An individual email would be helpful (people don't read to the bottom)
        2. Attendance to GSA EC meetings
          1. Each GSO must attend 4 meetings during the academic year
          2. This is the largest and longest meeting - usually they're sorter than this
          3. Always pizza and drinks
        3. GSL - encourage GSOs to hold their events here! (we have a lot of equipment, as well as dishes, kitchen, etc)
          1. Have your events in the GSO.  Why?  This space used to belong to the GSA until recently, but has been taken away from us.  So, we don't own this space - the University can make money off of this space, more than we generate.  This space is available to us Mon, Tues, Thurs, but in order to get back to the point to where we own this space, we need to build the case that we need it.  So: GSO's should use the GSL for their activities (if it's big enough for your group).  This space is FREE to GSO's.  Talk to Ben Pauli (events@gsa.rutgers.edu) to reserve the space.  Help us get the GSL back!
          2. Q: Student Center tells us we can't use this space for meetings
            1. Nachi: tell us ASAP if this happens
            2. Benjie: if anyone wants to start a petition through the GSA, we could take that to the VP
            3. Becki: we can't be more aggressive because nobody comes right now, and they never see grad students in here.  We need grad students to come in and hang out Tues and Thurs to hang out and get free coffee (and we'll kick out undergrads!)
          3. Q: Social Work school has had similar problems reserving the space - but with a little pushing they were able to get it.  SSW wants to have a Monday event - how should we do that?
            1. Nachi: talk to Ben about Monday/Tues/Thurs events, but we want to encourage use on other weekdays
          4. Q - Sri: Do we have anyone from marketing and publicity?  I would help get the word out among grad students.  You should put together a marketing group
            1. Website: Audrey is revamping the site
          5. Q: members of our GSO get together at Starbucks.  Could we meet here?  Is it quiet?
            1. Becki: Yes
          6. Q: on days other than M/T/R, is there a fee to book the room?
            1. Nachi: No
            2. Becki: talk to Operations in the GSL
            3. Nachi: don't let them charge you for setup fees, rental of equipment (which the GSA has)
            4. Becki: if you don't know, we have a kitchen which you can use for your event.  We also have catering kits that you can use for your events here or elsewhere (since we won't fund paper products)
          7. Q: Can we use non-University approved caterers?
            1. Nachi: It's a liability issue, but ths can be sorted by using vendors from the Student Center, or any of the vendors from the expanded list.  We use Gerlanda's often, and have not had problems. Also King Pita.
          8. Q: what about fruit/sweets, etc?  Do they have to come from a certified vendor?
            1. Nachi: unclear
            2. It's got a lot to do with insurance issues
            3. Sarah: if you're having issues or questions, email us and we can try to figure it out for you
        4. VPLC Meetings
          1. "Vice President's Leadership Council" - a weekly meeting with the VP at the Rutgers club where Nachi gets to eat good food with undergrad representatives.  This is a good way to get to know the admin's perspective
          2. Last week, talked about transformation of undergraduate education
          3. The voice of the graduate students is largely unrepresented -- it's just Nachi
          4. Issue: housing.  Rutgers is tearing Livingston apart and building "luxury/suite apartments" for undergrads, which will house 2 undergrads per apt.  These resemble the Rockhoff building.  There is not enough housing for undergrads (they're in hotels now).  Graduate housing has not been taken up by the University, especially family graduate housing.  VP says that there are not currently any plans to expand for grad students, nor are there plans to cut down on that housing (contrary to rumors circulated last year).  If you are interested in housing issues, which is a huge issue at the moment, contact Carlos Diuk (former GSA president), and Elric Kline (affairs@gsa.rutgers.edu)
        5. McCormick's Address to RU
          1. Stadium was a huge issue in the address, coach's salary and "perks" were maybe 20% of the speech
          2. Not one word was said about graduate students
          3. After the speech, at the Q&A session, several grad students posed questions to President McCormick
        6. University-wide Committee on Work and Family Issues focus group
          1. If you have issues related to Work and Family, contact Nachi
        7. Voter registration
          1. GSA will be airing the presidential and VP debates, with lots of food and drinks - please come and participate
          2. If you want to make some extra cash, talk to Nachi, who can refer you to a group who will pay for help registering voters
          3. Q: Where will the debates be publicized?
            1. Nachi: via the events list, and on the GSA calendar
      2. Vice-president (Rebecca Steele)
        1. football tickets
          1. Please explain the following to your GSO
          2. GSA doesn't want to sell the tickets, but if we don't, then athletics won't give any tickets to grad students
          3. People sign up for the lottery, and then don't pick up their tickets - we have tickets left over, and then people call day and night complaining why didn't they get a ticket
          4. If you sign up for the lottery, win, and don't pick up your ticket, you will not be able to participate in the lottery the rest of the year
          5. Signing up for the lottery: you can sign up with your friends - if you sign up with your friends, none of your friends sign up.  If three of you want to sign up, just *one* of you sign up for all of you.
          6. If you win the lottery and you can't make it to pick up your ticket, please contact one of the GSA officers, ASAP
          7. Q: can we get someone who's interested in football to do this?
            1. Nobody is willing
          8. Q: How many tickets do we get?
            1. Becki: 100
          9. Q: Can you buy a single ticket from athletics
            1. Yes, right before the game
          10. Q: I don't know if i want to go until the day of the game
            1. You can go to athletics on the day of the game
            2. Q: so why do we do the lottery?
              1. Because the tickets sell out way too fast, often before the day of the game, so grad students can't get any
          11. Q: say I win the lottery?  Can I have a friend  pick up my tickets?
            1. Becki: yes, but email us first so we know who will be coming in your place
        2. Summer activities
          1. Becki and Naomi organized several events over the summer (NY, Delaware Water Gap, Island Beach State Park)
          2. We will have one more trip (even though it's not summer anymore) - a hike, probably next weekend or the one after
          3. All these events are limited because we need drivers who have taken a defensive driving course.  If you've taken such a class, talk to us
      3. Treasurer (Sarah Murray)
        1. Budget AY 08-09
          1. See spreadsheet
          2. Everyone needs to stay after the meeting to sign their allocation
          3. Currently available funds: we haven't received our check from the student fees yet, so we don't know how much we're gonna get officially
            1. We have $110k from savings
            2. Projection: $240k
              1. Set aside $50k in savings in case something happens
            3. We will distribute ~$188k for internal committees and GSOs
          4. Legal council: you can see our lawyer on our dime - email help@gsa.rutgers.edu to set up an appointment
          5. $125k for external allocations
            1. We've set aside 20% to be allocated in the Spring
        2. External Allocations
          1. Allocated for Fall: $100k
          2. Requested: $170k
            1. Cuts based first on what we're allowed to fund
            2. We were still over by $25k, so we take a percentage out from each group
            3. Other things taken into consideration: how many participants, how active your group is, how much you asked for and used last year.  Please be realistic about your allocations.  You can request more money in the Spring
          3. Groups with exclamation marks have not yet been recognized, so their allocations are provisional
          4. If you have a committee chair or an officer in the GSA, you can get more money
          5. Everybody got cuts, nobody got exactly what they asked for.
          6. If you have specific questions about why you got a cut, see Sarah
            1. This is important, because we can't reimburse you for things we didn't approve you for
        3. Problems w/ funding applications
          1. Many applications were incomplete
          2. Many things are not allowed to be funded: paper/plastic plates (due to sustainability issues), off campus events (exception:bbqs in the local parks, eating at a restaurant *only* after visiting speakers' address up to $100), DVD rentals, fundraisers, speaker expenses for Rutgers affiliates, speaker expenses for graduate students, bottled water, no more than 8 operations meetings per year
          3. We can't fund so much money per person - $3/person for breakfast, $5/lunch
        4. Q: If you lost funds on e.g. L&P, can you apply for more in the Spring for that same stuff?
          1. Sarah: Yes, if it's fundable
        5. Q: Does GSA fund alcohol?
          1. Sarah: No
        6. Q: Per person limits - is there a general limit, or does that vary?
          1. Sarah: breakfast/snacks $3/person, lunch $5/person, dinner depends
          2. Nachi: this is why estimated number of attendees is so important.  We will estimate if you don't...
        7. Q: Will there be another funding workshop?
          1. Sarah: Next fall
        8. Q: if you didn't get money this time, when can we get money?
          1. Sarah: you'll have to wait until Spring.  Come talk to Sarah.
      4. Secretary (Aaron Braver)
    2. Internal Committees
      1. International Students Affairs Committee - ISAC (Chair: Gayatree Ganu)
        1. Not present
      2. Publications Committee (Chair: Luiz Ramos)
        1. Not present
      3. Social and Cultural Committee (Chair: Carlos Diuk)
        1. Not present, Becki will speak as proxy
        2. Mark your calendars
          1. Oct 14, Tues, 7pm - Karaoke night
          2. Oct 31 - Halloween Party (costumes!)
          3. Film nights - Thursdays at 8pm
          4. Reel movie - alternating Tuesdays, movies made on and about Africa
      4. Student Affairs Committee (Chair: Elric Kline)
        1. Goal: determine concerns to grad students, and funnel them to the appropriate people to deal with them
        2. Update: grad student was told he couldn't have family housing because he has joint custody of children with his ex wife.  What are housing's policies on this and other types of families represented among grad students?
        3. Update: how can we get fellows' fees covered under tuition remission
          1. Q: I'm a fellow, and I have to pay for a parking permit
            1. Your GPD needs to write a letter that you can bring with you when you purchase your permit
            2. Elric: we will look into this and get back to you
        4. If you have any issues, please contact Elric (affairs@gsa.rutgers.edu)
      5. Sustainability Committee (Chair: Carolyn Barber)
        1. Not present
      6. TA/GA Steering Committee (Chair: Joseph Dwyer)
        1. All TA's/GA's are represented by the Union, you're under a Union contract
        2. To help out, or get help, email taga@gsa.rutgers.edu
        3. Membership: all TAs and GAs are represented, but not everyone is a member
          1. Members pay ~$20/year, and the more members we have, the better bargaining power we have
            1. Nachi: the more members we have, the more power we have within the Union as well
            2. To help increase membership, we are looking to have departmental point persons
              1. Elric: there will be trainings for this shortly.  get in touch with Joseph (taga@gsa.rutgers.edu)
          2. Q:If i'm getting money taken out, am I a member?
            1. No: this is for the representation fee.  You didn't get that taken out as a fellow because fellows are not represented by the Union
        4. Contract enforcement issues
          1. Our TA/GA contract is one of the best in the country, but getting this contract enforced is still a struggle
          2. In October there will be a know your contract workshop, with details on some highlights of benefits of your contract
        5. Negotiations
          1. Summer and Winter sessions are not under contract
          2. They will shortly be made into a bargaining unit, and negotions will happen soon
        6. Q -Sri: How many students are aware of this committee?
          1. Unknown.
        7. Q: How can I get members to sign up?
          1. Speak with Joseph after the meeting
        8. Q: Health insurance for TA/GA - who do we talk to about how to get it?
          1. Start with Joseph (taga@gsa.rutgers.edu)
    3. Administrative Assistant (Benjie Peters)
      1. Turn in PERs within 90 days
      2. Make sure you don't ask for more money than you were allocated
      3. Make sure that if you get an invoice, it goes to you, not to us
    4. Events Coordinator (Ben Pauli)
      1. M/T/R we have the GSL - talk to Ben Pauli.  Other days, talk to Operations in the campus center (at least 3 weeks in advance)
      2. To get announcements in the emails, email Ben Pauli at least a week in advance
      3. Office hours 9-1 Tues, Thurs
    5. Publications manager (Charlotte Whalen)
      1. Not present
    6. Webmaster (Audrey Devine-Eller)
      1. Contact Audrey with suggestions

V. Questions and Announcements
  1. October is domestic violence awareness month - we will be collecting old cell phones
    1. Boxes in student centers and most administrative buildings
    2. Please publicize via your GSO, email audreya@ for information
  2. October 6th - Chilis at Route 1 with a flyer - 10% to Endocrinology GSO