Meeting starts at 7:15pm 10/14/2007


  1. Approval of agenda.

      1. Agenda was approved. No objection. No abstention.

      2. Meeting minutes for 09/16/2007 approved. No objection. No abstention.

  2. New Business:

    1. Recognition of GSOs:

      1. Introduced last month: Taiji Club, Rutgers SPIE Chapter, Black Student GSO

        • Taiji Club: Traditional philosophy and martial art from China. Goals: teach Tiaji as martial arts and hold workshops and weekly meetings to teach Taiji; expect meetings to be held on Sundays. The club is recognized without any objection.

        • Rutgers SPIE Chapter: (International Society for Optical Engineering). The club is recognized without any objection.

        • Black Student GSO: Geared towards black graduate students. Goals – enhance experiences of black graduate students; encourage undergraduates to pursue graduate career; to enhance diversity in academia. The club is recognized without any objection.

        • Endocrinology and Animal Bioscience – A departmental group with the following goals: to unite graduate students and keep in touch with other GSOs. The club is recognized without any objection.

      2. Not yet introduced: Radical Faculty & Grad Student Org

        • No members of Radical showed up.

    2. Proposals from the floor?

      1. Visual arts department representative: propose to organize the Halloween Party this year. Ryan Fowler: the proposal is already on the agenda. We will vote later.

  3. Issues of the day

    1. NJPIRG referendum – resolution

      1. Representative (Sarah): NJPIRG is a state-wise student directed and state funded organization on key issues of public interest, such as global warming and consumer protection. Need 25% of student body vote ‘yes’ to have a chapter on campus.

      2. Question: When and how to vote? Sarah: Vote will start from Wednesday and will take 4-5 weeks. Booths will be set up across various campuses.

      3. Vote for the resolution: no objections. 1 abstention.

    2. Football tickets update

      1. GSA has established a lottery system for football tickets and the system has been working well although some students still complain about not being able to get the tickets. Tickets are for students only. Ticket holders may need to bring their student Ids when using the tickets to enter the game.

      2. UMDNJ students are also eligible for entering the lottery.

      3. For each game, we have 120 tickets. Emails will be sent out to notify students to sign up for the lottery.

    3. Halloween Party?

      1. Visual arts will organize the Halloween party with the Union. Party will involve a dancing party and a costume contest. Party will be held at the Graduate Student Lounge.

      2. Vote (for visual arts to organize the party with more funding): No objections. Visual arts will organize the party.


  1. Reports

    1. GSA Officers

    2. Internal Committees

    3. External Committees

      1. University Senate / BOT: no meeting

      2. EC of the Graduate School (Ryan Fowler)

      3. Carlos: Every Wednesday, the Vice President of Student Affairs invites students for dinner to discuss current issues on campus. If any graduate student has any concerns with the school or his/her department, feel free to talk to or email Carlos so that Carlos can bring up the issues in the dinner.

      4. AAUP (representative: Brian): Unions for TAs/GAs/PTLs. New contract for the next four years is available now. New contract includes salary increase, which will be applied retroactively if applicable. AAUP representatives are more than willing to come into any department, if requested, to talk about the new contract and to educate the students, TAs/GAs/PTLs, their rights induced by the new contract. AAUP is also launching a contest for membership sign-up; Any TA/GA/PTL with a full membership is eligible for signing up. Whoever signs the most members will win an iPod. There will also be three orientations for the rules of the contest. Please RSVP so that the union can get a good estimate for the number of participants.

      5. Taiwanese Study: Will show a very good documentary film. All interested students are encouraged to attend.

    4. Administrative Assistant & Events Coordinator (Benjamin Peters and Ben Arenger)

      1. (Benjie Peters) Sustainability: GSA has plastic cups and utensils. All GSOs holding events are encouraged to use these. Please wash them before return.

      2. (Benjie Peters) Checks should be picked up as soon as possible. We want to avoid having to re-issue expired checks.


  1. Questions and Announcements