Graduate Student Council Minutes

April 16, 1997

6:11pm Call to order.
Publishing Forum: Dean Dietrich from English reported on the Publishing Forum. Attendance was down from last year, but on the whole the event went well. A videotape of the forum will be placed in the Teaching Resource Center for those who missed it. Kathy Nixon from the English department has expressed interest in organizing the forum again for next year.
Treasurer's Report: New treasurer Bill Murad from the Classics department reported that we have at least $6624.00 that will carry over to next year. GSCAS funded a lot of events this year; one reason there's still such a big balance is that we're still trying to spend last year's money.

Funding Requests: The University Student Council informally requested $750.00 to help cover expenses for Spirit Days. The request was discussed at some length. A motion was made and seconded to suspend the bylaws regarding the required procedure for funding requests and the bylaws regarding not funding social events, but the motion was voted down. Therefore the Student Council's request for funds for Spirit Days could not be considered. A motion was made to recommend that Student Council come back in the fall with a proper funding request; we would then consider whether or not to help fund Spirit Days for 1998.

The request for $1700 for the proposed journal Zentropa (on the history of Central European art and architecture) was re-presented, having been tabled since the last meeting. Although the Center for Eastern European Studies has not received funding for next year, the journal project itself should not be affected by this. Two motions were made and seconded; one to fund the project at $700, one to fund the project at $1000. The motion to fund the project at $1000 was carried.

President's Report: New president Julie Theoret from Math reported that at the Student Council budget meeting, the fee increase was passed.

The search committee for the new Dean of Arts and Sciences has narrowed the candidates to five. One was profiled in Wednesday's Cavalier Daily.

We have most of our positions on the Judiciary Committee, the Honor Committee, and the Student Council filled.

The University-wide lecture series fund is going to be created.

The Health Committee is trying to get QualChoice to calculate deductibles based on an academic year rather than on a calendar year.

Report from the Honor Representative: Tom Ambrosio from Foreign Affairs reported that next year the change he will push for is to get a greater required number of graduate student "peers" on the jury of any graduate student brought up on Honor charges.
The meeting adjourned at 7:07.