Graduate Student Council Minutes

Secretary's Report: A motion was made, seconded, and carried to approve the minutes of the November meeting of GSCAS.

Treasurer's Report: Bill Murad (Classics), Treasurer, distributed the following report:
BEGINNING BALANCE: approx. $13,647.67
APPROPRIATIONS:

• $1000--Centropa (carry-over from last year)
• $250--NAGPS membership
• $1225--ASL/Deaf Culture Lecture Series
• $580--Dept. of Classics Colloquium
• $900--History/German Symposium
• $40--Funding Request Form on the Web Page

Funding Request:Representatives from the Art History graduate department presented a budget for their 7th annual symposium, this year titled "Ut Pictura Scientia: Science and Technology in the History of Art," for the amount of $2525. Discussion centered on whether the conference should allot more than $200 for travel costs for out-of-town graduate student participants and on how important it is to have a paid keynote speaker at such events. A motion was made and seconded to fund the symposium at $900; another motion was made and seconded to fund the symposium at $1250. The motion to fund at $1250 was carried by a vote of 5 to 4.

Old Business: Oliver Wilcox (Govt. and Foreign Affairs), head of the Orientation Committee, asked for suggestions to present to Dean Huskey regarding revamping graduate student orientation. Suggestions included having speakers from Parking and Transportation, the Office of Career Planning and Placement, Alderman library, and Grad Council; also, it was suggested that we provide more information about the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students.

The Bar Night held last Wednesday, on the 3rd of December, went well (despite the bomb scare in Cabell Hall). Another Bar Night is scheduled for next Wednesday, on the 17th of December. We discussed whether to spend about $200 for an ad in the Cavalier Daily, but decided against it.

President's Report: Julie Theoret (Math), President, reported that the Funding Request Form is now functional and on the web, and asked members to make sure to look at it.

The next meeting will be Thursday, January 22, at 6pm--room to be announced.

Old Business:

A representative from the Spanish department reported an incident in which a TA was hospitalized in mid-semester for a long time and could not continue teaching classes; the Spanish department asked other TAs to take over the sections but did not (possibly could not?) officially offer to pay them. We asked the representative to find out what the policy for full-time faculty is in situations of this sort, and decided to take the matter up further at the next meeting.