February 7, 2000
Call to order: ~ 6:35 p.m.
Agenda:
I. Secretary's report
II. Treasurer's Report
III. President's Report
- Research Exhibition-posters, judges, boards, interest?
- Student BOV
- Elections
- Women's Center event question
- Cavalier Daily article on graduate student wages
IV. Honor and StudCo Reports
V. New Business
- Budget increase request
VI. Departmental Concerns
I. Secretary's report
The secretary thanked Todd Price for writing the minutes of the last meeting, and asked for the approval of the December's minutes. These were approved unanimously under the condition that she corrects the typo in the treasurer's report. Nicole posted existing minutes on the GSASC web site.
II. Treasurer's Report
Fall 1999 Budget (revised): $3,336.40
Approved funding requests Fall 1999:
1) Chronic Aporias/ German Dept. ($1,100)
2) Buddhist Studies Graduate Student Conference ($1,000)
3) Women's Center -- Betty Williams ($300)
Total Approved Funding as of December 1999: $2,400
Additional expenses for Fall 1999 (pizza): $190
Preliminary Budget for Spring 2000: $3,400
(*Note: the spring budget figure is preliminary and may change slightly.)
Approved funding requests Spring 2000:
1) Graduate English Conference ($600)
2) Graduate Classics Colloquium ($600)
Total remaining funds for Spring allocation from 1999-2000 budget: $2,796.40
III. President's Report
Research Exhibition-posters, judges, boards, interest?
Josh displayed the advertising poster he made for the Exhibition asking
suggestions for possible changes. Chris asked people to help
display/distribute the posters on Grounds. Nicole suggested having a
permanent display in the Alderman Library. Jennie mentioned turning the
poster into a flyer.
The President also asked for help distributing the word about the Exhibition to departments not represented on the Council. Eric, Patrick and Elena offered to help in this regard.
Student BOV
There is a rumor that the BOV would prefer to have a graduate student
representing the student body on the Board the coming year. Chris offered
to find out about the time commitment for this one-year position, and
encouraged the Council members to distribute the word to in their
respective departments.
Elections
The President would like to see the Council take a more organized approach
to elections this coming term.
Women's Center event question
The Women's Center asked the Council members for suggestions on organizing
a publishing forum.
Cavalier Daily article on graduate student wages
Two reporters from the Cavalier daily interviewed our President, Chris.
The discussion focused on the graduate student wages and the health
insurance (HI) work. The motivation for publishing such an article in the
Cav Daily, according to Chris is probably due to the large number of
graduate students striking at other universities across the nation.
This brought up the issue of the NAGPS membership and benefits. According to Patrick, Dean Huskey took responsibility for paying this membership. Otherwise, it was noted that the NAGPS was in the process of accumulating the type of data the Council Health Insurance Committee gathered last year. Also, the NAGPS had correct and up-to-date information regarding the HI benefits at UVa.
IV. Honor and StudCo Reports
At the last StuCo meeting our representative, Rich, learned of a resolution that supports a web site designed to allow easy networking among students with their parents as well as UVa alumni. The site will have video-conferencing features as well. UVa will have free access to this site.
V. New Business
Budget increase request
Patrick submitted to the BOV a resolution requesting an increase in the
GSASC Activity fee from $2 to $5 per semester. This fee remained
unchanged for the last few years. The change in activity fee will
increase the GSASC Activity Fee to the lowest tier of activity fees at
UVa.
The BOV will meet later this month. After this meeting we hope to have news on both the student activity fee and health insurance.
VI. Departmental Concerns
Nicole and other people from her department suspect the University is selling student home addresses for advertisement purposes. A number of people from her department have received "junk mail" with the University address attached to the person's mailing address. Chris and Eric confirmed the above.
Rich offered to bring up this issue at the next StuCo meeting: they will encourage the University not to sell/distribute student names to advertising companies. Jennie pointed out that it is quite likely that such companies simply scan the University phonebooks. According to Rich, these phonebooks are strictly for University use. The Council agreed that this is an issue the StuCo should handle.
The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.