March 22, 1998
6:19pm: Call to order.
Kathy Nixon, from the English department, reported on the Publishing Forum. The first scheduled dates were April 2nd and 3rd, but people invited to present (including people who free- lance for Harper's and the NY Timescouldn't make those dates, and it was felt that April 23rd and 24th would be too late. Therefore the new suggested dates are October 15th and 16th or October 8th and 9th. The publishing cycle starts at the beginning of the month so its' a bad time for speakers. Scheduled speakers will include Michael Pollen, Architecture and Natural Science; Mark Edmundson, English; and Joe Barker, from Harper's. Kathy reported that we need to keep an easily accessible file of addresses and so on, because it's too difficult to pass the information along from person to person each year.
Secretary's Report:The minutes for the February meeting were approved unanimously, but the word "President" should be changed to "Treasurer."
Funding Request: Matthew Cullen, from the McIntire department of Commerce, requested that activity fees be remitted back to the McIntire department, since McIntire's interests diverge from those of the rest of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Discussion centered around the inadvisability of setting such a precedent.
President's Report: Julie Theoret (Math), President, appointed and confirmed in office Amanda French (English), as the new President; Rich Pierce as the new Treasurer, and Nathalie Charron (French) as the new Secretary.
Julie reported that she went to the Virginia Graduate Deans Meeting. There, she spoke to other graduate council leaders, to deans from around the state, and to a state senator. She learned about the "Blue Ribbon Commission," which is studying higher education; the deans are going to write a letter to this commission asking for more funds for graduate education.
Funding Request:The Student Council wants us to fund Spirit Days; we can't consider the proposal because it's not submitted by a graduate student.
Other Business: Todd Price (Spanish) reported that there are plans to install a cafe in Alderman library; the Faculty Senate (which met on the 16th) is behind it. It will open in September, and its hours will be from 9-3 and then from 7-10, but there will be no evening shift on Friday. Todd offered a resolution that Grad Council also support this; the resolution passed unanimously.
Charles Irons (History) will serve as next year's liaison to the Faculty Senate; we might consider making this a permanent duty of some member of Grad Council.
Ewan McNay spoke to Alexander Gilliam, secretary of the Board of Visitors, regarding the Provost's guidelines for how we can use our funds. They were written in February of 1991 and have been revised twice since then, but the quotation in our Constitution is accurate. We must abide by them, and we are allowed to fund neither honoraria nor any kind of social activity. We can fund travel, publicity, correspondence, and other such expenses. Discussion then centered around whether or not we could fund the travel expenses of individual graduate students; Amanda French (English) offered to come up with a proposal for next time.
The Orientation Committee still hasn't heard from Dean Huskey, but will try to get something together for the fall.
The next Grad Bar Night is April 8, with pitchers of Pyramid Ale for $8. Rich Pierce will try to find out what the Bar Olympics are.
The meeting adjourned at 7:49pm.