Graduate Student Council Minutes

October 8, 1997

6:07pm: Call to order.
Secretary's Report: The (unapproved) minutes will be on the web from now on; GSAS reps should come to the meeting having read them, so that we can approve them without having to distribute paper copies. A motion to approve the minutes of the September meeting of GSCAS was made, seconded, and carried unanimously.
Funding Proposal: Lisa Berke and Christopher Krentz (a graduate student from the English department) requested $1225 to help fund the American Sign Language / Deaf Culture Language Series. The council discussed whether the series would serve enough graduate students (both in organizing and attending the series) to warrant our funding it at that amount. A motion was made and seconded to fund it at $1225, the full amount requested; another motion was made and seconded to fund it at $600. The motion to fund the series at $1225 was carried by a vote of 12 for, 9 against, 0 abstentions. The council asked that the series devote a special session to TA concerns, and aim some publicity at the graduate student community.

Treasurer's Report: Bill Murad (Classics), Treasurer, reported:
FALL '97 FEES: $3500
'96/'97 CARRY-OVER: (See below)
CURRENT BALANCE: Either $13,647.67 or $3,347.67, according to Dean Huskey.
APPROPRIATED IN SEPTEMBER: $250 for NAGPS membership
REQUESTS FOR THIS MEETING: ASL/Deaf Culture Series, $1225.00, and Dept. of Classics Colloquium, $630.00

Funding Proposal: Bill Murad (Classics) requested $580.00 for the Classics Colloquium, $50 less than appeared on the Funding Request Form because of lower lodging costs than anticipated. A motion to fund the colloquium at the full amount, $580.00, was made, seconded, and carried unanimously.

Special Speaker: Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History, spoke to us about TA labor. He made three main points: 1) In Virginia, a right-to-work state, even though contracts negotiated by collectives are not legally enforceable, we can negotiate all we want as a collective without fear of reprisal; 2) The faculty are generally all in favor of higher stipends and better working conditions for TAs; and 3) Publicity will work in our favor, since the University does not especially want it known that grad students are responsible for so much undergraduate instruction. Discussion followed, centering on the differences between sciences and humanities. It was pointed out that since science faculty pay their TAs out of their own grants, they are more likely to oppose higher stipends for TAs than humanities faculty. On the other hand, TAs in the sciences are generally paid more than those in the humanities.

When asked to recommend a first step, Dr. Lichtenstein recommended that we research the problem first. He mentioned the salary survey used in the English department TA's successful request for a pay raise in the spring of 1996. When it was proven that TAs were not paid enough by the University's own calculation of the amount needed to live in Charlottesville, a raise was hastily granted.

A motion to form a committee for the purpose of writing a similar departmental survey of TA salaries was made, seconded and carried unanimously. Amanda French (English), Secretary, was appointed to head the committee.

President's Report: Julie Theoret (Math), President, reported that she had attended the President's Leadership Retreat.

Tiffany Gagliardi and Amy Campbell were confirmed and introduced as the GSAS representatives to Student Council.

We will arrange to have someone speak on tax preparation in February.

NAGPS information will be put in Alderman library.

Anne Stinehart will make a web-usable Funding Request Form for us at the rate of $20/hour, estimating that it should take her a couple of hours to do it. A motion to fund this project was made, seconded, and carried unanimously.

Julie asked for and got some volunteers to come speak at Grad School Night, 6 - 8pm on Wednesday October 22, for the purpose of informing undergraduates about grad school.

Departmental Concerns: TAs in the Slavics department were recently faced with the prospect of having to exchange their large communal office for one the size of a faculty office, with a single one-person desk. Since there are about fifteen TAs with about sixty students apiece, all of whom are required to have office hours, the TAs were upset, had meetings, and wrote a petition that they be allowed to keep their original office. The department administration agreed to delay the decision until the next faculty meeting, which will not take place this semester, so the Slavics TAs got to keep their office for now. Relationships between faculty and grad TAs in the Slavics department were strained by this incident.
Other Business: Oliver Wilcox is head of the committee for revamping orientation.

Nathalie Charron talked to the Student Union about the lack of activities aimed at graduate students. They used to have a Graduate Committee, but do not have one any longer. They might be persuaded to reinstitute it.

Alison Burke will set up another Bar Night for Wednesday November 5.

A panel on non-academic jobs for humanities grad students will take place in Wilson 402, 4-5:30pm, October 27--council representatives are urged to publicized this to their departments.

The meeting adjourned at 7:45pm.