Minutes

Introductions as in agenda:
03-05 minutes approved by consensus
Volunteer for Hennessey dinner host? [Stephen]

Funding
OASIS - We are holding three events, 2 movie nights with Arabic movies that have English subtitles. We need funding for Arabic snacks at these movies. We are also having a Middle Eastern Cultural Night and we need funding for food. Also, OASIS is cosponsoring a Palestinian Awareness event.

Adam – The total is $1200.

Josh – Is there a political component?

OASIS – Of course.

Jenny – Are there any objections? [none] Approved.

SAID – We have an annual conference that we co-host with ?. The theme this year is ‘education’. The conference is structured around the keynote speaker (UNICEF director) and there are also 2 panel discussions. The activities/career fair…etc. There is about 40% graduate attendance.

Adam – The total is $1815.

Jenny – Any objections? [none] Passes by consensus.

IEEE – We are requesting funding for the annual student faculty mixer. We rent out Packard Atrium and the keynote speaker is the creator of Adobe Photoshop. The purpose is to promote relationships between students and faculty as well as EE and CS students.

Cullen – How much are the departments putting in?

IEEE – None. We haven’t asked them. We have about 50% graduate students attendance at our events.

Tracy – The Women’s Chemistry Committee was told to request funding from our department and we went to great trouble to do so. The GSC shouldn’t be funding food for professors and the EE dept needs to be asked to support funding for a faculty/student mixer.

Tom – We strongly encourage you to pursue departmental funds.

Jenny – Any objections? [none] Passes by consensus.

INFORMS – We are having professors show off their non-academic talents. We’ll be holding it in Campbell Auditorium. We are also holding a seminar series. We are trying to increase the graduate student attendance.
INFORMS is the IEEE of management science and engineering.

Adam – The total is $1982.

Jenny – Any objections? [none] Passes by consensus.

Constitutional Revisions
Jenny – The US didn’t pass any of the amendments so we don’t have to vote on it.

Aravinda – Why not?

Adam – They weren’t happy with any of it. By the time we got to the typo changes they didn’t want to vote on that either.

Tom – They may be dead for this year, but the amendments may be passed next year. Historically, constitutional amendments take several years to pass…even the amendment that created the GSC. It’s not over and there is plenty of time to make corrections. I remain optimistic.

Voter Incentive Fund General Fee
Jenny – Basically, we collect one $5 fee during the Spring Quarter and will return the fee to the student when they vote.

Tracy – But it’s a pain to get the money back from the ASSU when you request a refund. How long would it take for the students to get their money back?

Tom – There would also be a surcharge charged by the ASSU for using their billing system, so you aren’t guaranteed to get all of your money back if everyone votes.

Cullen – What happens if there is extra?

[discussion of amendments…desire for positive incentives instead of negative incentives…instead of redistributing funds, put the money into a ‘get out the vote’ fund for future elections]

Concern - People who do vote just to get their money back may not vote responsibly.

Jenny – The proposed amendments – take out the 4th ‘whereas’ and replace with ‘ the grad students who vote will receive their $5 and any extra funds will be put into a GSC distributed fund? [3,3,5] The amendment proposal does not pass. All those who would like to approve the bill as it stands? [0,10,1] The bill does not pass.

Jenny – What are some ideas for increasing turnout?

Cullen – Put together 1/2 sheets of paper with voter information to be distributed at Bytes, Lynx, Tressider, Pub, etc.

Tom – Or even those little info tents that you can put on the tables.

Stephen – We should have positive incentives…raffle type…

Aravinda – Put fliers in student mailboxes…

Melanie – ISIS screens…

Jenny – If you have any more suggestions, please contact Tim.

Judicial Affairs
Jenny – Please read over the charter amendment. We have to wait for the bill from JA, but please let us know if there are any concerns.

Transportation Fee
Jenny – The Transportation Committee is going to hang out at key places around campus during lunch next week. Hannah says they will not be promoting the Transportation Fee, just encouraging students to vote

Programming Update
Donna – The final budget updates are in for the Grad Formal. We were under-budgeted by $7k. The total cost was $16,538.

Stephen – Could we budget the same amount next year, but sell more tickets?

Donna – We want to make it easier to get tickets…online ticket sales…and make the event larger.

Tom – Was there a capacity issue?

Donna – Though the hotel could legally hold 800, it felt slightly snug with 600.

Tom – So, if we want to extend capacity we would have to find a different venue.

Donna – It’s just hard to find spaces that hold really large numbers of people and that are affordable. It’d be nice, though, to look at spaces in San Francisco or Santa Cruz as future possibilities.

New Business
Tom – Don’t forget that nominations for the Lyon’s Award are due on Monday. You can submit nominations from the OSA website.

Jenny – There are also administrative awards on the registrar’s office web site.

ASSU Exec Candidates
Heng/Graham: The reason we want to run for ASSU is that for the past 3 years we have been very involved with student gov’t on campus and with the administration. We have a lot of respect for the way the GSC runs their meetings and plans their events and we look forward to working with you. We have a few ideas and would like feedback on how we could work together: 1) GOPass – we would like to help you look for more sustainable funding possibilities. 2) Healthcare subsidy – we understand this is a large financial issue for grad students especially those with families. 3) CGE – we would like to see how we can create programs for better student life initiates. 4) We would like to work with the HAAS center to create better coordination and social networking possibilities for students to create non-profits. 5) Pub – We would like to work with the GSC to create programming for the Pub…Stanford Idol, karaoke, speed dating.

Rillera/Nguyen: Stipends – we would like the CGE to partially be earmarked to increase stipends and fellowships. Housing – we would like to help insure low-cost alternatives to Munger housing and to keep on-campus housing prices down. Diversity – we’ve heard a lot of concern that many departments are non-diverse and we would like to talk to admissions offices to increase recruitment of under represented students.

Tax Coordinator
Kevin – The information on the tax/legal tab on the website has recently been updated. If anyone asks you questions about taxes, the GSC website is the place to go. There is a seminar this Saturday with an IRS agent on taxes. We will also have someone from the Controllers office. We also have an IRS agent coming out to talk to international students.

Stephen – Is the IRS auditing students more?

Kevin – The latest IRS seminar had lots of information on how NOT to get audited. They watch for itemized taxes, large charitable donations, business deductions, and donated cars.

Stephen – What about Fellowships?

Kevin – Fellowships are reported to the IRS.

Paul - In the past couple of years, Stanford has made a lot of mistakes by including reimbursements as income. It takes a lot of time to call them and get Stanford to correct it.

Kevin – The Controller’s Office is in charge of that and they should be able to answer all your questions.

Matt – There are some rumors coming about dependent healthcare, so keep your ears open.