Minutes

Announcements:
Grad Night at Flicks needs help – [Tracy]
NomCom applications due 4/30 – nomcom.stanford.edu


Roger Printup
The Facultyc Senate is making a decision on whether to continue the 05-06 and 06-07 academic calendar in which the fall quarter starts on a Monday and there is a weeklong break at Thanksgiving. Fall qtr is the only qtr that has 10 wks of classes with 5 days of classes each week. All the other qtrs are shorter. This may be more important on the undergraduate level to get the academic year off to a start with a full week of classes. One of the hopes was that, by having an entire week of classes, that labs and discussion sections would have a chance to meet that first week of classes. Also, is the full week of Thanksgiving Break beneficial? This is also probably more relevant to undergrads. This does help people who live far away get the chance to go home for Thanksgiving. It also allows students the opportunity to catch-up and prepare for finals. There are some years where there is only one week of classes between Thks Break and finals.
So there are two issues: 1) beginning with a full wk of classes and 2) Thanksgiving Break.

Dirk – In my experience, there aren’t really any assignments in the first week, so there is no need for sections to meet.

Adam – As someone who is teaching classes, losing Monday’s is a pain.

Tom – I echo Dirk’s comments. It takes a week to organize sections and labs, so they wouldn’t meet until the next week anyway. Even if you have class on Monday, you don’t have enough time to inform everyone of what section they are in, so you would start it the next week.

Stephen – My worry is the effect this will have on schools’ orientations.

Roger – The orientations and move-in dates were moved back to accommodate the earlier schedule.

Tom – I remember the financial deadlines and the start of classes occurred on the same day. It is very inconvenient to allocate time to stand in line to pay the bills and go to class all on the same day.

Roger – That will change with online payments availability in the future. [much applause for online payment option] As for Thanksgiving…

Adam – The students/TAs I spoke to were completely sapped by the break and the momentum was sucked out of their quarter. Also, there is a break 2 weeks after they returned, so it was weird to have two breaks in a row.

Dirk/Yanna – A lot of people enjoyed the break and it was the only way they could take the opportunity to go home for Thanksgiving.

Roger – Did you get emails from students who you were TA’ing? [several ‘No’s. Students only email when an assignment is due.]

Matt – I remember some professors at my undergrad who thought they had to give an exam on Wed before Thanksgiving to get anyone to attend. If they didn’t have assignments due that Wed, no one attended. So they just as well could have given a break for the entire week.

Tom – There are some schools that have a break from Thanksgiving all the way through New Year.

Kristina – Is the reason that the classes start on Monday because of the week of Thanksgiving break? [yes] Having orientations for new students was very awkward because people did not show up on Friday before classes began.

Roger – Some departments didn’t accommodate their orientations to the new schedule in time. That should be resolved next year and in the future. One last item, if you were all tenured faculty, would you vote to keep the schedule? [overwhelmingly, if not unanimously, YES]

Back to GSC Business:
Jenny – Are there any objections to the 4/19 minutes? [no] Passes by consensus.

Jenny – We need to vote on the GSC Partition Budget for FY 2006-07. Are there any questions about the Programming Partition? [none] Is everyone ready to vote? [none not ready] All those in favor of approving? Opposed? Abstaining? [10,0,1] The 06-07 GSC partition budget passes.

We are going to vote on the other section next week, but let’s talk about it now because we won’t have much time next week.

Actually, let’s certify the elections bill first. Are there any questions about the elections bill? [none] All in favor of certifying the elections results for 2006? Opposed? Abstaining? [11,0,0]. That passes.

Back to the operating budget.

Alex – I think the deputy chair should get more than half the chair’s stipend.

Dirk – How were these stipends developed?

Stephen/Tom – They are historical and relatively commensurate with the amount of time spent on the positions. There is a finite amount of money we can allot to stipends, so they are relative to each other and not to any hourly wage. The stipends were drastically cut a few years ago and the salaries are essentially going back to the old salaries. There are also some fluctuations in the responsibilities of the positions. The funding for these positions comes out of the endowment pay-out and it has drastically increased recently.

Matt – Were there any disagreements between the people who were designing this?

Stephen – Justin gave us a higher overall number to work with and so we increased some of the stipends, other than that, no.

Alex – I would say $2,500 for Deputy Chair and $4,000 for Chair.

Tom – I think the number is okay as it is. It is essentially the same way the US works as well.

Stephen – As Financial Officer, I adjusted the stipends this year based on the fact that Jenny and Tom wanted to Co-chair.

Tom – It is just a 2/3 vote to change the budget. This is just a guideline and if the Chair and Deputy Chair for next year feel like they should adjust the budget, they can convince the voting members to adjust the budget.

- Is the budget limited to the $39,300? [yes]

Kristina – Does all the money generally get spent?

Stephen – Some years it does, but generally no.

Jenny – Are there any more comments on the stipends? [none] The next section is the General Fee. Are there any comments?

Aravinda – Is you food budget enough? [yes]

Tom - The Funding Officer is arguably the most important thing we do. It is a lot of work, particularly since very few people help out the chair. Please consider helping out the FO.

Jenny – Any other comments? [none] Okay, then next week we will be voting on this.

Justin – For the old members: How much do you actually want? Do you want the stipends to be an hourly wage, a note of appreciation, or what? What is the purpose to you?

Jenny – People can send their comments to you, but we need to continue this meeting. Our next meeting is going to include input for the search committees for VPDOR (Vice Provost and Dean of Research) and VPGE (Vice Provost of Graduate Education). Do we want to have a formal presentation from advocacy committees? [yes] I know the DC has a presentation, but I don’t know if any other committees are interested. [health care] We have about an hour to allot to this. Please look over the questions we have submitted.

Cullen – I think the DC will just present for 10 minutes. There is a lot of stuff to address. It seems like we should focus more on the VPGE since the VPDOR is a well-established position.

Stephen – Should the Health Advocacy committee give a presentation? [yes, 5 min presentation, hit the main points of the goals and GSC interactions for the VPGE]

Jenny – We can spend most of our time on the VPGE and if we have time left over, address the VPDOR.

Cullen – I would like to know more about the model that the VPGE is going to follow…is the VPGE a think tank for programs that dept’s can implement or will the VPGE run the programs?

Robert – Maybe the people who are interested should discuss this later in a separate meeting.

Jenny – Who would be willing to meet separately in a sub-committee? [Jenny, Tom, Cullen, Alex, Tracy, Rebecca, Matt]

Matt – Is the document that the sub-committee develops more important than the actual meeting on Wednesday?

Tom – The document is what the search committee is going to carry out of the meeting, so it is very important.

Jenny – For Transition, we still need someone for Food Czar and Secretary. [Goes over timetable] Be prepared to speak for 1 or 2 minutes if you are running for a contested position.

Tom – Some people were interested in meeting to socialize. The GSC can pay for food/drinks out of discretionary.

Jenny – I’ll send out a list of people who are interested in doing various positions. Does anyone else have questions about the transitions? [none]

Tom – One note about advocacy is that, just because there isn’t a committee on the topic you’re interested in, doesn’t mean it can’t exist. Just let us know what you are interested in advocating for.

Jenny – Any new business? [none]