Minutes

Meeting Begins at 6:05pm (waiting on Cullen)

Paul Gurney (PG): Any changes to the minutes? Minutes pass by consensus.

PG: Donna Winston is Jeff Laretto’s proxy for the summer. Kyle came for Kristina Keating. Jenny Allen is requesting a leave of absence for the summer.

PG: Now we get to swear in Shirin and Yana.

JA: The statement is ‘I name accept my position on the GSC’

Shireen: Accepts her position

Yana: Accepts her position

PG: Song, would you like to be sworn in?

Song Lee: I would like to stay.

PG: Please raise your right hand and accept your position.

Song Lee: Accepts his position

JA: Let’s sing happy birthday to Paul!

PG: Let’s do that latter.

FZ (Fen): The GSPB has a line item for $2500 for a spring party from the GSC. They would like to change that to $700 to cover unexpected extra Graduate Formal costs, and $1800 for a campus wide upcoming party (organized with EV, Rains, and Lyman) on May 26th.

PG: Is this because the GSPB did not throw a Spring Party?

FZ: No, they’re just shifting some money around

Charandle: They’re using money that was also approved from Memorial Day?

Donna: I would like to know the details of the event?

Charandle: This will be a big BBQ in rains, it will happen at night. There will be bands performing as well. Rains funds will cover the alcohol. They say that rains residents will only come out with alcohol. There is also significant costs associated with lights and band setup.

Donna: What are the hours? What about quite hours for neighbors?

Charandle: It’s on the weekend so quite hours shouldn’t be a problem.

Dirk: What’s the total cost of the party?

Charandle: A little over $3000, perhaps about $3800.

Fen: That’s not all coming from us.

PG: This is on may 26th so people should start spreading the word. Move to vote.

Song: Question, how early do people need to apply for funding.

PG: This is an already funded item, we’re just modifying the budget. Any objections?

All: No objections, passed by consensus. Clapping.

PG: Thanks to all that came to the transition meeting. Matt, if you’re ready, you can talk about the SSE.

Matt MacDonald (MM): We would like to give you an overview of how the SSE operates and it’s history. SSE has been running businesses for a while. In 1996 SSE was formed as a separate entity from the ASSU. Their mission is to provide a great educational experience, to be an access point for on campus entrepreneurs. They run the Stanford store. They are venturing into promotional products this year. They’re trying to become the one-stop shop for any department/group on campus. They’re going to be advocating for a new location for the Stanford store in the coming months. They have an advertising division which does the unofficial Stanford guide and campus wide advertising. They’re trying to focus more on Bay area content and they’re adding a map to the unofficial guide. They’re talking to ITSS about rolling out an online directory next year. The bank of SSE is the Capital Group. They handle all of the money for student groups on campus and they handle E-Groups. They have an internet development division and they’ve worked with housing and others. The Stanford Design group does the admissions booklets. Their internal development organization handles all of the internal needs such as hiring, visibility, and other services for the campus. They also run the business leadership program, where companies come on campus to recruit students before the recruiting season starts.

PG: Could you comment on grad student involvement?

MM: The store general manager next year is a grad student.

A Beberg: So there’s one.

MM: It’s advertised to everyone but it’s more appealing to UG’s.

MM: Feel free to ask me any questions about our operations that you have. After July 1 you can email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

PG: Thanks for coming and informing us about what you do.

PG: Let’s move on to new business. Lihn Phan will talk to us about her housing concerns.

Lihn: My concern is that I’ve been here for two years and the increase in housing this year is $100-$160 per quarter.

Charandle: Do you know that percentage?

Lihn: It seems like about 6 or 7%. I was told that it was due to the utility increase. And I thought that Stanford University had it’s own power company on campus that ran on natural gas so it shouldn’t be that expensive. I like living on campus and I want to see if there is any way to reduce the utilities and save on the university wide consumption of utilities. I would also like to increase the number of students living on campus and reducing the vacancies of in on-campus housing. I would like to propose grouping students so that they might be encouraged to stay on campus because they can all live together.

Justin: You can live for dramatically less money off campus and students are starting to move off campus to save money. This leaves more vacancies and causes the rates to go up higher.

Dirk: Does housing not believe in supply and demand

Adam Beberg: Part of the problem is that they’re paying off loans from building the studios a few years ago.

PG: I like Lihn’s ideas about metering and separating the utilities based on usage.

A Beberg: The GHAC is now considering metering utilities by building.

Lihn: Can they separate it out by apartment?

A Beberg: The best they can do is by building based on the current setup.

PG: I think that this is a great advertisement for our up and coming housing advocacy committee. I encourage everyone to join in and help.

Lihn: Why can’t they have discounts for students that stay longer?

T Lee: The CGe recommended having housing contracts last for more year.

PG: Is there any more discussion?

Lihn: With more students moving off campus the amount of traffic increases and this is becoming a larger problem for Stanford.

Alexandre Ene: I think that metering won’t help because their won’t be enough peer pressure.

Justin FW: Adam, do you know the occupancy rates?

Adam: I can’t talk about that.

Charandle: It’s still cheaper to live on campus. Students living off campus pay about $600 per quarter more than on campus students.

T Lee: I think that you run into an issue of definition and standards. It depends on how you look at the data.

PG: Are there any other new issues:

CRB: Discussion of Adina Paytan’s tenure denial brought to the attention of the GSC by Tracy Terry, see attached letter below.

Dirk: Aren’t there a lot of people that don’t get tenure, doesn’t this happen all the time?

CRB: This does happen all the time but the issue is that we want to get more information on Adina’s case because she seems to have a tenure worthy resume and she’s been very involved in mentoring female graduate students.

FZ: I’m not sure what we can do since most of the information in her file is private. For confidentiality reasons I don’t think we can learn more about why she was actually denied tenure. If a student had a complaint about her or any professor it’s in their best interest for the complaint to remain private.

CRB: That is true and I don’t think we want that kind of information if it is in there. What we really want is for the Provost and Dean to look at her file again, and in particular take into account the effect that she’s had on graduate students.

George Bloom (GB): Is this even an issue that the GSC should get involved in? Do we have a history of stepping in when professors are denied tenure? How do we pick which professors we support and which one’s we don’t?

CRB: In this case, Adina has had a huge effect on graduate life, particularly the live of female grad students in science and engineering. These women are affected by her tenure denial and they are our constituents so we’re affected. The reason this has come up is because several female grad students, including Tracy, are disappointed. It seems as if as a body, the GSC is not comfortable with supporting her tenure case. I suggest that people talk to Tracy for more information and decide for yourself if you’re willing to sign her letter in support of Adina.