Minutes

Announcements
- Minutes: (Amend Jeff was here)
Paul: Are there any objections to passing the minutes for 9/13? [none] passes by consensus
- Bulletin: Let Maria know if you want something in the grad bulletin by Oct 6th
Paul: The grad bulletin gets mailed to all grad students. If you have anything for the bulletin talk to Maria.
- Summer over: GSC meetings are now weekly
- Jenny and Paul are meeting with Provost/President (Oct 5/Oct 6) next week to go over GSC goals for the next year.
- Fen is serving as Maxim’s proxy;

Funding Proposal for Graduate Family Welcome Event (Andy):
Andy is Associate Dean for Grad Student life, he mainly works with families
Event: Reading event that has happened for 2 years and they would like money so they can give each child who attends a book. At the event there will be various stations for kids.
There are 400 families on campus and the event will be annouced on grad events that encourages off campus families to come. Usually about 50-60% of the families attend, 95% live on campus. Matt will be in a Clifford Costume. This year is the first year that the Graduate Family Welcome Event is coming to the GSC for money. This is a great way for families to meet and socialize.
Request: $750.00 just for books the rest will be funded by other sources.

Adam: The funding will will come out of general programming.
Paul: Is there some way we could have the GSC’s name on the promotional material?
Carrie Andrews: There will be a label inside each book; we can put the GSC name in there.
Paul: Are there any objections to funding the Graduate family welcoming committee for $750? [none] passes by consensus

Funding (Adam)

French stanford students association
Events: Welcome dinner, wine and cheese with a cultural event, and a festival day.
Request: $1570

Paul: Are there any objections to funding the french stanford students association for $1570? [none] passes by consensus.

Christian Students Fellowship:
Events: Welcome dinner, Film night(s) with pizza, and an End of the Year Banquet.
Requesting: $1468.00

Dirk: What is our policy regarding funding religious groups?
Adam: The policy regarding religious groups is that no religious “stuff” is allowed to happen at GSC funded events
CSF Rep: In the intrest of full disclosure, we will bless the food before we eat and we will sing christian songs.
Song: What is the equipment rental for?
CSF Rep: The tables are beat up so we need table clothes to cover up the tables.
Dirk: What are the guidelines regarding what is religious stuff and not? It seems to me that singing religious songs falls into the category of religious stuff.
Paul: The idea is to give funding to as many groups as possible but we don’t want people to use the money to try and convert people.
Dirk: How do we know that they are not protheletizing at their meetings
CSF Rep: We want to be respectful of other people’s beliefs and welcome new students
Dirk: In the national debate there are questions regarding the seperation of church and state. In public schools you are not allowed to bless a meal or sing religious songs. What is Stanford’s policy on this?
Shireen: I don’t think that there is a problem in saything that the GSC supports religious groups. This is part of diversity that is Stanford University
Adam: There are rules that apply to us because we are a non-profit and there are rules that apply to us from Stanford University. We try to keep the lines fuzzy so that we can support all student groups.
Tom: We have been asked by Memorial Church to change that policy.
Paul: Are there any objections to funding the Christian Students Fellowship for $1468? [yes] Let’s put is to a vote. For? Against? Abstaining? 10:1:1 Passes

Russian Students Association:
Events: Welcome BBQ, Students day, new year, and International women’s day:
Request: $1000

Christophe: Why is the location of the Russian events always secret?
Paul: Is it secret?
Christophe: Yes. There is usually there is an email address on grad announce that you have to send an email to. If you are “in” they will reply and let you know where the event is.
Tom: That is a violation of the funding policy. When the GSC funds groups all grad students should be welcome so the location should not be secret.
Russion rep: I’ve always known where the events are so I don’t think it’s a secret
Dirk: How many people are there?
Russian Rep: 50 people

Paul: Are there any objections to funding the russian students association for $1000? [none] Passes by consensus.

Stanford Indian Association
Events: Welcome event
Request: $650

Dirk: How many grad students are expected to attend?
SIA Rep: Around 200 grad students are expected to attend.
Song: Where and when is the event?
Indian rep: It’s in the Havana Room on October 8th.
Paul: Are there any objections to funding the Stanford Indian Association for $650? [none] Passes by consensus

Stanford Student Biodesign
Events: Welcome event, quarterly lecture series which will include a dinner followed by a question and answer period, social event such as volleyball, an end of the year event, and we would also like to send people to conference at BME in LA.
Request: $2385

Kristina: How can we fund students to go to a conference if we are only supposed to fund thing that all students can attend?
Adam: It’s in the by laws you should have read them. We can fund things like conferences.
Tom: Did you write that in the notes?
Dirk: Did you look into other sources of funding?
SSB Rep: Yes we did.
Adam: We gave them list of other places to look for funding.
Fen: Your group is for grad students? (right) Usually we get funding from advisors, why can’t you get from other sources, such as an advisor, to fund students to go to conferences?
SSB Rep: There are people who are not doing their PhD research in this but who would be interested in attending.
Paul: Another reason they would need alternate funding is that advisors often only support students who are presenting.
Tom: There are also B-school students and law school students who do not have advisor’s support who will attend.
Shireen: I’m surprised that there isn’t another source of funding for this. This doesn’t seem like something we should be doing. We are here for the community, supporting things like volunteer opportunities is something that involves the community by giving back. This does not seem like it does that.
Adam: The idea behind funding training is that by giving them money to go away and learn they will come back and teach what they have learned.
Shireen: How can we ensure that this happens? There should be pool of money for these types of things.
Paul: This is a good advocacy thing to bring up with the new VPGE.
Kristina: Can we ensure that the registration is only used for grad students?
SSB Rep: Yes.
Tom: If you want to propose changes to the way that funding is given out talk to Adam.
Paul: Are there any objections to funding SSB for $2385? [none] passes by consensus.

Retreat update (Jenny and Kristina)
Jenny: The retreat is for active GSC members. The dates and location are listed on the agenda. The location is nearby so people can come for the day if they would like. Are there any updates on when people can attend?
Adam: I can come in the day.
Yanna: I can come on Saturday for the night.
Jenny: If there are any items that you would like to discuss at the retreat please let me know. We’ve started making an agenda .
Kristina: I need to get a list of people who will be paired into rooms to give the to the reception desk.
Jenny: I’ll work on it and send it to you.

GSC Promotional Items (Jenny)
Jenny: We have more promotional items! We got bottle openers, water bottles, and some chap stick to try. If you are interested stay after the meeting and we can try them. There are also sports bags which will hopefully be here by tomorrow.

Welcome Party (Fen)
Fen: The welcom party is this Friday. We already have 45 volunteers but I need one more person who will put some volunteer gifts together.
Donnna: I’ll do it.
Jenny: I forgot to mention this earlier: another thing we do is large scale events such as the welcome back party.
Fen: I am trying to compile a list of people who are interested in volunteering for GSC events so contact me if you are interested in volunteering.
Jenny: Thanks Fen!

New Dean of Students

Maureen Powers: Can you give me an overview of what you do?
Paul: Sure, the GSC funds student events, we advocate for student rights, and we put on large scale events to foster grad community life. We’d like to hear your take on where you are going to take the Dean of Students position and how we can work with you.

Maureen: I started 10 days ago. Previously I’ve worked with students at other universities. During my interview process I visited all the schools and found that there were concerns held by the graduate students that would be easy to fix. Some of the main things that came up were:
- Health Insurances
- Registration
- Residences (choice of rooms/choice of roommates/general housing)

Things change every year so I will keep my ears open to new things that come up. I am the Dean of Students so my doors is open to all students, graduates and undergraduates. I am willing to work with the GSC and attend your meetings. I am also happy to meet with you individually as well. The real cornerstone of my work is to be a student advocate. I am also interested in addressing diversity issues for graduate students

Paul: Are there any questions?
Tom: In your previous positions was there a vice provost for graduate Education and how did the two roles work?
Maureen: In the previous college I worked at there was a graduate student dean and so that was a duplication of reponsibilities. In that curcumstance I worked with all things that were in the area of student life, the grad student dean worked with academic issues. I will also work with Chris Griffiths who works on grad student life. Multiple positions addressing graduate student life is a statement that university is commited to supporting graduate student life. I am here as another resource to go to, this is my current philosophy but I haven’t worked out the details of my position.
Tom: What’s your budget and flexibility with your budget?
Maureen: I don’t know yet. Dec 1st is the budget deadline for next year so I’m currently thinking about that but I don’t know this years budget yet.
Paul: Are there any other questions? [none]
Maureen: I’m in tressider on the 2nd floor above Jamba Juice. If you drop by and I am around I’ll talk to you. Sometime the people in the leadership role can get caught up in their leadership role and miss the other student concerns; I am available to address those concerns.

New Business

Jenny: Can the new people please let us know what they think so far and how they are interested in being involved with the GSC?
John: I’m interested in better ways to advertise GSC events and I’m interested in organizing off campus events. I’d like to get people from different schools together for both social and professional reasons.
Donna: You might be interested in working with the GSPB
John: What’s the difference between the GSC and the GSPB?
Donna: The GSPB only does social events.
Tom: The GSPB is funded by the university. The GSPB does smaller events. Our money comes from students.

Raj: with Daily.

XiaoMeng: I am very excited about the GSC and would like discuss things after the meeting.
ZengFan: I have nothing to add at this point.

Christophe: I am here representing the French Students Association. I worked with the GSC last year. I would love to see more foreign associations trying to bridge the gap between people who are interested in foreign cultures and people who are from those cultures.
Linus: I was interested in finding out more about the GSC.
Cam: Where do I find out information about GSC advocacy?
Jenny: It’s all on the website: gsc.stanford.edu
Jerry: I cam to to see how the organization works. There is an incredible amout of money given out. It is very interesting.
Paul: Talk to Adam about attending funding committee
Annemarie: I’m interested in general activities (Fen)
Grant: I am interested in getting students to go down to Katrina and helping out. I talked to the Haas center about getting funding and they directed me here.
Jenny: Talk to Donna about that. She was involved with stanford relief group.
Tom: I think at one time there was a group of students involved in relief organizations.
Cam: I’m in the Grad school of engineering. I am interested in getting involved. How do you become a voting member?
Jenny: There are representatives from each school plus members at large. There are 15 members total who are elected by populare vote. Those 15 are only ones who can vote. But you can be involved even if you are not a voting member.
Tom: I chaired legislation committee as non-voting member.
Matt: I came here out of curiousity. I am working with a small group of people on the East coast and we are in the early stages of trying to form an activism group to promote alternative energy sources.
Jenny: You can either work with existing student groups or form your own student group.
Maria: To be listed you need to register before Oct 15th, but you can register anytime during the year, you just won’t be listed.
Tom: If there is a similar existing group then the ASSU won’t let you form a new group.

Adjourn Meeting