Proceedings of the April 9th, 2008 GSC meeting
Agenda
1) 5:45 FOOD (thanks Anwei!)
2) 6:00 Welcome with introductions (Kristina)
3) 6:05 Announcements (Kristina)
i. Please be aware that all meetings are recorded and will be made available on the GSC website.
ii. Approve minutes from the last meeting (4/2/08).
iii. Schedule for the outgoing GSC
iv. Retreat planning
4) 6:10 Funding (Polina)
i. Hindu Students Council
5) 6:15 Programming update (Adam S. and Justin)
6) 6:20 Joint By-Laws Amendment (Mondaire)
7) 6:25 Transition Materials (Kristina)
8) 6:40 Grad Challenge (Ben Knellman)
9) 6:50 New Business
Attendance
Voting members present:
At large 2: Hanna Muenke
At large 3: Kristina Keating
At large 4: Lan Wei
At large 5: Polina Segalova
Business: Rhyan Uy
Earth Sciences: Kyle Anderson
Engineering 1: Melahn Parker (proxy Donna Winston present)
Engineering 2: Zeng Fan (proxy Anwei Chai present)
Humanities: George Bloom
Law: Andrew Park
Medicine: Yana Hoy
Natural Sciences: Fen Zhao
Social Sciences: Euan Robertson
Voting members not present:
At large 1: Maxim Afanasyev
Education: Michelle Brown
Others in attendance: Nanna Notthoff, Maria Spletter, Justin Brown, Mondaire Jones, Alex Ene, Adam Beberg, Adam Sciambi
Minutes
1) 5:45 FOOD (thanks Anwei!)
2) 6:03 Welcome with introductions (Kristina)
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3) 6:05 Announcements (Kristina)
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i. Please be aware that all meetings are recorded and will be made available on the GSC website.
ii. Reminder that we’re a consensus based organization
iii. Approved minutes from the last meeting (4/2/08) by consensus.
iv. Schedule for the outgoing GSC. Next week (4/16) we’ll approve results from election, and the week after that (4/23) we’ll swear in new members, so present members should still be here that week because new members won’t be able to vote yet. April 30th will be first meeting entirely with the new GSC, though of course, all current people continue to be welcome. We will need to approve next year’s budget at next week’s meeting.
v. Retreat planning. April 26th and 27th will be our transition retreat. Will only use one of the days, but keep both open for now. Will be on-campus for the meeting, then do something fun in the evening.
4) 6:08 Funding (Polina)
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i. Black Graduate Student Association
- BGSA closing extravaganza – end of the year banquet celebration, graduate recognition, have some faculty speakers. Requesting money for dinner.
- Black Family Gathering/ Black Fest – carnival including community members. Will have a music artist, Stanford organizations performing as well.
- Closing BBQ – general social gathering
- Indigenous Diaspora Programming Series – co-sponsored with Institute for Diversity in the Arts. Speaker series.
- The Sweetest Hangover Production – A BGSA member is directing the play, and will be bringing in the playwright for the event.
Recommended $1580. Giving $1580 passes by consensus.
5) 6:11 Programming update (Adam S. and Justin)
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Not much going on with GSC programming, but co-sponsoring some events.
- This Saturday (April 12th) the GSPB will have a recruitment barbecue at Willis from 11am-2pm.
- Tomorrow (April 10th), are meeting with Nanci Howe of OSA and Ken Hsu and VPSA person to think about reforming policies for graduate student events.
- Last Saturday was a good Grad Challenge bus trip to San Francisco. The late bus sold out, and all went smoothly. With minor changes, looking forward to a successful next trip.
6) 6:14 Joint By-Laws Amendment (Mondaire)
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The new Constitution needs ASSU Execs to have a specified end of term in their bylaws, so they have a bill now proposing that the term of the outgoing execs end will end two weeks after the election. This would be the official transition period, with the newly elected ASSU Execs taking their place after that. Outgoing Execs would still remain generally present for questions after that time though.
Alex wonders how exactly “end of election” is defined, in order to determine the end of the two week period. We no longer need to certify the election, so it will be as of when the new slate is announced immediately following the voting days.
Bylaw change needs 2/3 vote to pass.
12 for, 0 opposed, 1 abstaining. Passes.
Other ASSU news – University has committed to Gender Neutral housing for next year in a couple of residence halls, including Rains and some undergrad dorms.
7) 6:19 Transition Materials (Kristina)
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This year, we will be making a big transition document that will go to each elected member, so need everyone to write highlights of your job for that document. Everyone is also responsible for the more detailed information for any roles you serve on the GSC that will go to whoever does your job next year.
8) 6:21 Grad Challenge (Ben Knellman)
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Here to get our feedback today, because idea is somewhat nebulous so far. If we’re supportive, then he can look into actual costs.
Ben is interested in creating an outdoor study space, which is good for getting students outside hopefully! Would go through University architecture and art planning group to implement the idea. For pilot, thinking about simple seating spaces outdoors, possibly some hammock seats. If it goes well, could possibly be developed into more outdoor spaces with tables and such.
Rhyan suggests thinking about metrics for feedback from students using the pilot space, in order to have good information to move beyond the pilot if there is support.
Ben was on University Committee for Land and Building development, so has some connections with administration side of moving forward. However, he is unsure about cost and specifics. Seats themselves wouldn’t be too expensive, but installation might be harder.
Following is feedback from various GSC members:
- Design school has summer workshop about these types of things, which Alex suggests Ben look into taking.
- George concerned about comfort and ergonomics of hammock chairs. Ben willing to think about other types of outdoor seats as well.
- Polina – the D-school class seems to be focused on a particular project at a time, so should get in touch with them ahead of time in order to have them consider taking on thinking about this project.
- Josh – would enjoy having hammocks around Lyman, as they’ve been thinking about how to get students outdoors. Would probably need stand alone hammocks, which Ben indicates was the plan, as University would probably not go for attaching them to trees.
- Adam – remembers that new Old Union plans had something about relaxing space, but Mondaire doesn’t think that’s actually happening in the immediate future.
-Etasha – a rooftop space might be fun. Also mentions a space in Rains around apartments 206-208 that seems like it intended for outdoor use, but has fallen out of use due to limited upkeep.
- Fen would like to see the chairs put in around the Grad areas of campus, such that they don’t just become overrun with Undergrads. Ben would ultimately see it being around central campus as well, but would be happy to have pilot around the grad areas.
- Kristina suggests talking to GLO, who might have more ideas about good spaces that these seats could be installed. Roger Whitney in housing would probably be a good person to talk to.
- Donna wants to make sure that liability issues are addressed. Mondaire suggests risk management office to check this out.
- Fen would be concerned about homeless people using the space if it’s too conducive to sleep.
- Etasha suggests creating an outdoor classroom type space.
- Maria would use the space to work on papers and such, but would need more shade for computer work.
- Ben’s email is
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, so you can contact him with other ideas
- Ben wonders about order of contact to make this project happen. Kristina suggests getting a few possible sites for installation, probably through housing and GLO, then think about options for furniture, then deal with liability, then come back to GSC.
9) 6:38 New Business
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i. Adam B – met with School of Engineering person who works on stipends to get info out to departments within engineering. Discussion with CS and EE individuals went well as well, and they’re even paying more for the summer so students don’t leave to go get internships. Everyone should go talk to their schools to advocate for stipends.
ii. Elections update – voting website was intermittently having problems. Was apparently working last night, was not working this morning. Suggestion to email constituents to go vote again if they had a problem the first time and didn’t get a “thank you for voting” page. Mondaire wonders if exec slates made it into the awareness of grad students; they seemed to have tried, with some slates sending out emails through GSC, and gathering graduate student e-mail addresses. Hopefully grads read Daily or read the exec handbook and made their choice.
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