Agenda
1. 5:45 pm – FOOD (thanks Ray!)
2. 6:00 pm – Welcome with Introductions
3. 6:05 pm – Announcements (Justin)
i. Minutes from 1/12/2011
ii. Fill out the retreat survey
iii. GSC Reminders
iv. No proxies this week
v. Swearing in Fanuel Muindi
4. 6:10 pm – Disabilities and Accessible Education Update (Vivian)
5. 6:20 pm – Funding (Krystal)
i. Stanford French Student Association
ii. Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford
iii. Stanford Taiwanese Student Association
6. 6:35 pm – Programming Update (Addy/Joanna)
7. 6:50 pm – GSPB Funding Approval (George/Krystal)
8. 6:55 pm – ASSU/SSE Update (Angelina/Kelsei/Raj)
9. 7:00 pm – Special Fees Bill (Michael C.)
10. 7:10 pm – GHAC Update (Justin)
11. 7:20 pm – New Business
Attendance
Voting members present:
Business – Ping Li
Earth Sciences – Justin Brown
Education – Imeh Williams
Engineering – Joanna Lankester (proxy Ryan Peacock present)
H&S – Natural Sciences – Erik Lehnert
Law – Thomas Spahn
Medicine – Jessica Tsai
At-large representative – Tao Chu
At-large representative – Crystal Yin (proxy Xi Cheng present)
At-large representative – Krystal St. Julien
At-large representative – Addy Satija
At-large representative – Fanuel Muindi
Voting Members Absent:
Engineering Rep – Yichuan Ding
H&S – Humanities – Praveen Shanbhag
H&S – Social Sciences – Salvador Zepeda
Non-voting members present:
Anna Schuessler – Stanford Daily
Zachary Warma – “Concerns over undergrad imbecility” [sic]
Michael Cruz – UG Senate Chair
Yi-Hsuan Lin – FO of STSA
Di Wang – FO of ACSSS
Minutes
1. 5:45 pm – FOOD (thanks Ray!)
2. 6:00 pm – Welcome with Introductions
3. 6:05 pm – Announcements (Justin)
i. Minutes from 1/12/2011
ii. Fill out the retreat survey
iii. GSC Reminders
iv. No proxies this week
v. Swearing in Fanuel Muindi
4. 6:10 pm – Disabilities and Accessible Education Update (Vivian) – I wanted to give you guys an update. There’s been a campus-wide survey going around to gauge how the campus feels about disabilities and accessible education.
We had 371 response. 118 were graduate students. Out of the graduate responses, 76% thought there was a general stigma about disability, but 45% thought that this existed at Stanford. 42% were unsure about how to act around people were disabilities. 31% were disabled themselves, 65% knew someone who had a disability.
There was also a question about how people use programs we’re working on. We have a mentorship program to provide a safe space – we cater to any and all disabilities including mental health, cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, and physical disabilities and people who advocate for them. 45% of those polled in the graduate community said that they would be likely to use this program. I’m asking you guys to publicize this resource and support it. If you guys could send this out to your e-mail lists, that would be great. The application closes in a week – we’re hoping to get the program running by February and will probably become small discussions. We’re going to have different discussion every week. If you guys have any suggestions or ideas, please let me hear them.
Justin – This is probably going to run for the rest of the academic year. Is there hope to continue this into the next year?
Vivian – This is a pilot program, so the people this year will have a huge impact on it. There’s a VSO for students with disabilities – if ASSU doesn’t take it on next year, the VSO could continue it. We already have 18 applicants – including 2 graduate applicants.
3. 6:15 – Swearing in Fanuel – Sworn in.
5. 6:17 pm – Funding (Krystal)
i. Stanford French Student Association – We’re creating some events in relation to French culture. We are having a King’s cake celebration on Jan. 26th.
Krystal – This group requested $730, we recommended $720 to keep programming expenses comparable to other groups.
Funding for $720 passes by consensus.
ii. Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford – We are holding a lunar New Year gala on Jan. 30th. We are requesting 3,100.00 for Mem Aud equipment and rental.
Krystal – This group came in with an original request of of 2,730. The quote from E&LS was ~7k. So they asked for and we recommended $3,100.00 which brings them to their hard cap.
Addy- Where’s the rest of the money coming from?
Rep – The rest of the money will come from the Stanford Fund.
Addy – Is the same the event in which we’ve already given you $1,300?
Rep – Yes.
Tom – If you can’t get facilities to lower their fees, will that impact your ability to have the event?
Rep – I think the rental non-negotiable.
Tom – Will you still be able to have this event if they don’t lower the cost?
Rep – We have $2000 from Stanford Fund, $2000 from our free checking.
Justin – So this group has almost hit their hard cap?
Krystal – Yes
Addy – Do you want to use those $220 for this event?
Rep – No.
Funding for 3,100.00 passes by consensus.
iii. Stanford Taiwanese Student Association – Our group is STA. We have about 200 members. We are holding a party Jan. 29th to celebrate Chinese New Year. It will be during the evening and have dinner, play small games. We are requesting $1,430.00.
Krystal – The recommendation is for $1,430.00. Their food request of $1,260 was within the cap. For programming expenses, they requested $40, which seemed fine. They are asking for $130.00 for the Oak Lounge.
Justin – Any questions?
Fanuel – Are you involved with the other Chinese student groups?
STA rep – No, we’re doing a separate one.
Addy – Is this the event where you have the East Asian beers?
Rep – No.
Funding for $1,430.00 passes by consensus.
6. 6:26 pm – Programming Update (Addy/Joanna) – We have St. Valentine’s Day party on Feb. 11th and we’re working on the venue for grad formal.
Justin – Do you guys have any thoughts on Winter events?
Addy – We’re thinking about doing a smaller affair in Munger. We haven’t reserved a venue yet. Because of the budget constraints, it won’t be a party in Munger. We want to figure out what will fit.
Jess – We need to pick a date because it’s almost February.
Justin – We brought this up at our retreat in Nov. so we wouldn’t be stuck with this.
Addy – I think someone approached with a plan for people to organize things in this space, which she was fine with if someone else.
Addy – We were thinking about having a band event in Munger.
Jess – This room is booked for the weekend before the retreat. If people want that, we can have the party then. And this room doesn’t cost money.
Ryan – In terms of all the parties, as an off-campus student, the party in the grad residences aren’t the same. It’s more welcoming if it’s in this space.
Fanuel – How long do you have that room booked for?
Justin – Feb. 18th until 1:30 am starting at 8:30 pm.
Erik – I think we should figure out who wants to organize something, because that will define the event. I don’t want to organize the event, but I don’t want to tell someone who wants to do the event what they have to do. So we should figure out who wants to organize this, hear their idea, and evaluate it.
Justin – Munger is a noise-sensitive space. That’s something to keep in mind. I’m willing to throw an event.
Imeh – I’m willing to help throw the party.
Justin – It will be something different than a generic kegger.
Imeh – We’re going to keep the pajama party theme – have a pajama fashion show. Also having fun games throughout the event, like having a secret wall. Getting a bubble machine and pillows or an air guitar show or something. Keeping a slumber party theme.
Fanuel, Tao, and Jess volunteer to help.
So is everyone ok, especially Addy and Joanna, with us having an event?
General consensus.
Justin – If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me and Imeh an e-mail.
7. 6:37 pm – GSPB Funding Approval (George/Krystal) – The Rains CAs are throwing a karaoke party. They want to open it the the entire campus and get GSPB support. We want to kick in $300 from GSC fund.
Justin – Who owns the karaoke CDs?
Krystal – They’re getting a professional karaoke system, which has 26,000 songs, which is why they need more money.
Justin – How much are they kicking in for the rental?
Krystal – $300-400, I don’t have the exact number. It will be in the Hacienda lounge.
Funding karaoke night for $300 from GSC/GSPB karaoke line-item passes by consensus.
8. 6:41 pm – ASSU/SSE Update (Angelina/Kelsei/Raj) – Please help with Vivian’s survey so we can get a large response. If you have any questions, you can ask me.
Ryan – We’re working on rolling out the VCI fund to fund groups of students or VSOs to take on initiatives. Info will go out on Sunday on how to submit proposals.
Justin – Tomorrow afternoon, faculty senate meeting. We’ll give our student portion. If you’re interested in coming, it’s an open meeting and everyone’s welcome. I’m going to talk about our stipend and advocate for an additional GLO dean.
9. 6:43 pm – Special Fees Bill (Michael C.) – The language is the same as last week, with one additional clause added that affects the UG Senate.
Zach Warma – I’m a former UG Senator. I’m here to stand in opposition to this bill. I’ll be brief. You guys have a much longer institutional memory that the UG Senate. Previous to the bill this is repealing, groups were able to get a 10% increase without going to the students. We felt that the increase of 10% + inflation had led to an increase in special fees. After we passed this, the activity fee went down. All of a sudden, students had an ability to weigh in on this. The second clause states that the students deserve a less invasive political culture. There’s nothing in this bill to ensure the fiscal stability of Stanford student life. I don’t see why more e-mail is a bad thing. The process we have set up did a better job about getting student access to the debate. Reinstating the 10% puts us on the wrong track. I stand by the fact that our bill put a curb.
Krystal – First, I want to say, it’s not that I’m not for students outside of the grad population, but to be completely honest, I saw the special fees take-back when I was transitioning to FC chair. Since the UG Senate passed this, I don’t see it as our place to block this. If the UG Senate believes that enacting this bill is the thing to do, then I will support them.
Addy – We voted for this last year to decrease the refund request amounts. Because of this bill, has there been a decrease in refund rates?
Michael C. – Two things. The fee went down by a fairly negligible amount, ~$5 on the UG side. We saw a small drop in the refund rate.
Erik – I would have to see really hard data to believe that this rule was what made the difference. Secondly, Zach talked about democracy in the beginning of his speech, but these signatures are just to get on the ballot. Students still get a chance to vote on this – so how does this bill go against democracy?
Justin – A lot of this comes down to, if you are a voter, you need to know what you’re voting for. I don’t see how this bill will help or hurt the fee.
Addy – A lot of groups would have to go through the petitions process. For the special fees groups that affect us, it’s the petition process during which the grad students have a say. Last year, all they needed was an overall majority. So I would want most groups with a significant increase in process so that the grad students would actually have a vote.
Zach – Because this is mostly an UG thing, groups got massive budgets. Student groups had 40-70k in their budget. Making them petition gave students a chance to really hear what these groups were about. You should be able to justify it to people, and I think it’s gotten their act together.
Erik – As someone who was an undergrad here, I can say that the petition process is pretty much a rubberstamp too. People would sign for anyone who went around their dorm. More importantly, if you’re saying voters can’t make an informed decision, that’s the problem. Not 10% above or strictly above interest. If people can’t see the budget clearly online, that’s what we need to change.
Ryan – Did you guys think about adding in language to also make it so that people could go up 10%, put only so much of your budget to personnel?
Michael Cruz – That language is being developed elsewhere.
Justin – Does this need 2/3rd of voting-members, or voting-members present.
Erik – It’s 2/3rd of quorum – the current members.
Addy – We should vote against this bill because it works to increase petitions.
Erik – Doesn’t this bill also place a greater burden on smaller groups?
Addy – Grad students need the petition process to have a say.
Justin – How many groups have come to you to change voter-approved budgets?
Michael Cruz – It’s either groups doing line-items changes, or because they can’t do the events because their budgets were decreased because of allocations committee rule changes.
Tom – The petition seems favor large groups, so what’s the point of having this, as we all agree the petition process is really easy. So this policy just favors large groups.
Ping – I would vote this because it largely affects undergrads.
Zach – The petition process is a better way to educate voters than the election.
Justin – We’re going to do closing statements.
Michael Cruz – Some of the groups with 100k budget do 100k worth of work, like Legal Counseling or Speakers Bureau.
Addy – I want people to go through the process as a publicity exercise that groups should be mandated to do.
Ping – Even if groups don’t go through the petition, they still have to go to through a publicity process. Why do you want to have them target the grad students when these groups work for the larger student population?
Crystal – What I’ve heard that there’s this process, but to ensure that these groups are providing good service, then there’s something that we perhaps need to improve about this process. We should think about that. But we should never eliminate this process or even make the process easier.
Votes 7-4-2, so fails by lack of 2/3rds majority.
10. 7:23 pm – GHAC Update (Justin) – There’s going to be another townhall in April about the Rains revamp. It’s looking like what will happen is 201-220 will be moved temporarily over the summer. More info will be coming later. Other buildings will be coming next year.
11. 7:25 pm – New Business
Imeh – I sent out an e-mail about transportation about trying to get replies from students, please forward that. We’re going to be drafting a letter this week.
Adjourns 7:27 pm
Tags: Minutes