Minutes of the GSG Meeting, 8 January 2002

Summary of the Minutes

1. Call to order
2. Approval of previous minutes
3. Officer reports
   • Parliamentary Secretary's report
4. Guest of the Assembly: Dr. Daniel Silverman
5. Officer reports
   • Social Chair's report
   • Treasurer's report
     • ACSS Spring Festival Celebration Series
     • CIGS/ACSS Chinese Dance Troupe performance
     • Queer Graduate Caucus Valentine's Day events
     • Butler Committee Chinese New Year party
   • Chair's report
6. Old Business
   • Elections Committee report
   • Parking and Transportation Committee report
7. New Business
8. Scheduling of next meeting
9. Adjournment

MINUTES OF THE GSG MEETING, 8 January 2002

ATTENDANCE

Representatives Present: ACM Cynthia Rudin; AOS Anita Adhitya; CHE Donnell Butler (proxy for Eric Adelizzi); EAS Brigitta Lee; EEB Gregory O'Mullan; ECO Tanjim Hossain; ELE Bill Jordan; ENG Kerry Bystrom; GEO Meredith Galanter Hastings; MAT Lior Silberman; MOL Dave Shrom; MUS Betsey Biggs (proxy for Emily Snow); SOC Nicole Esparza; WWS Tony Fiori

Delegates Present: GCHC Lior Silberman; Butler Huiyan Yang; Lawrence Radhika Wijetunge; BGC Ade Artis; Women's Centre Heather White; ACSS Fei Sun; CIGS Weining Man

Councillors Present: CPUC, Exec Brigitta Lee (EAS); CPUC Lior Silberman (MAT); CPUC Toni Fiori (WWS); Gov Anita Adhitya (AOS)

Others Present; Dr. Danny Silverman: Director of Health Services and Chief Medical Officer; James P. Vere (ECO): University of Hong Kong; Cemile "Blue" Gludal (MOL): QGC; Aleksandar Donev (PACM): QGC

Officers Absent: Chair Scott Miller; Corr. Sec'y Eric Adelizzi; Press Sec'y Meredith Safran

Representatives Absent: ARC Zach Ridley; ANT Riaz Tejani; CEE Sinéad MacNamara; CLA Meredith Safran; FIT Juliet O'Brien; GER Michael House; HIS Karoline Cook; MAE Brendan McAndrew; OPR Patrick Gerland; ORFE Mike Ludkovski; PHY Tamar Friedmann; POL Andrew Erickson; PPPL Ethan Schartman; PSY Cara Talaska; REL Philippa Townsend

Delegates Absent: The following representative seats were vacant: ART, AST, CHM, COM, COS, HOS, NES, PHI, SLA, SPO

The following delegate seats were vacant: Hibben-Maggie, Millstone, Off-Campus.

1. CALL TO ORDER
   • Lior Silberman, Acting Chair, called the meeting to order at 6:08pm.

2. APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES
   • Kerry Bystrom made a motion to approve the minutes and was seconded by Tanjim Hossain. The motion passed with none opposed.

3. OFFICER REPORTS I

   3.1 Parliamentary Secretary's Report -- Lior Silberman

   • Mr. Silberman reported that there was a new member to the Assembly, Karoline Cook (HIS).

4. GUEST OF THE ASSEMBLY: DR. DANIEL SILVERMAN
   • Mr. Silberman introduced Dr. Daniel Silverman, Executive Director of Princeton University Health Services and Chief Medical Officer of the University.
   • Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that he would spend most of his time at the meeting giving an 'infomercial' about health and wellness in the University.
   • Dr. Silverman began by explaining his position in the University. He noted that he had two titles, explaining that the second grew out of conversations with President Tilghman, Provost Amy Gutmann, and Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson. Dr. Silverman stated that he wanted to assume a role with a broader mandate and to look at the health of the entire University community, including not only undergraduates but also graduate students, faculty, staff etc. Dr. Silverman stated that he felt that one of major issues at Princeton University was that there was not a lot of balance in people's lives, noting that there was a heavy focus on academic life and not enough on other aspects such as well-being. Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that he had been involved in population health medicine in the past, and that it had occurred to him that there are distinct populations within the larger Princeton University population and that they have different needs. Dr. Silverman stated that he wanted to come up with a better way of dealing with those needs. He noted that Senior Vice President for Administration Charles Kalmbach has a business and corporate background, understands the need for a healthy and happy population, and wants to make the University a better place to work and one that also values its human capital.
   • Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that he wanted to share with them his initial goals, which were set out in September. One of the first goals was to bridge divisions within health services itself and to introduce a more integrated model of healthcare. He noted, for example, that there are schisms between health and counselling. Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that he was beginning an integrative clinical conference to bring the medical and psychological practitioners together. He noted that some good models of a more integrated approach are the eating disorders and drug related teams. Dr. Silverman reiterated that one of the goals was to bring people together. He noted that he had also noticed that there were some gaps in the health system.
   • Dr. Silverman stated that another goal is to encourage Health Services to create and strengthen collaborative relationships across University. He noted that this was being achieved by, for example, attending the GSG meeting, meeting with Deans of all the residential colleges, and so on. Dr. Silverman said he wanted to talk about how balance in people's lives at Princeton University can be created. He noted again that he wished to consider the wellness and different needs of the entire University population.
   • Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that he would like the Health Services to play an active role in the 4-year residential colleges. He pointed out that if 4-year residential colleges are intended to be part of a seamless educational environment, then health is relevant.
   • Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that he wished to work on enhancing clinical services, and ensuring adequate staffing and administrative and resource systems. Dr. Silverman noted that he had spent a lot of time working on Priorities Committee (PriComm) submissions. He informed the Assembly that over $1 000 000 had been requested for health services. Dr. Silverman reported that Provost Gutmann had presented a preliminary report at a recent CPUC meeting and that the budget was tight, but suggested that funding for Health Services will happen. Dr. Silverman suggested that this year's funding requests could lay out a road map for funding that he hoped could be met over the next few years.
   • Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that a specific request for $90 000 for more summer funding had been made. He suggested this was mostly geared towards graduate students and undergraduates working on summer projects. Dr. Silverman did not know what the actual amount for grants would be for this year, but hoped to be able to do some creative accounting . He stated that he was committed to increasing the amount of counselling time available during summer, and hopes that other medical services will also be increased over the summer.
   • Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that another goal was to begin collaboration with the Office of Development. He mentioned that he had hoped to endow critical health care provider positions, but had discovered that such positions are not endowed at Princeton. Dr. Silverman noted the University has a superb varsity athletes programme, but that not all members of the University community are involved in that and that programmes for non-varsity athletes are not as good but could benefit from athletic medicine.
   • Dr. Silverman proposed a health and wellness centre that would be open to all in Princeton University community, including undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff and dependents. He suggested that this idea was both innovative and unusual, noting that many fellow academic institutions are building gyms but not integrating other health aspects such as holistic, mind, body, and nutrition into one place that meets all the needs for students, including stress management, physical therapy, also traditional internal medicine. Dr. Silverman stated that he had had numerous conversations with administrators and is getting positive feedback regarding this idea. He suggested that this was probably a future plan, estimating that it might happen in 5-7 years. He suggested that perhaps it could be integrated with a renovated Dillon gym. Dr. Silverman suggested that President Tilghman and current administrators were interested in improving general quality of life within the University as well as sustaining the research quality of University.
   • Dr. Silverman ended by noting that he had arrived at Princeton in August of last year and had been busy thus far but suggested that progress had been good. He opened the floor to questions.
   • Leonard Pease said that he was delighted to hear that summer funding was one of the priorities, as it was a critical issue. Dr. Silverman stated that he realised its importance and didn't have problem with increasing summer services, but that budget restrictions were the issue. He reported that he had had conversations with the Dean of the Graduate School, William Russel, and with Associate Dean for Student Affairs F. Joy Montero, noting that they were strong supporters of the requests from graduate students and considered them reasonable, but that it largely came down to economic issues.
   • Mr. Pease also stated that it was challenging to get an appointment rather than going through urgent care and asked if there was any possibility of reducing the waiting time. Dr. Silverman noted that demand had been increasing and that the number of full-time employees had been decreasing. He reported that he had been given some money to hire another practitioner. Dr. Silverman also informed the Assembly that one of Nurse Practitioners had left but that, because of various human resources issues, a replacement could not be recruited until about a month ago. Dr. Silverman stated that it was likely that a male practitioner would be employed and that he would be starting February. Dr. Silverman noted that men felt underserved as there were very few male practitioners, and that he would try to increase the number of male practitioners. Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that the new employee would likely be a full-time Physician Assistant. He reported that there would also hopefully a new health physician, who would work with students about 30% of the time, and that this practitioner was currently waiting to become licensed in New Jersey. Dr. Silverman stated that he was unsure if the same delay that Mr. Pease had experienced also applied to getting appointments with the Counselling Centre, speculating that the delay would be less for the Counselling Centre, but that a request from PriComm for counselling services had been made.
   • Weining Man considered the plans that were being proposed impressive. With regard to summer services, she asked if services could be improved just a little if it was not possible to provide clinical care over the whole weekend or over a whole night. Ms. Man asked if there could just be one person who could take care of urgent or simple issues and gave a couple of examples of problems with the summer hours that she had personally had.
   • Dr. Silverman explained the dilemma. He explained that 24 hour / 7 days a week service was offered during semester because inpatient services are offered during the year. The inpatient service was closed at the end of the school year since McCosh can't afford to run 17 bed unit over summer; the staff are 10 month employees. There is no staffing over weekends and it was not possible to employ just one person over this time, since then someone to do clerical work and so on would also be required. Dr. Silverman stated that at least phone availability over the weekend might be considered, noting that this would be helpful for most of the cases that come in. However, this would require paying a practitioner to be on-call. Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that the University had negotiated a 20% discount with Princeton Medical Center. He reiterated that more money was needed, and that it would be helpful if Deans Russel and Montero and graduate students were to go to tell the University that we needed this. Dr. Silverman suggested that perhaps even a 3 hour clinic could be run on weekends.
   • Tony Fiori asked where on list of priorities summer funding ranked. Dr. Silverman said that ranking the requests had been a very painful process. Dr. Silverman noted that some people on PriComm viewed Health Services from the point of view of how long a wait in Urgent Care is. However, he suggested that a situation in which there are students with suicidal disorders and insufficient counsellors is a more serious than waiting time in Urgent Care as the consequences of not meeting this need could be more serious. He stated that he had to make decisions about whether Health Services could do more extensive job when they were open from September to June.
   • Kerry Bystrom noted that an issue that concerns most graduate students about summer hours is that it is very expensive to seek off-campus care. Ms. Bystrom also stated that she was happy to hear that Dr. Silverman considered psychological counselling to be very important. She questioned the current situation in which students only have access to ten counselling sessions at McCosh before being sent away to services outside of the University, noting that the cost of seeking outside care was prohibitive for most graduate students.
   • Dr. Silverman noted the dilemma of limited resources and of giving one student 20 sessions at the expense of depriving another student of counselling. He stated that there were a limited number of physicians. Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that Vice President Dickerson travels around the country to do leadership fundraising and that he has been asking for funds for health services so that a scholarship can be made available to pay for costs if a student has to be sent outside of the University for more or long-term care. Dr. Silverman also informed the Assembly that it is an outside party that makes decisions regarding the Student Health Plan Benefits. He noted that some 'hidden funds' do exist and that an effort is made by Health Services to subsidise the costs of being sent to outside care. However, funds are limited and he was trying to raise more and to build better relationships with development people. Dr. Silverman informed the Assembly that the University self funds the Student Health Plan and tries to break even in the long-term and to spend what is taken in; in recent years, the University has probably been subsidising the cost of health care. Dr. Silverman suggested that the Student Health Plan is fairly good in what it covers. He also noted that he considered it more cost effective to open the clinic than to pay emergency fees.
   • Several more questions awaited however, as the allotted agenda time had passed, Mr. Silberman closed the discussion. Dr. Silverman welcomed questions outside of the GSG meeting. Mr. Silberman thanked Dr. Silverman for attending the meeting. In closing, Dr. Silverman stated that the mission of Health Services was service, rather than benefits, and that Health Services try to take the resources given and spread them as effectively as possible. He reiterated that he appreciated the dilemmas of graduate students.

5. OFFICER REPORTS II

   5.1 Social Chair's Report -- Kerry Bystrom

   • Ms. Bystrom said that Ms. Man, who had temporarily left the room, had reported that the International Games Night was highly successful, with more attendees than could fit into the room. Ms. Bystrom reiterated that the GSG was keen to cooperate with international students and other groups.
   • Ms. Bystrom announced that the Valentine's Day would be held on Friday 14 February in the Frist Multipurpose Room. She stated that the GSG was trying to get co-sponsorship from the Graduate School and Frist. Ms. Bystrom informed the Assembly that she would be leaving for a semester abroad on 21 January and that Sinead MacNamara would be running the dance. She solicited volunteers noting that, in particular, she was seeking three volunteers for posters. Mr. Silberman noted that the next meeting is only two days before the Dance; Ms. Bystrom stated that that was why she needed to get volunteers for publicity now.

   5.2 Treasurer's Report -- Donnell Butler

   • Mr. Butler informed the Assembly that four funding requests had been submitted prior to the deadline, and that these had been emailed to the Assembly beforehand.

     ACSS Spring Festival Celebration Series

     • Mr. Butler informed the Assembly that a request had been made by the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars (ACSS) for co-sponsorship of their Spring Festival celebration.
     • Fei Sun, representing ACSS, thanked the GSG for their co-sponsorship of the ACSS Moon Festival. He also noted that some smaller activities, such as the ACSS co-sponsored International Games Night, had been held and hoped that this could be continued in following years.
     • Mr. Sun outlined the proposed ACSS Spring Festival Celebration Series, informing the Assembly that ACSS was currently planning to have movies on 7 February; a Chinese dance troupe performance on 8 February followed by a dance party in the Frist Multipurpose Room and games in the hallway and karaoke; and a lantern festival dinner on Sunday 16 February to end the Spring Festival celebration series. Mr. Sun stated that the expected cost of the event was $1740 and that ACSS was requesting $700 from the GSG.
     • Ms. Man commented that the recently held International Games night had been very successful with an attendance of more than 100 people, of whom approximately 60 had stayed until midnight and 20 until 3-4am to continue playing games. She noted that many people had written comments with positive feedback. Ms. Man explained that she was mentioning this as it was partly related to the ACSS proposal since a games night would be held again as part of the Spring Festival celebrations.
     • Brigitta Lee asked how this year's budget request for the Spring Festival compared to last year's. Mr. Butler, noting that this information had been in the email that he had sent out, informed the Assembly that the GSG has funded various ACSS events in the past few years but not this particular event. He stated that the request equated to $2 per graduate student, assuming the estimated attendance was accurate. Mr. Butler proceeded to read out the Treasurer's comments that he had emailed to the Assembly:

       The funding requests do NOT overlap as this request from the ACSS covers all the celebration series events NOT including the dance troupe performance which is being requested from CIGS in funding request number one.

       As previously stated, the GSG has funded numerous ACSS events in the past three years, but never this particular event. The budget is reasonable and the request for $700 represents $2 per graduate student (assuming the projected graduate student attendance 350 is accurate). $700 represents 20% of the $3,480 co-sponsorship budget for 2002-2003. Instead of hitting the budget, the contribution could certainly come out of the surplus (which currently stands over $4000). The total request for the celebration series (not including the dance troupe) is $700 (40%) of their full $1,740 budget.

     • Mr. Silberman suggested considering this request with the next request (below), even though they were submitted separately, since the ACSS Spring Festival event includes the dance troupe performance.

     CIGS/ACSS Chinese Dance Troupe performance

     • Ms. Man explained that the two funding requests -- the ACSS Spring Festival Celebration Series request and the CIGS/ACSS Chinese Dance Troupe performance request -- were separate because the dancing troupe is also sponsored by the East Asian Studies department and the USG. Also, the events are being held at separate times and people could choose to go to just the dance performance or just the karaoke etc.
     • Tony Fiori stated that he did not mind considering the two events separately, but asked how much the requests were for. Mr. Butler informed him that $500 had been requested for the Chinese Dance Troupe event.
     • Mr. Butler confirmed that there was $4000 in the budget for co-sponsorship. He noted that, traditionally, this was the month in which many requests came in; the other time of year that a large number of requests are made is in the summer, when the GSG receives requests from the Graduate School for funding. Mr. Fiori asked if the GSG fiscal year was the same as the University fiscal year. Mr. Butler informed the Assembly that the fiscal years were slightly offset.
     • Ms. Lee recalled that the GSG currently has a surplus, which Mr. Butler confirmed.

     • Mr. Fiori moved to fund the ACSS Spring Festival by $700 and the Chinese Dance Troupe performance by $500. He was seconded by Mr. Pease. Both motions passed with no opposition.

     Queer Graduate Caucus Valentine's Day Events

     • Cemile "Blue" Gludal, representing the Queer Graduate Caucus (QGC), informed the Assembly that the Queer Graduate Caucus is planning to hold two events around Valentine's Day and was seeking co-sponsorship of these events.
     • Ms. Gludal informed the Assembly that the first Valentine's Day event was to be held on 14 February at the D-Bar. It was noted that it unfortunately clashed with the GSG Valentine's Day Dance, but that timing had depended on availability of the D-Bar; Ms. Gludal said she hoped that people would enjoy both events. The aim of the event is to provide a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer -friendly environment, especially for those who would not enjoy Valentine's Day in a mostly heterosexual environment. Ms. Gludal stated that she had talked to people who would not mind going to the GSG dance, but who would like a more queer friendly environment. She informed the Assembly that an attendance of 100 was expected and that the amount requested, which would be for decorations and refreshments, equated to $2.40 per graduate student.
     • Ms. Gludal informed the Assembly that the QGC was also requesting funding for a sex positive workshop to be held on the afternoon of Saturday 15 February. She informed the Assembly that a sex educator from Philadelphia would be speaking and that this educator held such workshops for a lot of universities and companies. Ms. Gludal stated that the workshop would be very inclusive and be relevant to everyone. She informed the Assembly that current University policy states that every event about sex that is funded by the University must be about safe sex. She noted that this was not all there was to know about sex and suggested that it was important that knowledge needed to have a healthy sex life be made available. Ms. Gludal informed the Assembly that this would be the first time such an event would be held at Princeton. She stated that the QGC was requesting $300 for set-up and questions and answers, and $20 for flyers. A venue had not yet been confirmed and they were waiting for this; clean-up costs were therefore not yet known.
     • Mr. Butler asked if funding from other sources would be obtained. Ms. Gludal stated that the QGC was trying to find other sources of funding for both events. She stated that Dean Montero might be able to offer some help, and that the Queer Alumni Association could also help but that this was an outside source of funding and the QGC was required to go through all internal sources first. She noted that the Women's Centre cannot fund the workshop since it was not all about 'safe sex' and thus they were not permitted to do so by University policy. Mr. Butler suggested approaching sources outside of administration. He suggested contacting the USG, as there was potential for high undergraduate attendance. Alexander Donev suggested that this might not be a good idea as it was a 'behind the scenes' way of obtaining non- 'safe sex' funding for undergraduates. Mr. Donev stated that although the event is open to all, the primary group targeted is graduate students. Mr. Silberman noted that only those who can enter the D-Bar will be able to attend the party.
     • Ms. Bystrom made a motion to co-sponsor the QGC events for the full amount requested. The motion passed with none opposed. Ms. Gludal stated that she would notify the GSG if co-sponsorship was procured from other sources.

     Butler Committee Chinese New Year Party

     • Mr. Butler informed the Assembly that a late request had been made by the Butler Committee for funding for an event on 1 February. He suggested moving the discussion to email.
     • Huiyan Yang apologised for the late submission. She informed the Assembly that 1 February is the Chinese New Year. She stated that the Butler committee has held a Chinese New Year party for past two years and that it (and the food!) were a big attraction. Ms. Yang stated that the Butler Committee had spent $600 on last year's party and that the food had run out. This year, they were planning to spend $800 and were requesting $400 of this from the GSG. Ms. Yang informed the Assembly that the party would also have Chinese decorations and small table games, such as card games and chess, to encourage people to stay longer. She suggested that fireworks were also being considered. On the latter point, Mr. Silberman suggested talking to the Fire Marshal and Public Safety. Ms. Man offered to lend games that CIGS had purchased for International Games Night for the event, an offer that was gratefully received.
     • Mr. Pease made a motion to fund the Chinese New Year party by $400 and was seconded by Ade Artis. The motion passed with no opposition.

   • Mr. Butler stated that he would send out 1) a summary of the meeting between the GSG Healthcare Committee and Dr. Silverman, and 2) a solicitation by the Student Health Advisory Board for graduate student participation. Mr. Silberman suggested that those graduate students who were vocal about health issues might consider becoming involved.

   5.3 Chair's Report -- Lior Silberman (for Scott Miller)

   • Mr. Silberman reported that the Executive Committee had met several times to discuss reform of the housing draw and other student life issues.

6. OLD BUSINESS

   6.1 Elections Committee Report

   • Mr. Silberman noted that he had emailed to the Assembly a plan for the GSG officer elections. Mr. Silberman recalled that an elections committee had been formed last month, reported that he had sent out an elections plan by email last night, and stated that the plan had to be approved by the Assembly. He solicited questions.
   • Mr. Silberman summarised the elections plan as follows: an email will be sent out soliciting nominations and any graduate student can make nominations, those nominated are asked if they wish to run for election, those who wish to run for election submit a statement that is posted on the GSG website and advertised, a meet the candidates night will be held, an election will be held online, and a report will be made at the March meeting. Mr. Butler noted that the nominations deadline is 14 February.
   • Mr. Fiori moved to approve the elections plan and was seconded by Mr. Hossain. The motion passed with none opposed.

   6.2 Parking and Transportation Committee Report

   • Mr. Silberman informed the Assembly that discussions regarding the shuttle were still taking place. It was not certain when shuttle service would start. Mr. Silberman noted that, once a plan is determined, there will be a need to advertise the shuttle to the graduate student body.

7. NEW BUSINESS
   • Mr. Silberman solicited items of New Business but none were forthcoming.

8. SCHEDULING OF NEXT MEETING
   • The next meeting is scheduled for 6pm, 12 February, venue TBA.

9. ADJOURNMENT
   • The meeting was adjourned at 7:25pm.

   Respectfully submitted,

   Anita Adhitya
   Recording Secretary