• Representatives present • Katherine Bold, ACM • Neven Fuckar, AOS • Sasha Meyers, CHE • Tyrel McQueen, CHM • Kellam Conover, CLA • Christiane Meyer, EEB • James Bickford, ENG • Tarje Nissen-Meyer, GEO • Angela Holzer, GER • Jeris Yruma, HIS • Thomas Horine, MAT • Shin-Yi Lin, MOL • Annika Peter, PHY • Daniel Raburn, PPL • Barbara Buckinx, POL • Louis Lee, PSY • Levi McLaughlin, REL • Cori Anderson, SLA • Steven Shafer, SOC • Daniel Harris, WWS •
• Delegates present • Leslie Hinkson, Black Graduate Caucus (BGC) • Joshua Friess, BUT • Lior Silberman, GCO • Carolyn Mordas, LAW • Meredith Safran, OFF •
• Councilors present • Chair Nicole Esparza, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee • Parliamentary Secretary Jack Tinsley, CPUC • Corresponding Secretary Shin-Yi Lin • Treasurer Jeff Dwoskin • Press Secretary Christine Percheski • Social Chair Aleksandar Donev • James Bickford, CPUC • Lior Silberman, CPUC, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee • Christiane Meyer, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee • Ian Parrish, CPUC Priorities Committee • Annika Peter, CPUC • Guillaume Sabouret, CPUC • Meredith Safran, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee •
• Others present • Lisa Schreyer, Assistant Dean for Residence Life and Student Affairs • Beth McKeown, Community Programs Coordinator • Karen Sigloch, Health & Life Committee • Dan Bouk, HOS • Rachel Kimbro, SOC & Task Force on Health and Wellbeing • Anita Adhitya, GEO •
• Representatives absent • Peter Locke, ANT • Sinéad Mac Namara, CEE • Chris DeCoro, COS • Kevin Amonlirdviman, ECO • Ying Wang, ELE • Peter Eubanks, FIT • Sultana Banulescu, HOS • Weifeng Cheng, MAE • Andrew Moroz, ORF • Aderemi Artis, PHI •
• Delegates absent • Heather White, Women’s Center (WOC) • Chen Wei, ACSS • Weining Man, CIGS • Marcelline Block, Hibben-Magie (HIB) •
• Councilors absent • Newsha Dau, CPUC Priorities Committee • Andrew Moroz, CPUC Resources Committee • Sara Nephew, CPUC Governance Committee • Tauna Szymanski, CPUC Judicial Committee •
• Representative seats vacant • ARC• ART• AST• COM• EAS• MUS• NES• SPO•
• Delegate seats vacant • Millstone Apartments •
The Chair, Nicole Esparza called the meeting to order around 6pm.
The Parliamentary Secretary, Jack Tinsely seated the new members: Barbara Buckinx from Politics, Daniel Raburn from Plasma Physics, Louis Lee from Psychology, and Daniel Harris from the Woodrow Wilson School.
Ms. Esparza announced that the minutes from November were not completed yet, so they cannot be approved. They will be approved at the January meeting.
Dean Russel discussed housing, fellowships, post-enrollment, professional development, time-to-degree, international student and minority recruitment. He also answered questions. [The discussion is chronological, but arranged topically to keep the flow].
Dean Russel reported that there is a considerable amount of high-level deliberations regarding apartment rents and further construction. Planning is not moving straight ahead, it is complicated. The building sites considered include the current site of the Princeton Medical Center and across the lake with an appropriate new Dinky train station. Acquisition of the medical center would be approximately a ten-year timeframe since the city would have to build a new medical center before selling the old one. Building across the lake could begin within a five-year timeframe. Dean Russel stated that Butler apartments wouldn’t last forever and would need to be replaced eventually. However, its replacement would probably not be the same design and definitely not at the same low rents. Josh Friess asked about the timeframe for tearing down Butler. Dean Russel replied that Butler would not be torn down for at least five years -- at the earliest.
Aleksandar Donev inquired about the large number of vacancies in New Lawrence. He asked if the administration thought the vacancies were due to the housing assignment process rather than skyrocketing cost that lead to the rejections of housing offers. The Dean replied that rents were definitely a factor in the vacancies. Mr. Donev stated that an alternative to building more housing is to move faculty housing into New Lawrence and move graduate students into Hibben Magie. Dean Russel said that they plan to make either Hibben or Magie completely graduate student housing after renovations; however, that it is not written in stone. Also, lowering the New Lawrence rents is on the table for consideration with the Priorities Committee.
Dean Russel reported that fellowships were the subject of a lively discussion at the first faculty meeting. The budget that supports humanities students is made up of external fellowships, assistants of instruction (AI), as well as AR funds. Funding is guaranteed for five years in most programs. An external fellowship often does not cover full tuition and must be complemented by Princeton funds. The exact policy is now on hold and being discussed. In four-year programs, student funding is usually held while they are abroad for language training, but not in five-year programs. The Graduate School is trying to work with humanities and social science chairs to raise additional funds for fellowship support of students. Levi McLaughlin stated that training abroad is essential in many humanities programs. Dean Russel acknowledged the response and stated that he has received numerous letters from faculty members stating the same sentiment. This issue is integrated into the new post-enrollment proposal. The Dean admitted that this is not a large number of students so providing the fellowships for one more year is not such a big problem. Ms. Esparza pointed out that when you come in with an outside fellowship, you can freeze that fellowship and use it at a later date. She asked if the same was possible with the Princeton fellowship. The Dean said that the Graduate School preserves only one year of University fellowship when there is a multi-year external one.
Meredith Safran pointed out that the Priorities Committee openly admitted that Princeton is running a $4-5 million deficit this year and projected a similar one for next year. The Priorities Committee has only $500,000 to spend, yet has multimillion dollars worth of requests. She continued that the cost of energy is a major factor in the University’s budget. As the cost of energy increases, the University has to spend much more money to operate. The Dean commented that most of the fellowship budget is endowed, but some of it is indeed drawn from the operating budget. Barbara Buckinx asked if you don’t get external funding, can you use your stipend to do abroad research? The Dean answered in the affirmative.
The Dean discussed post-enrollment stating that there should be a better way to deal with post-enrollment since DCC doesn’t allow students to defer/take out student loans or allow visa status to continue. The Graduate School has proposed a plan, but the plan has not been approved at any official level. Therefore, he can’t talk about it. They will hopefully talk to us about it early next semester. Mr. Tinsley asked with whom the post-enrollment proposal is being discussed. The Dean did not really want to answer; he replied that the Graduate School is conversing with parts of the administration.
The Dean was interested in our thoughts on student participation in the Career Center and McGraw Center for students not headed into research universities. He stated that Princeton is now a member of the New York Academy of Science (NYAS), making it easier for life science students to go into industry. Shin-Yi Lin stated that she heard about the NYAS and signed up, but didn’t know if other people in her department (molbio) did as well. Karen Sigloch thought that Career Services and McGraw Center are both extremely helpful and she found the Master Lecturer Series particularly useful. She suggested an email list for grad students to make them aware of all these possibilities. Someone reported that Career Services does have an email list, but students have to sign-up for it. Career Sevices should automatically sign-up people for it and people who don’t want to be on the list could then unsubscribe. Angela Holzer reported that her department, German, has their own teacher preparation. She had taught this semester along with four other instructors and will have to take the AI preparation course next spring - after teaching. She confessed that she didn’t take the AI training last semester because her departmental training was at the same time. Dean Russel responded that this should never happen. All instructors should receive training and something should be arranged between McGraw and the department. Mr. Donev pointed out that he thought the focus on McGraw and Career Services is wrong. He explained that departments have the most control over training students for positions; therefore, they should be responsible for training students to go outside of academia. Dean Russel replied that the PhD is fundamentally an academic research degree and the University would be reluctant to change that. However, there are a lot of supplementary courses available, e.g., entrepreneurial classed for chemical engineers. Faculty are not usually hired for these specific roles, but it might be a good discussion within the department.
The Dean spoke briefly about the newly hired Asst. Dean Danielle Gray. Deans Gray and Redmond have started to design a program to help in the area of minority recruitment and retention. He also mentioned that the University is trying to recruit international students, which is an issue for all US institutions. The University has tried to help international students as much as they can and he believes the Graduate School’s post-enrollment proposal should help alleviate some of the inherent visa problems.
Dean Russel reported that the sharing of data is something all of the Ivy Plus schools (the eight ivys plus Stanford, Berkeley, MIT) are interested in doing. The essential components include: admission rates, financial support packages, completion and time-to-degree, and placement of students into positions. The data has been collected by the Graduate School, but not yet released. It will first be released to the departments; it is up to the departments to share it with students. Leslie Hinkson asked if the Graduate School gives an exit survey to graduate students who end up leaving the University without completing their degree. Dean Russel replied that they had not been doing that; however, they plan on doing that in the future. Kellam Conover asked when the time-to-degree compilation will be distributed. Dean Russel stated that they will be available to the departments within the next year. The Graduate School will decide what and where they will post the information.
Christine Percheski inquired about unifying undergrad and grad communities. Dean Russel has discussed student organizations with Vice President Dickerson and there is willingness and movement to remove as many barriers as possible between undergrad/grad student organizations. There will also be about sixty grad students living in undergrad housing in the next several years. Ms. Hinkson added that the BGC has reached out to the BSU committee, and invited them to the meetings. Perhaps the administration could do things to press organizations to work together.
Ms. Lin reported that the Graduate School had originally requested from the Priorities Committee stipend increases for first-years in the humanities and social sciences. But then the request was changed to extra funding for top students only. Ms. Lin expressed her concern for giving more money to certain "top" students. Dean Russel affirmed that he did originally request increases across the board; however the amount was totally infeasible. The Priorities Committee heard the original request and asked for a new proposal; the new proposal was a compromise. Ms. Lin continued that if energy costs are really an issue this year, and will continue to be for the next five years or more, extra money for first-years seems like a bad short term solution. The cost of living should be addressed instead. Ms. Safran agreed stating that one of things she looked at when considering schools was that Princeton offered the same stipends to all students. This was reassuring and helped relaxed competition. Annika Peters commented that in physics, stipends vary by over $10k/year and it doesn’t seem to engender competition. Tyrel McQueen believed the same to be true in chemistry. Dean Russel added that inequality in stipends is exacerbated by external fellowships. The NFS is now $30,000 which dictates our competitive fellowship levels.
James Bickford replied that Butler apartments has the advantage of being extremely economical and acts as a release valve, especially for students in the humanities and social sciences. Given that new housing won’t be as cheap, Mr. Bickford wondered if the issue was being weighed with the stipend issue. Dean Russel replied that Assembly just heard about the $5 million deficit and there are 100 vacancies in grad housing this year. About 45 New Lawrence apartments are vacant, which is a substantial chunk of money lost in rents, about $1.5 million. Therefore, the administration definitely is thinking about rents. The administrators who went to the Ivy Plus meeting found that most grad students at other universities pay a much larger chunk of their stipend to housing. Ms. Hinkson stated that the University should improve Butler units rather than tear them down and perhaps it would be more cost efficient if Butler were insulated. Ms. Safran pointed out that the cost of living data needs to be accurate and public as it is very important to students applying to graduate school. For many students, the cost of living is a big issue - not just the quality of the department. Princeton provides more housing than the other Ivys, but the cost of living in the area is also higher, so affordable housing is essential to recruiting graduate students.
Mr. Conover commented on the disparity between grads and undergrads. Whitman College is going up, and the University is simultaneously upgrading undergrad dining facilities. He asked about upgrades to the GC dining facilities. The Dean replied that they have firm architecture plans for the renovation of public areas, including a potential new servery. The plan has been approved by Dining Services and if we could get Dining Services to foot bill, we’d have a new dining hall. The problem is that the undergraduate renovations were approved ten years ago by the trustees and it did not include graduate renovations; however, there might be action soon. Ms. Esparza asked if the University is actively raising money for GC renovations. The Dean answered in the affirmative stating that he has been meeting with grad alumni around the country and in Asia to help raise money.
Anita Adhitya brought up the rising energy costs again and asked if there was any talk of doing things to save energy and thus lowering costs. Dean Russel said that he didn’t know very much on the issue. Ian Parrish reported that Mark Burstein, the new Vice President of Administration, had just finished drafting report on the conservation of energy on campus that will be made public eventually. The Dean added that President Tilghman announced that any new buildings would focus on energy efficiency. Ms. Adhitya stated that current buildings are the issue due to lack of conservation.
Dean Russel then thanked Assembly for the invitation to the GSG and pointed out that the comments show that grad students are heavily involved in the University and their efforts are appreciated.
Ms. Esparza introduced Rachel Kimbro and Ian Parrish and thanked them for all their work. Mr. Parrish and Ms. Kimbro presented the main points of the Task Force’s recommendations, including reducing of the dependent health care fee. The full report is available here. The floor was opened for questions.
Ms. Hinkson asked why the dental plan was not mentioned in the recommendations since the service quality is very bad. Mr. Parrish replied that the dental plan that grad students use is the same for undergrads and faculty. There will be no action taken to relieve the situation; however, everyone is aware of large dissatisfaction. Part of the problem is that there are few dental facilities in town. There is a medical school where you can get discounted rate.
Mr. Friess asked if there were any recommendations on health coverage for opposite-sex domestic partners. Mr. Parrish answered that the coverage is not going to happen. There has been uniform opposition on grounds that opposite-sex partners can get married. Mr. Donev asked what happens to the actual task force recommendations now. Who decides? Mr. Parrish answered that some recommendations are under consideration at the Priorities Committee. Typically those recommendations that do not require capitol funding go to PriComm and the recommendations that do require capital (like building a new Health Center) go to the Development Office.
Mr. Tinsley asked if incoming students who need child care would have the correct information included in a packet of some sort. Mr. Parrish replied in the affirmative stating that together with their admission offer they receive a guide on the cost of living, which contains some of this information. He hopes that it will contain much more information, but it probably won’t happen this next year. Ms. Hinkson asked about the child care coordinator. Mr. Parrish replied that Alison Nelson is for now the official contact for childcare issues.
Ms. Safran reported that at the Priorities Committee open meeting an undergrad PriComm representative asked whether grad students would be willing to subsidize extended summer hours at McCosh. However, given that we heard that PriComm might not have much money, there might not be any point. Mr.Parrish replied that a separate summer fee is not under consideration at this time. Keeping McCosh open during those hours is not necessarily the cheapest/best option. There may be other ways of dealing with it and this is currently under investigation.
Treasurer Jeff Dwoskin had sent his report in advance of the meeting.
Mr. Dwoskin reported that at the last meeting we did not have quorum so we have to hear November’s request. There were no new requests. Mr. Dwoskin recommended $158 to be given to the Butler Wine and Cheese party, per the new funding guidelines. Mr. Friess, representing Butler, stated that at least 100 students attended the event. Ms. Lin made a motion to give $158 to Butler. It was seconded and passed.
Mr. Tinsley presented the Election Resolutions. He explained that Assembly had to vote to implement the resolutions. He pointed out that since we only have four members of the Election Committee we cannot approve resolution 1, which states that the Election Committee should have at least five members. Mr. Tinsley recommended that we vote on them in mass unless there are any objections. He opened the floor up for questions. There was some discussion as to whether it is better to have an email account rather than a listserv (resolution 2). Mr. Tinsley stated that resolution 2 had a typo; it should say email and listserv.
Mr. Friess interjected that the Elections Committee should have five members for reasons of tie-breaking. He then volunteered himself as the fifth member. Ms. Esparza made a motion to approve Mr. Friess as the fifth member of the Elections Committee. It was seconded and passed without debate.
A member of Assembly asked if making the Election Committee implement these resolutions would unreasonably constrain them. The Election Committee didn’t seem to think the resolutions would be a problem. Mr. Friess stated that resolution 3 should definitely be passed. He made a motion to approve resolution 3. It was seconded by Tyrel McQueen. Mr. Friess then stated that 5 and 4 were important too; therefore, Assembly should pass all. Ms. Safran seconded the motion. Someone amended the motion to approve 2-6. The amendment was accepted and seconded. Ms. Esparza restated the motion: The motion is approve resolutions 2-6 and change the wording in resolution 2 to add account and listserv. The motion was seconded and passed without debate.
Mr. Silberman added that even though we did not ask the Elections Committee to keep five members we should request that they inform us if someone leaves the committee. It was agreed by Assembly and the Elections Committee.
Mr. Dwoskin reported that an email was sent last week from the Graduate School about changes in the grad lot. Mr. Dwoskin explained that Lot 25 is only for graduate students and Lot 25A is now officially three-fourths grad students and one-fourth faculty. The division of Lot 25A was previously split this way unofficially, but is now official. The official split actually benefits grad students by not allowing faculty to take up more spots. Mr. Parrish stated that he has seen many non-grad cars parked on Western Way. Mr. Dwoskin said that he would look into it and report it to Public Safety.
Ms. Lin asked if Assembly thought that the GSG should send out a global email clarifying the parking situation. Assembly seemed to think it was a good idea. Ms. Lin said that the Executive Committee would send out a global.
Ms. Esparza reported that the Executive Committee had met three times since the last Assembly meeting. At the next meeting we will have an update from the Academic Affairs committee who has been working on Library assessment.
Ms. Esparza announced that President Tilghman will be our guest at the March Assembly meeting. One of Tilghman’s main goals as president is to increase diversity in the faculty, especially regarding women in sciences and engineering. She will be talking about her plan to do so and how she sees the future of women in academia.
Ms. Esparza reported that at the next meeting, the Elections Committee will present their plan for the March GSG election. She encouraged members of the Assembly to consider running for GSG office and telling others to run as well. She stated that if anyone would like to meet with her and discuss what is involved in being the chair, she would love to meet with them. Christiane Meyer asked if the members of the Executive Committee could quickly talk about what they do. The officers complied and gave a quick run down on their positions.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:56PM.