• Representatives present • Katherine Bold, ACM • Alexandros Ntelekos, CEE • Sasha Meyers, CHE • Tyrel McQueen, CHM • Christiane Meyer, EEB • Karin Sigloch, proxy for Tarje Nissen-Meyer, GEO • Jeris Yruma, HIS • Sultana Banulescu, HOS • Lior Silberman, proxy for 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 • Daniel Harris, WWS •
• Delegates present • Annika Peter, proxy for Joshua Friess, BUT •
• Councilors present • Chair Shin-Yi Lin • Parliamentary Secretary Jack Tinsley, CPUC • Corresponding Secretary Danielle Osler • Recording Secretary Annika Peter, CPUC • Christiane Meyer, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee • Guillaume Sabouret, CPUC • Karin Sigloch, Health and Life • Lior Silberman, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee, Facilities •
• Others present • Anita Adhitya, GEO • Beth McKeown, Community Program Coordinator • Medini Padmanabhan, ELE • Susan Robison, PSY • Assistant Dean Lisa Schreyer, Graduate School •
• Representatives absent • Neven Fuckar, AOS • Peter Locke, ANT • Kellam Conover, CLA • Christopher DeCoro, COS • Kevin Amonlirdviman, ECO • Ying Wang, ELE • James Bickford, ENG • Peter Eubanks, FIT • Angela Holzer, GER • Weifeng Chen, MAE • Samir Soneji, OPR • Aderemi Artis, PHI • Steven Shafer, SOC •
• Delegates absent • Leslie Hinkson, Black Graduate Caucus • Heather White, Women’s Center (WOC) • Chen Wei, ACSS • Weining Man, CIGS • Neven Fuckar, GCO • Marcelline Block, Hibben-Magie (HIB) • Jennifer Jordan, LAW • Meredith Safran, OFF •
• Councilors absent • Jeff Dwoskin, Treasurer • Megan Sullivan, Social Chair • James Bickford, CPUC • Newsha Dau, CPUC Priorities Committee • Nicole Esparza, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee • Josh Friess, CPUC Resources Committee • Sara Nephew, CPUC Governance Committee • Ian Parrish, CPUC Priorities Committee • Meredith Safran, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee & Academic Affairs • Tauna Szymanski, CPUC Judicial Committee •
• Representative seats vacant • ARC• ART• AST• COM• EAS• MUS• NES• ORF• SPO•
• Delegate seats vacant • Millstone Apartments •
Chair Shin-Yi Lin called the meeting to order at 6:10 pm.
Ms. Lin introduced the new Civil and Environmental Engineering representative, Alexandros Ntelekos.
Ms. Peter reported that the February minutes were not yet ready. Several corrections to the April minutes had been submitted and included in the text. Jack Tinsley stated that he wished to amend the minutes to more accurately reflect changes to the by-laws. Assembly approved the April minutes with Mr. Tinsley's clarifying statement.
Ms. Lin gave the following explanatory statement concerning the new by-election procedures:
Before we begin the elections, I'd like to briefly lay out the
procedure:
Each candidate will be asked to make a brief statement to Assembly (for
those who cannot be present, I will read any candidate statement s/he has
provided us beforehand). Then, there will be a brief question and answer
period. Finally, we will conduct the vote by secret ballot. All candidates
for both positions will be Q&Aed at the same time so that we can
conduct both votes simultaneously. At the end of the Q&A session, all
eligible voters which have been marked with the highlighter on the
folder
containing the ballot forms will write down their choices for
Parliamentary Secretary on the white paper and Press Secretary on the
orange
paper. When you vote, you are to prioritize the candidates #1 being the
most favored on the ballot. You do not need to include every candidate
in
your ordered list include only those you would like to elect,
individuals
not included will be counted as non-approval. You also have the option of
saying none of the above to
disapprove of all candidates. For my benefit, please write your ordered
list
of approved candidates at the top of the page, draw a line across the
ballot, then list your unapproved candidates or none of the above
below
the line.
I will leave the meeting to conduct the counts. At that time, Danielle as Corresponding Secretary will run the Assembly meeting, skipping forward to Reports section of the meeting, so that we can continue with business.
The candidates for Parliamentary Secretary were asked to make their statements. In alphabetical order, the candidates made statements in addition to the written statements submitted in advance of the meeting:
Ms. Lin asked Assembly members to ask any questions they might have for the candidates. Alexandros Ntelekos asked Mr. Raburn if his involvement with the GC Coffee House would prevent him from committing the necessary time to the GSG. Mr. Raburn answered that running the GC Coffee House did not take much of his time.
Ms. Lin then asked for statements from the candidates for Press Secretary.
At this point, Assembly voted on both positions. As per the new by-laws, Assembly appointed Christiane Myers and Mr. Ntelekos to assist Ms. Lin in counting the votes. While the votes were being counted, Corresponding Secretary Danielle Oster acted as Chair, and Assembly heard the departmental reports from Slavic Languages and Literature and the Woodrow Wilson School.
Ms. Padmanabhan was elected as Parliamentary Secretary and Ms. Robison was elected as Press Secretary (please see the official tally). Ms. Lin thanked all candidates for running, and noted that all were very well qualified.
Ms. Lin made the following statement concerning a request for graduate
student volunteers:
''Dean Montero contacted me in April to solicit at least two nominations
for
the resident's Advisory Committee on Architecture. Of these two nominees,
one graduate student will be appointed to serve on this committee that
addresses general campus planning issues. They are looking for a student
who
will have broad interest in campus life, in general, as affected by
buildings and grounds. Vice Provost Robert Barnett convenes this group of
students, faculty and senior administrators 2-4 times each year. Andrew
Miller was the former graduate student representative. As this position is
a
university level position, we felt it would be appropriate if our nominees
were officially approved by Assembly. Therefore, at this time, I would
like
to ask if any individuals would like to serve on this committee. Carmen
Drahl (of Chemistry) and Anita Adhitya (of Geosciences) have contacted me
already to voice their interest in serving.''
Ms. Lin asked if there were any others who would like to be nominated for the position. Louis Lee said that he would like to run for nomination. At this time, Ms. Lin asked for brief statements from the candidates:
Each voting representative was allotted two votes. The vote totals for the candidates were:
Ms. Lin said she would pass on the names of Ms. Adhitya and Ms. Drahl to Dean Montero.
Ms. Anderson made the following statement:
Mr. Silberman asked about the strenuous course requirement and the late time at which students take their generals. Ms. Anderson stated that graduate students take generals after their fifth semester in graduate school because the course requirements (especially the language requirements for the master's degree) make it unrealistic to take generals earlier than that. She also confirmed that there are no oral exams as part of generals, and that everyone must take two Slavic languages. Someone asked if Czech was offered. Ms. Anderson said that technically yes, it was offered, but options were fairly limited, especially in terms of literature.
Mr. Harris stated that the Widrow Wilson School had about 200 students in its graduate programs, most of whom were master's students. The Woodrow Wilson School has many services that run parallel to university services, including its own Career Center. The following were concerns of WWS students:
Ms. Sigloch and Chris Wildeman (the other graduate student sitting on the Public Safety Advisory Committee) had met with Steven Healy, Director of Public Safety, two weeks prior. They discussed the following issues:
Since Kellam Conover was not present to give his report on his mentoring project, Assembly moved on to:
Ms. Lin made the following report:
For the past few years, the GSG (in cooperation with the Office of Community
and State Affairs) has organized a Furniture Drive at the end of the school
year. Graduating seniors who will be moving out of the dorms will donate
unwanted furniture and household items to the GSG to sell to graduate
students at low prices, with the proceeds going to local charities. This
year, I have been contacted by Karen Woodbridge and she recommends that the
Drive should be held on Tuesday, May 31 from 2-7pm and Wednesday, June 1
from 10-7 p.m. We will have only one location to simplify the logistics. At
this time, we are looking for people who are willing to either help organize
the Drive or work shifts on the two days of the Drive. All volunteers get
one piece of furniture for free. Please note that organizing the drive will
not take too much time because this is something that is done annually and
Karen Woodbridge takes care of a lot of it for us. Most of the Exec
Committee coincidentally
will be out of town during this last week, so we'd really appreciate it if
at least one generous individual would volunteer their time to be head
organizer.
Mr. Silberman and Ms. Lin both stated that Assembly members should email their constituents about the furniture drive and about volunteering. Mr. Tinsley said that he and several other chemical engineers volunteered at the last furniture drive, and enjoyed it. He suggested that Assembly members ask people personally to volunteer in addition to sending out an email. Mr. Lee asked about the pricing of furniture. Mr. Silberman stated that the volunteers set the prices.
Ms. Schreyer commented that the PACE center also needed a graduate student volunteer to sit on the search committee for a new director. She said that she thought the time commitment would be minimal (a few hours spread out over one week). Volunteers should email gsg@princeton.edu.
Ms. Lin made this request:
Tom Myers [Director of Frist] asked me if some graduate students would be interested in meeting
with Facilities and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) for a
one-time meeting to discuss heating/cooling of Frist, as it relates to
energy efficiency. This meeting will occur either on Tuesday, May 17 @
2:30-4:00 PM or Friday, May 20 @ 2:30-4:00 PM. The impetus behind this
meeting was that an Assembly member brought up this issue during Paul
Breitman's visit to Assembly in February. The meeting will discuss numbers
that HVAC has prepared regarding this issue and what measures the university
has and might consider implementing to reduce energy usage. We are simply
looking for individuals who would be interested in meeting with these
people, getting the information they'd like to share with us, discussing the
issue further with them, and making a brief report to Assembly afterwards.
At this time, I would like to ask that any individuals who would like to
attend this meeting please sign the volunteer form. Anita Adhitya (of Geosciences) has contacted me already
to voice her interest in serving.
Mr. Silberman also expressed interest in attending the meeting.
Ms. Lin made the following report:
The Exec Committee has met four times since the last Assembly meeting.
We had a meeting with the Academic Affairs and Health and Life Committee Chairs to discuss the work they have completed in this past year and to begin planning for their work next year. Karin Sigloch of the Health and Life Committee has already given a report on her work with Public Safety today; the Academic Affairs chairs will be giving a report in the June Assembly meeting to discuss their work.
As I mentioned in my Chair's report in April, Frist will be closing at 5pm during the summers. As our Assembly meetings are typically at 6pm, I spoke with Tom Myers (Director of Frist) to see if we could work something out for our meetings. Tom Myers very graciously agreed to let the GSG meet in Frist for the June, July, and August Assembly meetings. The Exec Committee will gain prox access to the building with which we will allow Assembly members to enter. So be aware that for the June meeting, please plan on arriving between 5:45 and 5:55pm at the very latest. We will have someone from Exec at the door opening to the 2nd floor of Frist on the side towards Nassau. As the doors will be locked, Assembly members who arrive late will be unable to get in. I will remind Assembly members of this as the June meeting date approaches.
To follow up on some issues I brought up in April, let me first tell you about the status on the National Conference on Graduate Student Leadership, which is being organized by the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation for all participating universities in its Responsive Ph.D. program. On Assembly's suggestion, I tried to solicit funds from other organizations so that we could send graduate student delegates such that no more than half of the cost would come from the GSG directly. I asked APGA for sponsorship funds but unfortunately, they were unable to help us out partly because of the high cost of sponsorship and because this was not an event that would benefit a large number of graduate students and involve graduate alumni. I had asked the Graduate School for the contact information for the individual organizing the conference so that we could ask him/her for financial assistance. However, the Graduate School requested that we do not ask the WWFF for funds. As such, the Exec Committee has been unable to find sufficient funds to support a graduate student delegate for this conference. We have asked Lisa Schreyer to pass along our regrets that we will be unable to attend the conference this year.
Also, Jeff Dwoskin, Megan Sullivan, and I have been meeting with Stu Orefice of Dining, Dean Montero of the Graduate School, and Vice President Dickerson to discuss summer dining options for graduate students. Based on our conversations, we are unlikely to get anything like one of the campus cafes open for dinner this summer. However, we think it will be a good idea to do the following things: 1) Publicize summer options: We will send a global about the new meal plan at the GC, the extent of food options at Frist, and the ability of graduate students to make use of the undergraduate Butler/Wilson dining hall. 2) In order to properly plan for future summers, Stu has been willing to work with us to conduct a survey to determine the actual use and need for food options during the summer amongst graduate students. We will focus on things like current use, hours of operation, type of food options, cost, and whether need for dining services is department/location specific (i.e ., do graduate students working further from Nassau Street need central campus dining options more?). At this time, I would like to ask that any individuals who would like to attend this meeting please sign the volunteer form.
Another issue that came up during our meeting with Dean Montero and VP Dickerson is the possibility of increasing our GSG fee. We will discuss this in a little bit.
As for what I have been up to: I attended a High Table at the GC that was held for various graduate alumni. Also, at the end of April, I was approached by a Princeton Packet reporter, David Campbell, for a story that was supposed to be published on Friday May 29 on the contribution of graduate students and post-docs to the teaching and research goals of the university. I spoke with him about what the university gains from graduate students, what graduate students gain from the university, and about the issue of graduate student unionization. I was contacted by him again this week because the article will be published sometime this week instead. He also requested that the Packet get a picture of me doing lab research to provide a visual supplement to the article so please don't make fun of how weird I look when the article actually comes out!
In the past month, the GSG has been approached by several people asking for graduate student representation on various issues in addition to the two positions we discussed before (i.e., the HVAC/Facilities meeting and the President's Advisory Committee on Architecture.)
First, I was contacted in mid-April by Rita Saltz of the Office of Information Technology. She asked for a graduate student representative for the annual panel that reviews and revises the University's core information technology policy document during the summer. Aside from the GSG representatives, the other representatives come from the USG, the Graduate School, the Dean of the College, the Dean of Undergraduate Students, the residential colleges, Human Resources, the Dean of the Faculty, the University Libraries, General Counsel, and, naturally, Information Technology (OIT). I wrote an email to Assembly asking for volunteers to step forward. As OIT needed the names by last Friday (May 6), before this Assembly meeting, the Exec Committee approved that Tyrel McQueen, a first year graduate student from Chemistry, would serve on this panel. We should all thank him for his willingness to volunteer for this project!
Second, Tom Myers asked me for two graduate student representatives for Frist Campus Center Advisory Board. The purpose of the Board, newly formed this year, would be to include representatives from across the depth and breadth of the university community (including undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and administration) to come together a few times a year to discuss issues which impact the Frist Campus Center and the University community as a whole. The Board would make recommendations regarding potential courses of action about particular issues affecting the Frist Campus Center and the University community. The Exec Committee decided it would be appropriate for Megan Sullivan (the Social Chair) and myself to serve on this Advisory Board.
Ms. Sigloch wanted confirmation that Frist was really closing during the summer at 5 p.m. daily. In terms of the GSG Assembly meetings, Mr. Silberman noted that historically, the GSG had made use of Murray-Dodge. He also thought that the GSG does not need to heavily promote the GC dining options.
Ms. Peter stated that Assembly meeting attendance records would be posted online as of the current meeting. The rationale was that it would hopefully encourage attendance, and that it would allow students to see if their representative was attending meetings. Mr. Tinsley said that the Parliamentary Secretary is responsible for keeping track of attendance and encouraging representatives to show up at meetings, so he did not think posting the attendance records would be necessary after a new Parliamentary Secretary was elected.
Since Ms. Sullivan was not present to make her report, Ms. Lin read the
report for her:
Megan is planning our second Frolic at Frist summer event: the event
planned for Frist South Lawn with a Frist indoor contingency plan. The
event will be casual with grilling, ice cream, and music. Alcohol will
not be served. Tentatively, the event will be held in the third week of
June.
We are pursuing the following funding sources: Frist Campus Center, Graduate School, Office of the VP for Campus Life, APGA, Office of Religious Life, and the Undergraduate Dean's Office. Based on last year's Religious Life, and the Undergraduate Dean's Office. Based on last year's numbers, we expect 300-400 including graduate students, undergraduate students, faculty, and staff. We will publicize the event with a global to all graduate students as well as an announcement on the Princeton University main webpage - this was done for last year's event and we think it was part of the reason why it was such a great success.
Because Frist has changed its policy on requiring that all food be catered by Dining Services, we have decided to do a cookout. We will be buying hot dogs and burgers (including veggie burgers), snacks, and condiments from Wegman's.
The total estimated budget is currently $2900. According to the 2004-2005 budget, we have allocated $600 for the event.
Tentative budget:
Catering:
Wegman's Food: $1400 (200 hot dogs, 200 burgers, 50 veggie burgers,
450 buns, potato chips, condiments)
Ice cream: $400
Supplies: $100 (plates, bowls, napkins, cups)
Building Services: $300 (grills, charcoal, tables, chairs, clean-up)
Beverages: $300 (water, juice, soft drinks)
Music:
DJ Soundtracks: $325
There were no funding requests. However, there had been some discussion with the administration and within the Executive Committee
about the GSG fee. Ms. Lin read Mr. Dwoskin's report on the discussions:
[Vice President for Student Life] Janet Dickerson wants to help us with community building and with
promoting social activities for grad students. She thinks we do marvelous
things with our current $10,000 budget but can do more with more money.
Because of this, she wants to give us an incentive to raise our fee. She
is willing to give us additional funds from her budget, if we can raise
additional funds from grad students. In particular, she will match up to
several thousand dollars any amount we collect above the current $5 fee.
We have already discussed this issue somewhat with the Special Committee on the Budget, which made its report in November. At that time, there was no concerted interest to determine whether or how we should raise the GSG fee. However, since we now have this new offer on the table, we wanted to bring it to Assembly to see if this offer changes how we feel about raising the fee.
If we increase the fee, the GSG will be able to run better events and support more events. We currently have a streamlined funding request procedure which has been working well since November to limit the amount of time funding issues take up our regular meetings, so we do not anticipate that a new funding structure would need to be implemented. Also, we also have to consider the longevity of the current fee - in several years, due to inflation, our $5 fee will depreciate.
According to the constitution, the fee can be changed only by a referendum brought to the entire graduate student body. For the change to be adopted, 3/5 of those voting must approve the amendment and that three-fifths must be greater than or equal to 1/3 of those eligible to vote. This means that at a minimum, we need about 675 people to vote in favor for the change. There are limited options aside from a referendum that may be possible.
The question I have for Assembly is this: In light of this new offer on the table, are there more individuals who would be willing to work towards changing the GSG fee because they feel it is a reasonable thing to do? We don't need a consensus because we are not conducting any vote for/against (and in the case of the referendum option, Assembly does not do the voting), but we do need people who are interested to take up the cause.
Ms. Lin asked Assembly for comments. Mr. Silberman stated that Assembly would have to approve the language of the referendum. He suggested that Assembly sound out the graduate student body to see if the referendum was worth pursuing. Mr. Sabouret asked if changes to the GSG fee would be recurring or a one-year commitment. Ms. Lins said it would likely be long-term. Mr. Lee asked what the motivation behind the fee increase was. Would social events just be better? He also stated that the Graduate College was an easy place to hold events. Mr. Tinsley stated that a referendum could be done at the same time as officer elections. He asked if we would change text of the Constitution. He encouraged Assembly to think carefully about how extra funds from a fee increase would be used. Ms. Lin reiterated that the graduate student body ought to be consulted before major efforts were made on the referendum.
Mr. Lee asked if funds from the GC House Committee could be moved to the GSG. Several people responded that the GC House Committee is totally seperate from the GSG and is funded by residents of the Graduate College.
Mr. Ntelekos asked if graduate students thought that current events were low in quality. Mr. Tinsley said that when the GSG had a large budget surplus, it managed to spend all the surplus on co-sponsorship. Ms. Padmanabhan thought that most graduate students would approve a fee increase if they knew why an increase was being sought. Ms. Lin said that extra money would not necessarily have to go to co-sponsorship but could fund, for example, trips to conferences relating to graduate student issues.
Mr. Silberman stated that the GC House Committee would be coming to the next meeting to ask for co-sponsorship of summer pizza parties at the Graduate College.