• Representatives present • Ricky Martin, ANT • Neven Fuckar, AOS • Rebecca Jones, proxy for Alexandros Ntelekos, CEE • Swaroop Chatterjee, CHE • Tyrel McQueen, CHM • Jake Mackey, CLA • Xiaoling Ang, ECO • Margarita Ramos, proxy for Adrian De Froment, EEB • Ilias Tagkopoulos, ELE • Anita Adhitya, GEO • Jesse Salazar, HIS • Wei Ho, MAT • Shin-Yi Lin, MOL • Annika Peter, PHY • Barbara Buckinx, POL • Daniel Raburn, PPL • Susan Robison, proxy for Louis Lee, PSY • Harvey Stark, REL • Cori Anderson, SLA •
• Delegates present • Josh Friess, BUT • Neven Fuckar, GCO • Tian Xia, ACSS •
• Councilors present • Chair Shin-Yi Lin, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee • Parliamentary Secretary Medini Padmanabhan, CPUC • Recording Secretary Annika Peter • Press Secretary Susan Robison • Treasurer Jeff Dwoskin • Social Chair Megan Sullivan • Guillaume Sabouret, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee • Sara Nephew, CPUC Governance Committee • Fatema Gunja, CPUC Priorities Committee • Josh Friess, CPUC Resources Committee • Karin Sigloch, CPUC, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee, Health and Life •
• Others present • Assistant Dean Lisa Schreyer, Graduate School • Matt Weber, GRS •
• Representatives absent • Katherine Bold, ACM • James Bickford, ENG • Peter Eubanks, FIT • Megan Ewing, GER • Sultana Banulescu, HOS • Weifeng Chen, MAE • Samir Soneji, OPR • Alicia Juskewycz, SOC • Daniel Harris, WWS •
• Delegates absent • Diana Hill, BGC • Weining Man, CIGS • Marcelline Block, Hibben-Magie (HIB) • Jennifer Jordan, LAW • Meredith Safran, OFF •
• Councilors absent • Corresponding Secretary Danielle Osler • Kellam Conover, CPUC • Leslie Hinkson, CPUC • Diana Hill, CPUC Judicial Committee • Ian Parrish, CPUC Priorities Committee • James Bickford, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee & Academic Affairs • Meredith Safran, Academic Affairs •
• Representative seats vacant • ARC• ART• AST• COM• COS• EAS• MUS• NES• ORF• PHI• SPO•
• Delegate seats vacant • Millstone Apartments • Women's Center •
Chair Shin-Yi Lin called the meeting to order at 6:11 pm.
Ms. Padmanabhan introduced the many new Assembly members and thanked the exiting representatives and delegates for their service. The seats that turned over were the following: Ricky Martin succeeded Peter Locke in Anthropology, Swaroop Chatterjee succeeded Sasha Myers in Chemical Engineering, vacancy in Computer Science after Christopher DeCoro stepped down, Adrian de Froment succeeded Christiane Meyer in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Xiaoling Ang succeeded Kevin Amonlirdviman in Economics, Ilias Tagkopoulos succeeded Ying Wang in Electrical Engineering, Anita Adhitya succeeded Tarje Nissen-Meyer in Geosciences, Megan Ewing succeeded Angela Holzer in Germanic Sciences & Literatures, Jesse Salazar succeeded Jeris Yruma in History, Harvey Stark succeeded Levi McLaughlin in Religion, Alicia Juskewycz succeeded Steven Shafer in Sociology, and Diana Hill was elected to be the new Black Graduate Caucus delegate. Barbara Buckinx introduced the person who would replace her as the Politics representative in November, and Tyrel McQueen did likewise for Chemistry.
Ms. Padmanabhan presented a PowerPoint presentation to introduce new members to the structure of the GSG and to some basic and useful parliamentary procedures.
Ms. Peter explained that the February minutes had not been presented until the current meeting because the person who took the February minutes lost the minutes, and this had only been ascertained recently. The relevant documents (including a report from the graduate student members of PriComm (Priorities Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community)from that meeting had been located and linked to the agenda online. Ms. Peter further stated that no corrections had been received to either the February or September minutes. It was moved, seconded, and voted 18-0-1 to approve the minutes.
Jesse Salazar requested for the sake of the new members that acronyms for committees, etc. not be used without explanation.
There was no new business.
As per the GSG Constitution, Assembly must reapprove any single budget item of more than $500. The "fall social event" (aka, Wine & Cheese Event) was budgeted at $600. Ms. Sullivan explained that the GSG Wine & Cheese Event was held on September 29th at 8 pm at the Carl A. Fields Center. It was well-attended and it appeared that people were enjoying the refreshments. Ms. Sullivan and Treasurer Jeff Dwoskin discussed the exact amount of money that needed to be reapproved for the event. Assembly voted 17-0-1 to reapprove the originally budgeted amount for the event.
Ms. Lin explained that the Ivy Summit was an annual meeting of graduate student leaders from Ivy League schools to discuss common issues, and that the next meeting was to be held October 14-16, 2005 in New Haven, CT. Assembly had budgeted $500 in the 2004-2005 to send several graduate students to the meeting, and as such needed to be reapproved. Assembly voted 16-0-1 to reapprove funds for the Ivy Summit.
The National Association of Graduate and Professional Students (NAGPS) is an organization dedicated to lobbying for graduate student issues. Mr. Dwoskin explained that the GSG had joined the organization in the era before Princeton offered graduate students a dental insurance plan because members of NAGPS could buy dental insurance through the organization. Ever since then, the GSG had budgeted $300/year for NAGPS dues. However, in the past two years, Princeton appeared as a member of NAGPS on the website, leading the GSG to think the membership was still valid, when it in fact was no longer a member because the annual dues had not been paid. Mr. Dwoskin stated that in the mean time, dues had been raised to $500/year. He added that Princeton could become a "developing member" for $100/year, the difference being that we would not have a vote in the NAGPS Assembly, but pointed out the the GSG would not have funds to send a representative to the meeting anyways. Mr. Dwoskin wanted to know if Assembly would prefer to become a full member, developing member, or not a member of NAGPS.
Harvey Stark asked if the dues aided lobbying efforts, to which Mr. Dwoskin answered in the affirmative. Mr. Salazar asked to whom NAGPS lobbied. Mr. Dwoskin said that NAGPS lobbied to the federal and local governments, but did not lobby university officials, but did not know what the recent lobbying successes were. Mr. Stark asked if it were possible to postpone a decision on membership to the following meeting, giving Assembly members time to learn more about NAPGS and the value of joining the organization. Mr. Dwoskin stated that it was more convenient to decide at the current meeting because the annual budget was to be voted on next, but stated that Assembly could always vote later to add NAGPS membership to the budget. Ricky Martin moved to table the discussion to the next meeting. It was seconded and approved 13-2-3 to table discussion. Mr. Stark volunteered to present more information on NAGPS at the November meeting.
Mr. Dwoskin presented a proposed budget for the 2005-2006 academic year. The changes from the 2004-2005 budget included increasing the co-sponsorship budget (there was a not-completely-determined surplus from the previous budget cycle due to groups not claiming their promised funds), putting some of the surplus into the endowment, and allocating a general Social Chair's budget to fund extra events or to improve the quality of specific events. Mr. Dwoskin explained that the past several Social Chairs had been very effected in finding co-sponsorship for GSG-run events, so it seemed appropriate to move some of the funds previously allocated to specific events to a more general budget to be used at the Social Chair's discretion.
Mr. Raburn asked if Assembly would scale up the co-sponsorship guidelines if the co-sponsorship budget were to increase. Mr. Dwoskin stated that it was at Assembly's discretion, but that he was hoping that Assembly would spend more of the monthly co-sponsorship budget during that month, and that the GSG could encourage more groups to solicit funds. Josh Friess asked if money could be removed from the endowment. Mr. Dwoskin stated that it could not.
Assembly voted 16-1-2 to approve Mr. Dwoskin's proposed budget.
Mr. Dwoskin noted that one funding request had been received, from the Graduate Research Symposium. Matt Weber (on the organizing committee) was present to explain the event. He stated that this was the second Graduate Research Symposium (GRS), the guiding principle of which was for graduate students and post-docs to explain their research in such a way as to be accessible to those from other divisions. There were 25 presenters at the first GRS, and it was hoped that more people would present this year. The GRS organizing committee was asking for $250. Mr. Dwoskin recommended funding $225 given the GSG funding guidelines. Mr. Stark asked where the money was going to. Mr. Weber responded that the funds would go toward refreshments. Assembly voted 18-0-1 to fund the GRS for $225.
Mr. McQueen made the following report:
The OIT policy panel was a group of individuals from the Princeton University community charged with updating the Princeton University Information Technology Resources and Internet Access Guidelines for Use. The new version is published on the web, and is available at http://www.princeton.edu/guidelines . The changes that were made this year are mostly minor, such as adding a clause that says users of the university's temporary visitor wireless access service must follow the guidelines and stating that responding to a denial of service attack in kind is unauthorized use of Princeton IT resources.
Three important issues the committee had to update the guidelines to deal with were internet gambling, invasion of privacy (such as with a surveillance camera in a dorm room without informed consent), and use of equipment that interferes with campus wireless service. The guidelines now state with respect to internet gambling that: "Gambling is a closely regulated activity in New Jersey, and to date none of the Internet gambling sites available in New Jersey are legal. Individuals who are defrauded or otherwise victimized in connection with their use of such sites are not likely to have any protection or recourse under New Jersey law." In addition the guidelines now provide a reference to external resources from the State of New Jersey on the dangers of internet gambling, as well as a generic clause on the risks of compulsive gambling in general.
Similarly, the guidelines were updated to specifically mention and prohibit uninformed recordings: "Surveillance cameras and other such devices should not be used in places or ways that violate a reasonable expectation of privacy on the part of those whose activities are to be monitored or recorded. Locker rooms, restrooms, personal residences or dormitory rooms are some of the places where persons reasonably have an expectation of privacy, and in which adequate notice and consent of the subject(s) should precede the use of any photographic or sound recording device. Capture and dissemination of images and sounds in such situations without such notice and consent of the subject(s) is disrespectful of their rights and may violate University policy."
Perhaps the most contentious change involves the use of microwaves or other electronic devices in places where OIT offers wireless access. The updated guidelines state: "Wireless access service is provided by the University in campus dormitories and some University-owned off-campus apartments. Some commonly used appliances, for example certain cordless telephones and most microwave ovens, operate at a frequency that could interfere with wireless network service. Personal wireless access points also can cause such interference. If a device interferes significantly with the University's residential wireless network service, the owner may be required to relinquish use of the device in the residence. Malicious use of any such device to disrupt network service will be considered a serious violation of University regulations." Yes, this means that Princeton can tell you that you can't use your microwave if it interferes with campus wireless.
Other changes include adding "blogs" in appropriate places, prohibiting the use of fraudulent IP addresses, and adding a clause noting that once something is posted to the world-wide-web no one (including Princeton) may be able to expunge it completely.
That's about it. If there are any questions or concerns regarding the updated guidelines, please contact me via email at tmcqueen@princeton.edu. I can also answer a couple of short questions now. Thank you.
Ms. Lin asked about the composition of the panel. Mr. McQueen stated that there were several undergraduates, many administrators, and himself on the committee.
Ms. Lin made the following statement:
The Exec Committee has been attending many meetings in the last month. The weekend after the September meeting, I attended the Alumni Council and APGA Board meeting.
At the Alumni Council meeting, President Tilghman shared short-term plans (i.e., 5 years) of building the science library and the changes in the undergraduate college (e.g., increased undergraduate student body size and the new 4-year residential colleges). She also shared long-term (i.e., 10-15 years) plans of consolidating the science buildings near the Icahn side of campus and possible renovation of the Dinky area of campus for the creative arts. Finally, she talked about the ways Princeton was getting involved in Hurricane Katrina relief, including our recent partnership with Brown University to aid Dillard University. In addition to President Tilghman, VP Durkee talked about similar long-term plans, including the plans to expand the Engineering division. Also, fyi, the Alumni webpage will be redesigned soon to make it more user-friendly.
At the APGA Board meeting, we discussed increased graduate alumni participation in APGA. We also heard reports from Dean Russel and David Botstein (Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics).
I've met with Dottie Pearson, Associate University Librarian for Administrative Services, to discuss secure storage at Firestone; she is currently looking into acquisitioning lockers from other areas on campus for Firestone. We also discussed long-term plans for renovating the study spaces at Firestone.
We had our first of two town meetings on the DCE status; we had about 30 students show up, predominantly from the humanities division. We will give an update on DCE report after the second town meeting is over.
I've met with the new PACE Director, Kiki Jamieson, about graduate student involvement in civil engagement. PACE is jumpstarting the Scholars in the Schools program. They will also be hiring a part-time graduate student to organize graduate student events at PACE.
Megan attended the fall Frist Campus Center Advisory Board meeting, where they discussed the programming events associated with the fifth year anniversary of Frist and the recent public safety incident in Frist. It was also announced that a kiosk for the Federal Credit Union would be available at Frist once its place in the Armory is gone.
Annika and I met with Stu Orefice to discuss the results of the summer dining survey. We are waiting for the Housing Office to provide us with alternate breakdowns of the survey results before we report to Assembly.
Exec met with Mike McKay, Chad Klaus, and the new Director of Housing Andrew Kane to discuss long-term graduate housing plans. We also discussed preliminary results from the housing survey conducted last spring.
I've also been organizing to brig Jorge Cham to speak at Café Vivian on Thursday November 17.e Jorge Cham is the creator of the graduate student online comic Piled Higher and Deeper. He will be giving a talk at Princeton as part of his book tour. Since he has agreed to donate $5 of each book sold while at Princeton to Hurricane Katrina relief, I am thinking of combining this event with other ways to raise monies. For example, Stu Orefice of Dining Services has offered to donate food and drinks that we can then sell. I am currently looking for graduate student volunteers to help with the planning beforehand or for a short time during the day of the event.
Weve also received two requests for graduate student involvement. If you are interested, please email gsg@.
The Dining Committee is starting up again, after a hiatus with the Task Force on Residential Dining and Social Options. They are looking for 2 graduate student representatives -- ideally one on a university meal plan and the other not -- to serve on this committee. This committee would discuss campus-wide on-campus dining issues.
John Zoeller*67, co-chair of the Alumni Council Standing Committee, Committee on Academic Programs for Alumni (CAPA), is looking to have a graduate student representative on the committee. They meet four times a year to organize academic programs for alumni -- such as the Princeton Journeys travel program or the online book club.
Finally, I'd like to announce that we will be holding elections at the November Assembly meeting for the Committee Chairs of the Facilities, Campus Relations, and Academic Affairs GSG Committees.
Ms. Lin then allowed for discussion. Mr. Raburn asked if the Jorge Cham event was to be held at Cafe Vivian. Ms. Lin answered in the affirmative. Ms. Adhitya asked where the Credit Union was going. Ms. Sullivan stated that the Credit Union would likely relocate to the Carnegie Center, but that kiosks in Frist would be upgraded to accept deposits, and that one Credit Union employee would be stationed at Frist. Ms. Buckinx asked Ms. Lin to elaborate on the housing meeting. Ms. Lin referred her to the discussion of the Executive Committee Midterm Report.
Ms. Lin next presented a report on the Executive Committee's (Exec's) activities since taking office. Please see the report for more details. The summary of the Exec's activities are as follows:
Mr. Salazar asked why the GSG does not get money from the University. Dean Schreyer answered that undergraduate organizations are funded by the university through large annual fees each undergraduate must pay. However, the Graduate School does not levy similar fees on graduate students. Mr. Dwoskin said that GSG events are often co-sponsored by various administrators, but this is not a steady source of funding. Mr. Friess asked how the GSG fee referendum would work. Ms. Lin answered that Exec was brain-storming options for the referendum (ie, ask for a flat fee increase, tie the fee to inflation, etc). Ms. Buckinx asked what was going to happen to the Butler Apartments. Ms. Lin answered that housing administrators would gather data this year, work with consultants and architects, and have a plan by the end of the year.