• Representatives present • Ricky Martin, ANT • Daniele Bianchi, proxy for Neven Fuckar, AOS • Swaroop Chatterjee, CHE • Adam Dunn, CHM • Guillaume Sabouret, proxy for Jake Mackey, CLA • Xiaoling Ang, ECO • Ilias Tagkopoulos, ELE • Anita Adhitya, GEO • Megan Ewing, GER • Jesse Salazar, HIS • Lindy Baldwin, HOS • Wei Ho, MAT • Shin-Yi Lin, MOL • Brookes Brown, POL • Daniel Raburn, PPL • Louis Lee, PSY • Cori Anderson, SLA • Alicia Juskewycz, SOC • Frankki Bevins, WWS •
• Delegates present • Josh Friess, BUT •
• Councilors present • Chair Shin-Yi Lin, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee • Parliamentary Secretary Medini Padmanabhan, CPUC • Recording Secretary Annika Peter • Social Chair Megan Sullivan • Guillaume Sabouret, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee • Karin Sigloch, CPUC, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee, Health and Life • Josh Friess, CPUC Resources Committee • Steve Hassani, Academic Affairs •
• Others present • Assistant Dean Lisa Schreyer, Graduate School • Community Programming Coordinator Tara Kitley • Phil Martin, PACE Center • Christopher Moses, SITS • Barclay Satterfield, Greening Princeton •
• Representatives absent • Katherine Bold, ACM • Alexandros Ntelekos, CEE • Chris DeCoro, COS • Adrian De Froment, EEB • Peter Eubanks, FIT • Samir Soneji, OPR • Steve Hassani, PHY • Harvey Stark, REL •
• Delegates absent • Weining Man, CIGS • Bernice Rosenzweig, BGC • Tian Xia, ACSS • Neven Fuckar, GCO • Jennifer Jordan, LAW • Steve Hassani, MIL • Meredith Safran, OFF •
• Councilors absent • Corresponding Secretary Danielle Osler • Press Secretary Susan Robison • Treasurer Jeff Dwoskin • Kellam Conover, CPUC • Leslie Hinkson, CPUC • Sara Nephew, CPUC Governance Committee • Diana Hill, CPUC Judicial Committee • Fatema Gunja, CPUC Priorities Committee • Ian Parrish, CPUC Priorities Committee • James Bickford, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee • Canturk Isci, Academic Affairs •
• Representative seats vacant • ARC• ART• AST• COM• EAS• ENG• MAE• MUS• NES• ORF• PHI• SPO•
• Delegate seats vacant • Hibben-Magie Apartments • Women's Center •
Ms. Padmanabhan stated that Frankkie Bevins had been elected by the Woodrow Wilson School as its new representative, and that Shin-Yi Lin had been re-elected as the Molecular Biology representative.
The November minutes were approved. Assembly voted to postpone the vote on the December minutes in order to review the many revisions to the draft of those minutes.
President Tilghman introduced her guest, Associate University Achitect for Planning Natalie Shivers, and commenced a discussion on long-term campus planning.
President Tilghman gave a historial overview of campus planning. She stated that the campus was more than 250 years old, and carefully planned along the way to preserve green spaces and the feel of the campus. When she assumed office in 2001, the university was at the end of a planning process begun in the 1990's to identify potential building sites. Most of those sites had been built up (ie, Marx Hall, the Genomics Institute). President Tilghman founded the President's Architecture Advising Committee, consisting of faculty, staff, students, and architects who had worked on campus before, to think about guiding principles for campus planning for the next ten years. The committee came up with the following guiding principles:
There were several further major implications to these guiding principles. One was that there were not many new places to build, and that those few places were concentrated along Alexander Street. President Tilghman was hoping that Princeton would establish a strong creative arts program, and this would be logically housed in that area, given its proximity to McCarter theater. The natural sciences division would be concentrated near Jadwin Hall and the biology buildings on the other side of Washington Road. A new footbridge would connect the two parts across the road. Also, architect Michael Hopkins would be designing the new Chemistry building on the armory site; since the site is very environmentally sensitive, and since it abuts the woods, he would design the building to integrate with the environment. There was also some consideration of building along Ivy Lane where the graduate parking lots and faculty housing are located. The Operations and Financial Engineering Department would get a new building on Prospect Street, thus relieving some of the over-crowing in the E-Quad. The university also received permission from the town to build up the E-Quad. Also, the humanities and social sciences division would get use of Frick Lab, the current home of the Chemistry Department.
The university hired a firm, Beyer Blinder Belle, to explore campus planning, and the firm was scheduled to make recommendations next year. The firm would examine issues such as parking and traffic, and would also look at beautifying the campus, an example of which would be Shapiro Walk. Also, an architect would be hired for each academic neighborhood.
The firm was also focusing on housing. The university currently houses a large percentage of graduate students, and also post-docs, professors, and staff. The firm was to examine issues such as what percentage in each demographic should be hosued by the university, and if the university should provide low-cost housing for low-income staff. The firm was also looking at locations for building more housing. The university recently bought land behind the YMCA from the Princeton Hospital. Both the university and the firm were keeping an eye on the Butler Apartment, realizing that those apartments do not have much life left in them, but needed to determine where to house the population that would be displaced by the construction. It was likely that Hibben and Magie would be reallocated, and that housing would be built as close to the main campus as possible.
Ms. Shivers explained that Beyer Blinder Belle would spend this year gathering data from departments, administrative units, and the various other populations on campus. They were evaluating the capacity of various sites and parking needs, among other things. Next year, the firm would begin making recommendations on campus planning.
Brookes Brown opened the discussion by asking where graduate students spend their time on campus. She explained that in her department (Politics), grad students had carrels all over campus because there was not sufficient space in her department's building to accomodate all grad students. She was also worried about the lack of social space for graduate students since graduate housing is dispersed and there is not much social space within the housing communities. Also, she commented that there were stretches of roads that were not safe to walk (such as the stretch on Alexander between Faculty Road and Lawrence Drive), further disconnecting graduate housing. Ms. Lin stated that the GSG and Karin Sigloch, chair of the Health and Life Committee, had been dialoguing with Public Safety for several years on the safety of pedestrians. Ms. Sigloch commented that Princeton was unique among Ivy League schools in that it had a suburban campus, which was good for students with families. She urged Ms. Shivers to consider families in the planning process. President Tilghman stated that the university was identifying new sites for day care. She also asked where the graduate student community gathers. She stated that she hoped that a renovated Frick lab would allow humanities and social sciences to bring their graduate students closer. Ms. Ang thought it would be nice to have more study space in the Graduate College, and for there to be more bike paths on campus. Mr. Sabouret stated that Shapiro Walk was like a wind tunnel, and that it got bitterly cold in the winter. He also stated that the E-Quad has problems with brown-outs, and asked that there be a better emergency power source for the area. Mr. Lee stated that Frist has a very undergraduate feel to it.
Mr. Lee asked if there were constraints on building upward. President Tilghman stated that she new of no constraints on building height, expect that tall buildings at this point would not blend in on campus, although this aesthetic could change in the future. Ms. Ho stated that Fine Tower separates people on different floors, making collaboration difficult.
Assembly returned to a discussion on graduate social spaces. Ms. Lin commented that some graduate students find pockets of social spaces (like the Graduate College), but that there was not one place on campus that all graduate students felt comfortable in. President Tilghman asked if a space like an eating club would be attractive. Several people stated that in order for a communal space to be successful, it should be centrally located on campus. Mr. Salazar stated that he thought Frick would be a natural location for a cafe and for synergy among History, Politics, and Economics. He also stated that it would be good for Frick to have a lot of study space for graduate students. President Tilghman assured Mr. Salazar that Frick would not be renovated before extensive discussions with departments on its layout. She stated that East Pyne was a good example of a successful renovation.
Ms. Ho asked if there were plans to bring graduate housing closer to campus. President Tilghman stated that it would be difficult to do so. Ms. Anderson stated that it was important to many graduate students to be able to have cats and dogs. Ms. Juskewycz wanted to know if the new golf clubhouse adjacent to the Lawrence Apartments would cause traffic problems. Ms. Kitley stated that a fence would divide the golf course and the apartments.
Ms. Padmanabhan asked what the priorities of the university were with respect to graduate students. She stated that it seemed that many essential services, such as McCosh, either closed or were severely restricted when undergraduates were not on campus. President Tilghman said that the decision to curtail those services were economic, but there had been an increase in services in the past several years. For example, McCosh is now open year-round, even if some services are cut during the summer. President Tilghman asked that graduate students prioritize their concerns. Ms. Padmanabhan stated that the E-Quad Cafe would likely turn a profit even without undergraduates. Ms. Ho stated that a few amenities, like gyms and libraries, would make the apartments much nicer.
There was no new business.
Mr. Moses stated that the Scholars in the Schools (SITS) program was founded five years ago by graduate students in English as a way of honing their teaching skills and bringing their knowledge to the community. The idea of the program was that graduate students would develope an approximately one hour long lesson, and would collaborate with teachers in local schools to bring these lessons to the students. The program had worked with schools in Hillsborough, South Brunswick, and Princeton, but the goal was to expand to schools in less priviledged areas, such as Trenton. The difference with the program this year was that it was being run in collaboration with the PACE center, which would provide better administration of the program and provide assistance to graduate students wishing to participate. Mr. Moses stated that he was asking for volunteers to join the program. He was looking for a critical mass of 20-25 grad students to commit to the program.
Mr. Lee commented that one of his friends had been involved several years before, but that his DGS complained that his involvement distracted him from his graduate studies.
Mr. Moses stated that more information could be found on the SITS website.
Ms. Satterfield stated that Recycle Mania was a competition among more than 65 schools to see which school recycles the best (measured in terms of mass/person). The competition would be campus-wide, including graduate housing. There would be a trophy for the school who won the competition. She distributed flyers with information about the competition and approved recyclable items.
Mr. Hassani, co-chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, instructed Ms. Lin to state that the natural sciences mixer would be held on Feb. 15. Ms. Sigloch, who was organizing the event with Mr. Hassani, commented that the goal was to expose graduate students to non-academic career tracks, and to build closer ties to alumni who have had interesting non-academic careers. All graduate alumni were invited to attend, but that 25 had been explicitly targeted with invitations. The event would be held at Guyot Hall. Ms. Sigloch asked that anyone with ideas on which alumni to target should contact her directly.
There was one funding request for the month. The Butler Committee was requesting $400 for the Chinese New Year Party. Mr. Friess stated that this event is held every year and is very popular. They were planning on providing more food than usual, since in past years the amount of food was severely insufficient, hence the higher amount they were requesting. Assembly unanimously approved $400 for the event.
Ms. Lin presented a budget for the Jorge Cham Event held the previous November. She needed Assembly to approve $10-$15 to cover the last bit of expenses. Assembly unanimously approved the amount.
The Valentine's Day dance was scheduled for Friday, Feb. 10 in the Frist Multi-Purpose Room. There would be a dance party in one section of the room, and a more casual section in a different part (dividers for the room would be provided). Beer, wine, non-alcoholic beverages, snacks, and pizza would be provided. Funding from APGA and Frist was confirmed, and requests were sent to several other univeristy offices.
Ms. Padmanabhan stated that Assembly did not need to approve the Yea or Nea Committee documents, but did need to approve the Factual Committee document. Ms. Padmanabhan asked that people speak now if they wanted revisions to the document, and that all documents would be made public when the referendum was announced. She thanked all committees for their work on the documents. The text of the factual document was unanimously approved.
Ms. Padmanabhan, the Chair, of the Election Committe, said that the officer election and the referendum would be held simultaneously. Mr. Friess asked about the first sentence of the election plan; did it mean that the Election Committe could overrule the by-laws? It was agreed that this was not the meaning, so that this sentence would be changed for clarity. Ms. Sigloch suggested that there be a ballot box in each department as a means to increase participation in the election, seeing as a large number of students would have to vote in the referendum for it to be valid. The votes would be electronic, though. Ms. Padmanabhan stated that not all publicity methods were included in the election plan document. The election plan was approved by Assembly.
There were several issues to discuss. The Executive Committee drafted a letter to Dean Russel to alert him of the existance of the taskforce, and the question was whether or not to send the letter now or once a representative from the engineering and humanities divisions volunteered for the taskforce. The next issue was regarding the charge for the taskforce. Ms. Lin stated that currently, the charge for the taskforce was to gather hard data about DCE and its effects on the graduate student population and to report to Assembly once this spring and again at the end of the next academic year. There was a question about how written reports would be presented to the administration: should the reports be part of the GSLI or separate? Should there be an interim report in the fall of the next year? Mr. Raburn thought that the charge looked fine, that it defined specific goals but allowed the taskforce sufficient flexibility. Ms. Juskewycz volunteered to join the taskforce. Assembly voted (with three abstentions and no nos) to approve the charge, and to send the letter to Dean Russel now but explain that Assembly was still looking for an engineer to sit on the taskforce.
This report was postponed.
The meeting adjourned at 7:50 pm.