• Representatives present • Marion Riggs, ART • Swaroop Chatterjee, CHE • Kellam Conover, proxy for Jake Mackey, CLA • Chris DeCoro, COS • Clara Tuan, EAS • Xiaoling Ang, ECO • Adrian De Froment, EEB • Alana King, proxy for Megan Ewing, GER • Lindy Baldwin, HOS • Robert Harron, MAT • Shin-Yi Lin, MOL • Steve Hassani, PHY • Kristen Harkness, proxy for Brookes Brown • Daniel Raburn, PPL • Susan Robison, PSY • Harvey Stark, REL • Cori Anderson, SLA • Kenneth Jamison, SOC • Frankki Bevins, WWS •
• Delegates present • Jeff Dwoskin, BUT • Steve Hassani, MIL • Tian Xia, ACSS •
• Councilors present • Chair Shin-Yi Lin, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee • Press Secretary Susan Robison • Treasurer Jeff Dwoskin • Kellam Conover, CPUC • Karin Sigloch, CPUC, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee, Health and Life • Steve Hassani, Academic Affairs •
• Others present • Dean Danielle Gray, Graduate School • Dean Lisa Schreyer, Graduate School • Tara Kitley, CPC • Camilo Azacarate, Ombuds Office • Jess Salvatore, PSY • Kuni Cherenack, ELE •
• Representatives absent • Katherine Bold, ACM • Ricky Martin, ANT • Neven Fuckar, AOS • Alexandros Ntelekos, CEE • Adam Dunn, CHM • Ilias Tagkopoulos, ELE • Anita Adhitya, GEO • Jesse Salazar, HIS • Samir Soneji, OPR •
• Delegates absent • Weining Man, CIGS • Bernice Rosenzweig, BGC • Neven Fuckar, GCO • Jennifer Jordan, LAW • Meredith Safran, OFF •
• Councilors absent • Parliamentary Secretary Medini Padmanabhan, CPUC • Corresponding Secretary Danielle Osler • Recording Secretary Annika Peter • Social Chair Megan Sullivan • Guillaume Sabouret, CPUC, CPUC Executive Committee • Leslie Hinkson, CPUC • Sara Nephew, CPUC Governance Committee • Diana Hill, CPUC Judicial Committee • Fatema Gunja, CPUC Priorities Committee • Ian Parrish, CPUC Priorities Committee • Josh Friess, CPUC Resources Committee • James Bickford, CPUC Rights and Rules Committee • Canturk Isci, Academic Affairs •
• Representative seats vacant • ARC• AST• COM• ENG• FIT• MAE• MUS• NES• ORF• PHI• SPO•
• Delegate seats vacant • Hibben-Magie Apartments • Women's Center •
The meeting commenced at 6:08 pm.
Assembly welcomed five new representative: Marion Riggs of Art & Archaeology, Clara Tuan of East Asian Studies, Robert Harron of Mathematics, Susan Robison of Psychology, and Kenneth Jamison of Sociology.
The vote on the February minutes was postponed till April.
Dean Gray was present to discuss the history and status of the enrollment of minority graduate students at Princeton, and specifically, the strageties of her office to increase minority enrollment.
First, Dean Gray introduced herself. She was trained as a neuroscientist, and before becoming an administrator, had worked on Alzheimer's neuropathology. She had worked at Merck & Company. She stated that < 1% of those working in neuroscience were people of color, and that these low numbers reinforced a culture of exclusion.
In terms of Princeton's history in recruiting graduate students of color, Dean Gray stated that Princeton's diversity shot up across the board in the 1970's and 80's. However, the enrollment of graduate students began decreasing around 1994, even though undergraduate enrollment did not. This year, 130 graduate students of color (defined to be African-American, Latino, and Native American) were enrolled at Princeton, which was up 40% from last year. Nationally, only eight percent of PhD's were awarded to people of color, and only two percent in the sciences. At Princeton, the number of students of color in the sciences was also low with respect to the Graduate School as a whole. For example, this year, only three of sixty-eight admitted students in Molecular Biology were people of color. The Physics Department has not had a graduate student of color in 30 years, and only 10 students of color graduated with physics PhDs in the entire country last year. This was especially baffling since a lot of money had been allocated at the national level to attract minority students to science.
Dean Gray said that to increase minority student enrollment, she was personally reading each graduate student application from applicants of color. She was also asking faculty to look for students of color, with the rational that the students one finds are the students one looks for. She stated that the definition of what constitutes a minority varies from department to department. She also stated that women in some fields have a more difficult time finding faculty positions if they have academic spouses. She said that minority students were emailed for feedback on what vision the graduate school should have for the future. It was also thought that better mentoring was needed for people of color and women in fields where they are underrepresented. Also, Princeton was hosting summer programs for people of color to interest them in the Graduate School.
Several representative posed questions to Dean Gray. Ms. Ang asked if there were ways her department, Economics, could attract people. Mr. Stark asked if economic diversity was considered by Dean Gray's office, too. Mr. Conover averred that the Classics Department was not very diverse.
Dean Gray closed by imploring representatives to actively recruit minority students during upcoming visiting weekends.
Mr. Azacarate, a university Ombuds Officer, came to present a proposal for website with information about local landlords. First, he explained his job and his offide. The Ombuds Office exists to help members of the university resolve conflicts. Frequently, this means mediating between graduate students and their advisors. They also work to resolve roommate conflicts, and work with a peer group of undergraduates trained as mediators. His office was located right above Thomas Sweet on Nassau St.
He said that in his job, he had heard many graduate students complain about their landlords. His idea was to have a password-protected website where students could lodge complaints about landlords, and which all graduate students to access for information about landlords. He was thinking that this website could be part of the GSG website because his office could not host the website (due to confidentiality constraints).
Dean Schreyer started the discussion by commenting that 25% of graduate students live off campus. Ms. Sigloch stated that she thought a website would be a good iea, and could be expanded (eg, to report bad experiences with car repairs). Mr. Azacarate suggested that the site could be expanded also to include a database on healthcare. Ms. Salvatore stated that she would talk to the Undergraduate Student Government about collaborating on such a website.
There were no on-time funding requests. However, Assembly unanimously voted to hear a late request from the Graduate College House Committee. Xiaoling Ang and Kristen Harkness, representing the Committee, were asking for $500 for the Spring Formal Dance. The total budget for the event was $3500, and the turnout was expected to be 400 graduate students. Assembly voted 14-1-4 to approve $500 for the event.
Mr. Dwoskin thanked everyone who voted, and stated that a record 1256 people voted in the GSG officer elections, and 1236 voted in the referendum. The first constitutional amendment in the referendum (to increase the GSG annual fee to $10) was passed with 756 votes. The second amendment (to tie the fee to the stipend level) failed to pass (receiving 53.9% of the vote when it would have needed a supermajority to pass).
Ms. Lin stated a discussion of the election by stating that the Executive Committee had received several complaints about the elections process, broadly classified into two catagories:
Assembly voted 12-1-0 to certify the election and referendum results. By-elections for the vacant officer positions (only two people were elected in the regular elections: Shin-Yi Lin as Chair, and Alex Ntelekos as Treasurer) would be held in April, as well as CPUC elections.
Jeff Dwoskin was unanimously approved as Facilities Chair.
Postponed.
Postponed.
Postponed.
See the Elections report.
Postponed.
The meeting adjourned at 7:50 pm.