GSG Minutes December 12, 2001 Frist Campus Center I. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 6:05 by chair Matt Fouse. II. Approval of Minutes The minutes from the November meeting were approved. III. Special Reports A. Career Services: Kathleen Mannheimer Kathleen Mannheimer, the new graduate career counselor at Career Services, spoke to the Assembly. She is looking for feedback about the services offered to graduate students. Career Services currently offers several workshops for non-academic jobs, as many companies are interested in hiring individuals with Ph.D.s. One of her goals is to provide more support for academic job searches in the form of speakers and lunchtime seminars. February will be career week; events include career panels and a virtual career fair for Ivy League students. Career Services also offers workshops and counseling for interviewing, networking, CV and resumes, library and internet resources, assessment tests, and credential services. Career Services is open every day, and workshops are usually held at 4:30 although the times are flexible. Graduate students can sign up for the Careernews listserv. Members of the Assembly requested that Career Services develop stronger contacts with departments, particularly in academic job searches and the recruitment of women and minorities to specific disciplines. Ms. Mannheimer expressed concern that many graduate students do not know about the resources at Career Services. Members of the Assembly suggested that this could be because the majority of graduate students are post-enrolled before they graduate, and post-enrolled students are not represented on the all-grad student email lists. Ms. Mannheimer plans to talk to Dean Montero about this issue. B. Priorities Committee Reps Kevin Osterloh and Jim Vere, who are members of the Priorities Committee of the CPUC, reported to the GSG Assembly. PriCom decides how to spend the University's operating budget, including all ongoing expenses such as tuition and salary. PriCom can also decide what to fund permanently. The committee receives and discusses budget requests and votes on them. Last year PriCom decided to grant a graduate student initiated request to extend the summer hours at Frist Campus Center after hearing that many graduate students stay on campus during the summer. This year, two requests that were not funded by PriCom were 1) money for graduate students applying for external fellowships, and 2) a summer minority research program. The most successful proposals have been ones that included solid data to support the requests. Both Jim and Kevin felt that the Graduate School did not accurately represent the needs of the graduate students in the requests that they made. For example, without incentives such as exemption from teaching or an increase in overall funding, it is unlikely that many graduate students will apply for external funding. The Assembly discussed ways that graduate students could work more closely with the Graduate School in making proposals to PriCom. IV. Officer Reports A. Treasurer Huiyan Yang made a request for funding the Butler Chinese New Year party. 150-200 people are expected to participate in the event, which is open to all graduate students and has been a success in the past. Traditional Chinese food and drinks will be served. Usually the food runs out before the end of the party. Huiyan requested $200 from the GSG, the same amount as last year, to cover half of the expenses. Members of the Assembly suggested advertising more broadly in the GC and the International Center. The Assembly proposed and approved a $300 co-sponsorship for the event. A second funding request was made for a Princeton-Rutgers two-day conference for graduate students about philosophy in March. The Assembly approved a $150 co-sponsorship with a corresponding global email. The Black Graduate Caucus requested $500 to fund a forum for research presentations, a poetry slam, a jazz night, and presentations for graduate students. After much discussion, the Assembly decided to allocate $200, with the possibility of giving further funding if it is needed later. B. Social Chair Matt Fouse spoke on behalf of Yesim. The salsa party will be held in the Third World Center. The Valentine's Day party will be at the D-bar, even though D-bar parties are often very crowded. Members of the Assembly suggested Procter Hall as an alternative space for the Valentine's Day party. V. Business A. GSLI Committee Reports 1. Housing Eric Adelizzi spoke about the long-term housing committee. The long-term housing committee was formed by former Provost Ostriker. It is unclear whether the new Provost will want a report from the committee. The University hired consultants to assess the amount of new housing that is needed; the information from the consultants was clearly incorrect. Post-enrolled graduate students were not counted as graduate students, so plans for housing will not include this population. University administrators will continue discussing construction of new graduate student housing near Lawrence Apartments. The projected completion date is September, 2004, or later. Originally, the new housing units were planned as two-bedroom units, but after recognizing the need for single occupancy units, the planning committee agreed to include several studio apartments. Members of the Assembly suggested inviting Vice President Wright to a GSG meeting or perhaps to a smaller meeting that will include members of the Lawrence committee. 2. Post-enrollment Due to a PeopleSoft error, several post-enrolled students have been charged the $5 GSG fee. Therefore, at least some post-enrolled students are on an email list that the GSG could potentially access. Lauren Hale suggested that the GSG could obtain the list of post-enrolled students and write letters of apology for the charge. 3. Parking and transportation The parking committee met with Chuck Nouvel and Public Safety Captain Reichling regarding evening shuttle service. Previously, only undergraduates were permitted to drive the shuttle, but now graduate students may also be drivers. The committee would like to re-evaluate the shuttle route. Matt Hindman reported that Meredith Safran had received information from the municipality regarding a potential shuttle. The municipality could run a shuttle for $25,000 rather than $50,000, the original quote from the University. The Administrative Process Team is an ad hoc committee that investigates specific issues and reports to the Provost and President. Current issues regarding parking are the possibility of abolishing the GC parking fee and a plan to build a garage in place of Lots 25 and 26. Amy Shuster posted a sign-up list to tally those interested in having a shuttle from Hibben Apartments to campus. A similar paper was posted previously in Lawrence Apartments by Meredith Safran. Approximately 30 students expressed interest in Hibben, which was similar to the number in Lawrence. 4. Campus Relations: Prox card access An email was recently sent stating that graduate students now have prox card access to undergraduate dorms. 5. Computing/OIT: Disk quota issues Lauren reported that following the request to increase UNIX disk capacity for graduate students, the capacity was increased to 30 MB. B. Search Committees Matt Fouse reported that the University has formed a search committee for a new Dean of the Graduate School. The committee currently consists of all faculty members and is chaired by Professor Ober (email jober@princeton.edu). The committee was given the GSLI report and listened to a report about the increased presence of graduate students on campus. The new dean should be supportive of the new changes. Members of the Assembly expressed desires to have graduate students represented on this committee. VI. New Business A. New Approaches Elliott Ratzman proposed that the GSG co-sponsor a Books Behind Bars project. Eric pointed out several problems with the new proposal to use the University identification card as a copy card. Members of the Assembly proposed initiating several events such as a GSG-sponsored dinner with administrators, an open house to show graduate housing to administrators, inviting administrators such as President Tilghman to a GSG meeting, and inviting USG members to a GSG meeting. Matt Fouse noted that former GSG chairs had emailed monthly mini-minutes. Meredith Safran had expressed interest in publishing a GSG newsletter. B. Elections Committee Donnell Butler, representing the Elections Committee, will soon write his reactions to last year's GSG elections and make suggestions for changes to the constitution for future elections. C. Upcoming meetings The next GSG meetings in 2002 will be on Jan. 16, Feb. 20, and March 13.