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Council of Graduate Students - Minutes - 10 August 2001

In attendance were:

I. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 3:36pm, J. Briggs Cormier, President, presiding.

II. Approval of the Minutes of the 13 July 2001 Meeting

Moved by Delegate McIntosh; seconded by Delegate Wichman; passed unanimously by voice vote.

III. President's Report: J. Briggs Cormier.5

A potential chair for the International Student Concerns Committee is being recruited; chairs are still needed for Campus Events, and Outreach and Engagement. The time commitment for these positions is negotiated between the chair and the CGS president; hence the positions are quite flexible. Please volunteer for these positions or suggest other qualified candidates that CGS should contact directly.

Please encourage students in your departments to check the registration box that provides $2 to student government. All of these "check-off funds" that CGS receives will be used to expand the PDF program. Delegate Beck asked for a clarification of the source of the $2; Briggs replied that it is added on to one's bill as an additional fee.

Because of last year's changes to the Code of Student Conduct, graduate representatives on the Committee on Academic Misconduct and the university's Judicial Panel are greatly needed. Delegate Leppla asked if last year's committee representatives to those committees are automatically re-appointed. Vice-President Scrogham replied that this does not happen, but that she has been contacting last year's representatives who have not already asked for reappointment to see if they are still interested. Delegate Delong asked what the time commitment for COAM was; delegate Breseman replied that it was generally two hours a month (4-5 2-hour sessions a quarter). There is never any advance reading material or take-home material. The work of the committee is generally quite interesting. Delegate Robles asked if all graduate students were eligible to serve on the committee; Briggs confirmed this.

The Executive Committee will be conducting its annual planning retreat. Delegates were asked to contribute suggestions toward CGS's annual goals and priorities. Delegate Leppla suggested that the CGS website be improved. Delegate Browning asked if attention could be paid to enhancing the quality of the health insurance program (as past years' efforts have focused on the cost). Delegate Delong mentioned that CGS ought to consider taking on an arbitration role for students experiencing conflicts with departmental administration. Delegate Denison added that CGS should make certain that some of the goals are still relevant to graduate students who aren't on assistantships or fellowships.

A request has been received from the office of Student Activities: The men of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity (234 E 17th Ave), in collaboration with Student Activities and Campus Programs and Bill Hall, Vice President for Student Affairs, are looking for an individual to serve as a live-in resident staff advisor. This individual will receive free housing in the facility for the Academic Year 2001 - 2002 and need not be a member of the organization. Greek experience and student advising experience is preferred. All inquiries should be directed to Heather Brandon, Assistant Director of SACP, at 292-8763 or brandon.26@osu.edu.

IV. Vice President's Report: Eve Scrogham.1

Delegates who have been re-elected, but have not yet turned in their elections paperwork are asked to do so; contact Eve if you don't know what's required.

We currently have 43 confirmed delegates for the Fall; the chart listing them is included. Delegates for the fall who have not decided on a committee assignment should also contact Eve. In particular, a representative on the Cola-Cola Beverage Marketing Advisory Committee is needed. Committee representatives need not be delegates.

The orientation committee has been quite active, stuffing 3000 envelopes for the orientation. There should be a good amount of information available for incoming grad students. Orientation is September 17 and takes place at University and Independence Halls. Contact Eve if you are interested in volunteering.

CGS will have a welcome picnic on the lawn outside the Ohio Union from 4 - 7pm on September 24.

Some departments have contacted CGS about sending literature or a representative of CGS to their departmental orientation, and we are busy finding people to represent CGS at these events. If you are willing to be such a representative, contact Eve.

V. Treasurer's Report: Ed Lasseigne.1

The August budget report is in the delegate packet; there has not been much activity in any category other than the PDF. The budget is still preliminary, pending the Executive Committee Retreat.

Delegate Wichman: If someone received a mere "No" in response to their PDF application, is there any way more detailed feedback can be received?

Secretary Daniels: Yes, Alecia Naugle would generally be willing to go into more detail about how someone's application was evaluated.

Vice-President Scrogham: Her email is naugle.5@osu.edu.

VI. Secretary's Report: Mike Daniels.203

All in attendance were reminded of the importance of signing in.

The in-progress overhaul of the CGS website should be in place by Orientation. We are still waiting on an OIT design consultant to get back to us.

VII. Delegate Issues and Concerns

Discussion on changes to penalties for late registration and payment of fees.

A flyer produced by the Registrar's office was included with the meeting packet and formed the basis of the following discussion.

Senator Meyers pointed out some concerns about the penalties: the deadline for initial registration payments has changed; the new fines are much larger than any other university fine; and it is not clear what process was followed in implementing the new fines (i.e. was CESP involved, or was this just a decision internal to the Registrar's office).

Delegate Leppla asked if the penalties would also apply to any changes made to course registrations after the quarter began; Dean Siddens replied that it would not. Leppla then asked if there was an appeal process in place for special circumstances, and if so, what its procedures were. Siddens replied that right now, one would contact the Graduate School to begin a petitioning process. President Cormier added that as further procedures were developed, CGS would be publicizing them.

Delegate Wichman asked if the purpose of the penalties was to compensate for the loss of state subsidy that would be incurred by a late registration or payment of fees. [ed. note (MWD): the state of Ohio pays a certain set amount to the university for each student who has enrolled and paid all their fees as of a certain date. The amount varies based on the type of student; the subsidy for a graduate student is different from the subsidy for an undergraduate. This is referred to as the "State Subsidy".] Senator Meyers pointed out that the subsidy is not lost until the fifteenth day of the quarter, while the steeper level of fines for late registration kicks in on the tenth day of the quarter. Meyers went on the say that if the fines were driven by a principle of "compensation", then university failures that have financial impacts on students (for example, a student needing to enroll for an additional quarter after having been repeatedly closed out of a required course) ought to trigger similar compensatory measures.

Delegate Robinson asked if the tuition payment plan (people pay tuition in three installments per quarter) had an effect on the state subsidy. Senator Lowe indicated that it did not: the effect is that the Plan pays your tuition for you, and the monthly payments reimburse the Plan for this expense. Thus, you appear as a fully-paid student when the headcount is taken.

Meyers also pointed out that the problem of late registration is endemic to graduate student culture: many graduate students see registration as no big deal, or as a chore to put off. The Registrar has been trying for some time to get departments to more strongly urge their students to register promptly. Senator Lowe added that the Registrar has taken steps recently to make registration easier: for instance, registration windows have been made longer.

Delegate DeLong expressed concern that she was hearing about this issue for the first time and wondered why she had not already heard about it. President Cormier replied that the Registrar has been progressively notifying students by department; the Graduate School is also planning to distribute information.

Delegate Robles asked what the exact nature of the change was. Dean Siddens replied that the prior late registration fee for continuing students had been $10 in the week before classes started, $20 during the next two weeks, and $200 thereafter. For new students, the late registration fee was $10 during the first two weeks of a quarter and $200 thereafter. For late payment of fees, the charge was $30 plus $3 for each additional day late (up to a maximum of $75 on the fifteenth day), and $125 if fees are paid after the fifteenth day.

Delegate Robles also asked what process approved these changes. Dean Siddens replied that such a change would have had to have come from the Council on Enrollment and Student Progress (CESP) and then been presented to the Board of Trustees for final approval. President Cormier indicated that he had been in touch with the staff member who provides administrative support for CESP to get the minutes from the meeting where this was discussed; that office had recently had computer problems and so the minutes were unavailable at that time. Cormier also indicated that he had spoken to Dean Martha Garland, who sits on CESP, and that she was under the impression that CESP did not discuss these changes.

Other issues

Senator Meyers asked if the GQUE had gone to press yet. Cormier replied that the revision process was still ongoing; a marked-up copy of the current version had been brought to the meeting by the Graduate School.

Delegate Tseng asked about the amount of the health insurance subsidy that will begin this fall. Cormier indicated that it will be $15 per month. Tseng asked if, since health insurance is paid for on a quarterly basis rather than a monthly basis, one lump credit of $45 would appear at the beginning of a quarter. Cormier said that he did not know, and would get the answer for presentation at the next meeting.

VIII. Senate and RGC Elections: Eve Scrogham.1

After short comments from those in attendance, five people were elected: Scott Leppla, Senator from Education; Reema Shafi, Senator from the Professional Biological Sciences; Melissa Browning, RGC member from the Biological Sciences; Allison Bonner, RGC member from the Professional Biological Sciences; and Carmie Gade, RGC member from the Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Five senate seats (Administrative Sciences, Arts, Biological Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics) are still open, as are eight RGC seats (Administrative Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Arts, Education, Engineering Sciences, Humanities, and two at large seats). Interested people (you need not be a delegate) are encouraged to apply.

During the elections, Delegate Denison asked for a brief explanation of what RGC does. Delegate McIntosh, a current representative, explained that it is the governing body of the Graduate School; its committees and subcommittees cover all aspects of Graduate academic life.

IX. 2001-2002 Preliminary Budget

Authored by President Cormier; introduced by President Cormier.

This was the second reading of the budget presented at the last delegate meeting. The Executive Committee plans to present a revised budget once the Goals and Priorities for the upcoming year have been set.

The budget was unanimously approved by voice vote.

X. Resolution on the GQUE report.

Authored by Executive Pirone; introduced by President Cormier.

This resolution was scheduled for the agenda of the July 26 Special Meeting, but quorum was not met on that day.

Discussion:

Delegate Beck asked for a brief explanation of the wording of the resolution. Senator Lowe explained that the purpose of the report was to endorse the "major conclusions" of the report. This language allows us to support the Graduate School in their preliminary publicity efforts, while we await the final version of the report. A joint committee of the Graduate School and CGS is currently examining the report page-by-page and working out the final wording of the document.

Delegate Robinson asked if CGS would be separately publishing a document about the GQUE report. Senator Lowe replied that the Executive Committee has retained the flexibility to do that if desired. Senator Meyers pointed out that the idea of a CGS-published "white paper" or executive summary has been floating around for some time now, and that last year's Executive Committee had made a commitment to release such a summary. Treasurer Lasseigne mentioned one particular idea: a 15-20 page document that might include the results of CGS's own analysis of the GQUE data.

The Executive Committee hopes to bring forward a resolution for unqualified endorsement of the GQUE report once that document has been finalized and addresses the committee's concerns.

The act was unanimously approved by voice vote.

XI. 2001 - 2002 Meeting Schedule

Authored by the Executive Committee; introduced by President Cormier.

This act was separate from the budget approval only because of the constitutionally-required second reading process. The act implements only accounting changes; no funds are being redistributed.

There was no discussion; the act was unanimously approved by voice vote.

XII. Compensation and Benefits Report: Joe Pirone.4

Chair Pirone remarked that he had asked to be appointed to serve on the following two University Committees this year: the Advisory Committee on Campus Health Issues and the Student Health Insurance Committee. His serving on these committees should help to maintain consistency in the representation of graduate student interests and concerns with respect to health insurance and health care. He also hopes that it will improve communication back and forth between CGS and the graduate student representatives on these committees.

When CGS stepped up its efforts last year to win health insurance subsidization from the university, one of the steps it took was to gather information on what OSU's peer institutions do. CGS found that one of our most effective arguments in working with the university was that OSU needed to offer competitive benefits in order to attract top-notch graduate students. Pirone would like the Compensation and Benefits Committee this year to compile similar information from our peer institutions on at least two other issues: the number of months of financial support received by graduate associates each year; and whether domestic partner benefits are offered (not necessarily subsidized) to GA's. A third issue that might be interesting would be the dollar amount of stipends paid to GA's (perhaps relative to cost of living.) If there are other such issues we should research, Pirone asked that they be brought to his attention.

XIII. Diversity Report: Marsha Robinson.696

The Diversity Committee is planning an agressive year of programming centered around three events:

People who would like to help with these events or have ideas for other events should contact Marsha.

XIV. Orientation Report: Eve Scrogham.1

The Graduate Student Orientation will occur from 8am to 1pm on August 17; volunteers are needed to help staff the CGS table and direct people to rooms and booths during the break-out sessions. Organizations who would like to have a presence at orientation are also welcome to contact Eve.

XV. Adjournment

Moved by Alternate Rytting and seconded by Delegate Peters; the motion passed unanimously by voice vote.

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Daniels
CGS Secretary
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