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Minutes - 21 November 2003

In attendence were:

Absences:

Speaker

Larry Lewellen, Associate Vice President, Office of Human Resources

Spoke to delegates about deductions for Student Health Insurance coming out of stipend checks before taxes are taken out of stipend checks. This would lower the amount of taxes that students would have to pay. This is an option that is available to faculty and staff now and would not be difficult to implement for funded grad students. After much discussion, an informal vote was taken to see what the consensus would be on whether this would be beneficial to students. There were no votes against this idea.

I. Call to Order

Meeting was called to order by President Depelteau at 3:48 pm.

II. Approval of minutes 31 Oct 2003

Approved by unanimous vote.

III. Officer Reports

A.President - Jamie Depelteau

There is currently a bill in the US House that would make Graduate Associate stipends tax exempt. Del. Oelgoetz When would this take effect? There is no senate sponsor so we are probably looking at 2005 tax year to see this benefit. Del. Dobson: could we send out a letter of support? We have a blanket letter of support that can be sent out to all delegates to send to your representative, so we will try to get that sent out to delegates next week.

B.Vice President - Kerry Hodak

We have a copy of the Research Forum Proceedings finally.

C.Treasurer - Ann Farrelly

No questions or comments.

IV. Committee Reports

A. Events

B. Outreach - Chad Combs

Last week we worked with Habitat for Humanity. We will be continuing to work with them, with a large event planned for January, the 2nd or 3rd weekend.

C. Govermental Relations - Barb Pletz

Govt. affairs committee met this week to establish plan for the year; we discussed what happened in Washington at the NAGPS conference. One representative (Bannard) came down from his meeting to meet with us. We met with several legislative aides. We did find that unless the representative is sitting on the finance committee, they were reluctant to sign on as a co-sponsor of the bill. There needs to be a lot of political pull behind the bill and we need to do a lot of lobbying especially to our own representative. We hope to get together a nationwide lobbying effort of all schools around the country.

V. Old Business

A.Act 0304-AU-009: An Act Amending the Bylaws, Establishing Rules for Debate

This is the second reading of this act.

Del. Dotson: I want to raise concerns about section VII.3g.i about limiting formalized agonistic terms so that speakers may be limited in their ability to speak out about subjects. VP Hodak: I am sure that we don’t intend to limit ability to speak out either for or against, but we do want to be albe to control the meeting. We feel that this is a good teaching opportunity to learn about Roberts Rules. Del. Kulbaga: Why do we need this? What happened that caused us to want to bring this up? By passing these rules, the delegate body will have the knowledge of how to bring things up by following the Rules. This insures that nobody can hijack the meeting and gives the delegate body more control. Del. Gray: I feel that the last line "the delegate speaking in the wrong line will be ruled out by the chair" will limit debate. This line is not meant to limit debate, but to keep any one member from Sen Clark: This bill is trying to limit our ability to debate and give the Exec. Committee more control. Del. Gray: Amendment to bill in Section VII.3.a, strike "removed from the agenda" and change to "placed on the agenda for the next meeting." Seconded by Del. Ogleleve. Passed by unanimous vote. Sen. Clark: I move to strike Section VII.3.g.i completely. Seconded by Del. Ogleleve Del. Gray, I feel that this should not be struck completely as there is a positive to Pro/Con format. Del. Ogleleve: I feel that if there isn’t a Pro/Con format, you often end up hearing all from one side, and then all from the other side, Del. Dotson: By striking this whole section, we will solve this problem. Sen. Clark: This will still stifle our ability to openly discuss issues. Del. Pepper: Call the question Del. Garlick: Second passed unanimous vote. Vote on the motion: Passed by count 23-11 Main motion: passed by vote 21-13.

VI. New Business

A.Resolution 0304-AU-013: A Resolution Amending Resolution 0304-AU-008.

Chair Pletz: This resolution is brought up because there is questions that the forgivable loan program will be taken out of general funds which would affect all of us. All we are asking is that if this is true, we won’t support it. We would support it if funds don’t come from the general fund. Sen. Clark: The net affect of this is that there wouldn’t be any affect. The main problem is felt by Ellen Perone, that we wold be affected. Rep. Wolpart sent a letter that there wouldn’t be any affect to higher education funding and he is a graduate of OSU and he would make sure that funding doesn’t come from us. VP Hodak: Politics doesn’t always mean that you vote your way. A faculty member of OSU who is a representative voted against higher funding for OSU. Chair. Etheridge: If there is no affect to us, why do we need this resolution? Sen. Clark: Ellen Perone basically forced us to bring this to the delegate body. Chair Pletz: I disagree with Ryan that we were forced to bring this. I feel that we need to take this position just in case this bill goes the wrong way for us. VP Hodak: This will help us to develop a good working relationship with our own Govt. Relations committee. Passed by unanimous vote.

B.Resolution 0304-AU-010: A Resolution Calling Upon the Board of Trustees to Extend University Health Benefits to the Domestic Partners of Faculty, Staff, and Students at Ohio State.

Sen Cormier: for past 12 years, we have passed a resolution. This calls for direct action by the Board on this issue. Del Pearson: Why are we arguing for Domestic partner and not household benefits? This is for us to keep the language we feel is important. Del. Gray: What does this resolution do for us? Puts our support down in writing Del. Gardlin: What is the current status of domestic partners in Ohio? There is a basic definition of domestic partner here at OSU. Ohio is one of 2 states that has no rule for or against domestic partner so there is no legal stance in Ohio Moved to approve by Chair Vanterpool, second by Chair Pletz. Del Pearson, does this preclude there being sponsered dependents? No, the issue before the Board is on sponsored dependents, not just domestic partners. Passed with one vote against.

VII.Delegate Issues and Concerns

COTA VP Hodak: COTA has come up with their first proposal for renewal of contract and brought it to CSA. There will be no increase if contract renewed for next 3 years. There are provisions to extend to 5 years based on rider rates. They are going to track ridership and if there is not a 8% ridership increase then the contract dissolves itself, if they meet that 8% rate will stay the same until 2009, if there is a 20% increase by 2007, the rate will go up. If there is an increase in COTA’s charges, then it will bring forward that increase. The #20, the brewery district bus is being cut. The #2, High Street bus, will go from every 6 minutes to every 8 minutes. The #6, Residential routes will be extended and run every 23 minutes I will email the minutes of CSA meeting where COTA talked. Del. Ethridge: What about changing the times for Monday-Thursday instead of cutting it completely? Also what about increasing publicity about #20? At least half of the delegate body would utilize the #20 that weren’t aware of its existence before. Del. Pack: Are there other reasons such as disorderly conduct, etc., that they want to cut this route? They say that maybe only 30 people are riding the #20 on weekends, and it isn’t cost effective. Del. Ma: For any line that they are considering dropping, they have already been given the money , so why do they feel that they aren’t’ getting any money if OSU isn’t using the bus enough? Has to do with how they calculate how much it costs to run a bus. Consensus is that we want to keep COTA contract

Library Renovations VP Hodak: Now in process of talking to architects to design renovations. One idea is to get rid of the stack towers. How do you feel? Against it as it doesn’t allow you to look for books in the same area as one you have located in the card catalog. You wouldn’t be able to just browse. You wouldn’t be able to just pull a book and not need to wait for it to be delivered. Bringing the building up to code will decrease the space. When the library is being renovated, it will have to close and the Ackerman/Kenny site will be used. How do you feel about this? There is no bus service M-F and no parking nearby. The bus that does go there doesn’t get that close. The #18 COTA bus goes out there but doesn’t’ get close either. Can you browse the books there? What about getting access to journals? Can all journals be made available online? Why are they planning on renovation? In order to attract researchers and scholars we need a good library and it would not be considered that now. Parking on South Oval will be deleted and a parking garage will be put in as part of the Larkins project. What about using compact shelving?

Larkins Fee The Administration is thinking about instituting a partial Larkins fee ($20.00/quarter) that would go into effect Summer or Autumn 2004 that would allow access to the new ARC center for 2-3 quarters until the rest of Larkins project is completed. The total fee will be $72.00 a quarter when Larkins facility is completed.

VIII. Announcements

Happy hour at Woody’s. CGS will be in Buckeye News Net. Setting up ad hoc committee to see how effective resolutions we have passed in past. Del. Gray: Artist in residence on Monday & Tuesday (Nov. 24-25) in Sullivant Hall 8pm. $5.00 suggested donation.

IX. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:38p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,
Cathy Baack (baack.4@osu.edu)
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