Council of Graduate Students - Minutes - 19 November 2004
In attendance were:
Absences:
- Excused: Marion Lupo
I. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 3:35pm, Barbara Pletz, President, presiding.
II. Guest Speakers
Prior to the meeting, the body was addressed by staff members from Wilce Student Health Center and The Counseling Center regarding the University Wellness Program. Guest speakers included: Connie Boehm, Director, Student Wellness Center Louise Douce, Director, Counseling and Consultation Services, Mike Dunn, Director, Recreational Sports, Ted Grace, Director, Student Health Center, Dave DeAngelo, Recreational Sports. Delegates learned interesting facts about University services available to them in a Wellness Jeopardy game.
III. Approval of Minutes
Motion to approve minutes from the October 29st meeting was made by Delegate Crivella, and seconded by Delegate Corwin.
IV. Elections
Martha Fay (Communications) was elected to Research Graduate Council with no objection to consent.
Francisco Monge-Arino (Developmental Economics) was elected to the Senate with no objection to consent.
We are still in need of a representative to the RGC from Math / Physical Sceinces and from the Arts.
V. Old Business
No old business was discussed.
V. New Business
Resolution 0405-AU-009: Respect and Fair Treatment Rationale
Act 0405-AU-011: An Act Amending the 2004-2005 Delegate Appointment Rationale:
We have 150 seats apportioned for delegate body. College of Law now has a Masters of Law program and they have not had any representation because until they developed this program they were only classified as a professional school. We’re apportioning them one seat because they do not have more than 100 students. In order to keep the total number of delegates at 150, we had to remove one delegate from another program. The one department with the most delegates is College of Education (Teaching & Learning) and they have traditionally not filled their seats. It’s not actually taking one away – they have so many students that they end up getting whatever is leftover once apportionments have been made. They have a very large enrollment because many Columbus Public teachers are enrolled for one or two courses per year to get their Masters. Questions for the authors Delegate Pearson: Do we traditionally do reapportionment in the middle of the year? It’s usually done in the Spring based on Winter quarter enrollment.
Chair Cunningham moves to consider the motion. Delegate Duling seconds the motion.
Del Eggleston requests a point of information: What makes the difference in whether these are sponsored by the Executive Committee or not?
Treasurer Hodak - It’s whether or not the Executive Committee has been asked to consider it before bringing it to the body.
Delegate Lucas: When I did the parking resolution, I didn’t ask for the Executive Committee to sponsor the bill, but it was sponsored by them.
President Pletz: That was basically due to rewording of the resolution.
Treasurer Hodak: If the Executive Committee deems it an important and appropriate resolution they can choose to sponsor so that it will go to the floor. This is true for any committee – any committee can sponsor a resolution so that it will go directly to the floor.
President Pletz: By having the Executive Committee sponsor it we could get it to other people around campus too.
Chair Evans: Could Cathy tell us how many of the T & L seats are currently filled? 1
Treasurer Hodak: Just some history of Ed T & L. It used to be each had 3 sections and 3 seats. Ed P & L used to fill the three and the at-large positions. Now they sit vacant because T & L has 9 and they do not get filled.
Without further discussion by the body, the motion passes by unanimous voice vote.
VI. Officer Reports
President Barbara Pletz: The Freeman Report will be issued in January. This is the leadership agenda where quality is favored over everything else. This includes all 100 doctoral programs on campus. This committee helps to decide which programs will be eliminated (whole or part) and what will be boosted. President Holbrook said that the rationale is that if the University doesn’t make the cuts itself, the Board of Regents would, due to budget concerns. Since this is the last meeting for 2004, I want to take the opportunity to thank you all for their hard work and for your service. The last few meetings have been pretty challenging and interesting and maxed out my knowledge of Roberts rules of Order. I hope everyone has a safe holiday and look forward to seeing you all next quarter. Questions from the delegates Delegate Lestin: Is there a place on-line where we can view the report? I don’t think there is a complete one. What I gave you on the leadership agenda has some information. It’s kind of a well-kept secret Delegate Lucas: I heard from some other people that the Freeman Report has some includes some cuts in TAs? Is that true? Well, it doesn’t directly include specific cuts yet, but it may in the future. Delegate Hudson: Can we get an email about this? With the link? We’ll get it out by email as soon as we can. Treasurer Hodak: It will probably be after Thanksgiving. So far, they haven’t been very open about it. We’ll need to do some inquiry. Delegate Lucas: do you have any idea why they’re keeping this a secret? Well I’m not really sure it is. It was mentioned in senate but it’s still in committee. So I just don’t think they’re not publicizing it too much yet.
Vice President Baack: I want to talk just a little bit about the Frequent Fitness Program – we’re launching in conjunction with IPC. We want to remind grad students there is a life outside the lab and outside the office. The website will be up the first of the year and we’re giving out the booklets now so you can see how you earn miles, what they’re worth. If you can think of anything that should be included that we’ve missed or we haven’t thought about, please let us know. You can keep track of your miles on the calendar and then you can start downloading your miles and getting points for prizes.
Delegate Lucas: How about waiving our fee for the facility? Treasurer Hodak: We’re going to try to get a monthly raffle going, with hopefully bigger prizes like TVs, DVDs, Palm Pilots, etc. That could be included.
I attended APAGS last week and sit on board of directors as the Midwest Regional Coordinator. Basically we’re planning on working on a lot of the same things - HR 3412, reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. I’ll be writing it up in more detail for the next meeting.
Treasurer Hodak: The Ray Award was announced for fall and winter this past Monday. We had 20 winners. Encourage your graduate students to apply – there is a very minimal application process. The conference dates that are fundable are December 10th through June 9th, and the Deadline is Jan 21. Please try to submit the online part a week in advance. Then, once the online form is submitted, the advisor gets the notice to fill out form. Make sure you give them time. A couple of students have declined their awards so we have even more money to award next time. You can apply twice – if you’re unsuccessful the first time.
Secretary Scott All requested corrections were made to the report from last meeting. No other additions or corrections.
VII. Committee Reports
Academic and HR Policy – Chair Evans: We’re getting ready to extend the G-QUE. We’re looking at some of the recommendations that were made. If you want a full copy, email me and I can bring it to a future meeting. What I’m asking you to do is think about something positive that has come from these recommendations, something that has actually happened and let us know. We want to see a connection between the report and positive things that have happened. We need to be able to tell people what kind of difference the G-QUE has made.
Governmental Relations – Chair Pierce: We are in the process of trying to assess the feasibility of trying to hold a Senate hearing regarding the budget. We’ll need lots of help with that so I’ll keep you posted.
Events – Chair Cunningham: I know in my report I talked about the happy hour, but we cancelled it because of the tailgate. Also, I passed around the Buck-I-thon information. It’s a dance marathon that raises money for Children’s Hospital and they’re looking to get graduate and professional students more involved. It’s a great way to get involved on a one-time basis. Also, there’s going to be a poetry, fiction and biography self-publishing workshop next week. I’ll pass around the info. Come talk to me.
Outreach and Engagement – Chair Gray (given by Secretary Scott): Today is the last day to sign up for the Jingle Bell run and still get sponsored by CGS. What that means is that CGS buys the first of 5 raffle tickets you need to sell to pay your registration fee. They’re five dollars each and CGS buys the first ticket in your name. The first few people who sign up tonight also get a free “Beat Michigan week” shirt. Also, there will be a meeting in the CGS office (OU room 208) on November 30th at 7pm for all those who are walking and running with the CGS team. Please attend if you can. Finally, Lillian wanted me to thank everyone for their help and participation in the UNICEF trick-or-treat. We raised a total of 198.70 for UNICEF.
VIII. Delegate Issues and Concerns
Delegate Lucas: I’ve heard from my friends in the English department that the Freeman report may be talking about cutting TA positions. President Pletz: haven’t heard that any TA positions would be cut. There has been talk of departments, meaning faculty.Treasurer Hodak: If they cut a dept they have some obligation to the students in the program. They have done this in other cases, where they transfer faculty to places that are not desirable so they leave or retire. What I’ve heard is that without the TAs we couldn’t teach the students we have. They actually see the faculty as more expensive than graduate students. Delegate Lucas: So do you think they see GAs as cheap labor? Dean Clark: Number One. If programs are being cut, everything is on the table. The deans will have the latitude to rearrange their finances to cover obligations. When the provost is talking about cutting doctoral programs, I’d encourage this body to look outside this University. In the last IRC report, all but two of our programs are in the number one in the state. We should tell the board of regents to look elsewhere when cutting (other universities). If the student’s voice starts to be heard it can make a difference. This is quite alarming for graduate education.
Delegate Vogel: In Diversity and International Concerns, a problem came to our attention regarding relationships between students and advisors regarding heavy workloads and failures to communicate. We’re kicking around a resolution regarding an advisor evaluation.
Delgate Fout: We have a member working on it now and we’d like your suggestions. You can contact us at HYPERLINK "mailto:Fout.24@osu.edu" Fout.24@osu.edu or vogel.72@osu.edu
Delegate Smith: Is there a precedent for this kind of thing at other universities? Delegate Vogel: Not to our knowledge, but this is just the beginning of the process.
Delegate Cesar: Are you talking about workload for people completing theses and dissertations or about workload of RAs and GAs? Delegate Vogel: I think both are relevant. It’s both academic and labor. We’re really interested in how to make advisors be better better advisors. How to make the relationship more functional.
Treasurer Hodak: This is going back to the non-discrimination policy and the exemption for religious organizations. Does anyone care about this? Or have they been affected? Delegate Lestin: Point of Information – What are you talking about? Treasurer Hodak: Student organizations used to have to have a clause similar to the HR Non-Discrimination clause.
Delegate Matterjee: One of the students in my program is very concerned about it. She’s concerned about it affecting other groups – one of the reasonstshe came here was the strong non-discrimination policy.
Delegate Corwin: I’m just curious about what people are afraid will happen and secondly for any of the legal students in here, I’ve heard arguments that say that according to the Supreme Court rulings, OSU is more or less stuck.
Treasurer Hodak: I suppose the biggest thing people are concerned about is the KKK showing up on campus and getting $2500. Delegate Pearson: But that isn’t possible.
Treasurer Hodak: The KKK does have a religious component so some people say it might be possible. The legal issue is that there are other options the University could have taken. What I’ve heard is that this actually opens them up to other lawsuits. There is a tenuous protection for gender under Title 9 but that could be challenged in court. There’s really no precedent directly addressing this issue at all – it’s very unclear.
Delegate Pearson: Just to clarify, Kerry and I have debated this for a long time. The purpose behind the change was to allow religious groups to maintain their religious nature. If you don’t allow a religious group to “discriminate” on the basis of religious nature, you’ve taken out the entire core of the organization. So following Kerry’s recommendation would eliminate those groups entirely.
Treasurer Hodak: Actually, I would have allowed anyone to discriminate on any grounds and not allow a special exception for religious groups.
Delegate Lucas: I have an issue that we spent an hour playing Jeopardy and we don’t have enough time to discuss important things.
Delegate Eggleston: Is there a regular time allowed to speakers? More than 30 minutes allowed seems inappropriate. Treasurer Hodak: Typically we do only allow 30 minutes, but we had a pretty light agenda. The other problem is we haven’t been very timely for being ready to start at 3:30 and we did get started late.
President Pletz: I do take responsibility. We wanted everyone to see the facilities and we thought it would be nice. I’m the president and it was my decision.
Delegate Eggleston: To address Kerry’s point, if we’re not here at 3:30, that’s our problem. The meeting should still start on time.
Treasurer Hodak: We can’t start unless we have quorum.
Delegate Leston: Point of information: How many are required for quorum? President Pletz: 20%
Delegate Lucas: With the Freeman thing, and the talk about the budget, I think we should have someone from the University come talk to us about the budget and how it works. I requested that last year. President Pletz: That’s a good suggestion – I’ll talk to someone about it and try to schedule someone for the February meeting.
President Pletz – please be aware of the December 1 deadline for Human Subjects Research Subjects Requirement. We have a link. Make sure you take care of it and let others know too.
Treasurer Hodak: For those of you in social science, that includes people who are doing interviews.
Vice President Baack – It also includes animal research. Will take about 6 - 8 hours.
Secretary Scott:Several people in my department have approached me about the pre-tax health insurance deduction. It seems to have something to do with being on fellowship – if you are, it’s not listed as pre-tax. Treasuer Hodak: They also don’t have taxes deducted from their checks. They have to pay quarterly taxes, and there should be a way for them to deduct the health insurance premiums.
Dean Clark: Someone who works in the tax office would be available ton consult on that – he talked to first year students. I can get you his name.
Chair Cunningham moves to adjourn, and the motion is seconded by Delegate Vogel. Motion passes by unanimous voice vote. Meeting adjourned at 5:35 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Amanda Scott
CGS Secretary
Please note: Any additions or corrections to the minutes (especially regarding attendance) should be sent to HYPERLINK "mailto:scott.665@osu.edu" scott.665@osu.edu