Council of Graduate Students - Minutes -8 April 2005
Attendance for this meeting is, unavailable at this time. It will be posted as soon as possible.
Guest Speakers
Prior to the meeting, William J. Shkurti, Vice President of Business and Finance and addressed the delegate body. His remarks and questions from the delegates can be found here.
I. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 4:17pm, Barbara Pletz, President, presiding.
II. Approval of Minutes
Motion to approve minutes from the March 4th meeting was made by Chair Evans and seconded by Delegate Corwin. Delegate Eggleston pointed out two issues, one with Delegate Pepper’s attendance and another where Delegate Corwin’s comment from the previous meeting was duplicated. With these corrections, the minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.
III. Old Business
No old business was raised at this meeting.IV. New Business
First reading of Act 0405-SP-018: I An Act Amending the Bylaws
Rationale:
Chair Daniels: This is basically spring cleaning. We looked through the bylaws and current procedures and made any necessary changes. I’ve listed them here in the resolution with a rationale for each change. By and large these are minor changes. If you have questions or debate, raise them now.
Questions for the author
Delegate Corwin: In the amm to section 3.2, you’ve added “All Representatives, regardless of their program of origin, represent the entire graduate student body and shall at all times work to advance the Council's official goals and positions” but when we just elected Delegate Pepper, you said he was a rep of MAPS. Regardless of the fact that we’re trying to get diverse representation, from different areas, have a broad scale of backgrounds, it’s always been the point of view that the groups represent all graduate students. So we talk about people as from X department not of X department. Now, we’re making it official.
Delegate Berntsen: I had a question about that same phrase. How exactly is the official goal or position determined for how representative in those body votes? We approved a resolution for how reps should vote on the leave policy, but we don’t do that for all issues. The intention here is a good one, but it’s not clear how that would be determined. Here we’re referring to official positions, and that is anything that a resolution says. There’s no other way for something to become an official position of the council.
Treasurer Hodak: In the past for an example of when CGS actively did not take a position and the president advised reps to vote their conscience was the issue of increasing the number of clinical track faculty above the limits. They were instructed to vote as a representative of all graduate students. Their role and how it operates is described to senate reps when they become reps.
President Pletz: Just as a sidebar - on senate committees we’re representatives from CGS, not our individual areas.
Delegate Lupo: I think this is a good idea but I think there are other things to consider here. I understand why it’s in here, but it seems to me that it might be in our best interest not to make it explicit because sometimes our delegates may have a conflict of interest and it infringes on peoples right to vote their conscience when they might have to.
Chair Gray: I just want to respond to the comment regarding possible conflict of interest for a delegate that’s actually a senator, and I think it’s important to remember that it’s two different jobs. When you’re here it’s as a delegate, when you’re there it’s as a representative of your council.
President Pletz moves to end debate, motion passes with unanimous voice vote.
Resolution 0405-Sp-019: I An Act Amending the 2004-05 Budget
Rationale:
For the most part, things stayed the same from last June when you approved the initial budget, but we wanted to take into account the additional carryover and the shortfall of CAA funds. We also reallocated funds that were in lines that weren’t being used.
Question from the Delegates
Delegate Muller: I just had a question about Diversity and International concerns. I’m curious about both why it’s so high initially and why it’s decreased so dramatically. Two years ago we cosponsored one of the Provost and President lecturer events for about 4200. We haven’t been asked to cosponsor though we hoped to continue to be involved. In addition, we had a chair for Diversity and International Concerns who stayed on through winter quarter but wasn’t very active and didn’t really do anything. The amount allocated was based on his goals and priorities and when he resigned, that money went away. It won’t be productively used this year, but that doesn’t mean it will affect the allocation for next year.
Delegate Corwin: Along similar lines, the events budget has had all of its funded subtracted for 2004. That’s income and that would have been if Patty had been able to get someone to give the council money. If we had better software to track in-kind donations, this wouldn’t be an issue. We don’t have a way to track it here and it doesn’t count as cash for us. That’s why it’s been reduced. If you look down at the expenses we’ve actually increased Patty’s line by over 8 thousand dollars.
With no further debate, the motion to approve passes by unanimous voice vote.
V.Officer Reports
President Pletz: I would like to add something that just happened about an hour and a half ago. We’ve been getting faculty resistance on the formation of the Benefits and Compensation committee, and we had a lot of questions about why do we need this, why does it need to be formalized, etc. I spoke very vehemently that we felt it was necessary because we are different beasts than staff. I pointed out that staff don’t have senators and we do. We are not employees and they are. Some staff raised displeasure that the students had more members than faculty on the committee and Provost Snyder pointed out that this was something that concerned graduate students.
At this point, the meeting is suspended to allow Dean Paul Beck to speak. The notes and questions from his address can be found here.
Vice President Baack: I’m sending around a sign-up sheet to help with Hayes Research Forum on April 16th. Also, nominations are now open for president, vice president, treasurer and secretary. Nominations will close Friday before the meeting – that’s April 30. We accept self nominations. You’ll need to fill out an application that will be available online by Monday.
I am planning on running for Vice President next year and as such am not able to chair the Elections committee, so Treasurer Hodak will be chairing it. Any questions about those issues should be directed to Kerry at hodak.2@osu.edu.
There were no nominations at this meeting.
Treasurer Hodak No additions to online report.
Secretary Scott No additions.
VI. Committee Reports
Outreach and Engagement – Chair Gray:
I’ve left a written report on table with a survey to get a better idea of what you do with information when you leave and how we can better serve you.
I also went to the Bike Lanes committee meeting. It’s a university planning committee that is looking at the traffic issues on campus with pedestrians, bikes and cars. They did express regret that they missed the opportunity to correct problems in recent projects. They’re looking to create east-west and north-south throughways with convenient stop off points (mostly for cyclists). There is also the possibility of incorporating cycling stations with a large locker room type facility where you can lock your bike, take a shower, etc. They’re looking at logistics and demand. They did mention that there are a number of roads (High, Nei and Olentangy) that go through campus but we can only make recommendations to the city . Finally, they’re considering adding cyclist parking in the parking garages. There are some small dead spaces in there that would be perfect for this. Oh, and they also mentioned the possibility of a light rail system on High Street, and how that would affect the planning. If you are a cyclist or have concerns as a pedestrian about interacting with bikes and cars you can email me directly and I can submit suggestions to the comm.. They’re doing a university wide crosswalk study to see how safe, how well-marked, etc. and they’re also doing a similar survey for all of the traffic intersections on campus.
The Vice President of Safety, Verne Biden, gave me a lot of information on safety and that needs to get to Delegate Lucas, so I can give that to you after the meeting.
Delegate Bapat: Are these city issues or university issues and who’s going to fund these changes? It is both, there are bike paths from the city that cross through campus and there is money attached to those, but the university does have some discretion. There are funds coming from different areas, depending on whose jurisdiction it’s in. The city ultimately decides on city funds.
We’re also planning an event for Earth Day – it’s a park clean up and picnic and there are fliers on the back table. We will carpool – meet at Ohio Union about 45 minutes before. RSVP to Lillian.
Events – Chair Cunningham’s report present by Mr. Sangster:
Graduate professional trip to Cincinnatti’s Underground RR freedom center on April 30– There is a $10 refundable deposit, but the first 5 people to respond to Cunningham.212@osu.edu can get tickets without the deposit.
We needs volunteers for the Spring picnic – next meeting May 6th.
April 20 – Chocolate and Wine Tasting 7pm Respectfully Submitted,
Amanda Scott
May 4th – Dissertation Preparation Workshop at The Faculty Club
May 22nd – Family Fun Night showing Shark Tale. There will be food and activities starting at 5pm and the film starts at 6:30.
April 29, Grad Prof happy Hour 5:30 – 8:00 at Woody’s.
May 2nd Ribbons and Remembrance – CGS partnered with Hillel to raise awareness about diversity of people persecuted in Holocaust. More info in the Spring Fling brochure in the back.
Delegate Whitten – Where will the picnic be? The west side of Ohio Union – Ohio Union Ballroom.
VII. Delegate Issues and Concerns
None raised at this meeting
VIII. Announcements
President Pletz: The next meeting is May 6th and we’ll be holding elections. Also, Larry Llewelyn will talk about issues involving graduate students in the next year.
IX.Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 5:27pm