Graduate Student Assembly
Regular General Meeting

4:15-adjournment; Monday, March 1, 2004
Texas Union, UNB 3.116

MINUTES

1. Call to Order. The meeting was called to order at 4:20 by Co-Chair Marian Barber.

2. Verification of Attendance.

Executive Committee Members Present: Marian Barber (Co-Chair), Don Drumtra (Co-Chair), Joyce Banks (Secretary), Dan Gilman (Treasurer), Ginger Gossman (Publicity Coordinator).

Certified Representatives Present: Allisa Carter (Educational Administration), Sylvia Gale (English), Don Zinman (Government), Greg Argo (School of Information), Malavika Shetty (Linguistics), Larry Oubre (Music—Performance), Rachel Mitchell (Music—Theory), Paul Mathews (Neuroscience), Ruby J. Jones (Slavic Languages and Literature), Audra Rouse (Women’s and Gender Studies), Marcus Hilliard (GLBTGrad), Erin Boade (TSEU).

Alternate Representatives Present: None were recorded.

University Committee Representatives Present: Nachiket Kharalkar (Graduate Assembly, Admissions and Enrollment Committee), Qunhui Huang (Graduate Coordinator Committee), Craig Burgler (Commision of 125: Service to Society Committee).

Ex-Officio Members Present: Dr.Victoria Rodriguez (Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, GSA Faculty Advisor), Brian Haley (President, Student Government), Rusty Ince (Chair, Senate of College Councils).

Uncertified Representatives Present: J. Cheryl Beaver (School of Information), Angela Palmer (School of Information), Greg Hammond (History), Lori Stunz (Economics), Ken Ward (LLILAS), Marilyn Lehman (Comparative Literature).

Guests Present: Jennifer Lee (General Libraries, Student Library Committee), Matt Ross (FOCUS), Laura Gladney-Lemon (FOCUS), Byron Long (FOCUS), Chris MacLeod (FOCUS), Michael Windle (FOCUS), Grant Stanis (FOCUS), Stacy Guventz (FOCUS), Monica Rios (FOCUS), Rachel McGinty (FOCUS), Amber Billingsley (FOCUS), Ben Heath (Daily Texan Editor Candidate), Emma Graves.

3. Adoption of Minutes of Last Meeting. February 2, 2004. Allisa Carter noted that she was present at the February general meeting, but had not been recorded as such in the minutes.

The minutes passed unanimously as amended.

4. Reports of Guests.

a. FOCUS (Ticket for Student Government Elections) Members of the ticket in attendance introduced themselves to the Assembly. Graduate student candidates, Laura Gladney-Lemon and Nachiket Kharalkar, spoke about a number of issues they felt were of particular interest to graduate students. They said that their ticket would address these issues if they were elected. The issues discussed included the placement of a student representative on the University of Texas System Board of Regents and better health insurance options for all graduate students, not just those graduate students who were also employees of the university. They urged members in attendance to contact them with issues or questions both before and after the election.

b. REPREZENT (Ticket for Student Government Elections) Candidates in attendance from the REPREZENT ticket introduced themselves to the Assembly. They said that they felt that student leadership at UT needed to be ideologically reevaluated and to be held accountable for how student fee money is spent. The REPREZENT candidates stated that they decided to run without a predetermined platform. They interviewed a variety of students over the course of 6 days and wrote a platform based on the issues that students brought to them. One issue in particular they thought was important to their ticket was to do more to urge the university to address the concerns of international students and foster diversity.

Ginger Gossman (GSA, Public Relations Coordinator) opened the floor for questions. Ken Ward (Uncertified, LLILAS) asked the FOCUS candidates: How do you plan to create a student position on the UT System Board of Regents? A FOCUS candidate responded that they plan to address this issue the same way that it has been in the past, but with a larger and more vocal contingency of students. REPREZENT candidates responded that students have worked on this for a long time but have not been successful because there is never enough involvement by students to really put pressure on the legislature. These candidates stated that they thought the same tactics that have been used in the past aren’t going to work. Don Zinman (Government) pointed out that when students lobby for a student representative they need to carefully stipulate who would be eligible and how they will be elected or appointed. He also asked how elected representatives can be held accountable if their tickets are disbanded after an election has been completed? Laura Gladney-Lemon (FOCUS) indicated that tickets are required to disband but that she is committed to standing by her fellow ticket-mates in the future. REPREZENT representatives noted that part of the problem with the current structure is that people with the same ideological viewpoints are continually addressing the same issues. They think fresh voices and perspectives need to come forward and be heard and they intend to seek these out.
Ginger Gossman (GSA, Public Relations Coordinator) wrapped up discussion by urging representatives to become informed, vote, and urge their colleagues to do the same.

c. Brian Ferguson (Candidate for Daily Texan Editor). Brian stated that he had a lot of professional journalism experience and was interested in making the Daily Texan a newspaper that was focused on campus issues. He noted that he understood how hard it was for graduate students to connect to the University community and he hoped to make the Texan something that would help with this. He stated that his platform was change and that he wanted the paper to address the development of new knowledge.

d. Ben Heath (Candidate for Daily Texan Editor). Ben pointed out that he is the only candidate that has worked at the Daily Texan before and that he as been with the paper for three years. Last semester he served as the news editor and in this capacity he oversaw the work of Analji, who often reported on graduate student issues. He pledged that he would do more to cover the issues of interest to graduate students in the future, such as tuition and health benefits. He urged people to contact him with any questions or concerns.

e. Jennifer Lee (Student Library Committee). Jennifer updated the Assembly on issues that graduate students had asked about in the past. The bathrooms in PCL, particularly those on the second floor, are now being cleaned every hour. Students should see a big improvement. Laptops can now be checked out for a day at UGL and they are working on putting a similar program in at PCL. At the request of students, children’s literature is now on the same circulation schedule as other material. Ken Ward (Uncertified, LLILAS) asked if a new microfilm reader will be installed. Jennifer responded that this will happen, but she doesn’t know when. Sylvia Gale (English) asked if circulation desk hours at PCL on Friday and Saturday evenings have been extended as a number of students had requested. Jennifer responded that this had been planned but she didn’t any specifics of whether or how it would be implemented. A representative from the Music Department asked if there is any funding available to extend hours at branch libraries, specifically, the Fine Arts Library. Jennifer indicated that she will follow up on these questions and concerns and report back at a future meeting. She also encouraged representatives to contact her or any other member of the committee with any concerns.

5. Reports of Ex-Officio Members.

a. Vice Provost and Graduate Dean Dr. Victoria Rodriquez. Dr. Rodriguez noted that she had no major news items to report. She said that she had attended the Council of Southern Graduate Schools annual meeting last week. There were a number of interesting panels at this conference addressing issues such as the decline international graduate student applications and issues regarding digital dissertations. Viewing a panel of twelve graduate students from different universities in the region, Dr. Rodriguez noted that she was struck by how similar the issues these students mentioned were to those of students at UT Austin. These included a lack of adequate orientation for graduate studies, interest in dissertation writing workshops, and a need for more professional development programs. This inspired her to suggest that UT Austin create an advisory group of graduate students that she could meet with regularly to find out what kinds of issues graduate students are worried about. She asked graduate students to think about this and give her feedback about how such a group might be formed. Don Zinman (Government) asked if there were any plans to institute merit raises for university employees. More specifically, Don wondered if TAs and AIs can expect to see salary increases in the fall? Dr. Rodriguez answered that the university plans to follow through with raises for faculty and staff in the fall, but the details have not yet been hammered out.

b. Brian Haley (Student Government). Brian reminded the Assembly that elections for Student Government would take place in the two days following the meeting. He pointed out that graduate student involvement in elections is traditionally very low and he encouraged all students to become informed about the candidates and vote. Brian announced that he would be attending a meeting of the Tuition Policy Committee on the following day. In this meeting they will discuss how the University will spend the funds that were generated as a result of the tuition increase. If anyone has any concerns or feedback, please contact him.

c. Rusty Ince (Senate of College Councils). Rusty reported that Senate recently had elections for Chair and Vice Chair. The new Chair is Nick Staha and the Vice Chair is Julie Wimmer. Rusty was pleased that there were more graduate students involved in Senate than in past years. He announced that the wait list program that has been instituted for undergraduates during registration can now be expanded to include graduate students. Individual departments will be able to decide if they want to use this system or not, so give your department feedback on whether or not you think it is a good idea. Rusty also announced that they have been working on implementing a program of mid-semester online course evaluation. It will be direct and anonymous, and would not be compiled and reported the way that the official end-of-semester evaluations are. He expects a pilot version of this program to be in place around March 22nd with more wide-scale implementation planned for the fall semester. The Senate has also been working on implementing a program that will provide peer mentors as independent advocates to help students navigate the University’s judicial process.

6. Reports of Officers. (Please read posted reports online in advance of the meeting)

a. Co-Chairs.

b. Secretary.

c. Treasurer (Dan Gilman). Dan announced that representatives should have received his report via email. He would like to highlight that it is time to determine how to spend out the remaining budget. The GSA has approximately $5,200 in the budget to be spent before the end of the fiscal year. He solicited feedback from the Assembly about how to best use these funds and noted that he expects to make some proposals for the approval of the Assembly at the next meeting.

d. Special Events Coordinator.

e. Public Relations Coordinator.

f. Electronic Resources Coordinator.

7. Reports of University Committee Representatives. (Please read posted reports online in advance of the meeting). None were offered. Don Drumtra (Co-Chair) reminded committee appointees to remember to submit written reports in a timely fashion so that they can be posted online.

8. Reports of Ad-hoc Committees. No reports were offered. Marian indicated that she has been contacting all of those people who had expressed interest in serving on an Ad Hoc Committee. If she had not already been in contact with you, she would be very soon.

9. Unfinished Business.

a. Resolution commemorating the Thirty-firth Anniversary of the Graduate Student Assembly. This resolution was deferred to the next general meeting.

b. Resolution requiring the placement of Graduate Students on all University Faculty and Administrative Search Committees. This resolution was deferred to the next general meeting.

c. Resolution to Address the Welfare, Rights, and Responsibilities of Assistantship Recipients. A motion to take this resolution off the table and open it for discussion passed unanimously.

In discussion, representatives questioned a stipulation in the resolution that asked that the salaries of assistantship holders match those earned by TAs or AIs. One student present worried that this could be used to lower the salaries of TAs and AIs. Sylvia Gale (English) noted that inconsistencies between the salaries of graduate student workers across campus is an issue that is continually being addressed in the TA, AI, and RA Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Standardization is always problematic because individual colleges hold the ability to control the rate of pay for their graduate student employees. Joyce Banks (Secretary) noted that while colleges have some discretion concerning pay it is within standardized university-wide guidelines. Don Zinman (Government) asked for some clarification of the duties assigned to and definitions of several of the job titles listed in the resolution. Representatives also discussed whether or not students could be appointed to a lower paying position once they had held a higher paying position. Marian proposed that voting on this resolution be postponed until the Resolution’s author could be present to address some of the questions that representatives still had about the intention of this resolution

A motion to defer voting on this motion until the next general was accepted.

d. Certification of new GSA Representatives and Alternates. Greg Argo (School of Information) and Allisa Carter (Educational Administration). Joyce Banks (Secretary) noted that there is an issue with who is currently serving the School of Information. She asked that the representatives from the School of Information contact her after the meeting so that they can clear this up.

A Motion to certify Greg Argo and Allisa Carter passed unanimously.

e. Update on holding the NAGPS Regional Conference in conjunction with Baylor during Graduate and Professional Student Week. Ginger Gossman (Public Relations Coordinator) stated that we are not going further with a bid to hold the Regional Conference. It is our understanding that our region’s conference is being absorbed into and held in conjunction with that of a neighboring region.

10. New Business.

a. Constitutional Amendment Changing the Terms of Officers to Begin in May. Marian Barber (Co-Chair) noted that changing the term of office makes a lot of sense. This would enable a full panel of active executive committee members who have not graduated or left Austin to conduct research to be in residence and active. This would be particularly useful for planning events such as the welcome barbecue.

The constitutional amendment passed unanimously.

11. Announcements.

a. The next General Meeting will be April 5, 2004, 4:15 to adjournment, UNB 3.128.

b. Ginger Gossman announced a number of events pertinent to Graduate and Professional Student Week. The GSA is currently accepting applications for outstanding graduate student employees. An email has gone out and a reminder will go out soon via the Graduate Coordinator Network. Ginger asked that you urge the faculty in your departments to nominate students for these awards. An award ceremony honoring all employees and winners of the graduate student employee awards will be held at the Campus Club, Thursday, April 8th. She would like to have a poster competition to coincide with the GPSAW, but needs someone to volunteer to run this event. Please contact her if you can help out. Also, if you know of any guest speakers you would like to have speak during GPSAW, please let her or any member of the executive committee know.

Finally, Ginger announced that there are still slots left for the dinner with President Faulkner in April. This dinner will allow graduate students the opportunity to meet one on one with Dr. Faulkner. The reception is schedule for 6:00-8:00 p.m. on April 12th at the Littlefield House. Please contact Ginger if you are interested in attending.

c. Elections will be held at the April general meeting. We would like to have short statements from candidates and perhaps post a picture and information on candidates online.

d. Marian Barber (Co-Chair) asked Sylvia Gale (English) to help in forming the Advisory committee that Dr. Rodriguez spoke about in her report. Sylvia agreed to help with this.

e. Don Drumtra (Co-Chair) announced that we have been given until the end of May to find graduate students to serve on the University’s standing committees. He will send out a call for volunteers and a reminder about these vacancies soon.

f. Laura Gladney-Lemon (FOCUS ticket candidate) stated that individual graduate students often don’t have information about what the GSA is doing. Don Drumtra (Co-Chair) responded that we make announcements in at least four forums: via departmental representatives, electronically via the GSA web site and Blackboard, through the minutes of our meetings, and via announcements made to departments through the Graduate Coordinator Network. Any suggestions anyone may have about how to reach more students are very welcome.

12. The meeting adjourned at 5:30.