General Meeting
4:00 - 5:00 PM, December 2, 2002
Main, Room 212

1. Call to Order: The Assembly was called to order at 4 p.m. in Room 212 of the Main Building by co-chairs Joyce Banks and Eric Opiela.

2. Verification of Attendance: The attendance sheet was circulated by Secretary Marian J. Barber. The following indicated they were present:

a. Officers Present

Joyce Banks, Art History, Co-Chair
Eric Opiela, Law, Co-Chair
Marian Barber, History, Secretary
Greg Hammond, History, Treasurer
Ginger Gossman, Sociology, Publications Coordinator
Don Drumtra, Information School, Electronic Resources Coordinator (Webmaster)

b. Program Representatives Present

American Studies, Karen Gonzalez
Anthropology, Dan Gilman
Art History, Lynn Boland
Civil Engineering, Bridget Wadzuk
Communications Studies, Kristen Hoerl
Comparative Literature, Jean L. Love El Harim
English, Melanie Ulrich
Melanie Ulrich, English
Government, Howard Donnell
History, Karl Brown
Journalism, Melissa Bray
Latin American Studies, Ken Ward
Linguistics, Makiko Irie
Mathematics and Statistics, Michael Lamar
Nursing, Dorothy Darby
Psychology, Robyn Honig
Special Education, Shawn Saladin
Women and Gender Studies, Sara Cross

c. Organization Representatives Present: None

d. Alternates Present

Special Education, Cathy Thomas

e. Guests Present: None.

3. Adoption of Minutes of Previous Meeting. Co-chair Eric Opiela moved that the minutes of the November 4 meeting be adopted as written. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.

4. Reports of Officers

a. CO-Chairs, Eric Opiela & Joyce Banks.

Joyce Banks reported on the Graduate Assembly meeting held Nov. 20. President Faulkner announced Nov. 19 that the administration has decided to discontinue the Vice-President of Graduate Studies position formerly held by Graduate Dean Teresa Sullivan. The dean will now serve under the Provost as simply a dean. Prof. Victoria Rodriguez of the LBJ School has been appointed Interim Dean for Graduate Studies. Eric Opiela pointed out that the Dean of Graduate Studies will continue to sit as part of the Council of Vice-Presidents. Joyce and Eric indicated that it is unclear how this will work, but said that they would seek a meeting with Dean Rodriguez. They noted that initially the rationale for the change was salary savings, but that that is no longer an issue. Being closer to the Provost's office, which controls funds, should benefit everyone, including graduate students. One likely reason for the change is frustration by the other deans, who sometimes felt that the Vice-president of Graduate Studies made policies that they then had to fund. A survey of other research universities indicated that UT's former system of a "super-dean" of graduate studies is not widely shared. Another change will be that some units, such as the General Libraries, that formerly reported to the Graduate Dean will now report directly to the Provost and will carry the title of Vice-Provost. In the case of the library position, for which candidates are currently being sought, this should increase the quality of candidates, Joyce noted.

Joyce and Eric also reported on the organization of the Commission of 125, which is to re-examine the University's position and plan for the next 25 years. Joyce said that Associate Dean John Dollard of the Office of Graduate Studies is developing a research roadshow and poster session to be presented to the Legislature during the session commencing in January. She also noted that the University administration is concerned about the new requirements for identity registration by students from certain countries, and that the Graduate Assembly voted to give departments the option of using other tests in lieu of the TOEFL to allow admission of students from countries in which the TOEFL has been compromised. Discussion ensued about the options available.

Eric announced that the University would send three student leaders to represent UT at a national leadership conference to be held October 10-12, 2003 at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. He asked those interested to contact him. Eric reported on his efforts regarding the tax status of the tuition benefit paid to graduate student workers. Joyce discussed a plan to put before the Regents the idea of a leadership council including faculty, staff and student representatives at each of the schools the Regents supervise. Discussion ensued as to whether UT already has such a council.

b. Secretary, Marian Barber. Marian had nothing to report.

c. Treasurer, Greg Hammond. Greg reported that the Student Services Fee Committee has verified that GSA does in fact have $7,000 to be used to support the formation of graduate student organizations in the various departments and schools. This means we can now begin officially soliciting applications for these funds. He distributed a draft Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) for distributing this money and said it would be discussed further during the portion of the meeting allotted to unfinished business. He said he would be seeking GSA volunteers for an application review committee.

d. Special Events Coordinator, Audrey Trainor. In Audrey's absence, Joyce Banks reported that the bagel event at Einstein's was a huge success and apologized for the long line. Audrey is working on a January welcome social event, but since there is no January meeting of the GSA, she anticipates publicizing it by e-mail only.

e. Publications Coordinator, Ginger Gossman. Ginger had nothing to report.

f. Electronic Resources Coordinator, Don Drumtra. Don reported that he is continuing to revise the Website listing of representatives and their departments. He asked reps to let him know which organizations elected them.

5. Reports of University Committee Representatives. Committee reps then reported on organizational meetings.

a. Parking Committee: Don Drumtra reported that the Parking Office has moved to the ground floor of Garage 7. He said there is a parking map out that indicates the closure of the large A lot just south of Jester, as well as other lots. He said Director of Parking and Transportation Services Bob Harkins can come to the February meeting of the GSA.

b. Library Committee: Don Drumtra reported that the committee continues to worry about funding cuts and what effect the move to the portfolio of the Provost will have. He said that it is clear that even though the university has more students, the increase in tuition revenue does not flow down to general libraries. Any funding for additional library support will have to come from student fees. Robyn Honig of Psychology asked whether the University could solicit alumni to pay for journal subscriptions. Ken Ward of Latin American Studies asked where the libraries fit into the "We're Texas" funding stream. Don said that retiring Librarian Billings has pushed the funding issue with President Faulkner, but has been told that there are other priorities. Don noted that the committee had pitched for extra opening hours for the PCL and UGL during finals and had succeeded in getting overnight opening.

c. Liberal Arts Graduate Research Awards Committee: Ken Ward reported that the LAGR committee gave out $50,000 for research to a wide array of non-traditional applicants. Fewer applicants came from the departments that are usually well-represented, he said, suggesting that perhaps publicity about the awards may not have been uniform. He noted that the committee had a surplus of applications they wanted to fund and that they were proposing that the funding for the awards be increased.

d. Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award: Ken Ward also reported that he is reviewing nomination packets for this award and that those nominated seem to have been mentors not only professionally but in modeling a good life, including family life.

e. Library Director Search Committee: Joyce Banks reported that initially the committee received few applications from persons with the qualifications needed for the position. It was suggested to them that persons at the level needed expect to be invited to apply. The position officially closed Dec. 1, but Joyce said the committee may continue to accept applications.

f. Faculty Council: Eric Opiela reported that the Council has released a report on freedom of expression. An executive summary is on the Council's Website and we have a full copy in the GSA office if anyone would like to see it.

g. Administrative Committee of the Graduate Assembly: Craig Carroll reported that the status of the grading system change (to add + and - grades) is still in the information gathering stage. He said every graduate student would be contacted about the issue via e-mail.

6. Reports of Ad Hoc Committees. None.

7. Unfinished Business.

Standard Operating Procedure - New Organization Incentive Funds. Greg Hammond noted that the SOP document he handed out was not written in stone since this is the first year. He said there were cosmetic changes he would handle and asked if there were any substantive changes. Discussion ensued in which Ken Ward suggested that the issue of the status of applicants as registered student organizations needed to be clarified and that a positive statement of specific types of expenses the money can be used for should also be incorporated. He said that the statement that there would be a preference for newly formed groups implies that other groups are eligible. This point also needs to be clarified, he said. Ginger Gossman suggested that groups wait for the formal announcement of the funding availability to apply. Eric Opiela said that those that had already applied would not have to resubmit, though they might wish to revise their applications in light of information in the new SOP. Sarah Cross asked whether the preference for newly formed organizations would continue, and if so, for how long? Eric and Don Drumtra said that question can't be answered at this point, because we don't know what funds we will have in the future. Greg said it would be handled on a year to year basis. Discussion ensued about uses of funds. Greg asked those interested in serving on the award committee to let him know via e-mail to ghammond@mail.utexas.edu. He also asked those with questions or suggestions to contact him and requested those who do so to be explicit about suggested changes to the SOP.

8. New Business.

a. New business items. No new business items were presented.

b. Ad-hoc Committee breakouts.
Ad-hoc Committee breakouts were dispensed with because of lack of time.

9. Announcements. There were no announcements.

10. Adjourn. CO-chairs Joyce Banks and Eric Opiela adjourned the meeting at 5 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Marian J. Barber
Secretary