Minutes from meeting of
December 6th 2004

Call order 8:10pm

Funding Requests

Budget Committee Report and Funding Debate

* Two requests for funding were made.
* The Budget Committee met earlier and recommended funding $1500 for the Germanic Studies Conference and $2000 for the Classics Department Symposium.
* Because of the existence of this new Committee, the usual lively debate over how much to fund was replaced with a prompt (yet unexciting) motion to fund in full.
* The motion passed unanimously. Yes, we have efficiency but at what price?

Officer and Ex Officio Representative Reports

President's Report

* It looks as if we won't have to meet in Garrett Hall next semester. Gavin worked out a way for us to meet in Newcomb during the Spring.
* The Grad Student Survey is done and there was a 76% response rate. They are now just in the process of processing and cleaning the data. I sure hope they use an anti-bacterial disinfectant because I am really picky about what I touch.
* Tom, by the way, organized a forum on the Chartered Universities Initiative this evening that was very informative. Let's all thank Tom next time we see him. He does so much and asks for so little in return.

Vice President's report

* Some people (including the brilliant yet misunderstood author of these minutes) are not receiving the grad connection emails. Something needs to be done about this!

Second Vice President's Report

* Minutes from last meeting were passed around for the perusal of the council.
* They were approved unanimously, with no fanfare or adoration for their author, though some "thumbs up" gestures were made.

StudCo Report

* At its last meeting, StudCo somehow changed the way that appropriations are made to CIOs.
* Josh and Gavin made it known that they are happy to hear about any issue that grad students would like addressed to StudCo.

* They don't guarantee anything but at least you will have a sympathetic ear and possibly a voice in a meeting of a bunch of undergrads. . .and isn't that what we are all looking for anyway?

Honor Report

* We have no Honor tonight, or at least no one from the committee.

UJC Report

* Gavin passed out coasters that double as UJC info pamphlets.
* He also informed us that there are sanctions placed on people who commit improper acts at a sporting event (these could include throwing a cup of beer on a basketball player or calling a run play on 3rd down and long.)

Committee Reports

Health Insurance Committee report

* It was officially agreed on that Brandi is superwoman. No vote was called, but had there been, it would have been unanimous.
* There will be two meetings this month where an insurance company will present possible insurance offerings to students.
* Costs for providing health care is ever increasing so if we want it too be affordable, we need to cut costs in some way.

* Options include decreasing benefits and increasing what is offered at the Student Health Center.
* The component with the highest cost is mental health. One suggestion was to make graduate school less stressful, thus decreasing the need for mental health care for graduate students. I just want to say for the record that I am all for it.

Teaching Committee

* Srikrishna explained that the committee met and had lots of questions, which is good because there is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid answers.
* The Committee would like to know what the needs are for each department.

Committee for Educational Policy and Curriculum

* Andre reported that there will be a new Economics course offered for non Economists since so many people want to take economics classes (of course, who wouldn't want to be a dismal scientist?).

Diversity Committee

* Colin reported that there are three main goals for the committee this year:

* Get that all-important Paragraph (notice, it is capitalized!!) on the website so that everyhody knows that we support Diversity initiatives. Though Colin made it clear that we shouldn't just write the Paragraph and rest on its laurels.
* Contact the soon-to-be-hired Cheif Officer for Diversity for the University and ask them what we can do to help.
* Offer a grant to a graduate student for diversity related research.

Research Exhibition Committee

* Ben informed us that this event will be held April 12 & 13.
* The committee would like to hire 2 organizers before departing for the Winter Break. They would like to pay these organizers a stipend of $600 apiece.
* A motion was made to allocate $1200 for these stipends and passed unanamously (geez, some opposition would be nice here, people. I'm not asking for much, even an abstention would be fine. Anything, just as long as I don't have to try to spell the u-word again.)

Social Committee

* Jena reported that the bowling activity was a strike (sorry, I'm doing the best I can here).
* Upcoming events include:

* Happy Hour at Orbit - Thurs Dec 9 5:30 pm
* Burning Up the Dance Floor (that's not the actual name, I made that up!) at Rapture - Jan 15
* Motion was made to fund $322.64 to make the hour happy and to fund the dance floor being burned cotingent on us finding a safety net so that we don't have a repeat of the Halloween Dance debacle. Let us never speak of that again.

* Motion passed with everybody voting for it and nobody voting against it.

New Business & Departmental Concerns

End of the year event

* Andre suggsted we hold some sort of event to recognize outstanding graduate students and faculty who have helped graduate students.
* Great idea. Let's do it.

New Council website

* The Council website needs a makeover, but not an extreme makeover because I refuse to let us stoop to that level!
* Brandi says that she knows someone who can provide this overhaul for us for around $900.
* Josh made a motion to allocate $900 for this purpose. Josh wanted me to make sure I credited him with this motion so if anyone sees him, will you let him know. Muchas gracias! * Everybody, with the exception of no one, voted to give the $900.

Meeting ended at 9:25pm

Minutes from meeting of December 6th 2004