Date: October 7, 2009

Venue: 425 TUC

Time: 12.30pm - 2pm

Minutes Approval Status: APPROVED (November 4, 2009)

This monthly GSGA General Assembly meeting was convened by President Jim Bowen.

Roll Call of member groups in Attendance: Click here for the attendance record

Click here for the General Assembly PowerPoint presentation. (This is a WinZip File.)

The June General Assembly minutes were unanimously approved.

1. Advisor Report – Dr. Robert Zierolf (zierolrl (at) ucmail.uc.edu)

• Updates on housing for graduate students and families:

  • A person was hired to deal with off-campus housing issues, and they will be focusing primarily on graduate students.

  • A study has begun for assessing on campus space that would house for graduate students and families, GSGA, emergency day care facilities, and more.

• Updates on funding related to graduate students, worked on by Dr. Neville Pinto:

  • There was a 3% increase in graduate student stipends.

  • The Graduate School will be continuing the Dissertation Completion Fellowship—5 were selected last year.

  • In conjunction with the UC capital campaign for $2 billion, the Graduate School now has a part-time development person to help us get resources to improve the graduate student environment, stipends, etc.

• Graduate School is serving as a catalyst for a new women’s graduate student organization.

• The “best practices” TA manual is still being drafted.

  • We need 3 graduate students and 3 faculty (all from different departments) to help. If you or your constituents are interested, please email Jim Bowen (email below).

  • The next manual to be drafted will be for research assistants.

2. Special Guest – Frank Bowen, Dean of Students (frank.bowen (at) uc.edu)

• He expressed that while he’s spent not very much time with GSGA as a whole or with individual graduate students, he is very interested in changing that. Mr. Bowen wants to continue to develop a relationship with us, and wants to serve as an advocate for us, especially on what he calls “hot topics” at UC.

• He will be meeting regularly with current GSGA leadership, sharing information on changes, what is available to students, and sparking renewed thinking that his directors of various offices and students services should be continually thinking about the role and involvement of graduates.

• Anyone who is interested in learning more about what is available/happening on campus or interested in getting more involved should contact him!

3. Grad School Report – Jacque Daugherty (daughejd (at) ucmail.uc.edu)

• Jacque is general graduate student programming and various administrative projects. She also utilizes the Graduate School listserv (that can go out to all graduate students) to showcase events, opportunities, deadlines, and more.

• Graduate School Welcome Reception:

  • About 300 attended, which is great! The Graduate School would like to make it bigger and better next year.

• Graduate School Annual Report (http://grad.uc.edu/file_pdf/AnnualReport.pdf) is now available!

• Graduate Professional Development (http://www.grad.uc.edu/pd/) is now showcasing: poster forums, workshop information, an ethics blog, and other ongoing projects.

• Graduate Student Handbook (http://grad.uc.edu/file_pdf/handbook.pdf)

  • Various changes were made, so please see the link of the first page of the Handbook to be directed to an outline of the changes.

  • Make sure you take time to read this! It includes the rights and rules for graduate students, information about registering, maintaining your status, etc.

• Health Insurance Waiver (http://grad.uc.edu/gshi/) is back online! Registration deadline is November 15, 2009 for graduate students currently with assistantships and fellowships (known as Award A).

  • Award B, available for students with assistantships that start in the Winter, will be open for applications beginning January 15, 2010.

  • Please visit the website (above) for more information and eligibility requirements.

  • Contact Jacque if you have any issues.

• Women’s graduate student association—Jacque will initially be helping to start this group, with the first meeting to be held sometime in early November.

3. President's Report – Jim Bowen (bowenjs (at) email.uc.edu)

• Research:

  • We have a new position on the Research Officers Group.

  • State of Research Report: Oct 14, 9-10am, Vontz Auditorium

  • Corporate Relations—UC is seeking to improve these relations. The main idea is to try connecting corporations to the development of new technology, rather than just the use of it; possibly changing the name of this initiative to “Community Relations.”

  • IRB Advisory Committee—La’Trice Montgomery (Psychology) has our seat. This committee works on how to improve the IRB process.

• Semesters:

  • Will begin Fall 2012, with 14 weeks of classes and 1 week of finals per semester (Summer will be 13.5 weeks and ½ week of finals). Because of this week schedule, and the state requirements for the amount of “in class” hours per credit hour, the time schedule will be changing.

  • Course Reviews—departments/programs are assessing the objectives and material for courses to ensure they can be adapted/revised to fit the semester system.

• Athletics Task Force—evaluating how to use “Performance-Based Budgeting” in relation to athletics. Jim occupies our seat.

• International Students—we have about 2200 at UC, of which 1720 are graduate students.

  • The “International Student Orientation” will be called a “check-in” in the future.

  • Anyone who can give feedback on the International Student Pick-up Service, which GSGA co-sponsored, should contact Jim.

• Any particular issues you want Jim to bring up to the new President should be shared with Jim prior to their meeting in early December.

• Jim will also be updating specific disciplines when there are specific needs for paid academic tutors for student athletes.

4. Vice-President's Report – Peggy Shannon-Baker (shannopy (at) email.uc.edu)

• Research Award:

  • This program was redesigned this summer, making it competitive, reviewed by faculty members, and we increased the award to up to $500 per student.

  • 3 applications from this summer were accepted; currently accepting applications for the next deadline!

• Group Grant Awards:

  • The sole application for the first summer deadline was approved: $1158.72 for the CCM Music Research Forum.

  • The sole application for the second summer deadline was approved: $800 for an Anthropology lecture.

• Graduate Student Mixer—Success! GSGA co-sponsored the event ($50 was spent for poster printing).

• Student Advisory Committee on the University Budget—2 graduate at-large seats are still open. For more information: http://www.uc.edu/sas/SACUB.html

• Graduate Student Group Registration: http://www.uc.edu/gsga/GroupRegistration.html

  • Deadline: October 19

  • Office Orientation Workshop, Oct 17, 10-2pm, location TBA—Mandatory, so please contact Diana (see below) if you cannot attend. http://www.uc.edu/gsga/Workshop.html

  • DO NOT ATTEND ANY SALD/SAB/UFB WORKSHOPS!! As a GSGA-affiliated group, you only need to attend our workshop.

  • Group Budgets—preliminary numbers will go out to groups once they are completely registered with GSGA. After the Fall enrollment numbers are reported, Peggy will send out final numbers. If you have any questions, please contact Peggy.

• GSGA Logo Competition:

  • $150 prize; must be a registered graduate student to win

  • Deadline: October 30

  • Final design will be voted on by General Assembly during November 4^th meeting.

• Dates to remember:

  • October 17—Officer Orientation Workshop

  • October 19—Group Registration Deadline

  • October 21—Research Award deadline

  • November 6—Group Grant Award deadline

5. Treasurer's Report – Diana Hechavarría (hechavda (at) email.uc.edu)

• Awards:

  • $34,650.31  in Student Awards (Summer)

  • $673 in Group Budget

  • $1,474.74 Group Grants Claimed (Spring rollover)

  • $36798.05 in total support to date

• Board of Trustee’s Report:

  • Jim and Peggy are serving as UC’s representatives on the Ohio Board of Graduate Students. We participated in a conference call with Chancellor Fingerhut, discussing issues such as career placement, energy efficiency, health insurance, research funding, and student representation on the Board of Regents.

  • Russell and GSGA will be working with other groups on environmental and sustainability projects.

• National Association of Graduate and Professional Students:

  • National conference, “Growing a Strong GSA: Leadership, Community, Collaboration,” at University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

  • http://www.nagps.org

6.  Campus Representative’s Report – Russell Best (best.russellw (at) gmail.com)

• President’s Advisory Council for Environmental Sustainability (PACES):

  • In 2007 Nancy Zimpher (then UC President) planned to spend 2 years studying how much emissions UC produces, with the goal of then making a plan to reduce them by 80% by 2050.

  • See the Climate Action Plan at http://www.uc.edu/af/sustainability/ and http://acupcc.aashe.org/cap-report.php?id=245

  • City of Cincinnati has started a bike share pilot program.

  • Next PACES meeting: October 16, 9am, location TBA—we need more graduate students with interest to check out the meeting!

  •  Russell serves on this committee for us. Please contact him if you have any interest/questions!

• Food Services Advisory Team:

  • Our current food services contract is with Aramark. This Team is currently looking over bids for our next contract, which would last for 10 years. They are hoping to make a decision in March 2010.

  • Anyone interested in our food choices and availability at UC, needs to share their opinions with Russell before December to ensure the Team gets to hear them before making a decision.

• Campus Updates:

  • Undergraduate Student Government Association passed a resolution in opposition to the City of Cincinnati ballot issue #9 (which would make any funding from the City for a streetcar to be brought up as a referendum).

  • Rail Initiative Debate and Mayoral Presentations, October 15, 6pm, DAAP 5401

  • Homecoming: October 24 http://www.alumni.uc.edu/events_nav/default.html

7. Other items:

• Budget--Since the budget for this year was not approved at the last meeting, we will be voting on it at the November 4 meeting. The new numbers and allocations will go out at least one week before the meeting to ensure time to review. If you have any questions please contact Diana.

• Student fees—The undergraduate student body President Tim Lolli is investigating decoupling the student fees from tuition. Currently all student fees, for graduates and undergraduates, are based on a percentage of the undergraduate tuition which has been capped for a few years now. Decoupling these fees could allow the fees to increase, and give more money to student groups, services, and offices, without increasing the undergraduate tuition.