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Steering Committee Minutes, 10/31/03
Doctoral Students’ Council
Secretary: Paul McBreen
Meeting chair: Ceila Braxton

At 2:04 p.m. C. Braxton called the meeting to order. All steering committee members present except
Brenda Jenkins.

I. Approval of agenda
II. Approval of minutes from prior s/c meeting: this was deferred until the s/c meeting of 12/5
as the official minutes were still in progress.
III. Discussions/decisions
A. Rental of popcorn machine: C. Fisher said that Aella wants to rent the machine for their
events. It was decided by all that the DSC needs a policy regarding the use of the
machine by groups other than the DSC. The following items were agreed upon:
1. No “rent” fee but instead a security deposit of $50 to be returned to renters
upon return of the popcorn machine to the DSC. The machine must be clean or
the deposit will not be returned. Groups will lose future privileges of this
machine if it is returned unclean. Chartered organizations will not pay a deposit
but will be penalized $50 if the machine is borrowed and returned unclean.
2. Groups must bring their own popcorn and oil.
3. C. Braxton will write up clear instructions on machine maintenance to be
posted on the machine itself.
B. Pace University newspaper requested space on the literature table. Questions were
raised about specific policies regarding literature tables in hallways. P. McBreen offered
to look into GC policies regarding these tables and whether or not the literature tables on
the 5th floor in and around the Gillece Center are the domain of the DSC.
C. PSC reception sponsorship. C. Fisher: The PSC liaisons asked if the DSC would
co-sponsor the reception at the GC to mark the end of Campus Equity Week. This was
deferred until the budget update took place (item IV, A below).
D. DSC logo contest. It was determined that we must learn legalities surrounding logo
ownership, copyright laws, etc. DSC needs rules surrounding the contest written. P.
McBreen offered to write up the DSC profile, i.e. a description of the DSC and its goals
which would aid an artist in designing a DSC logo. J. Zambrana suggested that an s/c
member enquire with the office who does GC design.
E. Coffee hour: the date was set for Dec. 10, 2003 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. It was agreed
that this would suffice as some sort of “end-of-year” or “holiday” type of event in place
of the party which DSC held at the end of the Fall semester. M. Egan agreed to contact
Java Stop on 35th St. to place an order.
F. Fundraising discussions were held off-record.
G. Tech fee committee update
1. C. Fisher enlisted C. Tipton as a member for this committee as C. Fisher felt
burdened by numerous obligations of this sort. J. Zambrana gave the general
Steering Committee Minutes, 10/31/03 http://cunydsc.org/New_site_pages05-06/minutes/minutes%20sc%2...
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update beginning with the announcement that we at the GC are fortunate in that
we have equal student representation on our tech fee committee whereas other
CUNY campuses lack this student input. We are a model for other campuses.
C. Fisher, J. Zambrana, and P. McBreen heard at a recent meeting with the
Board of Trustees and CUNY student government presidents how
underrepresented students felt regarding this matter.
2. I.R. wants feedback regarding a print-allotment per student. They want to
know what students consider a fair “cap.” M. Egan asked about the past
method I.R. used. They used “Print Manager.”
3. J. Zambrana mentioned the future wireless services to be tested at a few
campuses. C. Fisher called it a “useless investment.”
4. Terminal services will make VPN more valuable. The student web server will
free web space to allow students to say that they have web experience and to
create personal web pages.
5. The tech fee is being used to pay employees now like the one hired to do
printer services. S. Gordon suggested that future requirements be set for hires
done with tech fee money. T. Lee said that I.R. must justify the use of wireless
services before embarking upon expenditures.
IV. Updates
A. Budget: J. Zambrana began by explaining that the administration’s budget person gave
us a figure of $62,000+ for our reserve fund but the number was mistakenly doubled;
the real figure is $31,000+. We do not have a “Capital Expenditures Fund” which is
mandated by the DSC constitution. The “Reserve Fund” is for legal or contracted
expenditures. We have been mistakenly using budget surpluses when all along the
constitution mandates that a surplus be put away in the Reserve and Capital Expenditures
Funds.
1. The steering committee fund is 1.7% of the budget. J. Zambrana suggested that
$5,100 be allocated to food for meetings, logo contest, constitutional
convention and the PSC reception.
2. P. McBreen brought up the sale of advertisements in the Advocate as a means
of regaining expenses for the Advocate. C. Braxton spoke about the necessity
of the Advocate selling ads. S. Gordon asked about allotments for cultural
affairs grants.
3. J. Zambrana desires that DSC have its own checking account which would
possibly circumvent the CUNY-mandated audit which costs $8,000.
B. Party debriefing included J.Z.’s report on the party expenditure: $2,500. S. Gordon
bought cards for facilities and security guards who helped our efforts in throwing the
party.
C. Tuition remission was updated by C. Fisher who spoke about mixed signals regarding
the tuition packages of the near future and the supposed remission for ALL GC students
who will be teaching at CUNY colleges. The Board of Trustess (specifically Louise
Mirrer and Ernesto Mallave) clearly stated that all GC students who teach will get
remission although this is NOT what the GC administrators told C. Fisher, P. McBreen,
and J. Zambrana at earlier meetings. C. Fisher brought this up at Graduate Council. She
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said that the B.O.T. website is not informative regarding this matter.
D. Student representation on GC committees was taken up by C. Fisher who, a member on
the Committee on Structure, suggested in that committee that a system of proxies be
introduced allowing more flexibility. The chair of this committee, Professor Baumrin,
claims that students do not attend and therefore wants structural changes to lessen
students’ involvement. This matter is on the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the
Committee on Structure. M. Egan suggested that A. Eisenberg be invited to speak at a
plenary about matters of student representation.
E. Constitutional convention met, is working, and may need money for mailings.
F. Chartered organizations updated by C. Fisher who wants computers in the offices. She
mentioned the fair at which s.o’s will have literature tables and posters. Aella is now
active but the Biology Student Organization seems to have become inactive. There have
been no responses to the public notices regarding the de-chartering of the latter
organization.
G. Special events/DSC Awareness/outreach was taken up by C. Braxton who requested a
list of which academic programs are located where. She suggested that attention be
brought to these off-campus programs on the website.
H. Health center matters centered first on the budget. The office of Student services is
concerned about the shrinking allotment which that office can provide for the nurse
practitioner. Schoengood and Frick at an earlier meeting brought up the addition of a
health fee and its advantages/disadvantages. The s/c determined that we need more
information about the practices at other campuses. C. Fisher stressed the need to force
the issue to be a mater of raising the student activity fee not imposing a new fee. We can
not allow the B.O.T. to impose a new fee w/o consultation as the B.O.T. did with the
tech fee.
I. Jose spoke of need for a fire warden for 5th floor. It was agreed to send the matter back
to Diana Rosenbloom for more information.
J. A budget matter was revisited. J. Zambrana said that $400 from the s/c discretionary
fund covered food for s/c meetings. $200 would be allocated to the PSC reception (cf.
above, III,C) if the Adjunct Project did not have plans for its allocation.
K. The December plenary was tentatively agreed upon for an invitation to Graduate Council
representatives.
L. Adjournment: meeting adjourned at 3:47 p.m.