Graduate Center Doctoral Students Council
Steering Committee Meeting
Minutes – Unofficial

February 27, 2004

Present: Celia Braxton, Moira Egan, Carolyn Fisher, Sheryl Gordon, Brenda Jenkins, Tina Lee,
Paul McBreen, and Camille Tipton. José Zambrana was also present via conference call.
Chair: Camille Tipton
Minutes: Carolyn Fisher

I. Approval of Agenda
The Agenda was approved with the following changes: the two items involving José were
moved to the beginning of Ongoing Business.

II. Approval of Minutes
A. January minutes deferred—they will be voted on in March.
B. Discussion of December minutes—due to technical difficulties, the notes to the
December minutes were lost. A discussion was held about what to do, it was determined that
enough of the minutes could be reconstructed. The reconstructed minutes will be voted on in
March.

III. Ongoing Business
A. Travel and Research Fund—request from Provost’s office for more money
José presented the following report:
Linda Edwards has informed us (just this week) that the Travel and Research Fund has
been completely committed, and that they have received $15,000 worth of requests over and
above that.
Based on our spending habits and expectations, I have estimated the year’s end actual
budget. I can find about $4000 to contribute more to the Travel and Research Fund and that’s
about it (we’d be cutting it close at the end, and that’s with using the funds put aside for the
express purpose of a deficit). The Provost’s office would match it. We’ve been hit by uncollected
Student Activity Fees (the audit revealed that there was about $2000 less collected last year,
which they charged us for, and things have been slow this year as well).

In discussion on this issue, the following points were made:
-The DSC ought to receive much more details about where the money has gone,
including a breakdown of where the funds went by department and a comparison of the
allocations with the preceeding couple of years.
-The DSC should receive a copy of the audit done on our files.
-We are worried about precedent setting, if we give all of the $4000 we could manage to
this fund now. We don’t want administration to think of us as a cash cow. Plus we can’t afford
it, or much else, next year.
-Would it be possible to raise additional money for this fund by fund-raising or by raising
student fees by a couple of cents?
-We will have about $20,000 which will be taken out of the Reserve Fund next year, if
the constitutional changes get put through. But this is a one-time-only deal and should not be
included in the budget. Although it would not yield very much interest, it could be invested as a
start on building an endowment.

--> Carrie will write a memo to Linda Edwards requesting a detailed report and more student
participation.

--> The issue of whether to allocate additional money will be brought to the next plenary meeting.

--> A person from the Development office will be invited to the next Steering Committee
meeting to talk to us about the possibilities of fund-raising.

B. Cultural Affairs Grant Updates (José)
José reported that the following projects were funded this month:
AELLA sponsored event
$350, honorarium for special speaker
18th Century INDS Group – Tickets to Marivaux’s La Double Inconstance
$500 to purchase 25 tickets for students, first come first served
Balance to date: $6240.00

Finally, José has been working on a preliminary budget for last year, and was only able to
balance the budget by cutting the contribution to the Wellness Center in half.

C. Election Process
The nomination ballots were brought to the mailroom today (Friday, February 26). The rest of
the timeline is unknown because we don’t know how long it will take for the Student Services
office to assemble the ballots. However, the next envelope-stuffing party will be scheduled for a
Thursday evening, starting at 5:00 this time so that people with 6:30 classes may attend. At the
next party, we will still give one movie ticket per participant, but will also have a raffle, maybe
for a restaurant gift certificate, for all students who are still there at the end of the night.

Email invitations to the envelope-stuffing party will be sent out to the whole student body with at
least two weeks notice, again at one week, and again 2 days before.

Camille said that the student participation survey is now an online form, and that she will put the
nomination ballot also in an online form. We will be able to do this if we take any online
nominations that come in and write them on ballots which we then deliver to Charlotte Frick.

D. Spring Social Events
Coffee Hour, April 1
It was decided that we would use Java Stop again for the coffee and pastries
Job Assignments
-Calling Java Stop: Moira
-Publicity: Celia will make flyers, Paul will put up the posters, Camille will put it on the
website.
-April Fool’s Day theme ideas: we’ll all work on this.

Party, May 7
Job assignments
DJ—Tina
Making the Flyer—Camille will ask James, if he won’t, she’ll do it
Comparison research for food options—Moira
Ordering food and details on the day of the party—Celia
Drinks—Paul

IV. New Business
A. Off-Campus Outreach
Celia has been working on calling EOs to get a count of the number of students in each
department who are on which campuses. This is information we need to have before beginning
off-campus visits. The calling has been put to one side since the nomination ballot mailing
became a big job. But Celia will put the information out by next week and the Steering
Committee can all pitch in. Once this information is collected, we can start thinking about
making our missionary forays.

V. Updates
A. Constitutional Convention Update
Camille reported that there would be 3 resolutions about the constitution to vote on at the next
plenary. There are also 2 discussion items which aren’t ready for formal votes. Camille clarified
that the procedure for changing the constitution involves a vote of the plenary. If amendments
are to be added, however, this must be voted on by the entire student body through a ballot cast
by mail. They are hoping to be able to send out the ballot together with the election ballot.

It was decided that due to the number of items which will need lengthy discussion at the next
plenary, we will not invite a speaker.

B. Tuition Remission update (Carrie)
Carrie announced that she had met with Bill Kelly and he had given her a copy of a memo from
Louise Mirrer to release to students. This memo specified that once the tuition remission
program was fully phased in, all graduate students teaching as adjuncts on CUNY campuses
would receive tuition remission regardless of whether they were receiving the new ATF
packages. Carrie is working on an article about this for the Advocate, and will send it out to the
DSC list for forwarding on to all students when it is done.

C. Miguel Malo update
Carrie informed the Steering Committee that Moira had written a press release about the
resolution passed by the plenary in support of Miguel Malo. She will forward the press release
to the list. Also, she went to a meeting of the University Faculty Senate in support of Miguel,
and after a 20 minute debate on the question of whether or not to put a resolution in support of
Miguel on the ballot, the UFS voted not to put the resolution on the agenda. Finally, Miguel’s
trial has been postponed until the end of March.

D. Media board update (Paul)
Paul reported that the Media board met on February 24. Their discussion was mainly about the
constitution, and Paul will send some language they came up with to Camille. Some innovations
discussed included the idea that “Media” should be expanded to include the webpage.

E. Security Update (Paul)
Paul met with John Flaherty and discussed a couple of issues. First, we are required to pay extra
staffing costs if we want to bring anything in through the loading dock on weekends or evenings.
This is quite expensive.

Second, fire drills should be conducted when there are students in the building, including during
evenings. Also, rather than just going to the tops of the staircases, people should really have to
exit. There are no signs around the building, and many people do not know about the many
alternative exits there are to the building.

F. Wellness center’s counseling/academic preparation workshops (Paul)
Paul attended one of the workshops, and he thought it was great. They are trying to get more
people to go to the workshops, they have a lot of money. But they are scheduled at very bad
times for students, like in the morning. They should schedule workshops in the evenings.