Steering Committee Meeting of the Doctoral Students’ Council
UNOFFICIAL MINUTES
August 30, 2004

Meeting was called to order at 5:50 p.m.
Members present include: Paul McBreen, Stephanie Cabonargi,
Celia Braxton, Moira Egan, Camille Tipton-Allaband, Dave
Golland, Eric Doviak, Aleta Styers on conference phone
Members not present: Tina Lee, Tomo Imamichi

I. Approval of Agenda
II. Old Business
A. Business Cards (S. Cabonargi)
Business cards researched during the summer by S.
Cabonargi, C. Tipton-Allaband, and outside assistant (J.
Adler). The most affordable: 250 cards for $3.99 per
person. Question raised by C. Braxton regarding need
for business cards with responses from C. Tipton-
Allaband, S. Cabonargi, and E. Doviak regarding
efficacy of cards for raising professional status of DSC.
C. Tipton-Allaband suggested that reps review their
information, sign with their approval. Other comments
followed regarding the technicalities and usefulness of
business cards.

B. Health Center/Health Insurance
A. Styers stressed that we should make it very clear that
the DSC is not going to fund the health center, raised
questions as to whether or not we could even be in the
business of “hiring & firing” and whose legal
responsibility the maintenance of a nurse on campus is.
P. McBreen said that it has been the practice to
contribute funds to the health center and it has been
done at other campuses as well. A. Styers mentioned
the June “informal meeting” when a referendum was
discussed to find ways to fund the health center. If it
isn’t in the Graduate Center’s operating budget then it’s
very hard to get it funded. Aleta said it was important
to get information on how other campuses fund their
student health center. Said she thinks we need to have
the GSUC’s position on paper so we have it in writing
that they should fund health services. P. McBreen
agreed it was a good idea to get it in writing and
explained that they did provide a link which explains
how all the campuses fund the health center. This he
provided on a handout. C. Braxton: the information that
was in the website/handout should definitely be
investigated and followed up. P. McBreen spent more
than 4 hours doing the preliminary research making
calls to other CUNY health centers for information. It
was mentioned that Student Affairs should hire a
student assistant to do further legwork. The group
agreed that a request should be drafted and presented to
get more information. M. Egan: we should raise the
issue of an association with student affairs since they
are the ones that deal with this. D. Golland: there
should be a standing committee on health care with
subcommittees on health center and insurance
providers. M. Egan: the committees should be formed
at the plenary. E. Doviak: all should consider letting the
nurse practioner go. We can devote our energies to
getting an insurance plan that can be used in local
clinics

C. Office Assistant (S. Cabonargi)
We might need someone on a per task basis especially
at election. J. Adler for instance helped out greatly with
preliminary work on business cards.

III. New Business
A. Motion made to appoint D. Golland as an ex officio
member of the DSC steering committee with no voting
privileges but all other rights and privileges. Motion
unanimously approved.

B. Motion made to appoint two at-large representatives to
fill current vacancies. P. McBreen made a motion to
appoint C. Fisher (former DSC Co-Chair), 6 approve
and 1 abstention. M. Egan made a motion to appoint J.
Zambrana as at-large rep, 7 for, no abstentions or nays.

C. Vote on Business Cards

S. Cabonargi wants to request specific contact information
for at-large and program representatives (not alternates);

A. Styers made an amendment to the motion stating that at
large reps (no second)

A. Styers proposed another amendment adding alternate
representatives as recipients of business cards. Vote: 6
against and 1 in favor – amendment failed

Motion was made to clarify that business cards would be
offered to all program and at-large represenatatives: Vote:
7 in favor, 0 denied, 0 abstain

MOTION PASSES: Business cards will be presented to all
representatives of programs and at-large representatives.

D. University Student Senate (USS) Retreat (D. Golland)
Report followed.

E. Committees in need
C. Braxton voted Head of Standing Committee on
health care issues.
D. Golland voted Head of Sub-Committee on Wellness
Center Issues.
E. Doviak voted Head of Sub-Committee on Insurance
Issues.

Technology Fee Committee –
Middle states –
Enterprise –
Structure Committee (2) –
Committee on Committees (1)
Graduate Council – make sure we have a rep (non co-
chair person)

F. Lockers (A. Styers)
A. Styers: everyone should vacate their lockers. Sign
should be posted about vacating lockers followed by a
re-assignment of lockers. If there are more people who
want lockers then the leftovers will be drawn by lot. P.
McBreen hinks that we should find out whose
jurisdiction this is and who has authority over the
lockers.

**D. Golland and E. Doviak asked for keys to the DSC
office, A. Styers to see to this.

G. May committee elections (2 volunteers to re-count)
Committees never got an official count, just the
department and at-large reps were counted, so we need
2 volunteers to do a recount.

When do we need to have this done by? No date set,
arbitrary but try to have it by Sept. 20 ; Camille
suggested that people use their office hours to count
votes; Paul said we should consult C. Fisher on details
on why they weren’t finalized.

H. Fall plenary dates/event dates.
All dates seem to be good

I. Project leader for Health Services Committee
See new committee members.

J. Need 2 volunteers for orientation (struck from agenda)
E. Doviak agreed to help S. Cabonargi and P. McBreen
with orientation.

IV. Steering committee

A. Schedule for chairing/note taking and catering at Fall
plenar meetings; E. Doviak will head the party
committee

Office hours
Monday 9am-noon (Moira)
Tuesday 12-2pm (Paul)
Wednesday 11-2pm (Celia); 12-3pm (Paul); 2-5pm
(Eric)
Thursday ?
Friday 3-6pm (Camille); 1-6pm (Stephanie)
**(need office hours from: Tina, Aleta, Tomo)

(I don’t have the sheet with the schedule for note
taking/chairing/catering for the fall … I must have
misplaced that hand out … Does anyone have this?)

B. Office responsibilities
movie tickets, mail, putting up posters

C. Areas of concern/ goals for the academic year
(Stephanie, Paul)
Everyone should think about what projects they want
to do for the year.

D. Set up calendar of duties and overall events calendar

V. Announcements
A. Web page update
Web site is getting 500+ hits per month but we are still
having outages; Camille is working with IR to monitor
the problem and she asks that each member of the
Steering Committee set their computers at home to the
DSC as the home page. It would be very helpful to get
reports back from as many students regarding when
off-campus outages were noticed, what browser they
are using, what computer operating system (XP,
Win98, Mac, etc) and if they are on dial-up, cable, or
dsl.
B. Information Resources update – J. Haggard leaving by
the end of October.
C. USS retreat update (D. Golland)
Please note – this report was lengthy so D. Golland
provided a written version of it after the meeting.

I. The Annual Report of the Vice Chair for Graduate Student Affairs.
II. The Political Atmosphere of USS.
A. My Unwillingness to run for the position of Vice Chair for Graduate
Student Affairs.
1. Amendment to the Report.

_________________________________________________________________
I. The USS Vice Chair for Graduate Student Affairs, Jean Daniel Dorfeuille
(CCNY), presented the following report at the retreat that I propose we enter into
the record in its entirety. Each member of the USS steering committee presented a
specialized report relevant to their position on the committee.

"As Vice Chair for Graduate Student Affairs, I had many projects that I
accomplished for USS. My first priority for the academic year 2003-2004 was to
determine the viability to implement a weekend program for graduate students in
CUNY. Since last October I have successfully started to move forward to
accomplish my task.

"By the end of the month of October I had visited many campuses and had called
and spoke to many of my colleagues. I heard their concerns and I have been
working together with them to make each campus a better place for graduate
students.

"On November 24, 2003, I began sending letters to each provost of every campus
where there is a graduate program. Although my term was too short, the City
University of New York will now have weekend programs for graduate students on
many campuses, beginning next fall. This will afford graduate students the
opportunity to take all of their classes for their degree on Saturdays and Sundays.
This is an initiative that the administration, especially the provosts of different
colleges and the University Student Senate, initiated to help CUNY serve its
students more efficiently.

"This past December, members of the City College Graduate Student Council
and I met with the provost of City College, Dr. Zeev Dagan. We discussed the
viability of having weekend graduate programs, and agreed on many points during
the meeting. Dr. Dagan felt that the Graduate Education Program could support
weekend courses as soon as the fall semester. A weekend program in Graduate
Psychology will be pursued next.

"On January 15, 2004 I met with administrators at Brooklyn College: Provost
Roberta S. Matthews, Anselma Rodriguez, Coordinator of Graduate Studies, and
Louis Hainline, Dean of Graduate Students Affairs. Brooklyn College currently
offers graduate weekend classes in Education, Computer Science, and the Arts.
They were very pleased with our interest and welcomed any support from the
University Student Senate.

"As elected Vice Chair for Graduate Student Affairs, I intended to have a
CUNY-wide student newspaper, starting next semester. The newspaper would be
named 'The 1847.' It would be published quarterly. Each college would be
encouraged to submit an article on the events occurring at their campus. I propose
that the delegates to USS of each college, and the Vice Chairs of Senior College
and Community College Affairs be accountable for getting these editorials.

"On Monday, March 8th, 2004, my colleagues of University Student Senate
(USS) and I attended Lobby Day in Albany. I was there to interact with the elected
officials and talk about the outlook of higher education in New York State. We
lobbied to reverse the cuts that were made to TAP and to deny the Governor's
reforming plan, increase financing for the opportunity programs, restore funding for
the community colleges, and to add additional funding for SUNY and CUNY.

"I attended the 35th Annual National Grassroots Legislative Conference of the
United States Student Association, which was held on March 26th-30th, 2004
Washington Court Hotel, Washington, D.C. Students from all over the United
States were in attendance. I had the opportunity to meet students from California,
Wisconsin, Illinois and Arizona, etc.

"I was in attendance at the primary workshop called the Dream Act Legislation.
This was the first in a series of student workshops designed to help student leaders
to better assist their immigrant constituents. The main focus of the workshop was
to eliminate federal restrictions on in-state tuition and also assist immigrant
constituents to apply for permanent legal status. Student participation will be the
key to passage of this legislation.

" 'Each Year 50,000-60,000 undocumented students who have grown up in the
United States graduate from high school face a difficult and uncertain future, due to
their immigration status, these students face enormous barriers to higher education,
work, and daily survival' [United States Student Association 'Conference
Handbook' 2004]. USSA and many other national organizations are optimistic
about the prospects for passage of legislation now pending in Congress. Among the
presenters was Mary Cunningham-Legislative Director, USSA, and Patricia Loera,
Esq., Legislative Director of National Association for Bilingual Education."

II. I found at the retreat that USS operates in a highly politically charged
atmosphere. Many of these kids came out of hard political battles on their home
campuses and they brought that backroom-fighting spirit to USS. I contrasted that
atmosphere with our own, using my own experience as an example--I ran for USS
unopposed and the DSC seemed happy to elect someone willing to take time out of
a busy doctoral student schedule to do the work.

A. The position of Vice Chair for Graduate Student Affairs will be up for
election in October, and Mr. Dorfeuille is not eligible for re-election as he
completed his degree last Spring. My unwillingness to stand for election to the
position is based on two reasons: First, I am hesitant to enter the political
atmosphere of USS as a candidate but rather felt it would be more appropriate for
the GC Senator to act as a bipartisan advisor to any parties which should seek
informed advice. Second, I felt that I might be approaching the limits of my
abilities with my schedule constraints during the upcoming year, as a DSC delegate,
ex-officio member of the DSC steering committee, and USS Senator. I stated that if
the steering committee of the DSC (or the leadership of USS) should strongly feel
the necessity of my candidacy that I would nevertheless run. The DSC steering
committee's consensus appeared to be that I should use my judgment.

1. Amendment to the report (which I will propose at the next steering
committee meeting if necessary): because it is beginning to appear that most
parties in the USS want me to run for the position, and because it is beginning
to appear that no other qualified candidate will step forward, I am at this time
reconsidering and may indeed run for the position.