CUNY Graduate Center
Doctoral Students’ Council
Steering Committee Minutes

January 27, 2006

Present: Celia Braxton, Stephanie Domenici, David H. Golland, Lee Hachedoorian, Brenda
Vollman, Chong Wojtkowski, Charles Lieberman (ex-officio, non-voting).
Absent: Ericka Calton, Adriana Tomasino.
Quorum sufficient to conduct business.

Chairperson: Tina Lee
Minutes: Brenda Vollman
Meeting called to order at 6:11pm

I. Approval of Agenda—unanimous consent with changes: add D. Absentee Rep
under III. Old Business.

II. Minutes approved with minor format changes by unanimous consent and a change
regarding spelling and punctuation.

III. Old Business
A. Health Committee: No updates from Celia but Stephanie mentioned that an
updated insurance book had come in and Tina indicated that she would leave a
copy for Ericka and Celia. In addition, the information is available on the Student
Affairs website.
B. Travel and Research Fund (Lee/Dave): Dave produced and Excel spreadsheet
with a tally of the months when conferences occur. The spreadsheet included 20
departments with a total of 63 conferences counted. 30% of the conferences occur
between Mar – May, and over half occur between Mar – August. Lee asked that
we table the discussion so that he will have a report to the Co-Chairs by the
Plenary. Tina reported that there is no update as to how much of the fund has been
spent to date.
C. Frick Plaque (Dave): Paul McBreen has the text of the plaque and Tina has the
contact information for the vendor. Lee volunteered to take on the task of ordering
the plaque.
D. Absentee Rep (Dave): Dave asked that we table the discussion until the next SC
meeting. Stephanie announced that Jen Adler (at-large) is not registering for
spring semester and that we need to solicit nominations to fill the slot. We can do
this (nominate and vote) at the SC meeting. Dave indicated that he would send an
email to the DSC Rep list soliciting at-large nominations so that we can get
volunteers for this semester and get folks interested in running for upcoming
2006- 2007 elections.

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IV. Communications Report (Dave)

A. ADA Door: Dave relayed our ADA concern in a lunch with the president (re: the
DSC resolution about addressing doors being locked in the winter prior to the new
buzzer system), and the president indicated that he had not heard of this resolution
before. We should all check the buzzer system functionality on very cold days and
report and problems.
B. Perez v. CUNY & Quorum: The ruling seems to indicate that quorum now equals
a majority of the eligible membership of the given public body. The DSC is a
public body. Stephanie raised the question as to whether or not we are a public
body. Quorum is discussed in the General Construction law, and what seems
problematic is that Perez v CUNY does not address the General Construction law.
Is the CUNY Legal counsel (Schaeffer) misinterpreting this? If so, how does it
apply to the DSC. If not, what do we do? It could ostensibly stop all possible
action on the part of Student Government. Stephanie said that she would have an
outside lawyer look at the cases and the GC guidelines for a second a opinion
before we decide on any further action. We must consider what other bodies are
affected and think about the most effective ways to respond as the DSC or
collaboratively. Dave said he would send the Perez decision as well as the
Schaeffer interpretation to everyone.
C. Website
1. New Semester Content Needed: Tina suggested updating the Miguel
Malo case information to include the sentencing information.
2. Commercial Server Recommendation: Camille submitted a proposal
comparing 3 commercial servers which Dave read aloud. Tina
suggested that we could pay out of the SC discretionary fund Chong
motioned to go with BlueHost at a monthly charge for six (6) (Feb 1 –
July 31, 2006). Dave seconded – approved by unanimous consent.

V. Business Report (Tina)
A. Food/Party Spending: Keep it to a minimum. We have been overspending.
B. Movie Tickets: Tina asked of those who took tickets to sell at off-campus
departments had any luck. Lee said no. We may have to offer the tickets that will
expire in April at half price if we don’t sell them soon.
C. 06-07 Budget—Stipend Increase?:
1. Tina suggested a stipend increase of $50 for SC members (other than co-
chairs). It is a feasible proposal and the money can be found in the
budget. This requires a plenary vote. There was a discussion to take the
money from Chartered Orgs allocation. Dave checked the constitution
and by-laws and determined that this is not allowed without an
amendment.
2. There are two budget scenarios proposed and feedback is requested for
the next SC meeting because we want to vote on the budget in the April
Plenary.

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VI. Student Affairs Report (Stef)
A. January Report:
1. Sent out holiday / New Year cards and DSC calendars.
2. The full bar is going ahead in February on Tuesdays and Thursday in the
area of 365 Express, where they will have a real bar and different
furniture to accommodate a bar-like atmosphere. The drinks are
supposed to also be competitively priced given the neighborhood.
3. Discussion of website news to post and including Grant Recipients
information
B. Chartered Orgs. Status: There are two (2) organizations that are on their way to
being de-chartered. One (1) of those is in the dormant phase.

VII. USS Report (Charles): There was a vote to increase to student fees to the USS. The
fee was $.85 per student in the CUNY system, and the increase is to $3.00. It may be
a requirement that every student government within the CUNY system must approve
this increase.

VIII. New Business
A. Spring Office Hours and Meeting Duties (Celia) – announcement was made that
we need to post current office hours and sign up for SC and plenary meeting
duties as well as duties for the Spring party and coffee hour.
B. Other New Business – No other new business

IX. Announcements
A. Nominations for DSC are allowed to come in as of Feb 1, 2006 through Mar 6,
2006. We will officially send out solicitations for nominations by Feb 14, 2006.
This means that anyone who sends in a nomination before we officially solicit
them should be duly accepted.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:26pm