CUNY Graduate Center
Doctoral Students’ Council
Steering Committee Minutes
November 30, 2007

Present: Gregory Donovan, Denise Torres, Anton Masterovoy, Nancy Medina, Allyson Foster, Danielle Wu, Adele Kudish
Absent: Rob Faunce, Brenda Vollman, Alyssa Ackerman

Chair: Gregory Donovan (GD)
Minutes: Adele Kudish (AK)

Meeting commenced at 6:24pm
GD Motions to begin the meeting, Denise Torres (DT) 2nds.

I. Approval of Agenda
GD adds “b. Party Signup” and “c. Spring Meetings” to the agenda under New Business and “c. Bylaw Change” under Old Business

GD Moves to approve the Agenda; DT 2nds. Agenda approved by unanimous consent.

II. Approval of Old Minutes

GD moves to approve; Nancy Medina (NM) 2nds. Approved by unanimous consent.
Nancy seconds

III. Old Business

a. Windows Live Hotmail

GD addresses the need to revise ideas for our statement about Windows Live Hotmail accounts, particularly regarding privacy policy issues, potential losses in service (e.g. lack of forwarding and loss of other services) and limitations of the service for users with the newest version of Windows.

Danielle Wu (DW) suggests to emphasize that the new email service will affect the GC students who work at other campuses; she emphasizes the need for outreach.

b. Personal Projects

GD invites members of the group to talk about their advocacy issues.

Anton Masterovoy (AM) discusses the library committee; one recent suggestion he has received is to install individual study lights. He also questions how much power the DSC has in connection with effecting change in the library.

GD comments that we are not very powerful, but we have the “bully pulpit,”
and suggests talking to Facilities to gain insight on this issue.

Allyson Foster (AF) is willing to take care of the bylaws, since no one is currently doing it.

GD nominates AF for Chair of the Bylaws and Constitution Committee; AM seconds.

GD also mentions that we need to propose this at the plenary.

DW speaks about her community outreach for GC students who are at other campuses. She is interested in finding liaisons at other campuses, and also suggests combining her outreach work with her involvement in health issues and non-CUNY volunteer work. She also suggests that we need more promotional materials (e.g. magnets and tee-shirts, a calendar, name tags, etc.).

GD suggests to solicit help at the next plenary.

DT mentions we need to confirm DW for health care at the plenary meeting.

GD motions to change the agenda to reflect “IV. Business Report;” “V. New Business;” and “VI. Student Affairs Report;” AM seconds.

IV. Business Report (DT)

December 14 is the deadline for getting reimbursement requests in to DT.
DT is in the process of converting business records from Quicken to Excel, which is important for continuity. In addition, flash drives have been purchased for co-chairs for the same purpose.

DT leaves at 7:23

V. New Business

a. Elections Process

GD announces a December 3 meeting to discuss questions about the new voting system, and that he is available via email or at the next plenary to address other questions about the elections process. Previous questions included those about the CCNY problem’s with a similar system, what happens if there is an interruption in the voting, how will votes be confirmed by voters, outreach issues, and questions about the bylaw change.

b. Party Signup

Committee members sign up for party duties.

c. Spring Meetings

GD shows the committee the spring meeting schedule.

VI. Student Affairs Report (GD)

a. Chartered Organizations

December 15 is the deadline for submitting updated rosters for all chartered organizations.

b. Content Update

GD wishes to complete the Steering Committee bio and photo page. Anyone who has not submitted either of these should do so.

c. Bylaw Change

GD stresses the importance of keeping the language ambiguous.

VII. Communications Report (Rob Faunce)
Written communications report: Manfred Philipp, Chair of the University Faculty Senate, will address the Plenary in December. The DSC Archive is underway at Mina Rees Library. The Co-Chair met with Mina Rees archivist John Rothman to secure the space for the archives, and a timetable for transition and potential indexing.

The Media Board met on November 9. During this meeting, the Board discussed budget initiatives for 2008-9, but deferred voting until the next meeting. The Media Board did vote to recommend that a seventh issue of The Advocate, which would be web-only, be published in May, funded by the current web budget overflow created by the release of the DSC Webmaster. The Media Board meets again March 7 at 6pm in room 5489.

Members of the Executive Committee met with President Kelly on November 20, to discuss the state of the printers in Concourse level, the Windows Live Hotmail situation, and the direction of CUNY Compact dollars for next year; currently 60k goes to fund a psychologist at the Wellness Center, 20k goes to extended Wellness Center hours, 32k goes to departments for Professional Development spending, 16k goes to fund ESL workshops, and 15k is used to fund the new dossier service through Student Affairs that will be launching this year. The President has indicated that he will find alternate funding for the dossier service. We have expressed that we would like to see more funding for the Student Travel Grants; the President is going to get numbers for us on how much more would be needed to expand the program.

VIII. USS Report (AF)

A meeting was held a few weeks prior, but there was only intermittent quorum and no motions were voted on. Major concerns of the USS are undergrad tuition hikes and raising the student activity fee.

IX. Committee Reports
DW asserts the importance of establishing a GC-wide recycling program.

X. Announcements
There were no announcements.

XI. Adjournment

GD moves to adjourn; AF seconds the motion. The meeting is adjourned at 8 pm.