Graduate Center, CUNY
Doctoral Students’ Council
Plenary Minutes

December 12, 2008—6pm

Members and Voting Alternates Present:

Anthropology: Andrew Brooks, Christine Pinnock
Art History: Monica Steinberg, Whitney Thompson
Biochemistry: Richard Able
Biology: Kathleen Schanaars Uvino, Samantha Sheppard
Chemistry: Tony Perri, Yu Zhao
Classics: Jared Simard
Computer Science: Jeremy Seideman, Suzanne Tamang
Criminal Justice: Julie Viollaz, Tasha Youstin
Engineering Chemical: Mehrdad Kheiripour
English: Jill Belli, Allyson Foster, Amanda Springs
French: Chong Wojtkowski
Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Lit: Efrain Cardenas, Teresa Berenice Darwich
History: Igor Draskovic, Anton Masterovoy
Linguistics: Elizabeth Pratt
Music DMA: H. Roz Woll (proxy: E. Lopez-Dabdaub)
Music PhD: Rachel Lumsden
Philosophy: Kyle Ferguson, Chris Sula
Political Science: Aaron Ibur, Patricia Stapleton
Psychology: Bio: Preston Foerder
Psychology: Cog, Brain, Beh: Justin Ostrovsky
Psychology: Dev: Vicky Barrios
Psychology: Forensic: Marsha Brown
Psychology: Learning Processes: Matthew Taylor
Sociology: Colin Ashley
Speech & Hearing Sciences: Carol Tessel
Urban Education: Shana Henry

At-large Reps: Sari Altschuler, Kate Broad, Karyn Collie, Gregory Donovan, Rob Faunce, Ian Foster, Malev Kanuga, Taylor Kennamer, Lauren Klein, Armin Lahiji, Neil Meyer, Linda Neiberg, Shawn Rice

Members Absent:
Comparative Literature: Anick Boyd (excused), Anna Finkelstern (excused)
Engineering Biomedical: Xiang (Ian) Gu
Engineering Civil: Rouzbeh Nazari
Psychology: Environmental: Stephanie Domenici Cabonargi (excused)
Psychology: Industrial and Organizational: Kimberly Iaffaldano
Psychology: Neurology: Olga Nikelshpur (excused)
Psychology: Social Personality: Stephanie Anderson
Public Health: Princess Fortin
Social Welfare: Larry Iannotti
Theatre: Frank Episale (excused)
Urban Education: Liza Pappas

At-Large Reps: Ericka Calton, Boris Daussa Pastor, John DeCarlo, Philip Kopp (excused), Charles Lieberman (excused), Pamela Proscia (excused), Denise Torres, Brenda Vollman (excused)

Members Present: 53; Members Absent: 20

Meeting Called to Order at 6:53 PM

I. Approval of Agenda
Chong Wojtkowski moved to approve, Chris Sula seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous consent.

II. Approval of Old Minutes
Jeremy Seideman moved to approve, Shana Henry seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous consent.

III. Old business
a. Student Survey
Provost’s office is circulating its own survey. It reminded the students to take it by clicking on a link sent via email. Our own survey will come during February nomination process.

b. Tuition increase and adjunct labor:
The Adjunct Project asks students to help in working on and protesting tuition increases and adjunct firings, in lecturing about these issues during “equity week”. The Adjunct project may be reached by email at theadjunctproject@gmail.com

c. Print task force (Chris Sula reports)
The Print task force finds that the following may aid in solving the printing problems: fixing the queuing system and buying actual printing machines (not printer/copiers). The worries of potential imposition of printing quotas were discussed.

IV. New Business
a. Nominations and Voting
The nominations and voting process will be shortened but this issue will be discussed further

b. Ratification of New Reps:
Rob Faunce named the new representatives presented for ratification: Lee Hachadoorian of EES, Junnan Zhao from Economics, Justin Ostrofsky from Psych: CBB, and at-large reps Sari Altschuler, Kate Broad, and Malav Kanuga, and moved to ratify the new reps, Kathleen Schanaars Uvino seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous consent.

V. Student Affairs Report (Greg Donovan)
a. Chartered Organizations:
Memberships rosters will be accepted until the end of December, late submissions will result in some slowdown in turnover for Fall checks. Greg has set up the system of electronic rosters. Those organizations that were inactive but want to register should let Greg know now or they may be dechartered.

VI. Communications Report (Rob Faunce)
Student Affairs notes that Research and Travel funds are being used up quickly – all submissions should be done soon. In a meeting with President Kelly it was established that while there are budget constraints, there are no tuition increases for Spring 2009. Rob also pointed out that departments that wish to use DSC funding but have no representatives should recruit them in order to be able to use the allocated money.

VII. Business Report (Chris Sula)
Checks submitted after December 12 will be processed by January.

a. DSC Submit
The DSC Submit system may be use to submit check requests – receipts should be brought to the office.

b. Budget update
We contributed our half to the Travel and Research Fund as did Student Affairs office – but money is running out quickly. $1200 for the cultural affairs grants and $3100 for Professional development grants were already allocated. Health services received out share of the funds and we are on target with other allocations. The electronic voting system contract was renewed for 2 years to save 10% of the costs.

IX. Committee Reports
Ally Foster reported that the Health Committee met, plans participation in the blood drive, wellness festival, and will set up a blog for addressing the health insurance concerns.
Greg Donovan explained the Middle States Steering Committee’s role in the self-evaluation process.

X. Announcements
All business card requests have been processed but did not arrive by the meeting date. The Holiday Party starts on the day of this meeting at 8 PM.

XI. Chris Sula moved to adjourn the meeting, Chong Wojtkowski seconded, and the meeting was