GRADUATE STUDENT COUNCIL MEETING NOTES
March 20, 2008
6:30 – 8:00, Medical Research Building III, Room 1220
I. Approval of March Agenda
– Approved
II. Approval of Minutes from February Meeting
– Approved
III. Election of At-Large Members
IV. Officer Reports
A. President: Josh
a. Upcoming seminar on Sexual Harrassment in April
– Due to large volume of events in early April will be moving seminar to the end of next month
– Women’s Center and ODC have done a lot of work towards it
b. Visit from James Lang, Graduate Student Research Day Speaker 2008
– March 31, 4:15pm, Student Life Center
– Should be a good talk, supposed to be very engaging
– Raised $3000 to help pay for the speaker (food, speaker fee, etc) – Dean Bandas, Grad School, English, Pharm, Robert Penn Warren Center, Center for Teaching all helped
i. Help with the rest of publicity
– Emails have gone out, have posters to hang up on Sunday/Monday
– Each rep will get an email that can be personalized for your department, send it to students as well as administrators
– All department heads have already been emailed
– Postcards should be appearing in mailboxes shortly
c. Goals for the next GSC
i. Review of 2008-2009 Officer Elections
– Jon’s list
– Follow through on Metro bus program
– Finish the Wiki
– Get a grad student meal plan
– More social activities
– Continue to expand GSRD
– May have a meeting or two during the summer, especially to plan the Orientation Party and facilitate summer grad student activities
d. New job available for graduate students
– Graduate Student Coordinator, much like the assistant we asked for to help with grad student affairs
– Will also be working with campus centers
– Well paid, $20,000 plus insurance for 20 hours a week, August to May
– Grab a flyer and apply, due by next Friday! Also help get the word out
– If you haven’t heard from your DGS, ask them about it
e. Update on new housing around campus
– No longer room to have grad students live in the commons, but still working on (paid) positions to work with undergrads there
– Next plan: knock down Kissam, build Commons-like community there with built-in positions for grad students as intellectual facilitators (NOT an RA)
– Gets stipend, free room/meal plan – stay tuned
– According to Susan Barge, grad students are in the long-term housing plans
B. Vice President of Academic Affairs: Sarah
a. Academic Committee
i. Graduate Student Research Day: March 31, 2008 in the Student Life Center
1. http://studentorgs.vanderbilt.edu/gsc/gsrd_abstracts_2008.pdf
– More participation than ever, have rented out the entire SLC
– About 2/3 of departments are represented (31 departments)
– All info is on the GSC website (address above)
ii. Needs from the Academic Affairs Committee
– Still need a moderator for a humanities panel, session from 1:30-2:30 (taken care of)
– Will be door prizes for attending and filling out a survey – gift cards, movie certificates, etc
– Need volunteers to stay and clean up after James Lang’s talk
C. Vice Presidents of Social Affairs: Megan and Josh
– Need help with: carrying kegs, working the door, setup, cleanup, make a flyers
– Starting to organize next year’s welcome event – Monday, August 27 from 5-8om
– Olin Lawn (same place as next year) for now
– Alcohol training session in May, all social committee members and officers need to attend and others are welcome
– Email Megan with your availability
– Contact Megan (megan.johnson@vanderbilt.edu) and Josh (joshua.m.barnett@vanderbilt.edu) if you’d like to help out with social events for the rest of the spring/summer, also contact if there are things you’re particularly interested in helping with
b. Upcoming Happy Hours
c. T-shirts for sale: $5/each. First VU graduate student shirt in history.
5. Rent: March 30
D. Treasurer: Ingrid
a. AcFee Process Update
– Issue with undergrads about who allocates our money has been resolved
– Ingrid has been attending AcFee subcommittee meetings for arts funding allocation, other committee members have been attending other special interest groups
– Asked for $47,000 for next year, remains to be seen how much we’ll get
E. Secretary: Laura
– If you signed up on the committee, please try to get to your assigned articles
– Goal is to finish the wiki this summer
F. Honor Council President: Erica
G. Webmaster: Alli
– Email Alli if you want to work on the Wiki and don’t currently have editing priviledges
V. University Committee Reports:
A. University Parking Committee: Erica Bowton, Molly Fricke, & Amy Pyle
B. Student Recreation Center Committee: Josh Brooks & John Mackert
C. Calendar Committee: Amy Pyle & Rory Pruitt
D. Religious Affairs Committee : Jennell Talley, Alli Beck, Mekeal TeShome, & Elizabeth Weber
E. Freshman Commons Committee: Josh Brooks
F. Student Insurance Advisory Board: Josh Brooks
– Insurance only raising $20 for next year, to $1958
– Preexisting condition clause is now only 6 months instead of existing 12 months
G. Graduate Student Professional and Personal Development Committee: Josh Brooks & Steve Smartt
– Women’s Center is bringing Dr. Sue Rosser, former director of NSF, on April 15 in Stevenson
– Helping to publicize the “We Speak For Ourselves” lecture series from the Robert Penn Warren Center (so post flyers, even if you can’t go) – April 3-4
– Based on a Vandy grad’s book on African-American experience in speaking for themselves
– Warren Center is digitizing the tapes so they’re online
– Speakers on the tapes are being brought to campus to speak on Vanderbilt and civil rights history
H. University Library Committee: Josh Barnett
I. Center for Teaching Advisory Board : Sarah Kersh
VI. Old Business
– Josh is still looking in to meal plan, health insurance issues raised last meeting
– Bus system – currently haphazard, but now doing a cost-benefit analysis of making the program official
– Steve Smartt is working on the report, should hopefully know more next week
VII. New Business
A. The process of GSC Turnover
– Introduction of officers for next year (for those who were not here last month)
– If anyone would like to buy goodbye/thank you gifts for the outgoing officers, Josh Brooks would gladly accept an iPhone, Palm Pilot, etc.
VIII. Call for Initial Concerns and Upcoming Events
A. Susan Barge, from Student Housing, will be speaking next month
IV. Call for Announcements
A. Who Speaks? With the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities
-Thursday, March 27, Antoinette Brown lecture series in Benton Chapel at 7pm (keynote event of Divinity School)
– Sign up for AlertVU if you haven’t already
X. Adjournment
Spring meetings:
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 6:30 in Medical Research Building (MRB) III, Room 1220
(Turnover meeting for the 2008-2009 GSC)
Please pass along the above information to other graduate students in your department.