UF Graduate Student Council
Spring Semester- Second General Body Meeting
February 21, 2013
1. Speaker-Tushar Bhattacharyya- YES+
-Newly formed group at UF
-Find your enlightened side- happy, calm, and prevent stress
-4 day workshop- breathing techniques, yoga, allow you to control your mind and understand how your mind
works; calmness of mind, relieve stress
-Every Wednesday 7-8 in Williamson hall- yoga and meditation workshop
2. Roll Call
3. Reports
a. President- Dustin Pfundheller
i. GSC election nominations
a. Different than past- nominations this month, elections next month to improve transitions
for new officers
b. Update constitution next month- need to vote to change elections in march
c. Let people know and encourage students to run for elections
d. New positions this year- president can appoint for one year- to discuss whether or not to
keep new positions- keep in bylaws or not
b. Vice President- Wen Ji
c. Treasurer- Bryan Griffin
i.
Increased budget to add an extra 100 grants
ii.
SAR issues- new docutrack system- all SARs have been passed to President and
Treasurer
d. Internal & External Secretary – Whitney
i.
Issues with Attendance- suggestions for roll call
a. Check off for attendance during the meeting on excel file
ii.
Ineligible Departments- based on last semester’s attendance- contact us if it’s incorrect
or need to appeal
e. Webmaster- Srikanth Koduru
i.
800 visits to website
a. searching for “appeal forms” and departments reps – adding to the website
ii.
Appeal form is right on the website- goes to the President, VP, and Secretary
iii.
New forms- any questions can give feedback
iv.
URL- gsc.sg.ufl.edu
v.
Transferring old website to new website
f. Grants Chair – Jeff Fedenko
i.
We've received ~850 applications to date, approved ~410 total so far, ~50% funding rate
ii.
On track to receive ~1200 total by the end of the year
iii.
Next grants meeting is the Monday after spring break
g. Social Chair – Bill Schmahl
i.
Looking for a new co-social chair, good experience to run for social chair
ii.
There is a social committee- send out an application in fall to encourage people to join
committees (may be limited to 4-6 people)
iii.
List of events send out to graduate student listserv- send emails to Dusty or Wen to put
on the list
iv.
Feb. 22- International Student Night Gymnastics meet- present your country, send a
picture (email is on the Facebook website) that will be shown during meet
h. Graduate Affairs Chair- Sarab Kochhar
i.
Fall Qualtrics Survey Results- sent out fall
a. all the committees come together to ask graduate students to understand to see
what changes they want on campus (housing, dining, etc.)
b. More bus routes & more frequency of Later Gator
c. More career services (hosted an info session before career showcase last
semester) – March 21st summer job fair session
d. more study rooms and better deals for housing (discounts)
e. executive summary will be put up on website; helps us measure what to do for
the next year
i. International Chair- Hoang Nguyen
i.
currently 11 members, international students are struggling with transition issue
ii.
Airport transportation for new students (Pitffee Jao)
a. Best bus route, timing of flights, how long they need to last
ii.
Improve temporary housing service this Fall (Raj)
b. temporary housing before they figure out where theyre living
vi.
Law counseling section with UFPD (Yanming)
vii.
F2 petition (Eunice)
viii.
Connecting with UFIC, Chinese and Indian student associations (Leihao, Pushkar)
j. Newsletter Chair- Sanjeev Gangadharan
i.
Grad Cannon Issue 2: Research Perspectives
ii.
Remaining articles will be published in Issue 3
4. Committee Reports
a. Advocate
i.
Advertisements and flyers, facts, and educating the campus on the graduate student
population (we are 1/3 of population!)
ii.
Contacted various campus organizations (e.g., Student Rec Center, Student
Government, Multicultural & Diversity Affairs) to create awareness of the graduate
and professional student presence.
ii.
Distributed flyers (Graduate Student Facts) across campus that captures the
importance of graduate and professional students on campus
b. Libraries Committee
c. Faculty Senate
d. Graduate Council
i.
Graduate faculty- new grad programs, certificate, masters, an phd programs are
approved with the committee, coming up with nominations
ii.
Council sets all the policies, news programs, and the curricula for graduate programgood opportunity to get grad students to learn from the process (presented by faculty
member on grad council)
e. Social Committee
f.
Research and scholarship
i.
Working with the policies and councils related to research
ii.
Address issues that impact graduate faculty members and students, represent grad
students to make sure grad students voices are heard amongst the faculty
5. Open Nominations
a. Name, email, department; profile of candidates running
b. Can nominate yourself, don’t have to be present at meeting; nominations during elections
also (write-in slot on ballot)
c. President- Josh Newman, College of Fine arts, Dept. of Music
d. Vice President- Reba Hicks, College of Agricultural Life Sciences, Dept. Agricultural Education
and Communication, rhicks@ufl.edu
e. Treasurer – Rhonda William, Rlwms@coe.ufl.edu
f. External Secretaryg. Internal Secretaryh. Webmasteri. Grants chair- Jeff Fedenko, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Dept. of Agronomy
j. Social Chairk. Grad affairsl. International Affairs- PitFee Jao(pitfeejao@ufl.edu), College of Engineering, Dept. of
electrical engineering; Hoang Nguyen nhhoang@ufl.edu; Rubak
Vdayana rubak192@gmail.com
m. Newsletter Chair6. Open Issues/Announcements
-
Dissertation Help Needed- If you are teaching undergrad classes, would allow Kristen to come in
before class for the first 3 minutes; to see if the undergrads’ knowledge about program (learn
how to improve healthy eating habits and exercise) – would appreciate you to allow that in your
classes – Please contact Kristen Medina: knewell@phhp.ufl.edu
7. Next meeting is March 21st at 630pm, TUR L011 (same room)
8. Adjournment