3 – 7 – 2014
ROBERTS RULES OF ORDER
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Handed out.
Concerns with not using the most updated version as 2 turn speaking may
have changed between 10th and 11th edition.
Chair can actually comment on an issue without stepping down.
Work on a revised edition that is updated and not merely an example and
shows specifically how to use them, not merely definitions.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM FEBRUARY
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Approved.
APPROVAL OF ASSEMBLY SPEAKER
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Motion to amend assembly speaker to this position passed.
One volunteer for assembly speaker – Jordan Corner.
Approved.
MOTIONS
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Add Bylaws Committee to Old Business
Move Assembly Speaker to first business after Roberts Rules and Minutes
Approval
APPROVAL OF THE PROGRAMMING CHAIR
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100% Approval.
OFFICER REPORTS
TREASURER REPORT
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Two reports, February and March.
All RGSOs should have at least 1 voucher trained members at this point.
Spring Budgets should now be on RGSO pages.
Pages need to be updated yearly.
All RGSO bills should be processed and put through from Fall 2013-2014.
Don’t submit any Fall reimbursements from Fall.
Stipends updated in February to show correct numbers.
February Budget Approved.
March’s budget is right on mark with what was projected.
March’s Budget Approved.
PROGRAMMING REPORT
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Toiletry donations went very well.
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March will feature a book drive to be donated to the Schenectady County
Libraries.
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On April 7th there is going to be an Appreciation Reception focusing on
togetherness and involvement between the Senate, Faculty, and Graduate
Students. It serves a dual purpose of promoting understanding of the roles
we share in the UAlbany community.
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The GSA will be providing t-shirts to (as many as possible) participants who
sign up for the organization for the Campus Cleanup Day. This can count as
an RGSOs community service/volunteering requirement option.
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The end of the year party will take place on May 2nd.
MCCA REPORT
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Committee Meeting on Monday March 10th at 8:30pm in Draper 105 – if
interested feel free to attend.
Tentatively scheduled film screening of The House I Live In with a discussion
as well. Looking for partners.
Diversity and Inclusion grant to propose a program.
GRANTS REPORT
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Today (March 7th) was the committee deadline for evaluation reports.
Summer grants will be opened around the end of March/beginning of April.
The deadline will be June 1st, 2014.
VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT
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2 RGSOS are losing funding; the funds have been reallocated for the
additional Spring and Summer allotments. They are both retaining
recognition.
Committee made this decision based off of the lack of a specific consequence
being listed in the bylaws and constitution.
Additional funds for Spring will be combined with Summer applications for
funding – deadline is April 1st. A little over $3,000 is left over for these funds.
A reminder was given to please communicate what has been said in the
Assembly Meetings are making it back to the RGSO E-boards.
If a stage change on any submitted vouchers has not happened within a week
please e-mail Kat the number of your voucher to assure no requests are
missed.
Concerns about the Treasurers notification that we are still receiving bills
from last academic year. This is revolved around last year’s E-board not
following up on bills as they should have.
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Motion: Next Treasurer’s report to reflect the bills and amounts from past
years since there are technical issues revolving around the fact that this is
not supposed to be happening. (Approved Amendment) Also to include
where the money is coming from.
Motion Questions: Where is the money coming from? RGSO budgets since it
is also involving RGSOs.
Motion Approved.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
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Working mission statement up for comments. (Posted online in the
President’s Office Report, all comments to go to the President – Caitlin.)
Adjunct Resolution will be pushed at the April 4th SUNY meeting.
SUNY SA reps requested a report and Wages and Benefits will be providing it.
We are building a coalition to support this – UBuffalo and Binghamton have
responded.
President’s forum date has been a struggle due to issues with booking rooms
and the President’s schedule – Caitlin will update as soon as she has
confirmation.
Ed-TPA; SUNY SA is looking to take a stance against how fast this is being
implemented because of the large amount of student (40%) at Cortland that
became ineligible due to the fact of the rushed nature of the speed and other
factors.
Senate Information: CAFFECOR committee, 5/44 senators are grad students
and we are pushing for better relations and representation of this fact. It will
now all state University Senate rather than Faculty Senate now to better
represent this fact. A survey will be going out and Caitlin has asked that
graduate students please answer it to show better representation of our
issues on campus.
NAGPS northeastern conference is next weekend. Caitlin will be having a
roundtable discussion at the conference.
Faculty Advisors: will move to be a requirement (can also be staff) soon. The
relationship needs to be solidified to be different than it is for
undergraduates due to the very different nature of the relationships and
experiences at the undergraduate vs. graduate level. We are looking for input
on how these advisors should be interacting with RGSOs, especially from
those that already have Staff or Faculty advisors with a working relationship.
Fiscal Policy: analysis of the last 7 years of expenditures is being done.
Revenue patterns analysis about rate of intake and output has been being
worked on currently. Any questions about our numbers are accepted to help
us form new fiscal policy and continue the efforts from this year to assure we
have a contingency plan and avoid previous incidents of debt from
happening again.
Recruitment and Retention: this is a big push right now due to turnover
issues on campus across the GSA and RGSOs to continue contingency efforts
across the years that have been pushed by the current administration. All
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ideas are appreciated from RGSOs about how they have managed retention
and recruitment over the years.
CNSE transition: only 2 meetings have happened and both have focused
largely on labor issues. CNSE is merging with SUNY IT for registration and
course listings but they will be shared on our end with housing and other
Albany centric issues. Choice will be given of current students of where they
will technically graduate from due to this split – SUNY IT and UAlbany will
remain choices dependant on the time of accreditation.
The current E-board has proposed a new Mission Statement they would like
comments on from the general graduate student community. However, it
should be noted there is a current statement in the constitution that
describes itself as a purpose statement. An amendment will need to be made
to change this listed ‘purpose’.
Faculty Advisors concerns due to the fact that there is an opinion (form the
speaking assembly rep) that it infringes on the autonomy of the graduate
students control of their RGSOs. It is the opinion of a few in the Assembly that
this should be opposed but if that is not possible that major revisions need to
be made so to avoid it being beyond support and avoid any controlling role. It
has been suggested to having them as members rather than advisory similar
to graduate student RGSO members who sit in as faculty meeting
representatives for departments and RGSOs. To clarify this is not opposition
of faculty involvement, it is opposition of a requirement that ‘handcuffs’ us to
having to have this even in places where not necessary.
Motion: to oppose this requirement due to lack of regulatory backing to this
requirement.
Approved.
Motion: E-board to form executive committee to investigate GSA/RGSO
staff/faculty relations and to better define them.
Approved.
WAGES AND BENEFITS REPORT
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Higher Education costs dramatic increase and cuts in public education
funding are a major issue. The committee is tasked with researching and
advocacy on the behalf of graduate students.
Met with Dean Williams on matters of money available for GA’s, base salary
on campus, and how the decisions are made about how much we get.
The committee is setting a lot of issues for the Presidents Forum particularly
in regards to wages for GAs and Adjuncts. This is an opportunity to be real
with the fact that graduate students often live below the poverty line and the
realistic effects on our lives due to this.
Will be holding a workshop on adjunct wages and issues and how that can
effect undergraduate education in support of the adjunct resolution.
There will be a survey going out about conditions of being a graduate
student.
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Dean Williams will be raising all GA positions to $13,000 – unfortunately this
means a loss of 1 year off funding almost across the board.
If you are interested in joining the committee please speak to Jackie after the
meeting or get in touch with her through e-mail or other means.
Motion: GSA Assembly considers the highest priority of information for the
President’s forum to be concerning wages and benefits.
Clarification: highest priority does not mean other issues are ignored, merely
that we were informed we should keep the number of issues we bring up to a
smaller number than previous and this is just the highest priority. While
funding may not effect everyone – the living standards issue is relevant to all
funded or non-funded.
Motion Approved, majority vote were yays and abstentions.
Motion to put this report online and available to all.
Approved.
LEAD SENATOR
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President Jones has appointed a new Chief of Staff.
A name change for a department was placed up but it was accepted due to
being only administrative and not effecting other things.
May meeting for University Senate is when elections will be happening. We
need our elections soon as after that so we can put in committee votes.
BY LAWS REPORTS
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Motion was approved to move this business to this part of the agenda in the
interest of time due to its importance.
Makes very very clear the rights and recourses that were previously lacking.
Proposition is to upload the draft and put it on the listserv and website so
everyone can have proper time. Committee will take comments for 2 weeks
and then full discussion will happen at the April meeting. (Grants
amendment) due to Spring Break change this to a longer time.
VP Motion: Consider half of the document for April and half for May due to
the length of the document (20+ pages).
Due to contingency of issues spread out over the document there are issues
with this.
President suggests E-board getting to see the document first, comment, and
then allow for the Assembly and student body to see it post E-board
discussion and comment.
Motion denied.
Motion: That the Constitutional Committee send the E-board the Bylaws first
for a time of 2 weeks to give comments then to be given to the Assembly and
student body.
Issues with timing and wanting a month for everyone to be able to read and
digest and comment on it.
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Amendment to Motion Suggested: Have a joint E-board and Committee
meeting prior to the Assembly meeting so all Assembly and E-board
members can have a better amount of time to digest the document.
Concerns from the President and Treasurer that the E-board has been
mislead because they stepped down from the committee due to the fact that
the E-board was promised to be able to see the Bylaws first.
An argument was displayed by the Committee Representative that the
President claims are misleading.
The last minutes were noted to state that the Committee did say they would
provide the bylaws prior to the March Assembly meeting.
Amendment to the Amendment: to add specific language providing that the
Constitutional Committee provide the draft to the E-board for distribution on
the website and listserv on Monday the 10th. – Stated as friendly and
language stated for inclusion in original amendment.
Point made: Treasurer makes a point that this means the Assembly may get
two very different versions of the document.
Additional Amendment to the Amendment: explicitly that Assembly receives
bylaws as the E-board. E-board will get them prior. No time stipulate was
given, however it was stated we should have an additional Assembly meeting
just for this purpose.
A quorum count was taken to assure we still had enough numbers to vote.
Numbers are sufficient.
Additional Amendment to the Amendment: 13 yays, 4 nays, 2 absentions.
Passed.
Amended Amendment: 6 yays, 4 nays, 8 absentions. Passed.
Amended Motion: E-board gets bylaws first, E-board and Committee have a
meeting, special Assembly meeting called.
Motion: 11 yays, 7 nays. Passed.
Motion: informal poll on date for Assembly meeting.
Amendment: look into available dates and then send out a poll on the
listserv.
Amendment found friendly.
Motion Approved.
Call made for orders of the day.
Agenda was left incomplete due to the meeting being already 30 minutes over its
usual running time of 2 hours.