Graduate Student Council Meeting Minutes
August 31, 2011
1. Introductions:
 New Executive Board and Dr. Rawitch
 GSC purpose explained – allocating student funds. Come and make
your voice heard!
2. Selection of senators, department representatives, and committee
representatives (Mary Ashley)
 Department Representatives:
Anatomy

Biochemistry

Dan Parente
Biostatistics

Yu Jiang
Clinical Research

Dietetics and Nutrition

Brandon Hidaka
Health Informatics

Health Policy and Management

Jacob Wayman
Hearing and Speech

IGPBS

Masters in Public Health

Dan Belz
Microbiology

Molecular Biotechnology

Nurse Anethesia

Lesley Tongish
Nursing

Occupational Therapy

Alyson Haynes
Pathology

Pharmacology and Toxicology

Kirstin Russell
Physical Therapy

Gupreet Signh
Physiology

Beth Dille
 SGC Senators:
School of Health Professions
 Brandon Hidaka
At Large
 Jenny Buseman
 Yu Jiang
 William Venable
Medicine
 Beth Dille
 Dan Parente
 Alex Dowdell
Nursing
 Hanna Peck

Committees:
i. Community Outreach Committee:
1. TBA
ii. Students Educating and Advocating for Diversity:
1. Dan Belz
iii. Faculty Concerns Committee:
1. Rachel Olsen
iv. Research Advisory Group
1. Rushi Trivedi
v. Graduate Studies/ Student Union Travel Funds
1. Cori Ast
2. Lindsay Sickel
vi. International Affairs
1. Tiffany Aubrey
 A list will be sent out to all students of the unfilled positions.
3. Christmas in October (Kellyann)
 We have a house! A 70 year old woman in Rosedale
4. Propose a change to the bylaws (Kellyann)
 To make the 3 meetings rule part of the bylaws – an organization
must attend 3 meetings in the semester to be eligible for funding the
next semester. This is an important rule to hold people accountable
for our money, and to find out how they are using it.
 The proposed changes were handed out at the meeting and had been
emailed out prior to the meeting as well.
 Discussion –
i. What if only 3 meetings were held that semester? What about
inclement weather? Response – if these groups have 70 people
in their group like many of them claim, they can make it to 3
meetings. This is a very stable group that very rarely has ever
canceled a meeting.
ii. What if the groups don’t know, have poor leaders? That is why
we are adding it to the bylaws.
 Agreed to add a clause that extenuating circumstances would be
evaluated by the executive board. Also agreed to make sure Ryan Gove
included the rule in his emails and roundtable discussions with group
leaders.
 Vote – 27 yes, 0 no. Bylaw amendment passed.
5. Budget (Alex)
 Point was made that according to the bylaws, we cannot fund
unregistered groups. Food is Medicine and Muslim Student
Association lost eligibility.
 Several groups submitted their funding requests late. Voted whether
or not to consider them as eligible for funding. 3 ways to vote were
presented:
i. Allow them to be eligible for full funding – 11
ii. Allow them to be eligible, but only for partial funding – 8
iii. Don’t allow them to be eligible at all – 2
iv. Point was made very clearly that next semester things would
not be as lenient, and late requests would not be funded.

Went through budget line by line. Each group introduced themselves
and explained what they needed the money for.
 Discussion about how a group must have graduate students as part of
it in order to be eligible for funding. Emails from these groups must
also be broadcast to everyone, not just medical students.
i. Vote held concerning Pathology Student Interest group as to
whether or not to fund them, since the group was mostly
geared toward medical students. 13-6 the decision was made
to not fund them.
ii. Also discussion about American Medical Women’s
Association’s eligibility. A grad student present decided to be
part of that group, so they are now eligible. No vote needed.
 Budget was approved, 21-0
 Finalized budget and groups that will be funded will be posted
separately.
6. Final comments (Kellyann)
 The Executive Board this year will be evaluating the groups receiving
funding, the types of events they use the money for and the number of
people actually participating. Asked all groups to keep track of events
that use the GSC money and to keep a roster at all meetings/events.
7. In attendance:
Julia Soap
Cori Ast
Brandon Hidaka
Dan Belz
Yu Jiang
Leigh Wagner
Marlies Ozias
Beth Dille
David Guggenmos
Will Messamore
Lesley Tongish
Jacob Wayman
Brandon Manuel
Kory Barrett
Patrick McCraney
Alex Dowdell
Daniel Parente
Jenny Buseman
Michelle Healy Staffel
Kristin Russell
Patrick Harper
Barbara Nguyen
Rebecca Munro
Audrey Deekun
Brandon Pope
Alyson Haynes
Jon Thomason
Julie Mitchell
Erdong Cheng
Rushi Trivedi
Weiran Shen
8. Meeting closed at 1:10.