GPSS Senate Meeting Break Out Group Notes, 10.3.12
Natural Sciences:
Advocacy:
 Federal funding for sciences
 Lower student fees
 Advocacy for scientific journal reform
Services
 Promote social events, within natural sciences.
 Easier access to liquor licenses
Community
 Increase GPSS presence
 Increase visibility of private funding
Community Seats
Advocacy:
 Sensitivity to minority statuses
 Increased representation at every decision – making level at the UW and in departments of
under-represented groups
Services:
 Ensure continuity of services
 Create seat for underrepresented on Diversity community
Health Sciences
Advocacy:
 No continued cuts to research funding – increase levels ASAP
Services:
 Access to academic writing program in Odegaard, for international students
Community:
 Reach out to other university community members for help with issues (faculty)
 Increase effort into interacting with other graduate and professional organizations
 We like the idea of more events with a variety of timing because our schedules don’t allow
much flexibility and it increases the chances that we could make at least one event – what about
a variety of locations?
Other:
 Access to grants/funding for research – especially regarding faculty retention
 Diversifying funding resources for research funding (not just NIH grants)
Business/Law/Evans/iSchool
Advocacy:
 Ideas for making education affordable:
o Income-based
o Look at examples set by other countries
o Argue that higher education is a human right
o At least advocate to stop tuition hikes
o Develop strategies for managing tuition rates
Services:
 Concerns: deteriorating learning environment
 Larger class sizes
 State of facilities (Evans School – 400 students)
 Figure out why is each department so different
Community:
 Equal treatment between professors and grad students who are teaching
Other:
 Inter-communication – share events between different schools – cross disciplinary
advertisement. Maybe create listservs organized by topic interest.
Engineering
Advocacy:
 Department funding situation – RA and TA positions
 International student fee – we have lots of international students
 Student fees – affordability, inclusion in tuition waivers
Services:
 Communicating University decisions and their impacts on grad students
 Unified source of funding and fellowship information
 More sharing of information between departments
Community:
 Help organize cross-departmental events
 GPSS sponsors intramural teams
Other:
 GPSS meeting topics are frequently narrowly focused at a small part of the audience, may feel
irrelevant
Education
Advocacy:
 Research Funding – sources include NIH, US DOE, IES (?), OSEP (?)
Services:
 GPSS support for navigating the new department structure
Community:
 Department funds to t-shirts (use as fundraiser?)
Built Environments
Advocacy:
 Federal work study important for affordability
Services:
 Getting UW name and work spread through travel grants
Community:
 Utilize simple appeal of booze & people to concentrate social funding into a regular happy hour
– open to all, neutral location, subsidized food/drink (not free) - CBE happy hour precedent
Other:
 Starting CBE Student Council – all about shared governance (a potential model?)
Social Scientists
Advocacy:
 Fees
 Diversity
 Travel Grants
 Staying informed about higher ed politics
 University accountability – who is imposing them?
 Capital projects
 Differentiating affordability – out of state waiver process
 Coverage gaps in GAIP
 transparency
Services:
Community:
 Outreach
 Diversity
Other:
 Relationship with ASUW
Humanities
Advocacy:




Reduce mandatory fees, doubled for facilities renovation in violation of contract!
Student Tech Fee, IMA, Bus Card
Re-approach mandatory fees
Grad vs undergrad fees
Services:
Community:
Other:


UW campus designated smoking areas
Representation for Humanities - travel grants, ideas to incorporate people in the Humanities, finding
support - email list.