Minutes
General Assembly of the Council of Graduate Students
University of Minnesota
May 2004

Minutes by Sean McNee, Vice President for Communications
Approved by the COGS Executive Committee

Quorum was met.

4:45 pm -- Food and beverages served.

5:15 pm -- Meeting called to order: Chris Pappas, President

Thanks for coming to the final meeting of the year. I would personally like to thank each of you for your involvement in COGS. Because of all of you, this has been one of the best years for COGS in recent memory.

I now would like to turn it over to Vic Bloomfield, the Interim Dean of the Graduate School who wanted to say a few words to the COGS General Assembly.

Dean Bloomfield:

Thanks, Chris. I wanted to say hello to all of you and tell you all how much I have enjoyed working with COGS this year. It has been a wonderfully productive year, and this is a great group to work with.

First off, I would like to say that I really like the resolutions that COGS has passed this year. They are right on line with what college deans and faculty are thinking across the University. It is a great thing to see graduate students making their opinions known like this. I encourage you to continue passing resolutions about issues that are important to you next year.

Now, we in the Graduate School have worked closely with COGS on our own to make the life of graduate students better. Not always successfully, especially when it has come to monetary issues, but we have been trying. I just hope you won’t blame the messenger, but rather the people who cut the budget. I encourage you all to be in contact with your state representatives.

We have tried to negotiate a good health plan, and I think we did. We have worked with DGSs across the University to provide better services to students. We have beefed up the welcome CD to include information about housing. We have tried our hardest to go to bat for international students and their concerns. We have done all of this and a number of other things.

I cannot stress enough that COGS is really valuable. It is not just because you are the reason we are hear, but because you voice has weight. The student voice is the moral voice in the University. Your input gives us in the graduate school extra force to get things done. I want to thank you all for your hard work this year, and I look forward to working with you all next year.

Thanks again.

5:20 pm -- University of Minnesota Legislative Network: Mike Dean

COGS would like to thank Mike Dean from the Legislative Network for talking to the COGS GA.

Comments from Mike Dean:

The University of Minnesota Legislative Network is a collaborative effort of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and community members who are committed to educating elected officials and our community about the importance of the University of Minnesota to the state. In particular, we fought hard the past few years against the budget cut. Not only do we work with alumni and University supporters, but we also work with the University administration. We are trying to build grassroots support at the state legislature so that our representatives know how important the University is to the state as a whole.

As you all are probably aware, this year was a bonding year for the state legislature. Next year will be a biennium year. This year is for building projects and infrastructure: for example, upgrades to health center, new buildings in Duluth, and a heating facility in Morris. There are a whole group of projects that the University asked for as part of the bonding bill. Today, May 6th, the bonding bill failed in the senate. We need the bonding bill to pass. Most of the funding for the bill is to improve both classroom and research space here at the University. I encourage you to contact your representatives.

COGS Note: The bonding bill at the legislature is moving fast and the information in these notes may be out of date by the time you read this. The Legislative Network has a blog that contains the latest news on these issues. You also can look up your state representatives online.

I am getting geared up for what we are going accomplish next year: First, the get out the vote effort. We want all students to be active this fall and vote in the election. We want you to get our opinion out. Historically, young people’s issues don’t make it to the legislature nearly as much as it should. Issues like medicare and social security make to the legislature because senior citizens vote in force and make their opinions known. If we want tuition and health care to be on the state agenda, we need to get students out and voting. I would like COGS to help us to get people to vote.

Second, next year is the biennium budget year. Like two years ago, we are concerned about budget cuts that the University is going to be facing the legislature. This money includes many things including all faculty and staff pay. I encourage you all to get involved as much as you can.

I can take questions.

Questions from the GA:

Q. What about the differences between the bonding bill and the stadium bill?
A. I am glad you asked that question. They are two different issues. You can support both, or one or the other. In terms of University priorities, first is the bonding bill, second is the stadium. The stadium will only occur after we have finished with the bonding bill. There is some mis-information about this going around, and I want to clear the air saying that the top priority of the University from the legislature is to get the bonding bill passed so we can upgrade our academic facilities.

Q. How can I be involved if I am not a Minnesota resident?
A. I first encourage you to be involved in your home state. Pay attention to what is happening in your home state and let your representatives back home know how you feel. Second, I encourage you to tell your friends and family here in Minnesota to get involved on these issues that are important to you.

Q. What part of the bonding bill is for the on-campus stadium?
A. The only part of the bonding bill that is for any form of on-campus stadium is the Morris water heater project. The Morris water heater is integrated with their stadium and any changes to the heater require some changes to the stadium as well. Of the whole bonding bill, the Morris water heater project is about a 6 million dollar request and I believe only about 1 million is going to the Morris stadium. No money from the bonding bill is going towards a Twin Cities on-campus stadium.

Q. What part of the bonding bill is for research upgrading and improving research facilities?
A. Not exactly sure of the top of my head, but I would guess it is about 70% of the funding. The University has been making it very clear to the State Legislature that students at the University cannot get a 21st century education in early 20th century facilities.

Q. The way that things are going, it seems like a long shot that we are going to get all of 150 million that we are requesting for the bonding bill. For example, the house passed a version that gives us 90 million. How would that be distributed? Would all projects get less money, or how does it work?
A. The bonding request is a line-item funding request. The state can choose which items to fund and which items to not fund. It gets even more complicated: just because a particular line item is in both the house and senate versions of the bonding bill, that doesn’t mean it will appear in the final version of the bill, a committee can decide about particular line items after the bill has been approved.

COGS Note: the University bonding request is a part of a larger bonding bill that the state legislature has to pass. This single bill handles all ‘state infrastructure’ requests, of which the University is a part. Committees in the House and Senate figure out how much to allocate to each project and propose a net total for a bonding request. The bills passed by the House and Senate could be different and then have to be resolved in committees. In this process, any particular line item could be added or deleted to resolve the differences between the two bills.

Q. Why did the bonding fail in the Senate today?
A. Public statement about the bill was that it was too big and tried to fund too many projects. Privately, it might be more of a political issue. Right now, we are just not sure. Hopefully by Monday we will know more. In either case, I would still encourage you to contact your representatives and tell them to pass a bonding bill that give money to the University.

Q. Just so we are all on the same page, what exactly is a bonding bill?
A. In a bonding bill, the State of Minnesota creates bonds to pay for large capital improvement projects. Through these bonds, the state borrows money to improve infrastructure around the state. Some of the projects include: road and bridge repairs, upgrades to state prisons, updated sewer and water systems, and money for higher education buildings and other projects.

Q. I heard that there is bonding request for new academic health center buildings. Have the state paid off the bonds it issued for the old academic health center yet?
A. Most state bonds are for 20 years. So, for the buildings we are asking to repair, yes, they are paid off. In general, however, technology is advancing at a rapid pace--especially medical technology. We need to make sure our facilities are up to date.

COGS Note: the University of Minnesota Legislative Network can be found online at http://www.supporttheu.umn.edu. COGS encourages all graduate students to be involved in the political process and make your opinion heard.

5:35pm -- Presentation of the COGS Education and Travel Awards and the COGS Leadership Awards: Michael Olin, Vice President for Finance and Jana Lee, Vice President for External Relations

We first will start with the COGS Travel and Educational Awards. We are pleased to announce that GAPSA has generously offered to match our award funds for this year and allowed us to double our awards. Thanks to GAPSA for providing this extra funding. Special thanks to Abu Jalal of GAPSA for setting things up on their end, and to former VP for Finance Simon Mudge for helping out with judging.

Recipients of the 2003-2004 COGS Travel and Educational Awards

Educational Travel Awards

Educational Travel Award Recipents
Christina Berndt, American Studies Fieldwork on the historical dynamics of nation-building among the Northern and Southern Cheyennes
Christopher Kaufman, Kinesiology To attend course on Exercise in the Prevention of Metabolic Diseases
Scott Alvord, Spanish and Portuguese Studies Fieldwork on intonation of Miami-Cuban Spanish and the influence that English has on it

Conference Travel Awards (5 with GAPSA matching funds)

Conference Travel Award Recipents
Albert Rovira, Population Medicine Molecular genotyping of Staphylococcus hyicus strains using repetitive sequence-based PCR
Andrew Knight, Music Education and Therapy Music therapy student groups-make your voice heard (GAPSA matched)
Angela Hendrickson, Plant Biology Tryptophan-dependent indole-3-acetic acid biosynthesis in the endosperm of maize
Baozhen Xie, Educational Psychology Chinese students’ attitudes toward seeking psychological professional help (GAPSA matched)
Eduardo Fano-Gonzalez, Clinical Pop. Science Epidemiology of porcine respiratory and reproductive virus and mycoplasma hyopneumoniae mixed infection
Hiteshi Sakamoto, Mech. Eng./HHH Public Affairs Statistical assessment of operating experiences of power reactors in France, Japan and the United States (GAPSA matched)
Katie Fleming, Mechanical Engineering Cell processing using microfluidics
Jennifer Perry, Psychology Impulsivity in rats selected for saccharin intake (GAPSA matched)
Maija Brown, Theater Arts and Dance The nationalized body of Changjak Muyong: Korean Tourism and the Change of Tradition (GAPSA matched)
Mariana Carriquiry, Animal Science Effect of selection for mild yield on hepatic prolactin receptor (PRLR) mRNA in Holstein cows
Yogindra Samant, Social Work Child labor in developing countries-India, a case study

We received many applications for these awards and choosing this set of winners was very difficult. Congratulations to all award winners!

Recipients of the 2003-2004 COGS Leadership Award

Since 1996, COGS has presented two annual student leadership awards recognizing the recipient's leadership and service on behalf of their fellow graduate students, the University and broader communities. The recipients will receive a $250.00 award check, a COGS t-shirt and Certificate of Award.

Mesut Akdere

Mesut leads and serves graduate students widely in the Summer Cultural Program, Student Service Fees Committee, and Twin Cities Student Unions where “as a result of his commitment, the student union is hiring a graduate assistant to develop the Late Night Program to ensure the needs and issues of graduate students are addressed.” As Grants Director of GAPSA, he implemented two grant programs and works with University administration to provide writing support to graduate students. Moreover, he is an ‘inspirational’ scholar in the Department of Work, Community, and Family Education with a great publication record. “He always [talked] to us about the issues concerning graduate students and his voice has made an impact as he expresses concerns to faculty and administrators. His passion and desire to create an empowered community for graduate students is undeniable.”

Erin Hodgson

Erin leads and serves graduate students in a regional organization and locally in her department of Entomology to find funding, jobs, save money and increase camaraderie among students of diverse backgrounds. She also is involved in the community. Her outreach classes help many farmers with a currently serious outbreak and has promoted the University, with ‘groundbreaking’ research done by graduate students in serving the public good. Erin eagerly initiates education programs with local children, where “she wants to spark their curiosity in science and provide them with opportunities that were not available to her when she was younger.” “[Among students] the events Erin has organized provide a forum for us to interact and combat feelings of isolation that many graduate students experience. Erin has both the motivation to use her talents to help others and the leadership and organizational skills that enable her to create something tangible.”

COGS congratulates Mesut and Erin for their leadership contributions this year. Congratulations!

In the spirit of awards, everyone at the GA received a COGS T-shirt. You can all trade sizes later… it’s a great way to get to know other people.

COGS Note: COGS has extra T-shirts. If you were not at the last GA meeting and you are interested in a T-shirt, please email COGS and we can send you one.

5:45pm -- Elections: Chris Pappas, President

Tonight, COGS is electing the P&R chair for Biological Sciences and two Senate positions.

Biological Sciences Chair

COGS did not elect a Biological Sciences P&R chair at our last GA meeting, thus we will be holding general elections for this position tonight.

Following Robert’s Rules of Order, COGS elected Katie Weins as P&R Chair for Biological Sciences. Congratulations to Katie!

Senate Positions

COGS would like to congratulate our new SSCC representative, Jamie Larson. Because of this appointment, Jamie can no longer be a COGS Senator. Further, COGS would like to congratulate Chris Pappas on his impending appointment as a GAPSA Director At-Large. Because of this appointment, Chris is giving up his COGS Senate seat. Thus, COGS will be electing two Senate positions tonight.

Before holding general elections for the Senate positions, COGS first offered the open Senate positions to our elected Senate Alternates. These Senate positions were accepted by Alternates Dan Drake and Samantha Ammons. Congratulations to our new Senators Dan and Sam!

As such, COGS held open elections for two open Senate Alternate positions. Following Robert’s Rules of Order, COGS elected Chris Pappas as a Senate Alternate. Congratulations to Chris for successfully demoting himself from a full Senator to an Alternate so that he can be a GAPSA Director At-Large.

COGS Note: We only elected one Senate Alternate, so one Senate Alternate position is still open. Well, actually two, since it's kind of silly for Chris to have an alternate position, but no one else expressed interest at the GA meeting and it looks better on paper to have two alternate positions filled. Interested parties should contact COGS at cogs@umn.edu for information about the position.

5:50pm -- GradTRAC: Kris Houlton

COGS would like to thank Kris Houlton for speaking to the GA.

Comments from Kris Houlton:

I am Kris Houlton, a COGS Senator, and I am here now to announce a new student group on campus. It is called GradTRAC, the Graduate Teaching and Research Assistants Coalition. The goal of this group is to broker discussion with the eventual goal of forming a graduate assistant union. By Minnesota state law, but TAs and RAs would be together in the same union. We are planning to launch a Union drive in the fall. It is worth mentioning now that we have not picked any unions to affiliate ourselves with and have not started anything. We are still exploring our options and we want feedback from graduate students about unionizing. GradTRAC is a registered student group at the University of Minnesota. I’d love to hear anyone’s comments and questions.

COGS Note: We have been asked by GradTrac to send information about meetings with Union officials to our representatives. We sent this information forward because many representatives were interested, and it was an update on our proceedings. This information was time sensitive for May 17th and May 18th and is no longer available from the COGS website. By way of clarification, COGS takes no position on unionization, and only serves to communicate relevant information when appropriate and provide a space for discussion of all sides of the issue.

Questions from the GA:

Q. Do you want to comment on why you want to form a union?
A. Before I was graduate student here at the U, I was a union member. I know the stability that unions can bring to the work environment. Most of my comments are from a TA perspective, as this is the perspective that I know best. I know the University has been playing with student numbers before assigning graders or creating new sections. These are all issues coming from the budget problems the U is facing. A collective bargaining agreement would make these change fluctuate less than they do now and would guarantee stability. Moreover, it gives is real negotiation power. The University administration would have to listen to a graduate assistant union, just like they have to listen to all of the other unions here at the University. It gives us stability and identity and will help us define our position here.

Q. Have you talked to other big 10 schools with unions?
A. 31 campuses nationwide are unionized. These include several other Big 10 Schools, such as Madison, Iowa, etc. The whole University of California system is unionized. The kinds of unions really varies based on state. I am reluctant to make any generalizations about our possible union and these other unions because of these differences. Many of these unions are TA-only unions. Here in Minnesota, we are technically state employees, so it restricts how we can unionize. Faculty cannot join with students in one union. It does provide some protections for our interests, but TAs and RAs are together and have to be in one union. I think that there are many things we have in common, so that this combined union will work.

Q. Back in the fall of 1998, there was an attempt to unionize that failed. What is going to be different this time around?
A. There is a core group of us who are talking to the leader from the last union drive and we have learned a lot from him. A series of things happened at the last minute that caused the union drive to fail. For example, the University administration got to make the election a mail-home ballot election. This means that election lasted for two week, during the election they started some scare tactics at the last minute. Once the election started, the union couldn’t say anything. By law, the union had to be silent. The U Administration hired a labor busting law firm, and a student group was formed who was able to send out information and misinformation during the two week election. This change the outcome of the election. We still think a union is a really good idea. The previous attempt failed because of bad luck at the end.

Q. Where can I get more flyers? Why does the flyer not mention unionization?
A. Please email GradTRAC at gradtrac@umn.edu for more flyers. I don’t know why the flyers don’t explicitly mention unionization.

Q. Can you explain what it means to ‘affiliate with a union’?
A. There is no TA union in the US. We would have to pick a union to affiliate ourselves with. UAW (auto workers), for example. AFT, the teacher’s union, would be another option. Since the faculty is not organized, it would not be a conflict to affiliate ourselves with them. We will be stronger together in a larger union. If were just in one union by ourselves, then we are at a disadvantage. We have to run a campaign and educate people about unionization. But that requires resources: people and money. We will need to run a website. We can expect that the administration will do many things. We would meet with potential unions and see what their strategy would be for dealing with the administration and educating graduate assistants about the benefits of being in a union. Not all collective bargaining is the same--some unions are affiliated all the way up to the AFL-CIO. They lobby to the national government on behalf of all of the unions they represent. We need to decide who we want affiliate with and see what they can provide for us.

Q. Would we still have autonomy when determining when to vote or do things, like strike?
A. Oh, you said the ‘s’ word. Striking is never a desired outcome. In general, we would want to be able to do things independently. In the two previous strikes that affected students this year, the bus strike and the clerical workers strike, their unions brought options to the table. Strike is the worst thing possible, it is not a tool we want use. We would see the union as being able to bring focus on budgets and work stability to the table. Currently, the Administration is balancing the budget using TAs as a buffer. Union would allow security and could only change things during a negotiation period.

Q. What does a union mean for salaries?
A. Unions negotiate pay minimums so that people are paid a good wage. There can be many different classifications, and each classification can have settings including different salaries. It is important to remember that employers can always pay more, not less. So, departments that need to pay more money to remain competitive still can do so.

Q. There are people in our department working for different departments getting funding, so people at the same lab bench are getting paid different amounts because their funding is coming from different places. What about a union helping with these kinds of departmental differences? Or could there be department backlash? What role would a union have regarding departments?
A. Different units would act differently. If your department wants to pay everyone at the minimum, they can. The union would work directly with the University Administration. The administration then gives some power to departments to determine specific funding. This money can come from departmental funds, from grants, from other departments or independent labs. There are many things going on. All that the union could do would be to argue for minimums pay for a particular job description. Any given department could still pay a student higher than the minimum. If a student recognizes they are being paid less because of a job mis-classification, however, they can go to the union to help out.

Q. I have a comment about higher paid positions: the departments have a lot of money and they have to competitive to retain students. So, I wouldn’t worry about changes in pay.
A. This issue came out at the end of the last campaign. There was a lot of misinformation about salaries that appeared during the previous unionization vote.

Q. Are the GradTRAC meetings open? Can anyone come?
A. Absolutely. We getting a new meeting space and we would love to have more people involved. We are especially interested in getting information from RAs and people who might not think that unionization is the best idea. We want to know what people are thinking and why they are thinking that way. This is not a closed process. We want it to be open.

6:25pm -- Committee Reports

Stadium -- Keith Cunnien
In the past few meetings we have talked about the feasibility study. In the past few days the state legislature has passed bills to give money for a stadium assuming the University can first raise its share of the cost.

The rhetoric in the meetings has moved to ‘we as students are going to pay for it’. We tried to hold a conversation away from paying fees, and we are still advocating, but if the U is getting money from the state, then we are going to have to pay. They are looking to create ‘benefits package’ for such a fee. This package has mostly been related to athletic ticket discounts and other athletic-centric benefits.

There is going to be a new student group on campus to be an advocacy group for the stadium. Perhaps it is worth creating an anti-stadium group on campus.

There was a suggestion that if there is a fee assessed, perhaps it could be paid by departments such as the University Fee is paid. This problematic at several levels and it opens the flood gates to assess more fees for everything. In short, the Administration is organizing more against the fees issue, and the meetings have become more hostile.

We need more data from graduate students about the stadium if we are going to stand up to the Administration about these fees. Please get everyone in your departments to take the online survey about the stadium.

COGS Note: According to the Student Activities Office, there has not been a student group created yet in support of the proposed on-campus stadium, but the people at SAO did know that Eric Dyer, the outgoing president of MSA, is considering creating such a student group. James Snodgrass, current GAPSA At-large Director for the On Campus stadium, will also head the group (in direct violation of his role as At-large Director, at least until his term is up in June).

Q. What about a petition against student fees for building a stadium?
A. We thought about a petition, but we already have the survey and if it is successful, then it is just as good as a petition. But we could always have petition in the future as well. We will just have to see what happens.

COGS Note: COGS has also spoken to Abu Jamal, the President-elect of GAPSA, about the stadium. Based on the results of the survey, he is willing to put GAPSA behind this issue next year.

COGS Note: Current COGS President Chris Pappas and President-Elect Britt Johnson submitted a letter to the MN Daily regarding the use of student fees for an on-campus stadium. If you agree with us, please cut/print it out and post it on your doors so people know that other opinions are out there.

SHAC -- Carrie Rigdon and Andrew Rivard
We wanted to speak to COGS about the possibility of Boynton building a new building. There have been a lot of rumors going around and we want to set the record straight.

Background: SHAC meets twice a month to talk about Boynton and health issues. A few months ago, we heard through the grapevine that there was a proposal to house all clinics for the AHC (all health-related colleges, UMP, and Fairview University) together. As a part of this they were thinking about getting Boynton in on this as well. We even heard that a decision will be made in May. In order to find out what was going on, we formally invited the Provost and Jerry Rienhart to a SHAC meeting to talk about this. In short, Boynton doesn’t want to move. We like the facilities, want to keep things going as they are. So, the Provost came and took a full tour of Boynton. Thanks to the tour and talking with us the Provost gained an understanding about Boynton and we could see a progression that she understood what our concerns were.

The original idea came about from the AHC kicking around ideas for new building. Boynton as well wanted to fix a few things up on a few floors. So, both the AHC and Boynton sent proposals to the Provost. Thus, Provost saw both proposals at the same time and had the immediate thought these proposals should be combined.

This doesn’t work because Boynton is a special service, paid for by fees and insurance. Everything regarding Boynton is all paid up. Plus Boynton has a pharmacy and eye clinic to keep our costs down. It is very convenient, we don’t want it not to be convenient; we don’t want raise fees to pay for these changes.

After seeing all of this, the Provost recommended that there be student representation on all committees about the possibility of Boynton moving. Further, she is going to recommend that Boynton not move with the new building. It should be very clear that Boynton does not want to move and wants student representation for any move possibilities.

Finally, there are some changes happening at Boynton for next year: Boynton want electronic medical records and this could start as early as next summer. Also, Boynton is working to get appointment schedules online. The goal is to have real time sign in and same day appointments. They are working towards this.

COGS Note: Carrie Rigdeon was given an extra round of applause for her many year's work as an excellent COGS rep to SHAC. Thanks again, Carrie. We greatly appreciate all that you have done for COGS over past few years.

University Dining Services -- Shana Watters
UDS is planning on building first floor café in the commuter lounge in Coffman. UDS wants student input as what kind of food to serve. There is not going to be a grill, it would mostly be food to pick up and popcorn and such for movies. If you have any opinions, please share them with Shana, watters@cs.umn.edu.

P&R Council Meetings -- Various P&R Chairs
In general, there was not a lot to report from these meetings that was not covered by the report given last month. The big news is the changes that affect international students, again covered last month. The Social Sciences P&R Council also voted to offer three new PFF 1 credit courses.

GAPSA -- Chris Pappas
GAPSA held general elections at their meeting. As previously mentioned, Jamie Larson elected as SSCC representative, and Chris Pappas was appointed as a Director At-Large in charge of inter-council communication, revisions to the GAPSA constitution, managing the stadium issue, and try to work on Duluth representation. Chris Pappas also publicly expressed his opinions that the out going President and Vice Presidents of GAPSA were a disgrace to their organization, their positions, and to graduate and professional students who deserve strong leadership.

COGS Note: Neither the GAPSA President or Vice President were in attendance at the final GAPSA meeting when Chris made his comments. The President was there for a while, but had to leave early. See the MN Daily coverage of the GAPSA meeting for more information.

TAC -- Chris Pappas
The Tuition Advisory Committee mentioned that tuition going up about 14% for coming school year.

Senate -- COGS Senators
Senate elections occurred for the President of the Student Senate and other positions. Most positions were for committees that only affected undergraduates.

The Senate then spent time on the reorganization. There were several votes about the reorganization. The first vote was an “in theory” vote. This vote said whether or not the Senate was interested in the concept of reorganization. This vote passed. The second vote was whether or not to place the changes to the Senate on the ballet as a constitutional amendment. Because there was not enough attendance at the Senate to pass this vote, it was sent out as an email vote. This email vote passed and thus the full reorganization will appear as a constitutional change at the first Senate meeting next fall.

6:43 -- New Business and Announcements

The graduate assistant fringe rate is going down. This is good news for anyone on a graduate assistantship, as any decrease in this rate makes it cheaper for your department to have you around, thus this could translate into a pay raise or into the possibility of your department hiring more graduate assistants.

6:45 -- Meeting adjourned

COGS would like to thank for everyone for coming to the last meeting of the year. This was a very productive year, and the COGS Executive Committee couldn’t have done nearly as much as it did without the help of a strong and vocal General Assembly. Thank you to everyone for making COGS an effective organization. We look forward to seeing everyone again next fall!

As a final note, COGS will be active over the summer. So, if you have ideas or want to get involved, please let us know. Again, thanks for great year!