COGS - Council of Graduate Students

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

Mississippi Room, Coffman Memorial Union
Thursday, January 27, 2005

Minutes submitted by Isaac Kamola (Vice President for Communications).
Minutes approved by executive committee.

5:00pm Food Served

Welcome & Call to Order
Quorum was met.
At 5:15pm the General Assembly Meeting of the Council of Graduate Students was called to order by President Britt Johnson.

Policy and Review Council Recruitment (Sarah Kempner)
P&R councils are composed of graduate students, deans, and DGSs, to review policies, open and close programs, add and subtract classes, etc. There are six councils and each council has a chair. The councils meet once during spring semester. Lately P&R councils have been involved in working on the PhD completion project and will become increasingly important as the councils begin discussing department closings.

Sarah introduced the P&R chairs, announced the number of members needed to fill up the committees. The meeting then broke into groups by councils and recruited the necessary members to fill the committees.

Financing Graduate Student Task Force (Dean Vic Bloomfield)
The Provost set up a task force in early August and demanded a report by early September outlining a plan for funding graduate education. The committee finished the draft by September 13th. The taskforce was comprised of a diverse number of faculty and administrators from all over the University.

The report concluded that the funding of graduate education is in trouble. RAs tend to get good wages but the increasing fringe rate (the amount paid by the department to the University to cover tuition, healthcare premium, etc.) is hurting University’s ability to compete for grants. TAs often have it much worse. The central administration has effectively “taxed” the college through the fringe rate forcing the Deans to pay lots of money for each TA they hire. Those on fellowship are also hurting; the fringe rate went up but the pot of money for fellowships did not increase meaning that the number of fellowships decreased by one-third.

The taskforce did some research (see Appendix of the report) and found that the University is not an outlier in terms of how much they absorb from the grants through the fringe rate. However, the average salaries are near the bottom (28 out of 30) which is the same ranking the faculty is at.

The taskforce suggested some recommendations:
1) Ask the legislature for a new chunk of fellowship money which would be matched by fundraising to create an endowment which would provide a stable $5 million a year.
2) Undertake a major fundraising campaign, ask the state for increased money for the biosciences, and look for greater efficiency.
3) Use the “compact process” to adjust the funding to graduate education in light of educational need and institutional capability.
4) “Right size” graduate programs so that the department size are determined by demand, not by need. This would mean that Teaching Specialists (TSs) would teach some classes which graduate students are not needed to teach. For example, the need for Spanish teachers is greater than the demand for Spanish graduate students. Currently TSs already teach undergrad Spanish classes. This shields graduate students from teaching the same repetitive classes over and over again. It also saves the department money on the fringe rate.
5) Significantly increase the time to degree rates. Nationally there is only a 50% completion of degrees. This costs the students money and time and it also costs the departments. If you cut off a year of degree time you can save about $25,000. Some graduate students are taking a long time to degrees because they are working too long, studying for prelims, and advisors not paying sufficient attention to ABDs. It is important to tighten up the process. We are currently working with the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate.
6) Close small and low quality programs which will lead to increased choice and efficiency. This recommendation is making people nervous but it should not. The University administration believes that small graduate programs are not good education conditions. We are currently looking at forty programs which do not meet our numerical criteria. We have heard back from the DGSs of these departments and many have made strong arguments for why their departments should not be merged. But merging often leads to tightening the ship and energizing the faculty who end up having more students in their seminars.

Q: Where can we find out what programs are being considered for elimination or merger?
A: Initially this conversation is between me and the DGSs. These initial conversations should be off the record. If it goes further, this will be public through the P&R councils as well as the Dean, Provost, and Regents who all have to agree to it.

Q: Has there been any review of departments that have been already merged? For example, Fisheries has been merged into Conservation Biology and there are many who think this was not a good move.
A: There should be a review every two years and a more formal review in five years. We have heard the Conservation Biology is a big and strong program.

Q: Will the closing of admissions be used to close these small departments like was done with occupational therapy.
A: The closing of OT was not handled very well. However, if we are thinking about closing programs, I do not think we should accept new people. If we are thinking of closing these programs it’s a good idea to suspend admission.

Q: Are the other task force suggestions (i.e. replacing TAs with TSs) currently being reviewed.
A: The Regents are asking why there are so many graduate programs—they come from a business world and want institutional efficiency. But TSs have been very useful in departments like Spanish. However, its important to remember that there is no one size fits all strategy. We also have a lot of data on class size, efficiency, etc. which we are not using; we could be more data driven.

Q: When graduate programs agree not to admit people are they required to tell the graduate school so students know that the closure is taking place? Is there an official channel for making the departmental closings public?
A: Yes. The graduate school needs to be informed.
Q: But a program's health can be seriously compromised by suspending admission for a year while the program is under review. A small department cannot withstand one year of no admissions.
A: A one year gap should be OK.

Q: Isn’t the fringe rate really an accounting trick? Money is simply being moved from one part of the university to another.
A: This is mostly true for TAships. However, for RAships most of the funding comes from outside grants. The central administration basically taxes this revenue. There has been some talk about subsidizing tuition. However, money from grants is used to pay for buildings, faculty salaries, as well as graduate salaries. If graduate tuition was lower the University would be missing out on this large amount of revenue. Furthermore, their would probably be a public outcry if graduates were given a full tuition waiver and the state had to pick up the tab for what is currently paid for by the NSF and other grants.

Election
The next order of business was election for the position of Internal Relation. Britt Johnson gave a brief description of the time commitment and job description. The floor was opened for nominations. Tatiana Abatemarco was nominated. There were no other nominations. She was unanimously voted into office.

Resolution Regarding Closing Due to Budgetary Constraints (Jamie Larson)
This resolution as passed at GAPSA on Wednesday, January 26th and at the MSA senate. In light of the fact that the Occupational Therapy program was closed without any notice or discussion with the graduate students in the program, this resolution argues that the University should be transparent when considering which departments are going to be closed.

Rep. from OT: On behalf of Occupational Therapy we want to thank you for taking this stand.

There was some discussion about adding an amendment establishing a committee to enforce the demands of the resolution. Some argued that it would be more powerful to pass a resolution identical to the one passed in GAPSA and MSA. It was agreed that this amendment was not necessary but that Jamie Larson and Sarah Kempner would spearhead a committee to talk with the Administration about the issue.

The resolution was voted on and passed 35-0.

Committee Reports
GAPSA (Chris Pappas)
GAPSA: 1) passed the resolution on departmental closings; 2) talked with Vic Bloomfield about the Task Force on Funding Graduate Education Report; and 3) discussed the Relay for Life.

Senate (Kris Houlton)
The Senate: 1) passed a resolution concerning student release sessions; 2) passed another resolution asking One Stop to post student release sessions on the website; and 3) the Mt. Graham divestment resolution was not voted on but remains on the table.

Funding Website (Britt Johnson)
The funding website for graudate students is being finalized by the Graduate School, but is not available yet. It will be soon. Stay tuned.

One Stop (Sean McNee)
One Stop now has a new format. It has 20% more links! Love it or hate it send an email to COGS who will bring the issue to the One Stop committee meeting in two weeks.

Lobby Day (Isaac Kamola)
Feb 16th [now rescheduled for Feb 23rd] will be lobby day at the legislature. This is very important because many important funding issues are on the table. Please go to the Legislative Network webpage: send an email to your legislater, sign up for the Legislative Network to recieve regular updates, and sign up to attend lobby day (pre-registration important but not necessary). On Feburary 23rd buses will leaving Coffman every half hour to bring people to the capital all day long. Also, please take postcards back to your department and have people fill them out and send them. Also, write letters to your representatives—hand written letters are particularly powerful (find who your rep. is here).

Leadership and Travel Awards (Andy Warta)
Applications for COGS Awards are due on March 24th. You can find applications on the website.

Higher Education Affordability Act (Andy Warta)
National Association of Graduate-Professional Students is having a lobby day on February 17th and 18th to talk to legislatures to co-sponsor a bill which would make graduate student wages tax exempt. COGS voted to use money to send one representative to this lobby day. For more info contact Andy Warta.


	Home About COGS Current Issues Meetings Publications Getting Involved Representatives The Endowment Resources and FAQs Contact COGS		Minutes General Assembly of the Council of Graduate Students University of Minnesota Mississippi Room, Coffman Memorial Union Thursday, January 27, 2005 Minutes submitted by Isaac Kamola (Vice President for Communications). Minutes approved by executive committee. 5:00pm Food Served Welcome & Call to Order Quorum was met. At 5:15pm the General Assembly Meeting of the Council of Graduate Students was called to order by President Britt Johnson. Policy and Review Council Recruitment (Sarah Kempner) P&R councils are composed of graduate students, deans, and DGSs, to review policies, open and close programs, add and subtract classes, etc. There are six councils and each council has a chair. The councils meet once during spring semester. Lately P&R councils have been involved in working on the PhD completion project and will become increasingly important as the councils begin discussing department closings. Sarah introduced the P&R chairs, announced the number of members needed to fill up the committees. The meeting then broke into groups by councils and recruited the necessary members to fill the committees. Financing Graduate Student Task Force (Dean Vic Bloomfield) The Provost set up a task force in early August and demanded a report by early September outlining a plan for funding graduate education. The committee finished the draft by September 13th. The taskforce was comprised of a diverse number of faculty and administrators from all over the University. The report concluded that the funding of graduate education is in trouble. RAs tend to get good wages but the increasing fringe rate (the amount paid by the department to the University to cover tuition, healthcare premium, etc.) is hurting University’s ability to compete for grants. TAs often have it much worse. The central administration has effectively “taxed” the college through the fringe rate forcing the Deans to pay lots of money for each TA they hire. Those on fellowship are also hurting; the fringe rate went up but the pot of money for fellowships did not increase meaning that the number of fellowships decreased by one-third. The taskforce did some research (see Appendix of the report) and found that the University is not an outlier in terms of how much they absorb from the grants through the fringe rate. However, the average salaries are near the bottom (28 out of 30) which is the same ranking the faculty is at. The taskforce suggested some recommendations: 1) Ask the legislature for a new chunk of fellowship money which would be matched by fundraising to create an endowment which would provide a stable $5 million a year. 2) Undertake a major fundraising campaign, ask the state for increased money for the biosciences, and look for greater efficiency. 3) Use the “compact process” to adjust the funding to graduate education in light of educational need and institutional capability. 4) “Right size” graduate programs so that the department size are determined by demand, not by need. This would mean that Teaching Specialists (TSs) would teach some classes which graduate students are not needed to teach. For example, the need for Spanish teachers is greater than the demand for Spanish graduate students. Currently TSs already teach undergrad Spanish classes. This shields graduate students from teaching the same repetitive classes over and over again. It also saves the department money on the fringe rate. 5) Significantly increase the time to degree rates. Nationally there is only a 50% completion of degrees. This costs the students money and time and it also costs the departments. If you cut off a year of degree time you can save about $25,000. Some graduate students are taking a long time to degrees because they are working too long, studying for prelims, and advisors not paying sufficient attention to ABDs. It is important to tighten up the process. We are currently working with the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. 6) Close small and low quality programs which will lead to increased choice and efficiency. This recommendation is making people nervous but it should not. The University administration believes that small graduate programs are not good education conditions. We are currently looking at forty programs which do not meet our numerical criteria. We have heard back from the DGSs of these departments and many have made strong arguments for why their departments should not be merged. But merging often leads to tightening the ship and energizing the faculty who end up having more students in their seminars. Q: Where can we find out what programs are being considered for elimination or merger? A: Initially this conversation is between me and the DGSs. These initial conversations should be off the record. If it goes further, this will be public through the P&R councils as well as the Dean, Provost, and Regents who all have to agree to it. Q: Has there been any review of departments that have been already merged? For example, Fisheries has been merged into Conservation Biology and there are many who think this was not a good move. A: There should be a review every two years and a more formal review in five years. We have heard the Conservation Biology is a big and strong program. Q: Will the closing of admissions be used to close these small departments like was done with occupational therapy. A: The closing of OT was not handled very well. However, if we are thinking about closing programs, I do not think we should accept new people. If we are thinking of closing these programs it’s a good idea to suspend admission. Q: Are the other task force suggestions (i.e. replacing TAs with TSs) currently being reviewed. A: The Regents are asking why there are so many graduate programs—they come from a business world and want institutional efficiency. But TSs have been very useful in departments like Spanish. However, its important to remember that there is no one size fits all strategy. We also have a lot of data on class size, efficiency, etc. which we are not using; we could be more data driven. Q: When graduate programs agree not to admit people are they required to tell the graduate school so students know that the closure is taking place? Is there an official channel for making the departmental closings public? A: Yes. The graduate school needs to be informed. Q: But a program's health can be seriously compromised by suspending admission for a year while the program is under review. A small department cannot withstand one year of no admissions. A: A one year gap should be OK. Q: Isn’t the fringe rate really an accounting trick? Money is simply being moved from one part of the university to another. A: This is mostly true for TAships. However, for RAships most of the funding comes from outside grants. The central administration basically taxes this revenue. There has been some talk about subsidizing tuition. However, money from grants is used to pay for buildings, faculty salaries, as well as graduate salaries. If graduate tuition was lower the University would be missing out on this large amount of revenue. Furthermore, their would probably be a public outcry if graduates were given a full tuition waiver and the state had to pick up the tab for what is currently paid for by the NSF and other grants. Election The next order of business was election for the position of Internal Relation. Britt Johnson gave a brief description of the time commitment and job description. The floor was opened for nominations. Tatiana Abatemarco was nominated. There were no other nominations. She was unanimously voted into office. Resolution Regarding Closing Due to Budgetary Constraints (Jamie Larson) This resolution as passed at GAPSA on Wednesday, January 26th and at the MSA senate. In light of the fact that the Occupational Therapy program was closed without any notice or discussion with the graduate students in the program, this resolution argues that the University should be transparent when considering which departments are going to be closed. Rep. from OT: On behalf of Occupational Therapy we want to thank you for taking this stand. There was some discussion about adding an amendment establishing a committee to enforce the demands of the resolution. Some argued that it would be more powerful to pass a resolution identical to the one passed in GAPSA and MSA. It was agreed that this amendment was not necessary but that Jamie Larson and Sarah Kempner would spearhead a committee to talk with the Administration about the issue. The resolution was voted on and passed 35-0. Committee Reports GAPSA (Chris Pappas) GAPSA: 1) passed the resolution on departmental closings; 2) talked with Vic Bloomfield about the Task Force on Funding Graduate Education Report; and 3) discussed the Relay for Life. Senate (Kris Houlton) The Senate: 1) passed a resolution concerning student release sessions; 2) passed another resolution asking One Stop to post student release sessions on the website; and 3) the Mt. Graham divestment resolution was not voted on but remains on the table. Funding Website (Britt Johnson) The funding website for graudate students is being finalized by the Graduate School, but is not available yet. It will be soon. Stay tuned. One Stop (Sean McNee) One Stop now has a new format. It has 20% more links! Love it or hate it send an email to COGS who will bring the issue to the One Stop committee meeting in two weeks. Lobby Day (Isaac Kamola) Feb 16th [now rescheduled for Feb 23rd] will be lobby day at the legislature. This is very important because many important funding issues are on the table. Please go to the Legislative Network webpage: send an email to your legislater, sign up for the Legislative Network to recieve regular updates, and sign up to attend lobby day (pre-registration important but not necessary). On Feburary 23rd buses will leaving Coffman every half hour to bring people to the capital all day long. Also, please take postcards back to your department and have people fill them out and send them. Also, write letters to your representatives—hand written letters are particularly powerful (find who your rep. is here). Leadership and Travel Awards (Andy Warta) Applications for COGS Awards are due on March 24th. You can find applications on the website. Higher Education Affordability Act (Andy Warta) National Association of Graduate-Professional Students is having a lobby day on February 17th and 18th to talk to legislatures to co-sponsor a bill which would make graduate student wages tax exempt. COGS voted to use money to send one representative to this lobby day. For more info contact Andy Warta.