COGS - Council of Graduate Students

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

Mississippi Room, Coffman Memorial Union
5:15 PM, October 28th, 2004

Minutes submitted by Sue Davern (COGS Administrator) and
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. She thanked
Elizabeth Oliva for providing the food for the evening and introduced
the Administrative Assistant Sue Davern.

Elections
The next order of business was elections. The President announced the
need to fill the positions of Vice President of External Communication, P&R Chair for the Social Sciences, and a number of Senate Alternate positions. The Parliamentarian Joao Pedro P Boavida gave a general outline about the procedures to be followed to fill mid-term positions. Britt Johnson gave a brief description of the time commitment and job descriptions. The floor was opened for nominations.

The following positions were filled by:
Vice President of External Relations: Aeleah Soine, History
P&R Chair, Social Sciences: Chris Pappas, Sociology
Senate Alternates:
Aaron Rapport, Political Science
Raj Reddy, Geography
Yasmine Konheim, Educational Psychology
Laurie Stone, Plant Biology
Meghan Warren, Epidemiology

All the nominees were unanimously voted into office.

The Council of Graduate Students is grateful to all the people
accepting these positions and the people already representing graduate students and their needs at the University.

Occupational Therapy
A plea was made from the Occupational Therapy Program for COGS's help. This program has received a decree from the Administration to suspend admissions. It is an administrative decision and they have no clear way to fight this decision.

Q: How many faculty does OT have?

A: 6.75. Two of which are tenures.

Q: Is OT being cut because of budgetary constraints, or because it is outside the mandate of the Medical School?

A: We have not gotten a strait answer on this. The Med. School would only stand to cut $2 million, but because most of us pay tuition, it means a savings of around $200,000 when you subtract the lost tuition revenue. Others in the administration say it is because OT falls outside the mandate. We've basically asked for a formal document asking why the department is being closed but have not received any.

Q: Under what authority can the University revoke administration?

A: Special administrative authority. This shows how vulnerable we are. In order to formally close the department they need to go before a formal committee review. But this is not formal--they are simply revoking letters of acceptance and refusing applications. This effectively shuts down the program without eliminating it officially.

Q: Who should we send letters to telling them to preserve OT?

A: Please send letters to President Bruininks and Board of Regents Chair David Metzen.

Britt Johnson (President):
What can we do? This is a bit tricky because OT is in the Medical School and not technically in the Graduate School. However, COGS has the mandate to represent all Ph.D. and Masters students at the University.

There is a couple of routes we can take as an organization. We could bring this up at the Policy and Review Council--however, because the Administration is unofficially closing the department, this might not be that effective. We could bring it up at Senate--but this might be a problem because they've been canceling Senate meetings this year. We could bring it up to the Deans of the Graduate School. And we can pass a resolution at the Nov. 18th meeting (need to be submitted by Nov. 8th).

Policy and Review Councils:

Task Force on Financing Graduate Education (Meghan Warren):
There is a working document discussed in the Policy and Review council concerning how to find ways to increase Ph.D. completion. Three department at the UMN have applied to participate in the project. More information can be found on their webpage.

GAPSA (Chris Pappas):
The stadium is becoming a major issues. There are many Daily articles that are pro-stadium. If we want to fight against using student fees to fund a stadium, we need to start writing letters against it.

GAPSA drafted a new constitution.

There will be reports coming out soon about the funding of higher education. We'll email copies to everyone before next meeting and it would be good to come having read the report and ready to discuss it.

OneStop Student Advisory Committee (Sean McNee):
If there are any concerns about OneStop, email COGS and I will take it up with them.

IT Library Committee (Shana Watters):
If you have any journals you would like to see the University either subscribe to or save from the cuts to library budgets, please contact COGS.

GradTRAC

Kris Houlton: Since the last meeting we have started our card drive to build the membership. Things are going very well and we have many cards already. If you would like to join, want more information, or have any questions, please visit contact GradTRAC.

Britt Johnson: It is important to remember that COGS and GradTRAC are two different organizations. COGS represents all graduate students (employees and non-employees) and addresses primarily academic concerns. GradTRAC would only represent graduate employees at the University and would be primarily concerned with negotiating a contract with the University--something COGS has no authority to do.

The meeting was adjourned.


	Home About COGS Current Issues Meetings Publications Resolutions COGS Awards 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 5:15 PM, October 28th, 2004 Minutes submitted by Sue Davern (COGS Administrator) and 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. She thanked Elizabeth Oliva for providing the food for the evening and introduced the Administrative Assistant Sue Davern. Elections The next order of business was elections. The President announced the need to fill the positions of Vice President of External Communication, P&R Chair for the Social Sciences, and a number of Senate Alternate positions. The Parliamentarian Joao Pedro P Boavida gave a general outline about the procedures to be followed to fill mid-term positions. Britt Johnson gave a brief description of the time commitment and job descriptions. The floor was opened for nominations. The following positions were filled by: Vice President of External Relations: Aeleah Soine, History P&R Chair, Social Sciences: Chris Pappas, Sociology Senate Alternates: Aaron Rapport, Political Science Raj Reddy, Geography Yasmine Konheim, Educational Psychology Laurie Stone, Plant Biology Meghan Warren, Epidemiology All the nominees were unanimously voted into office. The Council of Graduate Students is grateful to all the people accepting these positions and the people already representing graduate students and their needs at the University. Occupational Therapy A plea was made from the Occupational Therapy Program for COGS's help. This program has received a decree from the Administration to suspend admissions. It is an administrative decision and they have no clear way to fight this decision. Q: How many faculty does OT have? A: 6.75. Two of which are tenures. Q: Is OT being cut because of budgetary constraints, or because it is outside the mandate of the Medical School? A: We have not gotten a strait answer on this. The Med. School would only stand to cut $2 million, but because most of us pay tuition, it means a savings of around $200,000 when you subtract the lost tuition revenue. Others in the administration say it is because OT falls outside the mandate. We've basically asked for a formal document asking why the department is being closed but have not received any. Q: Under what authority can the University revoke administration? A: Special administrative authority. This shows how vulnerable we are. In order to formally close the department they need to go before a formal committee review. But this is not formal--they are simply revoking letters of acceptance and refusing applications. This effectively shuts down the program without eliminating it officially. Q: Who should we send letters to telling them to preserve OT? A: Please send letters to President Bruininks and Board of Regents Chair David Metzen. Britt Johnson (President): What can we do? This is a bit tricky because OT is in the Medical School and not technically in the Graduate School. However, COGS has the mandate to represent all Ph.D. and Masters students at the University. There is a couple of routes we can take as an organization. We could bring this up at the Policy and Review Council--however, because the Administration is unofficially closing the department, this might not be that effective. We could bring it up at Senate--but this might be a problem because they've been canceling Senate meetings this year. We could bring it up to the Deans of the Graduate School. And we can pass a resolution at the Nov. 18th meeting (need to be submitted by Nov. 8th). Policy and Review Councils: Task Force on Financing Graduate Education (Meghan Warren): There is a working document discussed in the Policy and Review council concerning how to find ways to increase Ph.D. completion. Three department at the UMN have applied to participate in the project. More information can be found on their webpage. GAPSA (Chris Pappas): The stadium is becoming a major issues. There are many Daily articles that are pro-stadium. If we want to fight against using student fees to fund a stadium, we need to start writing letters against it. GAPSA drafted a new constitution. There will be reports coming out soon about the funding of higher education. We'll email copies to everyone before next meeting and it would be good to come having read the report and ready to discuss it. OneStop Student Advisory Committee (Sean McNee): If there are any concerns about OneStop, email COGS and I will take it up with them. IT Library Committee (Shana Watters): If you have any journals you would like to see the University either subscribe to or save from the cuts to library budgets, please contact COGS. GradTRAC Kris Houlton: Since the last meeting we have started our card drive to build the membership. Things are going very well and we have many cards already. If you would like to join, want more information, or have any questions, please visit contact GradTRAC. Britt Johnson: It is important to remember that COGS and GradTRAC are two different organizations. COGS represents all graduate students (employees and non-employees) and addresses primarily academic concerns. GradTRAC would only represent graduate employees at the University and would be primarily concerned with negotiating a contract with the University--something COGS has no authority to do. The meeting was adjourned.