COGS - Council of Graduate Students

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

President’s Room; Coffman Memorial Union
5:15 PM, September 23, 2004

Minutes submitted by Andy Warta (Vice President of Finance) and
Isaac Kamola (Vice President for Communications).
Minutes approved by executive committee.

Quorum was met.

Elections

Britt Johnson (President): We have a straight forward agenda today; one point of note, there will be elections for the Engineering, Physical and Math Sciences P&R Chair and Parliamentarian.

P&R Chairs

What do P&R Chairs do?
They have a dual role: 1) chairs the Policy and Review Council which advises the Dean on degree program proposals, faculty, courses, tuition, residency requirements, and advisor/advisee responsibilities, and 2) creates and coordinates the P&R Committee.

There is one grad student per every three faculty member on the council. For this P&R Council there are ten student members plus the chair.

Time commitments:
There is one meeting where all members attend and one meeting where P&R chairs meet with the other P&R chairs. In addition the P&R chairs sit on the Exec committee and now receive a stipend of $300 per year.

Sarah: The biggest time commitment is attending meetings and making sure the members are there, so the commitment is not very large. Holding the position also looks good to your advisor, especially if they are the DGS for your department. You are involved in whether or not courses get added to the curriculum. Plus, it’s a lot of fun!

Questions:
Q: What kind of issues are addressed, do you make financial decisions?
Sarah: The dean is there to give you information on financial issues, but you don’t get to vote on them.
Britt: It’s a good way to get your voice heard.
Sarah: They really listen to what we have to say.
Keith: Clarification, we do vote on some things, in the past we’ve approved Master degree programs and other major things, but we don’t approve financial matters.

Election of P&R Chair:
One candidate, Dan Drake, a 5th year student in the Math department who has formerly sat on the P&R Council for one year, and been the P&R Chair for one year.

Congratulations Dan Drake on being elected the Engineering, Physical and Math Sciences P&R Chair!

Parliamentarian
Britt: We also need to elect a parliamentarian. The parliamentarian is an ex-officio member of the Executive Board meaning you will sit on the Exec Board but do not have a vote. The Parliamentarian should be very familiar with parliamentary procedure Robert’s Rules of Order. The only time we really use parliamentary procedure is during elections.

Election of Parliamentarian:
One candidate, Joao Pedro, a student in the Math department who has experience in other organizations, as a recording secretary, where parliamentary procedure was used.

Congratulations Joao Pedro on being elected Parliamentarian!

Updates
Shana Watters (Executive Vice President): We’ve talked, as an Exec Board, with Tom Sullivan, the Vice Provost of the University about many issues. Also, the Graduate School has agreed to start a Funding Website, and has a Graduate Assistant working on it. The goal of this is to have all employment and funding information in one place for students to find. We may need people from departments to give feedback on the website once it gets running to make sure we have all of the information people are looking for on the site. Helping out would only take a couple of hours and be a one time thing.

Q: Is there a database telling how many people are funded?
Shana: That would require a full time person to compile that information. At this time the Graduate School is not able to take the step to employ a full time person, though if the website work goes well, that could potentially happen.

Q: How does this differ from what’s already available about employment?
Shana: This will be a maintained site that will centralize information. People will know they can go to one place to get all the information they need.

Q: When I applied, I wasn’t able to find information on which projects were and were not funded, will this help with that?
Shana: That is not presently one of the things that will be on the site when it is available to students in December or January, but that would be a great comment and the type of feedback that we are looking for. We are trying to get all the information we can validated and get things started, but there will always be room for improvements such as that. In addition, there is a new site for undergrads, MyPortal that Vice Provost Billie Wahlstrom is behind, and they have expressed interest in making a graduate centered site as well.

Q: What about information like NSF fellowships?
Shana: Yes, that should be up there, as would be open TA positions. There are times when you are eligible to take a TA position in a department different from your own, but right now it is very difficult to get that information. This site should help with that.

Committees
CLA has a huge number of committees that they really would like people for, but you have to be a student in a CLA program to sit on these committees. If you can fit the committees into your schedule please help out. They understand if you have to miss a meeting or two during the semester. The website should have information about dates and times for the committees. In addition, there are many committees that are open to everyone. You can gain so much knowledge from sitting on these committees! If you are interested in sitting on a committee, e-mail cogs@umn.edu and we’ll get you set up.

Q: Do you have to be a COGS representative for your department to be a on a committee?
Shana: NO! Anyone can do it, and they really listen to you and really want your input.

Fees Committee
Britt: For the Fees Committee, students sit on two different committees:
1. Fees selector
2. Fees committee

For the selector committee, there are two students from GAPSA and two from MSA. These four people will choose seven people to be on the actual fees committee. The Fees Committee reads the budget of all Student Organizations requesting funds and listens to presentations from each group then chooses how much information each group gets. There are public hearings about the process as well. Every group requesting funds has to make a new request each year. If they have had funds in the previous year, they give a detailed budget of what they spent and how they spent it. Jerry Rinehart signs off on the decisions of the committee. He has the final say and can change their amounts, but he doesn’t like to do it and doesn’t do it often.

Q: Are there non-students on the fees committee?
Britt: There is an advisor, but there are no voting members who are not students.

Last year there was only one graduate or professional student on the committee, we need more people on it this year. Undergraduates do not understand graduate and professional students. Please consider applying to be on this committee

Q: Where are applications?
Britt: They are on the GAPSA webpage.

Remember, there must be two graduate/professional students on the selector committee. This isn’t a large time commitment, the Fees Committee works for about a month. If you can’t do it, get people in your department to do it, you don’t need to be a COGS rep!

Voting
Shana: The University wants all people who are able to vote to be able to do so in the upcoming election. If you want to get involved in the voter registration process, check the GAPSA website. If you can only give an hour, that would still be a huge help. Booths will be in the Coffman union 10AM – 2PM:
September 27 - October 1
October 4 - October 7
They need two people per hour. There are also classes that allow people to come in and talk about how you register to vote. If you’re from out of state, you can still vote here.

Q: What is the last day to register and still vote?
Shana: It is possible to register the day of the election at the polling site. If you register early, they can tell you where your voting place is.

There will be a voter registration concert in October, you’ll be hearing more about that.

Chris: There will also be debates between the two Minnesota Senators, as well as a debate between the Speaker of the House and the Minority Leader.

Q: Can you vote in Minnesota if you are a resident of another state?
Chris: Yes
Q: Does that change your residency?
Chris: No. If you’ve lived in Minnesota for 20 days and have a bill with your address on it, you can register to vote.

Committee Updates:
Institute of Technology Committee (Shana Watters):
The Institute of Technology is in the process of finding a new Dean; the current dean has agreed to stay until December 31st and the University is hoping they can find a new Dean by January.

They usually over budget thereby allowing them to put money back into departments. However, this year there were mistakes made in the budget meaning there exists a substantial deficit. They are currently discussing solutions to this problem.

Senate Committee on Education Policy (Chris Papas):
Chris added the University’s increase of student/TA ratio to the list of agenda items. However, this list is already quite long and it remains unclear when the committee can address this issue.

University Dining Service (Shana Watters):
This committee is relatively new, yet has already done lots of work to improve UDS service. They are planning a large expansion of services including hot entrees at the Law School, expanded services at Nolte etc.

GAPSA Board (Chris Papas):
GAPSA wants to remind everybody that there are a whole series of GAPSA grants available. Academic initiative grants fund large campus events including bringing speakers to campus, putting on programs etc. Social grants are designed to fund large social events for graduate and professional students. Small grants are aimed at building community and are used to fund small events held with five or more graduate and/or professional students. Travel grants can help fund travel to conferences or other academic forums. Check out the GAPSA website for application forms.

GradTRAC (Kris Houlton):
There have been some updates since the last time I updated COGS about the unionization drive last spring. Since then GradTRAC has affiliated with United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) which is a small, grassroots union. UE has successfully organized graduate employees at the University of Iowa as well as other professional workers around the country. GradTRAC-UE is of and for graduate students. UE is not AFL-CIO affiliated meaning that it only supports federal candidates if the members vote to do so. In addition, the union has a very moderate dues structure.

GradTRAC-UE has an office on the second floor of the UTEC Building (14th and 5th, in Dinkytown) and people can get more information by contacting gradtrac@gradtracue.org

There are a few steps needed before graduate employees can negotiate a contract with the University administration. First, those who want to join GradTRAC-UE need to fill out membership cards. Once a large majority of cards are filled out we will present them to the University administration. If the University fails to recognize us, we will submit them to the state Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS). An election will then be carried out in order to certify the union. After being certified, all members of the union will be able to elect a committee to negotiate a contract with the University administration.

Q: How long will the campaign be; months, years, decades?
Kris: Months.

Q: Will this be analogous to the failed 1999 campaign?
Kris: It is similar in terms of process (i.e. card drive, election, etc.). However, we are working with a different union this time meaning that the campaign is being run differently and, in many ways, we seem to have a much better chance now than we did in 1999.

Q: Do we have to pay dues?
Kris: Yes, all members pay dues. However, members of GradTRAC-UE determine their own dues. Also, unlike with some other unions, we do not pay dues until we have signed a contract. Since GradTRAC-UE would never negotiate a contract which would hurt graduate students, the dues would almost assuredly be covered by gains made in wages, healthcare etc. Also, if you are not being paid by the University (i.e. during the summer) you do not have to pay dues.

Q: What would happen to health insurance?
Kris: Health insurance would be negotiable. Right now we do not have this right meaning that the University can reduce our coverage and increase our premiums and co-pays without consulting us. This would not be the case if we had a union.

Q: Can you opt out of the union?
Kris: No. As a matter of Minnesota state law, everyone within the bargaining unit (i.e. all graduates employed by the University on the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth campuses) will be covered by the contract. However, you can choose to be a “fair-share member” and pay only an “agency fee,” or 85% of dues. In doing this you forfeit your vote but still receive the benefits of the negotiated contract.

Disclaimer about COGS’s stance on unionization (Britt Johnson):
COGS is a democratically run organization and currently does not hold a position on the union drive. However, COGS is a forum for graduate students to discuss issues pertinent to them. As a result, unionization will be an important issue discussed at COGS this year. We encourage those who support and those who oppose unionization to express their views at COGS. Furthermore, any graduate student can use the resolution process to have COGS take a stance on the union.

Resolutions must be emailed to cogs@umn.edu by the Monday before the week of the General Assembly meeting (i.e. ten days before the GA). These resolutions will be emailed to GA members who are encouraged to talk with their constituency. In addition, GA members are encouraged to discuss resolutions with each other prior to the meeting via email. The result of the resolution process will determine COGS’s official stance on unionization.

Gophers after dark (Britt Johnson):
There is all this neat stuff happening every Friday and Saturday, 10pm-2am at Coffman Union. They want to start attracting more graduate students.

Maranatha
Britt Johnson: Maranatha is a religious fundamentalist Christian organization which believes the homosexuality is a choice and a sin. The University would not recognize Maranatha as a student group because they required their members to sign a card of belief which violated the University’s anti-discrimination policy. Maranatha took the U. to court and, because of nation-wide precedence for Maranatha victories in similar suits, the U. settled. At a GAPSA meeting, Jerry Rinehart made it clear that the University does not feel that it is OK to have Maranatha recognized as a student group, but because the odds were so high that they would loose the University decided to settle out of court. As a result, Maranatha is allowed on campus; they do not get money from the University but are able to get space and have access.

Shana Watters: This is not Maranatha bashing, but there is a concern that this sets the precedent for other groups who can discriminate against people and still be a recognized group.

Chris Pappas: Jerry Rinehart ’s letter to the Daily best describes the University’s position.

COGS pizza parities (Britt Johnson):
They are continuing again this year. If you are interested in going to departments without COGS reps. and putting on a pizza party, please email: cogs@umn.edu

Counseling Services (Britt Johnson):
The counseling services offers many different helpful classes aimed at graduate students.


	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 President’s Room; Coffman Memorial Union 5:15 PM, September 23, 2004 Minutes submitted by Andy Warta (Vice President of Finance) and Isaac Kamola (Vice President for Communications). Minutes approved by executive committee. Quorum was met. Elections Britt Johnson (President): We have a straight forward agenda today; one point of note, there will be elections for the Engineering, Physical and Math Sciences P&R Chair and Parliamentarian. P&R Chairs What do P&R Chairs do? They have a dual role: 1) chairs the Policy and Review Council which advises the Dean on degree program proposals, faculty, courses, tuition, residency requirements, and advisor/advisee responsibilities, and 2) creates and coordinates the P&R Committee. There is one grad student per every three faculty member on the council. For this P&R Council there are ten student members plus the chair. Time commitments: There is one meeting where all members attend and one meeting where P&R chairs meet with the other P&R chairs. In addition the P&R chairs sit on the Exec committee and now receive a stipend of $300 per year. Sarah: The biggest time commitment is attending meetings and making sure the members are there, so the commitment is not very large. Holding the position also looks good to your advisor, especially if they are the DGS for your department. You are involved in whether or not courses get added to the curriculum. Plus, it’s a lot of fun! Questions: Q: What kind of issues are addressed, do you make financial decisions? Sarah: The dean is there to give you information on financial issues, but you don’t get to vote on them. Britt: It’s a good way to get your voice heard. Sarah: They really listen to what we have to say. Keith: Clarification, we do vote on some things, in the past we’ve approved Master degree programs and other major things, but we don’t approve financial matters. Election of P&R Chair: One candidate, Dan Drake, a 5th year student in the Math department who has formerly sat on the P&R Council for one year, and been the P&R Chair for one year. Congratulations Dan Drake on being elected the Engineering, Physical and Math Sciences P&R Chair! Parliamentarian Britt: We also need to elect a parliamentarian. The parliamentarian is an ex-officio member of the Executive Board meaning you will sit on the Exec Board but do not have a vote. The Parliamentarian should be very familiar with parliamentary procedure Robert’s Rules of Order. The only time we really use parliamentary procedure is during elections. Election of Parliamentarian: One candidate, Joao Pedro, a student in the Math department who has experience in other organizations, as a recording secretary, where parliamentary procedure was used. Congratulations Joao Pedro on being elected Parliamentarian! Updates Shana Watters (Executive Vice President): We’ve talked, as an Exec Board, with Tom Sullivan, the Vice Provost of the University about many issues. Also, the Graduate School has agreed to start a Funding Website, and has a Graduate Assistant working on it. The goal of this is to have all employment and funding information in one place for students to find. We may need people from departments to give feedback on the website once it gets running to make sure we have all of the information people are looking for on the site. Helping out would only take a couple of hours and be a one time thing. Q: Is there a database telling how many people are funded? Shana: That would require a full time person to compile that information. At this time the Graduate School is not able to take the step to employ a full time person, though if the website work goes well, that could potentially happen. Q: How does this differ from what’s already available about employment? Shana: This will be a maintained site that will centralize information. People will know they can go to one place to get all the information they need. Q: When I applied, I wasn’t able to find information on which projects were and were not funded, will this help with that? Shana: That is not presently one of the things that will be on the site when it is available to students in December or January, but that would be a great comment and the type of feedback that we are looking for. We are trying to get all the information we can validated and get things started, but there will always be room for improvements such as that. In addition, there is a new site for undergrads, MyPortal that Vice Provost Billie Wahlstrom is behind, and they have expressed interest in making a graduate centered site as well. Q: What about information like NSF fellowships? Shana: Yes, that should be up there, as would be open TA positions. There are times when you are eligible to take a TA position in a department different from your own, but right now it is very difficult to get that information. This site should help with that. Committees CLA has a huge number of committees that they really would like people for, but you have to be a student in a CLA program to sit on these committees. If you can fit the committees into your schedule please help out. They understand if you have to miss a meeting or two during the semester. The website should have information about dates and times for the committees. In addition, there are many committees that are open to everyone. You can gain so much knowledge from sitting on these committees! If you are interested in sitting on a committee, e-mail cogs@umn.edu and we’ll get you set up. Q: Do you have to be a COGS representative for your department to be a on a committee? Shana: NO! Anyone can do it, and they really listen to you and really want your input. Fees Committee Britt: For the Fees Committee, students sit on two different committees: 1. Fees selector 2. Fees committee For the selector committee, there are two students from GAPSA and two from MSA. These four people will choose seven people to be on the actual fees committee. The Fees Committee reads the budget of all Student Organizations requesting funds and listens to presentations from each group then chooses how much information each group gets. There are public hearings about the process as well. Every group requesting funds has to make a new request each year. If they have had funds in the previous year, they give a detailed budget of what they spent and how they spent it. Jerry Rinehart signs off on the decisions of the committee. He has the final say and can change their amounts, but he doesn’t like to do it and doesn’t do it often. Q: Are there non-students on the fees committee? Britt: There is an advisor, but there are no voting members who are not students. Last year there was only one graduate or professional student on the committee, we need more people on it this year. Undergraduates do not understand graduate and professional students. Please consider applying to be on this committee Q: Where are applications? Britt: They are on the GAPSA webpage. Remember, there must be two graduate/professional students on the selector committee. This isn’t a large time commitment, the Fees Committee works for about a month. If you can’t do it, get people in your department to do it, you don’t need to be a COGS rep! Voting Shana: The University wants all people who are able to vote to be able to do so in the upcoming election. If you want to get involved in the voter registration process, check the GAPSA website. If you can only give an hour, that would still be a huge help. Booths will be in the Coffman union 10AM – 2PM: September 27 - October 1 October 4 - October 7 They need two people per hour. There are also classes that allow people to come in and talk about how you register to vote. If you’re from out of state, you can still vote here. Q: What is the last day to register and still vote? Shana: It is possible to register the day of the election at the polling site. If you register early, they can tell you where your voting place is. There will be a voter registration concert in October, you’ll be hearing more about that. Chris: There will also be debates between the two Minnesota Senators, as well as a debate between the Speaker of the House and the Minority Leader. Q: Can you vote in Minnesota if you are a resident of another state? Chris: Yes Q: Does that change your residency? Chris: No. If you’ve lived in Minnesota for 20 days and have a bill with your address on it, you can register to vote. Committee Updates: Institute of Technology Committee (Shana Watters): The Institute of Technology is in the process of finding a new Dean; the current dean has agreed to stay until December 31st and the University is hoping they can find a new Dean by January. They usually over budget thereby allowing them to put money back into departments. However, this year there were mistakes made in the budget meaning there exists a substantial deficit. They are currently discussing solutions to this problem. Senate Committee on Education Policy (Chris Papas): Chris added the University’s increase of student/TA ratio to the list of agenda items. However, this list is already quite long and it remains unclear when the committee can address this issue. University Dining Service (Shana Watters): This committee is relatively new, yet has already done lots of work to improve UDS service. They are planning a large expansion of services including hot entrees at the Law School, expanded services at Nolte etc. GAPSA Board (Chris Papas): GAPSA wants to remind everybody that there are a whole series of GAPSA grants available. Academic initiative grants fund large campus events including bringing speakers to campus, putting on programs etc. Social grants are designed to fund large social events for graduate and professional students. Small grants are aimed at building community and are used to fund small events held with five or more graduate and/or professional students. Travel grants can help fund travel to conferences or other academic forums. Check out the GAPSA website for application forms. GradTRAC (Kris Houlton): There have been some updates since the last time I updated COGS about the unionization drive last spring. Since then GradTRAC has affiliated with United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) which is a small, grassroots union. UE has successfully organized graduate employees at the University of Iowa as well as other professional workers around the country. GradTRAC-UE is of and for graduate students. UE is not AFL-CIO affiliated meaning that it only supports federal candidates if the members vote to do so. In addition, the union has a very moderate dues structure. GradTRAC-UE has an office on the second floor of the UTEC Building (14th and 5th, in Dinkytown) and people can get more information by contacting gradtrac@gradtracue.org There are a few steps needed before graduate employees can negotiate a contract with the University administration. First, those who want to join GradTRAC-UE need to fill out membership cards. Once a large majority of cards are filled out we will present them to the University administration. If the University fails to recognize us, we will submit them to the state Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS). An election will then be carried out in order to certify the union. After being certified, all members of the union will be able to elect a committee to negotiate a contract with the University administration. Q: How long will the campaign be; months, years, decades? Kris: Months. Q: Will this be analogous to the failed 1999 campaign? Kris: It is similar in terms of process (i.e. card drive, election, etc.). However, we are working with a different union this time meaning that the campaign is being run differently and, in many ways, we seem to have a much better chance now than we did in 1999. Q: Do we have to pay dues? Kris: Yes, all members pay dues. However, members of GradTRAC-UE determine their own dues. Also, unlike with some other unions, we do not pay dues until we have signed a contract. Since GradTRAC-UE would never negotiate a contract which would hurt graduate students, the dues would almost assuredly be covered by gains made in wages, healthcare etc. Also, if you are not being paid by the University (i.e. during the summer) you do not have to pay dues. Q: What would happen to health insurance? Kris: Health insurance would be negotiable. Right now we do not have this right meaning that the University can reduce our coverage and increase our premiums and co-pays without consulting us. This would not be the case if we had a union. Q: Can you opt out of the union? Kris: No. As a matter of Minnesota state law, everyone within the bargaining unit (i.e. all graduates employed by the University on the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth campuses) will be covered by the contract. However, you can choose to be a “fair-share member” and pay only an “agency fee,” or 85% of dues. In doing this you forfeit your vote but still receive the benefits of the negotiated contract. Disclaimer about COGS’s stance on unionization (Britt Johnson): COGS is a democratically run organization and currently does not hold a position on the union drive. However, COGS is a forum for graduate students to discuss issues pertinent to them. As a result, unionization will be an important issue discussed at COGS this year. We encourage those who support and those who oppose unionization to express their views at COGS. Furthermore, any graduate student can use the resolution process to have COGS take a stance on the union. Resolutions must be emailed to cogs@umn.edu by the Monday before the week of the General Assembly meeting (i.e. ten days before the GA). These resolutions will be emailed to GA members who are encouraged to talk with their constituency. In addition, GA members are encouraged to discuss resolutions with each other prior to the meeting via email. The result of the resolution process will determine COGS’s official stance on unionization. Gophers after dark (Britt Johnson): There is all this neat stuff happening every Friday and Saturday, 10pm-2am at Coffman Union. They want to start attracting more graduate students. Maranatha Britt Johnson: Maranatha is a religious fundamentalist Christian organization which believes the homosexuality is a choice and a sin. The University would not recognize Maranatha as a student group because they required their members to sign a card of belief which violated the University’s anti-discrimination policy. Maranatha took the U. to court and, because of nation-wide precedence for Maranatha victories in similar suits, the U. settled. At a GAPSA meeting, Jerry Rinehart made it clear that the University does not feel that it is OK to have Maranatha recognized as a student group, but because the odds were so high that they would loose the University decided to settle out of court. As a result, Maranatha is allowed on campus; they do not get money from the University but are able to get space and have access. Shana Watters: This is not Maranatha bashing, but there is a concern that this sets the precedent for other groups who can discriminate against people and still be a recognized group. Chris Pappas: Jerry Rinehart ’s letter to the Daily best describes the University’s position. COGS pizza parities (Britt Johnson): They are continuing again this year. If you are interested in going to departments without COGS reps. and putting on a pizza party, please email: cogs@umn.edu Counseling Services (Britt Johnson): The counseling services offers many different helpful classes aimed at graduate students.