GSA Reps Minutes 6-17-08

Minutes from the GSA Reps meeting on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 6pm in the Grad Lounge.

6pm, Grad Lounge

Reps present: Michael Dirk (Music), Michael Liga (CEVE), Garret Merriam (Phil), Bridget Franklin (Math), Emily Burdett (BIOE), Jorge Fallas (Chem), David Fortunato (Poli)

Officers present: Nikhil Gheewala (Sect), Kristjan Stone (Parl), Alison Harris (Hist), Abhilash Krishna (Treas)

Others present: Kelsey Rosbach (BIOE), Renee Chandler (HIST, GSA summer Hist.), Sean Walsh (Chem, Valhalla)

1. New rep introduction: David Fortunato for Political Science - not a new face since he's been attending meetings as a Valhalla manager

2. BIOE GSA Charity Casino Night Announcement
This event will be this Friday, 6/20 - anyone may buy tickets from BIOE GSA officers or at Valhalla. $10, or $15 at the door on Friday.
About 100 tickets have been sold
Michael Dirk took ~50 to sell to RGA residents

3. Summer Historian Report (provided by Renee Chandler)

Summer Historian Report

Submitted by Laura Renee Chandler

June 17, 2008

Preliminary Stages: Reading, conducting interviews, figuring out what is out there. Reading until ~July 1.

Interviews: John Boles, Melissa Kean, Lee Pecht, Bob Patten, Christopher Stokes, Carl McDowell, Graham Glass. Other suggestions?

Sources

Thresher

Graduate Student News

Rice News

Bob Patten Papers

Presidents’ files (Houston, Pitzer, Hackerman, Rupp, Gillis)

GSA Records

Research and Graduate Studies Records

Report on the Graduate House

Leads/Patterns

-What did graduate student life on campus look like before GSA?

-1968-9: presidential search, Masterson incident, GSA founded, GSA of Rice University approved April 1969.

-April 1971-Graduate student apartment building first mentioned in By-Laws

-Battle for new Graduate house in the late 1980s-1990s

-Valhalla, anniversary celebrations of its opening, work days(?)

-“1986 The Valhalla Saga,” discussions about worker’s compensation in Valhalla

-Traditions/Committees (Beer-Bike, Graduate Student Colloquium, Presidential Search Committee, Thanksgiving Dinner, Library Committee, Fall/Spring Picnic, Loan Closet, Book Co-op)

-1990s-Health insurance for grad students

Questions: How do you envision the final product? ~35 pages (mostly text, combination of text and photographs?)

Deadline: End of August? Orientation Week?

What do I need? Can we send out a request through an alumni network for photographs and possible interviewees? Pictures of old Grad House, pictures of the founders?

4. Proposed Grant Bylaws
See approved bylaws at end of document.

Funding by reimbursement only?
The Council agreed that this is not feasible for large costs, proposed bylaws amended to indicate that other arrangements may be requested prior to grant approval.

What about funding for summer events?
We don't have any requests this year, but that doesn't mean we won't get any next year.
The Council consensus is to allow for grant requests to be approved in May

Also, to align the 'semesters' with the GSA's financial year, and make them even, they are now June-Nov (fall), Dec-May (spring). Note, since these bylaws limit a semester's grant money on the basis of when the grant is approved, an event approved in May will count towards the spring grant budget even if the money will be spent in 'fall' months such as June and July.

Based on the last few years' grant requests, the GSA will not be able to fund all proposals for either the Enrichment Grant or Graduate Student Activity Grant.
There is not yet a process to obtain Community Service funding - other than contacting the GSA Community Service Chair.

For approving the proposed bylaws with the stated changes: 7
Against: 0
Woo-hoo, we have new a Bylaws Article B-5!

5. New GSA Website
The new website is up and running - basic functions are completed. Extra content is being added every few days. Hooray to Nastassja (Int VP) for this accomplishment.
Nikhil has created an online version of the GSA Yellow Pages' Consumer Guide, but it needs many more entries to be useful. The plan is to compensate students 25cents/entry for submissions. This will be starting in the next couple of weeks.

Meeting Adjourned

Approved Bylaws:

ARTICLE B-5: Grant Committee and Funding for Graduate Student Programming

Section 1. Purpose

In order to support its continuing efforts to enhance the graduate student experience, the Association will provide funding for specified graduate student programming activities. All grant proposals should strive to foster broader recognition and understanding of the graduate student's role in the University. Approved proposals should also facilitate greater academic, professional, and/or cultural integration between graduate students and faculty, industry, undergraduate students, members of the administration, and/or graduate students in other departments.

The Enrichment Grant will sponsor broad-based educational, cultural, or professional development projects proposed by members of the Rice University community and open to all graduate student participation.

The Graduate Student Activity Grant (GSAG) will provide supplementary funding for primarily (but not restricted to) social events that may not be able to accommodate all graduate students and do not fit the guidelines of the Enrichment Grant.

The Association may also allocate funds for graduate students who wish to develop programs related to University or greater Houston community service. Interested students should contact the Community Service Chair directly with proposal requests. The Community Service committee will be responsible for setting the guidelines for funding and reviewing these proposals.

Section 2. Membership of Committee

The Graduate Grant Committee, hereafter referred to as the Committee, shall consist of the Vice-President for Internal Affairs, the Treasurer, the Secretary, and two members of the Association. The Vice-President for Internal Affairs shall act as the chairman of the
Committee.

Section 3. Applications and Reimbursement

1. Eligibility: All Rice graduate students, undergraduate students, faculty, staff, and campus organizations may submit proposals.

2. Application Procedure: A proposal shall be submitted to the Committee via the online submission process found on the GSA website

3. Committee approved proposals must be presented to the Council prior to the start date of the program or event by a representative of the party seeking money. If no representative is present the proposal can be tabled to the following Council meeting if the program will then be eligible for funding.

4. Application timeline: To allow the Council to simultaneously compare competing proposals, the Council will plan to vote on presented proposals at meetings in the following months: August, October, January, March, and May. Grant proposals may be submitted any time during the interim. However, proposals submitted on a week prior to a Council meeting will likely be scheduled for the next meeting in which a voting decision will take place.

5. Approved programs must provide acknowledgment of GSA sponsorship to their participating constituencies. For applicable grants, this could be in the form of a promotional GSA logo or advertisement on program materials.

6. Unless requested prior to Council approval, funding will be provided on a reimbursement basis on the following conditions. These conditions must be met within one month of the event or program’s completion:
a. Post program evaluation submitted online via the GSA website to be reviewed by the Committee.
b. Original receipts and invoices for services/fees paid submitted to the GSA Treasurer.

Section 4. Approval

1. Committee Review (applies to Community Service Committee also)
* The Committee will review the grant proposals and ensure that they are representative of the general mission of graduate student programming as defined by Section 1. It may recommend revisions or request resubmission as needed.
* If four out of the five Committee members agree that a request should be granted, the Committee will contact a representative from the party submitting the proposal to present to the Council for final approval. In the event that several proposals are of the same caliber, those proposals with the potential for bringing the broadest practical benefit to the community of graduate students will be given priority.
* The Committee also reserves the right to revise the deadlines for grant submissions due to unforeseen circumstances

2. Council Approval
* The GSA Council will vote on each request presented to it by the Committee. A majority vote of the Council is needed to approve any grant proposal.

Section 5. Expenses

Prior to the beginning of the fiscal year, an official Grant Budget will be determined given the following guidelines. Up to four Enrichment Grants will be given each fiscal year with a maximum of one thousand dollars ($1000) of funding per award. The GSAG will have a maximum of two hundred fifty dollars ($250) per award and the number of awards will be left to the discretion of the Committee. Grant money awarded in any one semester shall be limited to two thousand, five hundred dollars ($2500). Because many graduate students remain on campus all year, the semesters shall be defined as: fall: June through November, spring: December through June.

The Grant Budget may be increased in a given semester if approved by a majority of the GSA Council. The GSA Council may also, with a majority vote, apply any surplus money available in the GSA account to fund proposals directly. Throughout the fiscal year, the Treasurer shall keep a record of all grants approved for funding, the amount paid to each grant, and any amount left outstanding.