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Meeting Minutes for July 18, 2012

Meeting Minutes

Meeting Type:       Summer Senate Meeting (voluntary attendance)

Date:                                   July 18, 2012

Location:                                Room 2223, Student Center

Time:                                  7:00 PM

Welcome

Speaker: Glenn Hughes, GSC President

Welcomed and called to order the GSC Senate. It is noted that the SGA Representative, Kristi Jones, was not present for this meeting.  

Old Business

Speaker: Glenn Hughes, GSC President

Topic- Update on Graduate Student Parking

                The two independent deadlines for submitting the student list for preferred parking were explained.  The June 30th deadline was for a list of candidates for pre-lottery PC-zone passes, and the July 31 deadline was for the list of candidates for the B-zone passes.  It was discussed that priority would be given to female students working after the operating hours of Tiger Transit.

Topic- Update on GSC organizational changes (SAP)

                The Department of the Vice President for Student Affairs is helping in the process of restructuring the GSC's position in the University.  It will be our attempt to separate ourselves from the Student Government Association while maintaining similar funding. We are in the process of contacting both Pharmacy and Veterinarian Student Associations for them to consider moving with out from under the SGA.

New Business

Speaker: Jennifer Duggan, Exec. Vice President

Topic- Graduate Student Orientation

                Outlined the new and improved format of the Graduate Student Orientation organized by the Graduate School and requested senators to volunteer to help at the event. A sign-up sheet was passed around to the senators for this purpose. The details of the event and the volunteer requirements are listed below. Breakfast and t-shirts would be available for the volunteers. Please tell your fellow senators and graduate students about helping out with this.  Email jzb0017@auburn.edu if interested

-Event Details

Tuesday, August 14th 

Auburn Arena (not Coliseum)

Event starts at 8:30 a.m. and will be finished by 11:30 a.m

-Volunteer Requirements

Requesting help to get there at 8:00 a.m.; may need additional help with clean-up (12:00 p.m.)

General help: Need to direct students to appropriate locations, help with seating, answer informal questions

Graduate Student Panel: Need 12-15 students from all disciplines to sit on panel and participate in Q&A session with audience (~15 mins) to answer general questions about being a graduate student

GSC Table: Need 3-5 people to answer questions and provide information about the GSC

Speaker: Glenn Hughes, GSC President

Topic- Volunteers for International Student Greeting

                Every year Auburn University sends buses and vans to coordinate the pickup of international students from the Atlanta airport. Various representatives from the international student organizations will ride out and back on the buses to great students from their nations.  It helps having their fellow countrymen and native speakers greet them when they land.  However, the need to include domestic students in this process, and to take advantage of this great opportunity to make good first impressions about the United States, in general, and the Auburn community, in particular was explained. The volunteer students would be transported to the airport in one of the buses/vans and would have to spend a few hours at Atlanta airport to greet the new students. The times for the student-pickup and volunteer requirements are outline below.

July 26th
   Departure: 1500            Arrival: 2130       Need:  1 Student

July 27th
   Departure: 1500            Arrival: 2130       Need:  1 Student

July 30th
   Departure: 1000            Arrival: 1700       Need:  1 Student
   Departure: 1200            Arrival: 2030       Need:  1 Student

July 31st
   Departure: 1100            Arrival: 1730       Need:  1 Student
   Departure: 1300            Arrival: 2130       Need:  1 Student

Speaker: Winston Crowder, GSC Treasurer

Topic- Graduate Student Activities Fee

A proposal for a new Graduate Student fee applicable to all the around 4000 graduate students was brought before the senate and the need for this fee was explained. The new fee would be enhance the flexibility and quantity of the current GSC funds which in turn may free up some funds for the Graduate School to spend on travel grants, etc. It is to be noted that the fee will have no effect on the funds currently allocated to the GSC but will be an addition to them. The current GSC funds have several restrictions and the funds generated from this fee won’t have any restrictions and would open up several possibilities for the GSC including having off campus events. However, it was explained that none of this will be carried out without senate approval and hence a committee (probably within the finance committee) will be formed during the first official meeting to form a budget for first a proposed $20 or $10 fee/semester. This will be brought up before the senate for vote during the October meeting. If this fails, the committee will re-budget and the senate will vote again in November for the fee. If this vote fails too, the fee will be scrapped. These amounts for the fee will be discussed by the finance committee and are open for change.

Announcements

Speaker: Jennifer Duggan, Exec. Vice President

Topic- Update on Graduate Student Housing

                The senators were notified of the Off-Campus Graduate School sponsored housing available at Stonecrest Apartments and Cabana Apartments and were encouraged to spread the word among their fellow graduate students. These are places where students can move in upon arrival to Auburn and have a quiet graduate student environment.

More information regarding the graduate student housing can be found on the website: https://fp.auburn.edu/housing/grad_family_general_info.htm 

Speaker: Pranav Vengsarkar, Secretary

Topic- GSC Social Media Announcement

                Senators were informed about the newly created GSC Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AuburnUniversityGSC) and the twitter feed (https://twitter.com/AU_GSC) which will be regularly updated with GSC and other related information. Senators were requested to spread the word amongst other graduate students for signing-up on these pages. A brief explanation was also given regarding the Communications committee and the need for senators to effectively communicate with the graduate students in their department to help disseminate information about GSC activities and events. 

Created On: Jul 29, 2012

Last Updated: Jul 29, 2012