Proceedings of the September 24th 2008 GSC meeting
Agenda
1) 5:45 FOOD (thanks Sean!)
2) 6:00 Welcome with introductions (George)
3) 6:05 Announcements (George)
i. Please be aware that all meetings are audio recorded and will be made available on the GSC website.
ii. Approve minutes from the last meeting (9/10/08).
iii. GSC Fall Retreat will be Saturday, October 18th.
iv. We’re back to weekly meetings so remember to show up next Wednesday, October 1st.
v. Thanks to Etosha, Kwami and volunteers for a great NGSO.
vi. The proposal for the dependent health insurance task force was accepted by the Provost.
4) 6:10 EV Family Book Event Funding (Andy)
5) 6:15 Funding (Addy)
i. Bahai Association at Stanford
ii. Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford
iii. InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship
iv. Shaking the Foundations Conference
v. French Stanford Student Association
vi. Persian Student Association
vii. Spicmacay
viii. Scandinavians at Stanford
viv. Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics (AHA!) at Stanford
6) 6:45 Programming (Adam S.)
i. Welcome Back Party coming up!
7) 6:55 ASSU Update (Jonny and Fagan)
8) 7:00 NAGPS Updates and Supplementary Funding Request (Fen, Ryan and Nanna)
9) 7:30 Publicity (Zeng and Ivette)
10) 7:40 Flicks (Zeng)
11) 7:45 Grad Voter Registration Drive (Etosha)
12) 7:55 New Business (George)
Attendance
Voting members present:
At large 2: Aleksandra Korolova
At large 3: Adam Beberg
At large 4: Nanna Notthoff
At large 5 (Interim): Ryan Peacock
Business: Rick Thielke
Earth Sciences: Justin Brown (proxy Adam Sciambi present)
Engineering 1: Polina Segalova (proxy Etosha Cave present)
Engineering 2: Addy Satija
Humanities: George Bloom
Law: Andrew Park
Natural Sciences: Fen Zhao
Social Sciences: Hanna Muenke
Voting members not present:
At large 1: Karan Chaudlory
Education: Unfilled
Medicine: Sean Young
Other people present: Andrew Danowitz, Kristina Keating, Sadie Bartholomew (IV Grad), Joe Foley (AHA!), Matt Bunriesci (AHA!), Alex Ene, Julien Cortial (FSA), Matt Turk, Andrew Martinez, Johan Andreasson (Scandinavians at Stanford), Simone Manganelli, Mary Van der Hoven, Ping Li, Jonny Dorsey, Yayati Pipouta, Pra Chandrasoma, David Gobaud, Larisa Masalimova, Matt McLaughlin, Jon Rotzien, representative from Shaking the Foundations conference, representative from Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford, representative from Bahai Association at Stanford, Amanda from Philosophy department. Likely other people present as well who did not sign the attendance sheet.
Minutes
1) 5:45 FOOD (thanks Sean!)
2) 6:03 Welcome with introductions (George)
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3) 6:07 Announcements (George)
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i. Please be aware that all meetings are audio recorded and will be made available on the GSC website.
ii. Approved minutes from the last meeting (9/10/08) by consensus.
iii. GSC Fall Retreat will be Saturday, October 18th.
iv. We’re back to weekly meetings so remember to show up next Wednesday, October 1st.
v. Thanks to Etosha, Kwami and volunteers for a great NGSO.
vi. The proposal for the dependent health insurance task force was accepted by the Provost.
4) 6:10 EV Family Book Event Funding (Andy)
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Having a welcoming event for graduate students with children. In EV have 260 families with 400 children, and there are at least 100 more families off-campus who are also invited to the event. At the event, all the kids get free books, there will also be food, story telling, representatives from the Palo Alto Library, puppets, etc. Total budget is $3000, requesting $1000 from us, with the rest coming from GSPB, EV Family House Dues, and the GLO. Expect 300-400 people in attendance. We have a line-item for EV family events in our budget, so money will come from that. Giving $1000 passes by consensus.
5) 6:13 Funding (Addy)
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i. Shaking the Foundations Conference – Conference about Progressive Lawyering, and this is the 10th year they’ve had it. They bring in various speakers like law practitioners and professors. Students from across the country come to this. This is the only money they request for the year. 300-400 people come, including non-law people, such as those in Education, and Public Policy. Total budget for the event is $32,000, with a big part of the expense coming from flying in all the panelists (have 16 panels with 4 people). Asking us for $5750, with the rest coming from firms, donations from individuals, and the Law school. This is about what we gave last year. Giving $5750 passes by consensus. Shaking.stanford.edu is the website for the conference.
ii. Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford. Biggest event of year is this Saturday at the I-Center, and expect 200-250 people to attend. Requesting $1900. Giving $1900 passes by consensus.
iii. Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics (AHA!) at Stanford. New student group. Planning two events. First is lecture by Prof Robert Zapolosky on the science of faith and religion at noon on Thursday, October 2nd. The second is a lecture about the book, “Away with all Gods.” Adam B. asks if they are related to Rational Thought, which covered similar ground, but seems that group is not active anymore. Recommended $900. Giving $900 passes by consensus.
iv. InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship. Requesting money for two big events. Having a welcome dinner, with 120-150 people expected for that. Second is end of year banquet. Requesting $2650. Have advertised on Grad events and put out the flyers for first event. Giving $2650 passes by consensus.
v. Scandinavians at Stanford. Have about 200 members. Have 5 events each year. There’s a crayfish party this Saturday, a Winter Party with some Scandinavian Christmas traditions, a welcome BBQ in October (100 people expected), spring BBQ, and mid-summer party. This is their annual budget. Recommended $3025 (somewhat less than requested because requests for crayfish event were too high). Giving $3025 passes by consensus.
vi. Bahai Association at Stanford. Teachings are about one-ness of humanity. Having a lecture about these ideas, requesting money for food. Expecting about 30 students to attend. Recommended $240, which is within dinner budget estimates. Giving $240 passes by consensus.
vii. French Stanford Student Association. Have primarily social events. Have welcome BBQ on Oct 2nd and Wine and Cheese party in November. Expect about 80 people at each event. Recommended $900. Giving $900 passes by consensus.
Persian Student Association and Spicmacay not present.
6) 6:27 Programming (Adam S.)
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Welcome Back Party coming up! Things going well, time to organize volunteers. This is the first big party we put on each year and 700-1000 people are expected. Hired Events Services to light up some trees for the party, and we’ll have some glo-bracelets for fun. In terms of volunteers, need greeters to check IDs, flyer-ers (2 hours this Sunday), and some some set-up people for two hours before the party. They’re having CAs bartend probably, though others can volunteer if you want. Will have a hip-hop DJ and techno DJ on opposite ends of the Rains Haciena courtyard area, but will have dancing outside this year because that makes clean-up easier. Paper going around to sign-up – remember that GSC members are required to help out with something.
7) 6:31 ASSU Update (Jonny and Fagan)
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They’ll have new times for Ex-comm soon.
Setting up a cup-buying consortium to buy recyclable cups in bulk, will probably ask GSC and Undergrad Senate for help with that.
Reminder of their general role of being a link between student needs/desires and the administration.
They hold office hours for legislative bodies, but haven’t figured out hours yet.
8) 6:34 NAGPS Updates and Supplementary Funding Request (Fen, Ryan and Nanna)
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Fen and Ryan were at NAGPS, went $43.59 overbudget, mostly because they needed to get home from the airport late and had to take a taxi rather than CalTrain. Money will come from legislative advocacy. Giving $43.59 passes by consensus.
During the trip they met with members of congress that represent the areas near us, their staff and legislative assistants about Immigration (H1-B and EB visas), Student Loans, Energy Funding, and the RISE Act. The agenda is set by NAGPS ahead of time.
Met with lots of people, including the House Committee on Education and Labor which focuses on grad education, so that was a good conversation.
Focused mostly on immigration, rather than tax reform (which they thought would be the focus), because some of the tax things had been resolved or weren’t coming up in legislation soon). Immigration as it relates to students is primarily about staying in US after getting a degree. They met with Rep. Lofgren (Chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration). There are three bills in her committee:
– HR 6039 is about permanent residence for students in STEM fields, which would make residency automatic for those in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. This would leave more other visas open for others if those students don’t need to apply for visas with caps. This isn’t a partisan issue, but there are plenty of people who aren’t for immigration, particularly from states who don’t have many immigrant workers.
– HR 5921 eliminates country caps.
– HR 5882 is in write-up, and calls for the rollover of 400,000 visas that were not distributed under the caps in the years since 1992. This one seems most likely to get pushed through in the upcoming future.
Other topics, even though these don’t have active legislation yet are Student Loans, Energy Funding, the RISE Act, and Dependent Healthcare.
A. Student loans
- Disparity between grad and undergrad. There was a bill that made Federal Loans a better deal for Undergrads, but didn’t affect Grads. Separation done because of limited money pool at the time, but still not entirely clear why Undergrads but not Grads should get a benefit. Grad students are generally better at repaying, so it’d be nice if that were recognized. For those interested in more details Fen and Ryan have more handouts, which is also what they gave to representatives.
- Also issues with time to degree for PhDs and the standard four year loan terms, which don’t match up. Representatives seemed unaware that it would take so long to get a PhD, so at least now they’ve been exposed to that information. Point being that even if students get a stipend, they may need loans to meet full costs, so this could have high impact.
B. Energy Funding: goal to increase university funding for energy independence research.
C. RISE Act
This Act is about removing restrictions on student loans for those with former drug convictions. The FAFSA currently asks for this information, and disqualifies those with convictions from getting loans, a rule which has been in place since 1994 or so. This includes misdemeanors, where if you have 1, you lose eligibility on one year of federal loans, for 2 convictions you lose two years, and with 3 misdemeanors you are not eligible for any federal loans. This really only applies to these types of drug convictions. In fact, there are specific fellowship programs to help felons on parole, so punishments for drug convictions seem disproportionate.
Alex wonders whether the original law was set-up primarily as a deterrent and a reason for students to not getting into drugs, which is why it seems disproportionately harsh. Others don’t think those students are aware of the consequences for financial aid at the time.
Mary finds a press release that suggests the original law only came into place in 2000.
Nanna thinks it’s an issue of privacy that this type of history is investigated for financial aid.
If the RISE act passes, there might be more competition for federal loans since more people would be eligible, which might reduce the amount available per person.
Rick and Kristina don’t necessarily think focusing on the RISE act is the best use of time as compared to other issues, though it does affect a lot of students.
D. Dependent Healthcare
The Knox-Keen Act prevents Stanford from self-insuring, and there is currently legislative action to see if this can be changed. Self-insuring might be a good way to keep our health insurance costs down.
UC Davis also lost dependent healthcare two years ago, and are thus very vested in this issue.
NAGPS offers PPO policies for students and dependents. Has high options, low options, and plan for international students. Students must sign up for the plan themselves in order to also enroll their dependents, and students can sign up at any time point.
The website with specific information about the plans that NAGPS uses is at https://www.uhcsr.com/NAGPS, and includes specific price points. It is less expensive than Cardinal Care for single students, though dependents are pricier. Also, we’re not exactly sure how the plan compares in quality to Cardinal Care, but Hanna has passed along the information to those at Vaden who are knowledgeable about insurance and they are investigating.
Overall, Adam B. says that he pays less per year for him to have Cardinal Care, his wife to be on Kaiser and his child to be on the Santa Clara Healthy Families plan, so this NAGPS plan may not necessarily be best overall, but still worth looking into more as an option.
What Fen has figured out so far about the plan is that mental health treatment is covered up to $5000, that the plan does apply to services at Stanford Medical Center, that prescriptions are covered, and that costs are generally reimbursed at 80% after the deductible ($500 for low plan, $100 for higher plan) is met.
Overall, we’d probably get lowest insurance costs long-term if we can self-insure, so legislative action is still pursuing the Knox-Keene act, but in the meantime, still looking for more immediate options to help the students with dependents.
The NAGPS plan is available to all students at schools involved at NAGPS, which is about 80 schools. UC Davis has been using this, especially since losing their coverage for dependents, so think there’s a reasonably sized pool to spread out costs, which is important to prevent the spiraling costs that precipitated the end of dependent health insurance on campus.
Alex asks about Dental, which is not included in the basic plans, but they do have a discount service that we haven’t looked into yet, though it may be similar to Vaden’s current offering. Students can purchase insurance quarterly, so they wouldn’t need to pay for the whole year if not planning on using it.
NAGPS is having their 22nd conference later this fall, entitled, ‘Putting it all together – scholarship, leadership and activism in Graduate and Professional Education.’ George, Ryan and Fen are interested in attending. Dependent Healthcare is the top thing on their agenda for the meeting, so good chance to learn more about that. This conference is where they make the platform that people later go lobby about, so attending the conference would give us more involvement in setting those priorities.
The conference would be a good chance to learn from and collaborate with GSCs around the country. Fen has learned a lot from interactions with other GSCs over the legislative action trip to D.C. and would love to continue this. For example, learned that other GSCs have departmental representatives, leading to much larger organizations and more people investing their time and energy to address grad student needs. While having that many active voting members may be too much for us right now, good reminder that it’s worth making connections with departments.
Final thoughts:
– Ryan is now the Western Regional Coordinator for NAGPS, so good start to us being more involved.
– Legacy membership is a bulk payment of 15K, and currently we pay $500 a year to maintain membership. Perhaps something to consider switching.
– Would like to take a more active role in NAGPS – definitely one of those organizations that you get more out of when you put more in.
– Before going on legislative action trips in the future, would consider communicating with Stanford lobbyist. May not always be in agreement regarding what priorities should be, but other schools found that a useful step.
– Make sure we keep an eye out for relevant legislative things affecting students.
9) 7:14 Publicity (Hanna for Zeng and Ivette)
They could not make the meeting, passing along the message that they did lots of publicity during NGSO, and will have a full report next week.
10) 7:15 Flicks (Hanna for Zeng)
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Showing Wall-E at Flicks this Sunday, and it is the only family friendly movie on the list for the quarter, so we’d really like to do the Grad Night with donuts at this movie despite the short notice. Family friendly movies got good turnout in the past, and this is also a fun movie for all ages. Sent out an email to the GSC list over the weekend with the idea of doing Grad Night at Wall-E, and no one objected at the time, so went ahead and started advertising already, with hope that we’d get approval. However, we still need the official approval now. Holding Grad-night at Wall-E this Sunday passes by consensus. Aleksandra volunteers to help Zeng pick up supplies around 5:15, and George and Hanna volunteer to help pass out the donuts around 6:30. Zeng will coordinate details of this.
11) 7:17 Grad Voter Registration Drive (Etosha)
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Important to get grad student vote out, and would like to set-up a table to make it easy for students to register in California or to register to vote absentee in home states. Goal is to get 500 students to go vote. Plan to do this Wed Oct 1st on the Quad.
Proposed budget:
Some supplies for table: $150.
Stamps to mail in registration: .43*500=$215
Snacks/coupons for food. $2*500=$1000
Envelopes: $50
Training dinner: $100.
Suggestion to have it at Bytes area instead of the Quad because that might be more populated with Grad students.
Undergrads have coalition army that we’re coordinating with, will get forms from them. Matt thinks we could use ASSU bulk mailing for this. Could get it down to 15 cents through this if we have enough envelopes to make it worth the process.
Hanna suggests not to give coupons for lunch, since it should be enough incentive that it’s being made easy to vote.
Maybe get stickers reminding people to register and/or vote, hand out at Welcome Back party and at the tabling event.
Total request is now $615 (the original budget, but with $100 for snacks rather than $1000 for actual food coupons) to hold the event at Bytes. This will come from programming discretionary since it’s an event for graduate students. Adam S. is okay with the allocation.
ASSU Execs encourage us to plug into their existing efforts to get out the vote.
Suggestion to go door-to-door to get sign-ups. Adam S. volunteers that we can flyer at the same time for that as the Welcome Back party, though for that he wasn’t planning on going door-to-door and talking to people, but rather just putting up lots of fliers around the grad housing areas. ASSU people actually go into all the dorms with dorm captains, but we don’t really have a good set-up for that.
Fen, Mary, Simone volunteer to help with the tabling.
Political speaker coming Thursday 9/25 at 7pm in Cubberly about running Newark and the violence there, all are welcome.
Giving $615 to Grad Voter Registration Drive passes by consensus.
12) 7:31 New Business (George)
Need to sign-up for party helping!
