Minutes

Passed unanimously except Ashveer who abstains.

Peruvian Student Association:

-Friday 7th, will hold small music workshop Latin music and social, where people can use moves they learn from the class. Will be catering Peruvian food and will serve beer. Will be in EV village center. Expecting 100 ppl, asking $800 food, $500 beer, $100 performers, $50 event services. Sam said last event they expected 100 people and over 400 people showed up including former president of Peru. Voting, passes unanimously.

Black Graduate Student Assoc:

Black history month, BGSA wants an event this FRiday, Jazz and Black liberation, academic event. First part will interview expert about music and jazz in US and tie it to black liberation. Estimating around 45-50 people. Second part is dinner with live jazz music with students on campus. Requested and recommended, $630 food, $298.65 event services, $100 honorarium, total $1028.65. Ashveer asks about advertising. They said email via listservs. Ashveer says should contact humanities center, they might want to reach out to those groups just because there’s probably at least 10 people who would be interested. Google “Shelley” in anthro dept, she will be able to reach out to the people. Paul asks who the expert is, she says Fred Barry (?). DIrector of Stanford Jazz Orchestra. Also has PhD student who is doing PhD in jazz music. Paul asks what Black Liberation is. She says it is an umbrella term. This event is for Black History Month. Black Liberation = civil rights movements and other movements that happened in the 1960s era. THis is the month where they talk about the history since it is not taught well in schools. Umbrella term to describe the era is Black Liberation. Paul wants them to elaborate about other movements apart from the civil rights movement that Black Liberation could include. She said this term is used to harken to the historical period, and affected the lives of everybody in this country. Term is just a general term to talk about that, not a political movement or party that will support or deny certain groups who have fought in the struggle, it is the term to describe broader societal contexts of these movements. The point in talking about Black Liberation is to talka bout the legacy about the Afican American struggle. Goes back to slavery through segregation to today. If we break it up like that, there are a lot to talk about in terms of disparities, politics, and it is a big topic. Voting, passes unanimously except for Petr who abstains.

Stanford Anscombe Society:

SAS promote values of marriage, sexual integrity on campus. April 4-5 event, talk about policies surrounding marriage, and technology and the media to better communicate those values. The event is in Oberndorf in the GSB, requesting about $600 for honorarium, since expecting around 20-30 graduate students to come. Bryce says that last week he asked them to put more details on the GSC calendar, and there’s still no details. He says they need to put more details. Petr asks about who else is funding. They said, parent organization on campus, local businesses, also requesting money from the ASSU, all university-approved. Want to exhaust on-campus sources of funding first. Love and Fidelity Network is their parent organization. They cannot name local businesses who support it. Petr wants to know what people are going to learn at the conference. They said that the stance that their club takes is controversial, the purpose of conference is to try to move this point away from “bigoted and hateful speech” and help people how to phrase the discussion in a respectful way. It does not mean they hate gay people, they just want to approach these sets of principles in a valued way. The conference is to engage them intellectually. Eduardo asks, does it mean that throughout the conference they will be teaching people how to advocate to prevent same-sex marriage around the country? The conference will include one speaker who is very obvious that he does not support gay marriage, but it is not about that. Eduardo says that question is, why is this a worthwhile use of grad sudent money to been advocate for things that have already been ruled as unconstitutional by the high court? She says that this is a separate issue, but it is not the point of the GSC to deny this funding. They said that this debate is still going on despite what the SCOTUS said, gives abortion example. Sjoerd asks if the issues in the conference are politically-charged? She says yes, along with emotionally-charged issues. Sjoerd says but she just said that event was geared toward students who believe in such values. She says not necessarily, broader community can come, everybody who is open minded who would like to come are free to come. They are requesting grad student funding because a large percentage of their members from graduate students. Originally started by UGs, but lots of grad students. Sjoerd says it is a good idea to bring speakjers to talka bout controversial topics. But still, should be done in an environment where community would be welcome. This event and speaker, in his opinion, violates the funding guidelines. She said that there are lots of other groups that cater to small groups. He said, since it is controversial, it should be in a more welcoming venue. These speakers should talk in a large auditorium to a lots of students. Says that this conference is very exclusivity. She says that the only exclusivity here is the GSC in our beliefs. Lorenzo wants to advocate for the GSC to fund the event, says that if we feared to fund something that is controversial because of our beliefs, then what about future similar events? Would any one of us oppose an abortion conference? Would we prohibit that conference? Eduardo would not deny funding for the event as long as its purpose was not to promote efforts to strip a group of people of their fundamental rights. Lorenzo says that there will be someone talking about this topic but what they are talkinga bout are not necessarily bad. There are many more topics which can address the same event. Would GSC not fund the conference on Nazism? Eduardo says yes, he would deny funding if the purpose of the event was to promote efforts to strip people of their fundamental rights.. SAS wants to offer clarification. Says there is a Brian Brown coming, is not NOM Brian Brown, this Brian L. Brown, he is the CEO of organization called Narrator Online, focused on story telling. Keynote speaker is bisexual, thinks this is inclusive and not exclusive. Ashveer wants to make it clear that there is a difference, he doesn’t appreciate that the GSC is part of the discrimination, since they are invoking him personally by that. They say sorry and did not mean to offend them. He says the different in the nuance in terms of events is that, it is one thing to have a long conference about strategically deploying a message, having to register for it and pay for it, about a controversial topic, than to have a speaker come and give a talk to the audience about this topic. He says that his constituents are not going to be interested in coming for 2 days to listen to this, they would very much want us to fund something where many people would want to go to. SAS wants to respond. She says that, if they hadn’t done a conference, and brought each speaker individually, would they have gotten funding? Bryce says we cannot really answer that. The reason why we ask these questions is to ask for more information. He asked them for details last week and would have appreciated more details. Ben wants to add to Ashveer’s point, thinks that the GSC supports discussion of controversial topics, but issue is that this seems to be geared toward people who already hold a certain belief on this subject, this event is to allow them to advance their communication skills, but not for something to advance debate amongst graduate students. Lorenzo says that they can go and argue with the speaker on the topic. Ashveer says it also costs $30 to register. Eduardo says this is not a talk, but a training experience to train people to more articulately communicate this. SAS says it will be beneficial, because a lot of people who hold these beliefs are very hateful and use hateful speech, so this is beneficial to broader community in a whole. Petr says, assume he is a gay man who is currently living with partner and comes to the conference, what will he learn in the 2 days. SAS says will hear arguments which are not given in the media, intellectual arguments which are not presented in the community. Petr continues, what is he learning in sessions? SAS says, overview of marraige in the beginning, evolution of presentation of family in the media, Meaning of Sexual Powers talk, followed by What is MArriage by Ryan Anderson, followed by individual’s stories with stories, then a guy talking about his academy nominated short about Head Over Heels, followed by afternoon breakout session by Sharif who will talk about how to talk to people who do not agree with you, and LGBT students who want to join are welcome to. Petr says, follow up, this is not only controversial topic, and in geopolitical status of country, it is hot topic. Are they aware of the context in which they are putting on this conference, and how they are going to mitigate this? Backlash, anything? SAS says they apologize if they offend anybody. Petr asks if they are aware. Angela wants to comment that she doesn’t think this event is for anybody, even in answers they’ve received they have said it is not open, if they want to throw a conference about Nation of Islam and how to talk about Black Supremacy, then that wouldn’t be something that would be fundable, because it would be talking about certain sets of values that are against other sets of people. If they want to talk about other things in debate, then maybe, but this is not. SAS says they are personally offended. She says likening their beliefs that have resulted in things that have resulted in deaths of thousands of people are offensive. Adam respects their position, but asks, without the $600 from the GSC would they still be able to fund their event? They say yes, but the reason why they are approaching the University to try and exhaust University funding first. They will have conference with and without University funding. Paul says he has made thoughts clear, says that to deny these people money would be discriminating by the different topics, pushed BGSA about black liberation to show double standard about scrutiny to topic. Mike Chen wants to say that we are entitled to do a lot of things and a lot of power, and we cannot speak for the University, and doing something like this, it would be like using University funds to fund a belief. Lorenzo interjects and gets stopped by GSC. Mike says that GSC doesn’t have the right to speak for an institution they are part of. Bryce agrees with Paul 100%, understands why they talk like that. David asks about if this conference is supposed to cost $20,000, $9000 for honoraria, $2500 total for event center ($950 per day), budget for food is ridiculously high $9000, additional $1000 for marketing materials. Lorenzo says that the GSC should either fund nothing or a bigger part, since the $30 fee is crazy high, either GSC funds much more or nothing. Ashveer says how big is venue, how many people can it seat? They say about 150. Asks if they did due diligence in finding the room? SAS says that registrar does not book any venues during the first week of class. Ashveer says Tresidder is much cheaper, also LKSC can be used. Irene says that discussion now points to why this conference should happen, because this discussion is lively and we need more of this. She does not want to hold a conference where people are not comfortable attending. Events at Stanford which she is comfortable attending, so she doesn’t want anybody to feel like they’re not welcome. It is important for people to hear about points which are not liked. There are also other LGBT groups which engaged speakers which were controversial, does not want to deny Stanford students. Adrienne wants to ask, why do they want to hold this conference? They say that they believe that there has been very little room to talk about these issues. How can they engage people respectfully? She would meet people and that would be the first time that people talks about same sex marriage without tying it to religion. Says that should be able to talk to people respectfully. Susie wants a clarification: they have framed this conference that teaches communications skills, is this conference teaching students how to respectfully discuss the issue that is about traditional marriage values, or is it a conference that teaches persuasive skills in general? They say they just want to present their values respectfully, since only words that you hear are bigoted, this conference is to teach how media can talk in more respectful way. Petr asks, would they consider making keynote free? They will consider it. Wendy says, they have said that 150 people at conference, about 20 grad students. Wants them to talk about why they estimate such a low grad students? SAS says they don’t really know how many grad students will show up. Number could be much higher or lower (though maybe not). Breakdown, thinking 20-35 grad students, another 30-45 UGs, and rest will be alumni, faculty and staff, and local community members. Students from other universities can come too. Trevor wants to ask who our honorarium will go to? SAS says Ryan Anderson, graduate from Princeton. Forefront speaker on same sex marriage. Trevor asks: event can be seen as exclusive in 2 ways, one from LGBT, second way is that very few people who don’t agree with this conference would attend because of the cost, if it was free then it would help him assuage his concerns that it is not inclusive. Trevor wants to ask if they would agree to let any grad students with ID come in to speaker? They say they are willing to open the “most exciting and most controversial speech” to grad students for free. Now for voting. There are 5 options: fund event, not fund event, fund it with stipulation that most controversial talk is open to public, can fund event and write resolution saying that we don’t agree with views presented at event, and finally they can fund event and work with LGBT organizations to fund another event that has equally controversial topics. Sjoerd says that does not make sense, is it “only same sex marriage?” David talks about Stanford’s honor code and giving people the benefit of the doubt. No straw poll. Ok, not necessarily the keynote, but whoever our honorarium is going to will have open access to all graduate students. Voting to fund event, 8 for, 4 against, 1 abstaining, so event passes with stipulation.

Reform for UG funding system to lower student activities fees, eliminate unused money, bring in more experience to funding process. Important changes for UG side. Involves changes to senate bylaws, and many associated documents. UG senate already passed it. Will not affect graduate funding system. Since it is constitutional amendment, needs GSC to approve it so it can go on ballot for only the UG population to vote on. Stephen says that it is a good reform for UG system and probably exposes problems in the graduate system. Sjoerd wants to say that he wishes we can have same reforms for grad students, but we can probably not get enough people to vote. Stephen says there is a method to call a special election, no rule on how long it will last. Should find out more information. Ashveer says “Beer for Democracy”. Bryce asks where 15% came from. Stephen says article 7 of constitution says 15%. Voting on SAFE reform (Bill that says we are approving this to go on ballot, ASSU-W-2014-5), passes unanimously, except Adrienne who abstains. Wendy has question about petititoning process. Stephen does not have information regarding who groups petitioned special fees, but does know there are groups in the past who have done it.

RIght now they are doing BoT interviews, rest will happen in March. ALl in favor of approving timeline, passes unanimously except Ashveer who abstains.

Ashveer makes a question about Priya. It’s a censored question. Adam says that we are waiting for transfer from Provost still, so after that we have a total of $25,000 for the year, plenty of money. Voting, passes unanimously except for Ashveer and Sjoerd who abstains.

A guy flying in from LA. One morning session and afternoon session on the same day. Has done multiple times before, many times at USC, first time we are trying him out. This is thursday. Next day he’ll be doing it at the postdoc’s office. Wendy says that we are actually switching software with this guy, Johnny is surprised. Wendy says the lady was Glacier software, so this guy must be something else. Johnny says the filming is the entire talk. Going to happen in the Havana room. wendy says there used to be intl student announcement list, but now she has to resubscribe her self and can’t even find that list. Wants Rolando to fix this.

Has flyers, wants us to put around. Feb 28, free food free alcohol, 300 people, everyone should show up early if they want food or drinks.

2 venues: club for 400, theatre for 1200 for top 40 DJs. If we choose May 3rd then just theatre, if May 2nd then theatre and music. Around $10,000 will come next week. Relaxation Day on Mar. 14, have puppies. Sjoerd asks about hypoallergenic dogs.

Wendy says that AShveer and her met with Jeanette Smith Law. Story is that when she first met with her, to discuss increasing rates for Oak Lounge and Tresidder Union rooms, at first she implied that there was never $80 VSO rate, and then Wendy asked her to pull out records for old VSOs. Now turns out there was an $80 rate that was incorrectly applied. Will negotiate, but will not be as low as $80 again. She just emailed Wendy with proposed rate. Oak lounge $500 ($200 less than current), Oak west, $400 ($150 less), Oak east $350 ($150 less). They are losing business since with each building that goes up students have more spaces to go to. Was SAL’s job to provide venue prices, but they cannot get their internal website correct. Sjoerd says they may not do that on purpose. Wendy says that she wants to work on this. Ashveer says that him and Wendy and Susie will work on this.

Anthro dept has been talking with Patti Gumport. Patti is upset that students have to move away to finish their degree programs, as are some administrators including Anika Green. They are supportive. Ashveer says Patti says that GHAC should be aware of it.

Paul says they are writing recommendations, circulating them to BJA for feedback prior to releasing it publicly as opinion of committee. Sjoerd says that is appropriate to circulate in ASSU and BJA, they need to understand that the committee cannot decide and must defer to ASSU. Office of Community Standards are finding new leader of OCS.

Approved unanimously except for Susie who abstained.

Stanford Anscombe society:

Stanford Italian Society:

Asking for $1100 for Aperitivo (kind of like happy hour, back in 80s event was publicized as you pay for drink and there’s free food). Targeted as a dinner. Typical Italian food and drinks. Event from Feb. 28, Bechtel I-Center, getting money from Bechtel too. They sent out an email this morning, would ask for raise for $150 in food funding. Recommendation is for $1100, targeted 100 students because max capacity of the room, but there will also be patio as well. Recommendation updated to $1250. Bryce says on calendar it does not say anything, need more details. Voting on $1250, passes unanimously.

Romanian Students Association:

Absent

Stanford Wine Society:

Situation was that we funded them for several events, which included 2 introductory wine tastings, and others. 3 events have alraedy occurred, on day of third event it was brought to Wendy’s attention that the RSVP form that they used actually said that the event is for members only. She did more investigations and looked at the various links, and previous 2 events also linked to page and was their webpage that said you need to be a member or guest of member to attend. When we approved funding, we required the group to reserve 20% of spots for nonmembers. Group has taken steps to do that by asking members and nonmembers to sign up at different times. Jessica followed up with email explaining that the group’s webpage is inconsistent. But because all 3 events have already happened and the links and RSVP forms that were embedded in the email went to a form that said members only, we felt that it was a violation and has brought to GSC. Jessica says that inconsistency was the most important thing. When they finally got GSC funding they changed all the things on the form that referred to members only, but must have missed some. She wants to point out that the descrliption that they first see was correct, the inconsistency was in the click-through. They did get some nonmembers signing up. Also, events in question are only the first 2 that they applied for. All of the rest are consistent. Wendy says that it is actually the first 2 workshops and the tasting on Feb. 13, 3 events. They also want to say that the form was made well in advance of GSC funding, that’s why a lot of online material was set up beforehand. Ateeq wants to know, the way it seems that from reading these messages, that if you are a nonmember then you must have to sign up. They say that it was intention to be confusing or misleading. They said they have also removed the “suggested donation” later. Trevor’s opinion is that he thinks it was a mistake and we should not discourage them from applying for funding in the future. But these events do seem kind of closed. One thing they could do could be to hold an event that’s only nonmembers only, and they say that it will happen next week. David asks about members vs nonmembers that showed up. They said there out of 30 attendees, about 3 nonmembers showed up, so about 10% nonmembers. They were not guests of members. Sjoerd wants to ask, have they thrown events before? They said no. This is the first time they’ve received GSC funding. They ask what they do do next? Trevor says the nonmember events are probably the best things that they can do, like their next event. The ratio of 27-3 is not high enough, maybe 50-50 for the next event. Adrienne wants to make the point that people can sign up for the membership if they want. We consider this point resolved now.

Special fees season again, we are voting to approve budget of 5 special fee groups so they can go on to be on the ballot of the ASSU election.

-Cardinal Free Clinics: Umbrella org for 2 free clinics: Arbor (Menlo Park) and Pacific (San Jose)  free clinics. They serve medical underinsured patients in the area. Mission is to educate Stanford students about community healthcare and providing information. Money primarily goes to food, training material, office supplies, equipment, gas, educational literature, travel and accommodations. Allocated $200 to travel and $250 to accommodations. Has a conference for a student-run leadership, students usually have to pay out of pocket for it. This year the UG and Grad leadership go to the conference to learn how to run healthcare. Basically 50-50 UGs and Grads. Grads composed of med/grad students. Reflected in their leadership too, with nearly 50-50 steering committee. Paul asks what is the nature of the student contribution. Some volunteer, interpreters, referrals, help them sign up for insurance, preclinical volunteers who refer cases to clinicians. Grad students generally lab assistants, UGs focus more on less medical side. Trevor asks if integrated with med curriculum at all. They say no, med students are required to go volunteer, but they don’t enroll in any units. This is the only kind of clinical exposure that first and second year med students get, and one of the only experiences that UG students can get. Wendy says that on MyGroups it says $28,400, recommendation from both UGS and Funding Committee. They say it’s usually $2 per grad students. Usually at the final ballot, they get the most support out of all the groups. Voting, all in favor of putting Cardinal Free Clinics on ballot, passes unanimously except for Bryce who abstains.

-Legal Counseling Office: Purpose is to give free consultations to students who find themselves with a legal question, could be anything from landlord-tenant problems, traffic tickets, etc. Attorney comes from San Jose to Stanford 2 days a week, does students by appointment. Grad students are 65% of the business, bulk of business. Average around 5 students per day that the attorney is here, so about 10 a week. Main points on budget are attorney’s legal fee, along with Heather’s salary. Small amount for advertising, phone, postings, copies, etc. Ateeq says he has been working with Heather and so has Paul, since last year they didn’t get funding because of 7 votes or something. It did all work out though since we funded them out of buffer. He has worked with them how to do outreach and advertising, reworking them so that graduate students can look for them. Hopefully they will get funded. There is a blurb over the ballot. Recommendation is $131,957.50. This amount is recommended by the UGs. Budget is down about 1.3%, because she waived her health insurance. Saad asks how grad students can find out about this resource. They are on the ASSU website, want to do flyering targeting grad students. Wendy said that during the funding meeting they also proposed having something during NGSO so people know. Sjoerd said, he remembers that some years ago, they provided legal advice against Stanford. They said yes, because they are not paid for by Stanford, but by students. Voting to send Legal Counseling Office on the ballot, passes unanimously.

-Club Sports: comprises about 1200 athletes, about 25-30% grad students. Some teams are vast majority grad students. Is a costly venture that requires a large amount of funding, a lot comes from joint special fees, also Stanford Funds, outside sponsorship, out-of-student pockets too. Requesting $238,500 this year to provide for 24 club sports teams. Added a new team, which is men’s soccer. Biggest expenses are high caliber coaches, facilities (like equestrian and polo), travel funds to compete and accommodations, and registrations. Bryce asked which is the biggest club sport in terms of money and students. Cycling and Triathlon both have about 80-85 members, Ultimate Frisbee hosts a big competition in which about 30 teams come. Official money figures are $238,580. Susie asks how they decide to allocate money around teams. They do a second process where each team submits a budget in October, so that they know what their exact needs will be. Executive committee makes that decision. Why are 31 teams in total, but only 24 teams funded? Because they have to be a team for 3 years before they can join the council. Ateeq asks how they get people. They have a website, people who are wondering about club sports will go there. There’s also activities fairs, both undergrads and GOALIE, this year they also advertise at the pool party at the beginning of the year. Bryce wants to know, is there any student who works for it? The club sports team is led by president, VP and FO. He’s worked with each team’s FO to put this together. Voting to send Club Sports to ballot, passes unanimously. Ateeq wonders if there is some kind of auditing process because this is a large process. They say yes, through the ASSU level, any money spent through special fees needs to be in the line item in that. SSE will not process requests which do not fit the requirements. Ateeq asks for examples for typical line items. He says Triathlon biggest line item is coaching contract, also fly to nationals come out of traveling line item.

-Stanford Outdoors: Going through transition at the moment. Last year was an umbrella group for outdoors clubs at Stanford. Due to management concerns, they have moved away from that model, and instead they will offer all of the instructional and guided trips, courses, and clinics. Like Backpacking 101. Also more activities “common adventure” will now be run through “common adventure” clubs. The money that they’ve requested would provide for about a 30% student subsidy for the cost of those trips, both instructional or guided. Trevor asks what’s the distinction between trip facilitators? Trip facilitators are managed by a trip facilitating committee, which requires many things before you can lead a trip. Provides a level of officialness, high quality experience, also works with risk management side of the university. Trevor asks, so clubs like Redwood Club will no longer get money from them? Redwood will now be a common adventure club. If your friends want to go on a trip through Redwood, can send email out to see if anyone wants to go, they get undergrad general fees. David says expect budget to go down, since not supporting these groups anymore? They say no, because still funding the same number of trips, just management of the trips are changing. Hoping for over 20 trips next year, hoping to expand their programming. Amount is $52,500. Voting to put Stanford Outdoors on the ballot, passes unanimously except for Paul who abstains.

-ASSU Speakers Bureau: no representative present. Dan Ashton explains. They are tasked with bringing large speakers to campus. For example, Bill Gates. They also allocate money with smaller speakers with other groups. They requested final $183,350. Voting to send Speakers Bureau to ballot, passes unanimously.

Dan met with Paul and solicited more  feedback. Biggest concern was graduate representation. Dan says backstory is that there was miscommunication about the importance of this, they had solicited for a few months and no grads applied so they moved on. At this point his concern is that if anything happens at the election there needs to be 4 people to deal with it. There doesn’t seem to be anything there can be done on this short timeframe. Dan got all of the appointees to come to the GSC to ask for our advice. Milton can also count as a grad student. Another appointee will also be running for the executive. If he wins then he will appoint a grad student to that spot. If there is a case though, they have all agreed to come in to hear what we have to say. There’s only been 1 case in the last 5 years. David asks what did the case involve. They said whether ASSU execs could put a question on the ballot about whether or not the ROTC should be allowed back on campus. David also asks, if there is someone running for execs then would they have to recluse themselves from a case dealing with elections? Yes Dan says. since there’s only been 1 case in 5 years it doesn’t seem like it is that important. Paul says he agrees with Dan’s analysis, since SAFE reforms no longer deal with grad students, so he is not worried about any issues regarding SAFE reform. Trevor asks how the appointee will be made. Dan says that the GSC will have to approve the appointee. Sjoerd wants clarification that the Execs will be “recommending” candidates, not appointing them. Voting for Constitutional Council appointees bill, passes unanimously.

UGs having a lot of issues about student fees increasing a lot every year. Spent last week cutting a lot of money from initially recomended budgets for special fees groups. Don’t want to go through the process again, want a different funding system in which the UG special fee is locked in and only increases through inflation, can have more control over giving the rigth about to groups rather than allocating too much to groups. UGs pay about 8 times as much as grad students in fees, and while they do enjoy more benefits than graduate students, it’s not that much more. Also pay about 2.5 times as much as peer institutions. Fee will still be high but will be lower and more effective in spending the money. Stephen is the author of the constitutional amendment. Olivia said that they are not changing the graduate student plans because would need more than twice the amount of grad students this year to vote as compared to last year, and since graduate system not changing much, doesn’t seem worth it to change the grad system. Paul asks about joint special fee groups work. Olivia says that a group would apply for graduate special fee and an undergrad special grant. If they didn’t receive it from one group they would just receive funding from the other group. To make joint amendment would need 15% of the population from both populations, this would be only 15% undergrads. It’s really just reaching out to joint special fee groups (there are very few of them) to educate them about this. David asks about how joint special fees are split between UGs and graduates. The way it currently works is that about 60%-40% split, so now the joint groups can apply to graduate special fees and undergrad major grants, they will have to split up their funding. Bryce asks about loopholes. Stephen says there are groups of people who CAN manipulate the system, but these already exist in today’s system. Groups still have to go to the ballot. System is probably more protective of individual students than before. Now the UG appropriations committee will change from 7 senators to 4 senators + 3 outside individuals. Bill is on previous notice.

Voting on bill, passes unanimously.

Holding interviews for trustees and academic council positions before the rest of the committees. Previous notice.

Bringing a new york lecturer to come speak about the food movement and what the movement can learn from other social movements. Hopefully this will appeal to both grads and UGs, people doing research in moevments and activism, as well as food and health. Speaker came 5-6 years ago and also drew a large audience, thinks will draw a big audience again. She has large honorarium and flight, dinner with students too. Has fundraised about $10k so far, wants to get up to $15k in total. Wants to get $1k from the GSC. Bryce asks about attendee numbers. They said it will be advertised by the Center for Ethics and Society, and they agree to put GSC logo on it if we fund them. Wendy asks if they also can advertise from Community centers, since engineering students (as an example) do not get these emails often. For example, woman’s community center. Food movement, what does it mean, asks David? It’s a social movement that revolves around improving the food system, which could mean how food is grown produced sourced, to effects of food on individual’s health, animal welfare. Bill on previous notice.

Later tonight/tomorrow morning, they are sending out email about it. Does anyone have suggestions for things to include in email? Right now it’s being called Arts Fest. They are also advocating 30k challenge. Have 2 submissions right now. Deadline not until Mar. 1. Will advertise again. Bryce had people ask about it verbally. Wendy asks if it would help to publicize to the VSOs? Trevor says yeah, since one application is from VSO already. Wendy emphasizes again, GSC vs. GSPB vs. ASSU needs to be clarified in the emails. To recap Feb. 28 from 4:30-6, has 4 performing groups so far, food and drinks. Expecting around 350 ppl , at Bing Atrium.

Mar. 14, massage like last year.

Approved unanimously

Touched base with many people, have finalized budget. Presentation includes lots of negotiation, worked with many people to bring down the cost. Worked with Bing hall, facility fee is $1500.40, includes facility, clean up, staff. Main cost is with Stanford catering, total quote is about $11,927.30. Negotiated it down, but will have to provide own drinks. Total budget is about $15000, but have been working with several offices. Quote is for around 300 people. Original quote was $22,000. Gotten several offices involved, Stanford arts institute = $2000, VPGE = $1000, President’s office = $6000, total $9000 of funding. We need around $5500 – $6k from the GSC. We want this money as soon as possible. Trevor proposes that we allocate $6000 from discretionary to this event. Trevor is going to send out grad-wide email to advertise this. Voting for allocation, passes unanimously except Saad who abstains. Trevor has emailed 2 groups, been rejected by 1. Needs any bands who have grad students in them. If anyone knows any grad student bands then email chair@gsc.stanford.edu. Wendy says Chinese New year gala had singing grad student group.

Sikh Students Assoc:

Conference sat-sun. Starting on Friday, then 2 full days of papers from CS to anthropology, etc. Have banquet dinner at Tresidder. Advertised through center for south asia, some humanities list serves, also all humanities grad students at Stanford. Expecting ~70 students. Have money coming from center for South Asia. Recommendation is for $2400, which is $750 room rental, $650 janitorial, $1000 for dinner. Petr wants to ask if Ashveer has sent the email out to EVER SINGLE SOUTH ASIAN LISTSERV. Ashveer says yes and they have been of sometime. Adrienne says she also saw it on his instagram. Voting, passes unanimously except Ashveer who abstains.

GSB Education Club:

Event called Education Symposium. Traditional mostly bus-med school students, come together to talk about how people change the way public education is approached, what the future of pub ed looks like. Funding partially from GSB. Recommendation for $3225, which is split into $3100 food and $125 room service. Expecting about 250 ppl. Event on Feb 26. Voting, passes unanimously except Saad who abstains.

Black Law Students Assoc

On Friday Feb 21 from 6:30-9pm, holding Black History Month gala. Key note speaker Tony West, 3rd highest ranking official at Dep of Justice, his wife, and other people. Have space for 200 students, have fundraised by selling 46 seats to Ariel law firm, will be expensive because plated dinner and Paul Brest hall charges your firstborn instead of arm and leg. Recommendation for $6k, which is $2500 food $3500 event services. Voting, passes unanimously.

Peruvian Students Assoc

First social event, having live entertainment with Peruvian music, catering with empanadas, free drinks. Expecting over 100 students, will be run in Hacienda commons, will be advertised on Rains, other groups. Applying for entertainment, food and beer, and disposables that they will get from the Green Store. Recommendation is for $1600, $800 food, $500 alcohol, $250 honoraria, and $50 event services. Event is on Feb 21, date on GSC calendar is wrong so they should fix it. Voting, passes unanimously except for Ateeq who abstains.

Irish Student Assoc

Promoting irish culture at Stanford. Asking for first event, mixer, second event is irish poet, final event is irish startup talk. Recommendation is for $580 for all three events in total. Voting, passes unanimously.

Thai Student Assoc

Mar 2, have Thai night, annual event with cultural show and serve dinner too. This year have 5 different shows put on by students, several games too. Expect 150 people, in Oak Lounge, they are charging $700. Recommendation is for $3670.74, split into $2500 food, $1170.74 for event services. Voting, passes unanimously. Ateeq says maybe they can get their performers to come to the Arts at Stanford event. Pong says they have kickboxing show, if interested she can pass it on to us.

Humanities and Social Sciences Society

Request $580 for mixer event, attracting people from all humanities and social sciences. Will meet people and come up with ideas for workshops. Recommendation is for $580, $500 food + $60 alc + $20 event services. Event on Feb. 27 6-8pm. Time on GSC calendar is wrong, they need to change that. Voting, passes unanimously.

AAGSA

Feb 22, having Study Break in Havana room, serving Fried Chicken and Boba. Expecting 125 students. Recommendation $1000 food $50 event services. Paul asks how much and what kind of boba. Gretchen says she doesn’t know but it’s coming from Tea Era. Paul asks how early he has to show up. Fried chicken is coming from Bon Chon! Petr asks how they are advertising, she says mailing list. Voting, passes unanimously.

SIA

Having Bollywood Bash dance party, will serve alcohol and people get together and dance. Feb 21 from 8pm-midnight. Will be advertising through Center for South Asia, their own mailing list. Requesting $1100 transfer and $300 new money, breakdown $600 alcohol, $500 food and $300 event services. Voting on new money and transfer: passes unanimously.

Pushed back to next week

Tabled till next week

Tabled till next week

Petr spoke with Nanci Howe, will give update next week. They are revamping OrgSync re-registration form next week, by Monday/Tues he needs to know if we want to change anything on the forms. Trevor says 2 checkboxes for grad/undergrad students. Email Petr suggestions by this weekend.

Wendy met with Anita and Jeanette. They said they never had a $80 student group fee, will investigate. SAL website lists Tresidder Oak Lounge as free, so there’s internal confusion.

She met with BPC. They are an UG run peer counseling service. Open from 9am-midnight for counseling help, also take phone calls overnight. Have a couple of counselors on site, so can answer phone calls any time of the day. Have been offering service for over 20 years. Also, over the past 3 years, about 5% of people who use service are grad students. Up till now they don’t do grad student outreach. They like the idea of doing outreach to grad students, thinks they have bandwidth to handle increase in usage. They discussed our help with posting flyers in graduate housing residences, they gave Wendy a small stack of flyers, she is collating a list of the common areas in graduate housing, starting with laundry. A number of buildings also have lobby/lounge space. She would love it if GSC members could help post up flyers in their areas. Low-hanging fruit in terms of increasing services to grad students. First will put in residences, then expand to departments. Bryce asks if she emailed Ken Hsu to put in grad announce. Ateeq says grad announce deadline is first Thursday of every month. Send it to Marcela.

HTML and hyperlinks done. Documentation is ready as well, will upload to a common area. Bill is for amount of $600 to pay for website services. Ateeq says will need to make sure money and account worked out. Voting to allocate $600 for website work, no objections, passes unanimously except for Saad who abstains. Bryce says he wants to get the document soon. Hash tags needs to be added to events, Wendy is currently tracking down orgs about this.

$3000 to fund PhD SAM program. Extension of SAM, which is around 11-12 years old, which is a program that connects students and alumni and helps them build mentoring relationship. Was trialed and expanded to cover PhDs as well. Formally in 2nd year of program, trying to run a series of mentoring workshops called “Mentoring matters”. 3 events, have already had the first one and a big success. Budget is $10000 from grant, $3000 from GSC. Spending $2500 on infographics, have $10500 for b udget. Spent $4473 on first event, a large amount from food and beverages. 60 people came, had students from various departments and alumni from various backgrounds. Had in Mackenzie room in Huang. People were very talkative and it was a success! For next 2 events, want to attract and retain alumni, want to give them a good impression of the program. Projected expenses are $3351 for next event and $2751 for the event after that. Cut food expenses because expensive. Had balloons to guide alumni from parking garage to building. Given these expenses and $3000 in funding from GSC, they will about break even. Bryce wants to ask, are these other dates are all at the same time as these other events, Wendy says yes. CDC wants to go to VPGE to ask for more funds if these are successful. SAM doesn’t have other funding sources, just want to prove themselves until they can access university funding. Bill on prev notice.

They were able to procure a venue, which is the parking on the corner of Mayfield and Campus. Will do outdoor concert in the parking lot. Advertising will include GSC. This will allow them to do evaluation of how many grad students will attend. Bill is allocating $1000 for the concert. Voting, passes unanimously.

Bechtel will do 3 tax sessions: federal tax for intl students, state tax for intl students, and fed tax for local students. Bechtel organizes one (intl fed tax), today’s voting is to approve transfer of $1000 for workshop from 2640 account. Other 2 events are local tax firm to come and talk about how taxes happen and how to file state taxes. As tax coordinator, need to book room for these 2 events, call this person up, and go set up chairs and tables. Voting on transferring $1000. Additional request for fund is for recording of tax videos, will cost $350 extra to record it. Voting on transferring $1000 and approving $350 to tape proceedings, passes unanimously. Bryce will talk about it with Ateeq. Johnny Giorgis will do it!

Met with Dave from 5-SURE, he only took control of it a couple of years ago. At the time it was spending way too much, he’s cut down costs and balanced their budget, saved up money for the future. They operate every day, weekdays from 9pm-1:45am and only one person driving, one person receiving calls and scheduling rides. On weekends they have 2 ppl driving, one scheduling rides. They do about 140 rides a week, 10 weeks each quarter (not during final week). They said that out of 1800 total rides in half a year, 8-10% are grad students. Ateeq met with them and asked about Sharron Green apartments. They’re not sure if their cars are allowed to go there. Ateeq told them that it sounds like it’s very cheap to hire an extra driver, only $1500 a year to hire an extra person, and compared to their budget it’s a small amount. Maybe they can do more with the one driver if they need to. Does about 6 rides an hour. Busiest nights are Thursday – Friday nights. Money comes from general funds in university budget. Ateeq asked them how much it would cost to have extra car and extra person and to go off campus.

-Adrienne: why don’t we do any intros? We should do intro for non-GSC members.

-Eduardo: He’s been trying to talk to SOSAS (safe and open space at Stanford) which are panels to talk about LGBT issues. Audience can be anyone who is interested in coming and asking questions to panelists. Having a pilot SOSAS panel in med school in March. Want more grad student volunteers. There’s training about what to say / not to say. David asks what is the time commitment. Eduardo says a few panels over lunch, 2 planned for this year, one in March and one in April. Eduardo is asking about funding, or what are the best sources of funding for this. Trevor suggests GSPB. Wendy says they might not fund it because usually it has to be student-initiated. Eduardo will try to go to GSPB and if not there then they will try for GSC meeting as a joint event.

-Wendy: one thing that came up at last night’s UGS meeting is that not enough grad students vote in the ASSU election, has various impact on various aspect of student government. She says chairs should send out grad wide emails. Ateeq has been talking with ASSU legal counseling office about making sure they advertise their services more so people know what they do.

-Johnny: Diversity Advocacy Committee update next week.

Approved unanimously

Idea: renewed emphasis on arts at stanford has left grad students behind (groups don’t let grad students know about opportunities). Want to design an event that would highlight grad student contribution to the arts. Came up with idea for arts fest. Would do right before right before a Stanford Symphony Orchestra concert. Thinking Friday Feb. 28th. Use atrium of Bing concert hall. Will have grad student groups perform in the lobby, bring in food to attract students to Bing Concert hall, allow student groups to table and target the arts student community. Maybe students will stay afterward for the SSO performance (which is free). Gotten in touch with organizers regarding food already. Paul says he loves big fan of arts, looking forward to it. Wendy says concerned about long-term impact regarding raising awareness of these events. What about 2 years later when students graduate, new people don’t know? How are they going to deal with that? Jeremy says they haven’t thought about it yet. But this should be a good first step into addressing these concerns. Hopefully once students go there for the first time, they will be interested in getting to know what is available there. Point is to make arts groups aware of the grad students. Ashveer says that at this moment, trying to build community is very important, he personally likes the idea of an open bar rather than a sit down dinner. Wondering what the funding structure would be like. Ashveer says should think about asking groups to detail how they will make use of the tabling space that they will get, to make sure the most amount of people get linked in. For funding, probably want around $5,000 from GSC, also asking for President’s office. Senior assistant to President says might be interested. Money would be used for food and booze.

Russian students assoc:

-Mostly grad students, maybe <10% UGs. Feb. 13, 7pm have an event to celebrate the old new year. Postponed from Jan to Feb. Requested party, $200 snack, and $200 alcohol, $25 event services, for 50 people. Recommend full amount of $425. Voting passes unanimously.

Stanford Ceili Dance:

-Group dedicated to social and performing irish dancing. Have weekly meetings to teach dancing to people. Request money for annual st. patrick day dance. Requesting $525 from GSC to help pay for booking Tresidder oak room, bands that will be playing, and food. Also $25 in event services. Also already received $200 from external source. Also requesting $600 from UGS. Recommended full amount of $525. Voting, passes unanimously.

French Students Assoc:

-Organizing crepe party on Sunday Feb. 9 with Rains. Bringing 10 people, asking for $50, Rains also bringing 10 people, people will learn how to make crepes and eating them. $50 transfer. Voting, passes unanimously.

Latino Eng Grad Org at Stanford

-Doing a social for engineers, asking for $250 for 25 ppl, everyone is welcome. Voting, passes unanimously.

No questions. Voting, passes unanimously except for Susie and Wendy who abstains.

Olivia and Justine work as financial analysts for ASSU. Been working for 9 months on SAFE reform, which are changes to bylaws which they think will help groups. Talked to many representatives in this effort. Goal came out of research, motivated by key problems with UG funding system. Grad funding system doesn’t have many same problems as the UG system, but want to keep system consistent among both population. Thought about just changing UG, but thought uniformity would be best. New system will benefit UGs in several ways, and will have little effect on grad student funding. Big problem with current system for UG: student fees are really high. Student activities fees has grown by $300 a year for past decade.  Under SAFE reform, will lower UG student fee to $120/quarter, increasing only by inflation and set Grad student activities fee at $30/quarter, have that increase by inflation too. Second problem is that current funding system, lots of groups have inflexible funding. For special fees groups, have to budget a year in advance. General fee groups, do not have reserves they can draw from, and do not have budget they can use. For UGs, most of the money would go to Major Grants, rest would go to Minor Grants and Quick Grants. UG groups would get abot $8000/yr from minor grants. Quick grants: money unused from prev year, serves as reserve fund for all UG groups. Unlike current system, where groups can only apply for funds from general fees, any groups can apply for money from these pools. For grad students, half the money would go to Major Grants, half goes to Minor Grants (for weekly funding). Quick Grants = Grad Reserves. Big problem with current system: large UG reserve account, only use about 75-80% that comes from students, rest of money is not used for benefit of people who paid that money. Special fee groups currently have about $1 million in their accounts. Under SAFE reform, they can use quick grant fund for any last minute expenses or special events. Also, one problem is that funding is very confusing, especially distinction between general and special fee groups. Groups will no longer need to deal with different guidelines and rules for different funding. Last problem is that UG senators have no idea about how to run student groups. Want to include students who have understanding of how funding works. So create a funding board with experienced outside members to assist senators in the funding process. Senate would still have executive control of all grant allocations. For GSC: Special fee groups = Major Grants groups. Funding commitee would allocate money through Minor Grants. GSC Reserves renamed Quick Grants. Last week, presented to UG senate. Holding town hall next week to discuss changes. Because proposing so many changes, documents need to be approved by both GSC and UGS before they are put on the ballot this spring. Trevor questions: 1. Funding board, is it just advisory? Yes, only for UG groups. 2. How will students have the same ability to request money as before? Because they are only spending 85% of the money yearly, will over-draw from the buffer by $500k yearly to draw that down. Currently says UG groups cannot apply for Major Grants before they spend down their reserves. Groups which don’t do this will have to show that they need reserves. Adam asks about the ballot sessions, how will the votes be counted to pass this initiative? 15% of UG and Grads have to vote, and 50% of students who do vote have to be in favor of them. Petr asks, what kind of feedback are they hoping to get from the townhalls? They talked to many of the biggest groups which would be influenced, and now they just want to make sure no other major problems with minor groups before they proceed. Also a way to educate some of the groups that they haven’t talked to yet. Paul have suggestions about tweaking language in constitutional amendment, what’s the best way to go about that? Should email them (), or go to the meeting next Tuesday. Trevor asks what are graduate Major Grant groups? They say joint groups. Stanford Club sports, Stanford outdoors, Cardinal Free Clinics, Legal Counseling Office, etc. Bryce asks, what happens if it passes UG but not grad? They say thinking about doing it separately if it does not pass jointly. Have been working with Stephen on rewriting the constitution. First version just changes UG side, second changes just Grad side, and third version changes both. They were concerned about getting enough graduate students to vote. Bryce says if grad students don’t pass the threshold, then what? They are still trying to decide, but leaning towards joint amendment instead of separate. Bryce asks, for Quick Grants under $8000, don’t need to vote? Yes, but only for UGs. Wendy says, great that they have tried to keep the system in the grad side as simple as possible. David asks, now there’s no Special Fee groups? They say yes, they will just use Major grants. They have it written into legislative document that the proportion into each pool is flexible. Funding board will evaluate applications and see if groups will need that much money. So both Major and Minor funds are coming from the activities fee. Ateeq asks, in current system the students have to vote in the spring if they want the group to get the money, where is the students’ role now in the new system? Funding board will recommend the groups to the UGS, regarding joint groups, GSC Funding Committee will still deal with it.

Sophomore majoring in biology. President/codirector of 2 student groups. Want to join CC because she thinks it will give her a good perspective on the different student groups and how she can help the groups that she is part of. Thinking about going into law. Paul asks, how did she hear about the opening? She says she got an email. She’s on the judicial panel pool and has served on one hearing before. Paul asks if she’s spoken to anyone about any constitutional disputes that may arise in the future? She says no. Petr asks how she is in dealing with authority. She says it depends. Would be hesitant to make changes to constitution. Paul asks who she interviewed with, and she said Dan Ashton. Met once at the Old Union. Paul asks what Dan asked her. She said he asked her what she’s doing, why did she want to join, etc. Petr asks what her commitments are. SPOON, Armenian student assoc, doing research. Paul wants to say that he is reluctant to put only undergrads on the constitutional council, and also appointing 4 people on the same time. Various GSC members express concern about all UG/coterm appointees. Paul looked at the article on the constitution, it does not specify that there needs to be grad students on it. Straw poll, majority of GSC members wants to table the bill until we can get more info about graduate students on the council. Eduardo says only concern is why did communication about this not go out to grad students?

GSC guidelines reviewed and updated in the winter quarter. FC would like to draft a bill to amend funding guidelines and have it voted on and approved by the end of this quarter. FC will also do transition at end of this quarter. Want to have meeting to talk about these proposed changes. 1. want to change hard cap for joint groups, or “VSOs that have in between 70% grad- 30% grad” groups. Wendy says hard cap currently not applied to these groups, so technically a joint group can reach hard caps on both sides. Would like to propose we have a hard cap with $6000 for all groups with more than 70% grads, and for groups between 30-70% we can lower the hard cap by the % amount. She says if groups misrepresent membership makeup, can double check Orgsync.

Things relevant to us: how should co-terms be charged fees? Does GSC represent coterms? Petr: currently they probably should be charged UG fees and then they can be charged grad fees as soon as they finish their UG career. Susie says she knows a lot of people who do co-terms, and they finish both UG and grad in 4 years, so would they just be UGs for purpose of ASSU fees? Petr says yes. They have to get their UG diploma to count as “finished” with ASSU UG fees. Another question: how do we classify non-degree granting programs at the grad level? Are they members of ASSU, ASSU fees, etc? For example, Sloan Fellows, SCPD students, etc. Petr looks at it as 2 fights: are they a student? And regardless of that, are they taking advantage of services that these services are required for? Should people who are not full-time students be charged ASSU fees in any amount? David says that maybe we should just charge on-campus students the fee and they can just refund if it they want to. Wendy says that not sure what is counted as a “program”. For example in her lab there are students who are doing research only and not taking classes. Petr says firstly the students have to be matriculated. Also, department has to say on the transcript whether it’s a full-time program or not. Next question: should professional school students be liable for these fees? Susie says law students have their own funding. Also GSB students pay a separate fee for GSB only fees. Next question: what about students who are abroad, on exchange, be automatically fee waived? Petr says feeling is shouldn’t be waived automatically. Nanci asks when should the fee refund prompt happen? Many intricacies about fee refunds. “Last Quarter status” = done with degree, about to graduate, so you switch to 3 units.

Not kosher to show emails on the website. Wendy says why don’t we just link to orgsync at the top? Paul says maybe the SUNet login thing is possible because on the ASSU website you have to login to reserve rooms. Trevor thinks we should have names. For now we are not putting names in. For grad wide email: 30k challenge, nomcom, green store. Ateeq has been chatting with SSE managers about getting the word out about Stanford legal counselling services. Might want to add it to grad events email from Ken Hsu’s office. Ateeq says they have the legal counselling office has budget for flyering so will want to make it. For project page on the website, shared in google drive, can find it there. Tonight need to send stuff for ASSU state of association.

Ateeq Bill: Zion I is coming, ateeq told them we would sponsor up to $500, because it will be primarily at an UG space, this is to gauge how much grad students want to go to these UG spaces. Money is to establish relationship with SCN. Has put bill on prev notice. This money would go to SCN’s account to pay artists. Petr says why $500, it seems very useless? Ateeq says the point is to stay involved with the SCN. About Frost: Grad students would pay around $20 for tickets. They are thinking about organizing a tailgate. Advertising: thinking we will have large 6×9 posters at grad spaces. Also Frost has an arts portion, where you can design your own work and display outside the performance space. Can sign up for it. Ateeq says that there is a grad student position open on the SCN board, if anyone is interested.