General Council Meeting Minutes
October 7, 2015
7:03 PM – Call to Order
7:06 PM – Officer Introductions
7:10 PM – Confirmation of New Officer Appointments
· Vote is unanimous.
7:11 PM – CARE Advocate Naddia Palacios
· The new CARE office serves to represent those on campus subject to dating, sexual and domestic violence and sexual misconduct or harassment.
· Safely Planning and Safety on Campus
· Can assist with emergency shelter or making accommodations on campus from assignments to classroom or office changes, etc.
· Located in SURGE 386 on call from 8-5PM Monday – Friday office hours.
· Students can call or come in and talk if they have questions or concerns.
7:16 PM – Student Regent-Designate Marcela Ramirez
· The new UC student regent is a UCR graduate student.
· Located in Costo Hall 112
· Focusing this year on student concerns of housing, food insecurity and intolerance issues, PDST
· Check out the article Highlander Newspaper
· UCLA meeting on October 26th
7:20 PM UC Student Association Grad-Prof Director Toni Gomez
· 5 Issue policy agenda
· Also with focus on food insecurity, housing and healthy graduate student climate.
· Safe environment, diversity across campus
· STAR applications now being accepted
7:27PM – Bylaw Updates & Re-Approval + Updated Budget Re-Approval
· e-approval of the bylaws and budget from last year, with any changes made since then.
· Mini-GSA requirements added back into the bylaws
o Located in Section 29, C+D adding mini-GSA bylaw back into the bylaws
· Questions?
o No questions
· Update on officer pay language, changing from bi-weekly to annual summary even though biweekly pay will remain (this is for accounting purposes)
· Community outreach fund cap changing from $1000 to $250
o Food is being omitted
· Questions on these two?
o No questions
7:36 PM – Motion to approve mini-GSA bylaws
o 2nd
o Yes: 48
o No: 0
o Abstention: 3
· Motion to approve Officer Pay
o 2nd
o Yes: 49
o No: 0
o Abstentions: 2
· Motion to approve Community Outreach Cap
o 2nd
o Yes: 47
o No: 1
o Abstentions: 3
· Motion to approve the bylaws as a whole as changed
o 2nd
o Yes: 48
o No: 0
o Abstentions: 3
· Motion to approve Budget
o 2nd
o Yes: 44
o No: 0
o Abstentions: 7
7:37PM – Discussion on Budget Priorities
· The GSA will have a 30K deficit this year and a projected budged deficit of 60K next year. Within 2 years the GSA will also be bankrupt if we do not figure out a way to reorganize the budget.
· Increasing demand on CTG (Travel Grants), stagnated enrollment and lower contribution to GSA from SSFAC has taken a toll on our operating budget.
o No roll over from last year, had to dip into our reserves to cover costs.
o Proposed budget solution suggests that we lower CTG travel caps from $1,500 to $1,200
o Reallocate funds
o Remove attendance awards of $100
o Cut department co-sponsorship fund by 6K
o We have 163K for the year and have already spent $79K on conference travel grants, meaning the GSA will be without money in the fund by December.
7:47PM – Lewis read CTG stats from last year
· The question is, how do we close the budget gap? What would the council suggest?
o Could we cut the caps even further than $1,200? Why $1,200? What about lowering the caps further to $600? This would allow more graduate students to attend conferences. Greater representation of UCR.
o What about cutting funding for poster presentations?
o What about limiting awards per person to one international, one regional and one attendance per year?
o Lower number of conferences attended?
o Lower international maximum award from $600 to $500.
o Can we have numbers that indicate the most reasonable amount to lower the caps?
8:00PM – Tiffany asks—does she have the right budget?
· By her calculation, we are only in deficit by $20K and a projected $40K for the next year. The budget crisis isn’t as bad as it seems (?).
o What about doing a fundraiser? And spending our GSA reserve money to cover the rest of the deficit?
o Tiffany: “I am against lowering the caps” and “I have faith in our ability to fundraise” the money.
· These ideas receive push-back by the general council.
o Won’t having a lower cap allow more students to attend conferences? Why can’t the council vote to approve what changes are made to the CTG budget? Why can’t we lower the caps? What kind of fundraising?
· Lewis: The reserves generate a substantial interest per year, last year we accrued an additional 10K in funds, we do not have many sources of revenue. It would be unwise to spend our budget and dip into reserves because it does not solve the problem of two years out when the SSFAC funds dry up and we can no longer operate the GSA due to bankruptcy.
o Fundraising is important, but wouldn’t cover the 30K gap in the budget.
8:15PM Department Co-sponsorship Conferences
· Microbiology and Biomedical Sciences Mini-GSA 5th Annual Pathogens Symposium (SCEP) on November 18th, 2015
o Requesting: $1,150.00
o Motion to approve
o 2nd
o Yes: 41
o No: 0
o Abstention: 3
· English Mini-GSA Disjunctions Conference on November 2nd and 3rd, 2015
o Requesting: $1,250
o Motion to approve
o 2nd
o Yes: 41
o No: 0
o Abstention: 3
8:20PM – Officer Reports
8:23PM – Open Forum + New Business
· New LGBTQ Queer mini-GSA formation, please sign up and/or email at
8:30PM – Meeting adjourned