GSAS Meeting

December 8, 2010

5:00pm LIB 421

President Miriam Makhyouncalled the meeting to order at 5:05pm. Secretary Brandy Hopkins began with role call. For those in attendance, please see the GoogleDocs roster.

  1. SGA Proposal for GSAS representation

The meeting began with a presentation by SGA members Kyle Schoembeck and Solomun Colvin Jones regarding our agenda item of university representation. We were informed that Solomun is writing a legislative proposal supporting a change in BOT bylaws that allows for a non-voting, ex-officio graduate student position.In addition, the proposal will ask for one ASU graduate student delegate to the statewide student government association (ASG) since we already pay $1 for this representation. This will be co-sponsored by the SGA and GSAS.The purpose of the written proposal is to convey what we want and its affects and benefits for the university.

First, the SGA Rules committee will vote on it and then it will be presented to the entire senate. It would be good if we had graduate attendance at that time. The proposal will ask for the changes to take effect in May. This way the current SGA administration will not be affected hopefully creating greater support. Solomunis looking for others to help with writing. We were informed that this has been an issue since 1997 and Solomun was hoping this would help to create transparency between the student senates and enable greater student representation. The GSAS senators expressed their appreciation with a round of applause.

  1. Legislative Rally

Next, Miriam informed us of the legislative rally in Raleigh on February 8th. We are getting together a group of student lobbyists to push for Appalachian State University. Tuition and fees are already scheduled to go up next year by the maximum cap of 6.5% and we don’t want this increased any more. Also, ASU generally gets the least in allocated dollars, which is why student involvement is key. At ASU, 47% of students receive some form of financial aid. Let us know if you are interested in attending.

Holly suggested we ask Susan McCracken to attend a GSAS meeting to talk about what the state budget looks like and what our current legislature issues are. She is in charge of government affairs for the Chancellor. It is important to be educated of both sides. Unfortunately, the state budget is challenging and we recently lost our two local legislative ASU supporters. It was also explained that the cap is university instated but the state can require additional increases at any time. For example, last year after increasing tuition by the max we were told we were allowed to increase it by an additional $750 but ASU chose to increase it by less than this amount. Due to this year’s budget, ASU has already been asked to plan for cuts from 10% to 15%. Dave Lee, Brandy Hopkins, and Kyle Nelson would like to attend.Miriam finished with offering kudos to the SGA leadership and PA Rowe for using their political capital to support this important initiative.

  1. Endowment Fundraising

Matt Hepler began with an update on the fundraising event. He reported that Char is looking like the best location since Legends doesn’t allow the sale of baked goods. Char has a capacity of 110 people. The event is tentatively set for the first week of April. Discussion ensued and many agreed that Friday, April 1st would be theoptimal date as Boone’s Art Crawl is held the same night. Matt needs someone to write an advertising blurb about the event so he can post it on all of the local media websites. Ideas still being discussed are an auction for throwing a pie in the Chancellor’s face and including faculty bands.

Miriam reminded the senators to continue asking professors for endowment donations. Holly reported that she has received two professor donations thus far. Dr. Huntley has offered to match the donations received this month and department chairs are expecting students to ask. At this time of year, the tax benefit can be encouraging as well. If professors would like to donate online, this can be completed through the Foundation office by specifying GSAS as the beneficiary in the “Other” category. Holly sends thank-you notes to all donors. A suggested introduction was, “We hope you will consider donating to the GSAS research and travel grant fund at the end of the year when you are looking for tax options.”It was also suggested that senators discuss what has been funded andhow we have been able to help.We should also explain how we are unable to help in the summer though. Many faculty members have no idea what this fund is so senators should be ready to explain what we do, what the endowment is for, and how it will help them and their students in the future.

  1. GSAS meetings for next semester

Miriam reminded senators to update the Doodle scheduler so meeting times for next semester can be chosen. It was agreed that two meetings would be held per month and these would be on different days of the week to provide more opportunities for attendance. The executive council will meet to choose these times. A senator informed the group that Tuesdays after 3:00pm would not work for anyone in the educational leadership program.

  1. Website logo

Miriam showed the group three website logos designed by Erica Lowe. Much discussion ensued and the group agreed that it liked the logo with gears the best. However, a different color and smaller font were preferred and it was suggested words be added to the gears to indicate our links with the university. It was suggested that senators draw the changes on paper and then mail to Miriam through campus mail at P.O. Box 24865. These will be reviewed at the next meeting and perhaps even a contest could be held for the best logo.

  1. Grant guidelines

Miriam discussed the unclear GSAS grant guidelines and the resulting high rejection rate. Treasurer Kyle Nelson informed us that the main reason for rejection was not having the proper documentation attached. It was suggested that we work to educate senators since they are required to sign the grant applications. Kyle agreed to prepare a complete example for next semester. He is also working to get our requirements on the OSR website. In addition, he is hoping to send an email at the beginning of next semester to all graduate students reminding them that changes have occurred and they need to remember to read the guidelines. It was requested that the requirements please be clarified and scanned examples be made available online.

  1. Other Business

GSAS will be sending an email to all graduate students during the beginning of next semester with updates, events, and other important information. If there is anything you would like included, please email it to Miriam. The executive council will be meeting to put this together soon.

Miriam thanked the senators for their feedback to the online survey regarding graduate student contributions. There were approximately 8 or 9 responses. Dr. Huntley recommended that the focus be on the return on investment rather than the contributions of students. We would like to collect more responses in January.

Dave Lee motioned to close the meeting, Kyle Nelson seconded, and the vote unanimously passed. Miriam closed the meeting at 5:56pm.