Sexual Assault Prevention Training

President

Several students expressed concerns about the sexual assault prevention training at the last assembly meeting. Caitlin and I met with Chantelle Cleary to discuss these concerns. We have made tentative plans to hold a final makeup training session in February (information to follow, on the listserv). More importantly, we have communicated your substantive concerns to Chantelle and we will be working with her office to schedule adequate training for graduate students from this point forward. I thank you all for your input on this important subject.

Public Engagement Council

The Public Engagement Council met in October and have just come out with several working groups for which we are going to have input and membership. Our Vice President, Public Relations Director, and myself have identified potential candidates already, but if students are interested in being involved in one of these working groups, please let me know. The list of working groups and their chair follow:

-Scholarship – Phil Nasca

- Data & Assessment – Bob Bangert-Drowns & Bruce Szelest

- Institutional Engagement/Big Projects – David Rousseau & Mike Christakis

- Communications – Lee Serravillo & Karl Luntta

- Carnegie Preparation – Darrell Wheeler & Sue Faerman

Ban the Box

Please attend the Ban the Box Ted talk and panel discussion on December 2 (see the Programming report for more details). This has been a major GSA initiative and we hope to work up a resolution for the Spring SUNYSA conference on this topic. The resolution will urge SUNY to ban the box from their applications. We can only do this with student support and a huge turnout would be an important start.

Vice President

Followed-up about NAGPS NationalConference with attendees and they are still working on their report. It will be posted with the February meeting documents (Strategic Plan).

Began developing the RGSO Training for the Spring (Strategic Plan). Here is a brief outline of the plan:

Two RGSO Training sessions will be the same as the fall training. This is for new groups and any groups that change presidents/treasurers.
Two RGSO Training sessions will be a more leadership training with a budget planning and niche analysis component to help us as an organization understand where our strengths and weaknesses lie within our RGSOs and sub-organizations.
Please have your president/treasurer contact me about whether they prefer to have training be the first few weeks of classes or the week before classes start in January.

RGSO Review Sub-Committee

Reviewed 1 additional request: Ed-Psych $100 for Data Blitz Event for food, drinks, and papergoods
The committee had a meeting to discuss Assembly representation and the proposal will be discussed tonight. Since the guidelines for representation are in the Constitution Article IV, Section 2 (something I forgot/overlooked when trying to put them in the Guidelines), any changes must be passed by the Assembly and then pass in the next student wide election.

NAGPS Sub-Committee (Strategic Plan)

We got no feedback from anyone except from one person saying they thought the e-board should be the decision making body.
We met and discussed this possibility.
The committees proposal is in the meeting documents and will be discussed late in the meeting for a vote.

NAGPS Ourtreach (Strategic Plan)

E-mailed the NAGPS Regional Chair about him attending SUNY SA in the spring and presenting a workshop. He or another member will attend.
We are also working on collaborating to grow the Northeast Region membership and increase the number of NYS schools through a letter campaign. We jointly are working on writing a letter to send to schools in the region

Attended SUNY SA (Strategic Plan)

I served as our second delegate along with Ben Mielenz instead of attending workshops, since our president had a family emergency.
There was lively discussion about many resolutions on topics such as sustainability, loans (which Ben successfully amended to include reunifying grad and undergrad rates), and bylaws changes. Some passed while others were referred back to committee for edits and to be brought up again in the Spring.
Ben was elected to be a graduate rep and I will work to support his outreach to graduate schools to encourage their attendance. There were only 4 graduate students from 3 schools at this conference when we have 13 graduate votes in the SUNY Assembly.
I will be applying to be the SUNY SA Parliamentarian and Director of Rules.
Elections for SUNY SA officers and representatives will take place at the Spring Conference in Saratoga Springs. I encourage you too consider running for a position.

State LAD to be held in the spring

The e-board supported my proposal for us to hold a State Legislative Action Day in the Spring. We will pick a day to have students meet with legislators and have a 1-day training the weekend before.
We will train you on the issues and how to lobby/have the meeting.
The issues we plan to address: SUNY funding, the fracking pipeline that could go in in NYS to transport natural gas, and Ban the Box.
E-mail if you are interested.

University Libraries Student Board Report: 11-16-15

Discussed the Reference Resources in the Libraries

PAWS – you can usually get a next day appointment
Reference Librarians
Chat Service 24/7
They want to get the word out about things and the group suggested flyers, FB, sending information to the GSA listserv and quad directors
Science Library reference is for everyone not just science questions

Discussion of changing the food policy:

Current Policy: The consumption of non-alcoholic beverages in covered containers is permitted in the University at Albany Libraries except in areas where “No Beverages Allowed” signs are posted. The consumption of snack-size food is permitted only in designated areas. Full meals, food deliveries, food parties and group meals are prohibited.
Revised Policy (under consideration):The consumption of non-alcoholic beverages in covered containers is permitted in the University at Albany Libraries. The consumption of snack-size food is also allowed. Full meals, food deliveries, food parties and group meals are prohibited.
Food and beverages are prohibited in the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives.

They are also reviewing a report that recommends several changes to our loan periods, including eliminating the distinction between masters and PhD students. They want to get feedback from a wider group before implementing. They plan to implement a change in the loan periods by summer 2016. They are also looking into a task force to investigate longer hours during intersessions and the summer to fit better with graduate student library needs.

Treasurer

Budget as of 11/24/15
GSA ACCOUNT BALANCES & REPORT SUMMARY
Expected Revenue 2014-15 / $165,000.00
Carry-over from 2013-14 / $122,000.89
Total Expected Revenue / $287,000.89
Total Allocated / $258,164.00
Total Unallocated / $28,836.89
Total Deposits / $122,000.89
Total Paid / $29,488.99
Adjustments: See attached Sheet / $0.00
Actual Account Balance / $92,511.90
Expected Account Balance / $257,511.90
BUDGET SUMMARY
Amount / Amount
Allocated / Paid / Balance
SERVICES
Room Reservations / $1,000.00 / $0.00 / $1,000.00
RGSO Awards / $40,000.00 / $1,290.64 / $38,709.36
Grant Awards / $45,000.00 / $0.00 / $45,000.00
Contingency Budget (at 5% of projected revenue) / $8,250.00 / $0.00 / $8,250.00
GSA Welcome/ End Year Events / $4,000.00 / $337.67 / $3,662.33
Allocated from Previous Fiscal Year / $15,814.00 / $6,677.22 / $9,136.78
Food Pantry / $5,000.00 / $0.00 / $5,000.00
OPERATIONS
Contractual Goods and Services
Liability and Theft Insurance / $2,000.00 / $0.00 / $2,000.00
Printer Contract/ Lease / $17,000.00 / $3,874.87 / $13,125.13
Non-contractual Costs
Paper / $5,000.00 / $0.00 / $5,000.00
Office Supplies/Expenses / $1,000.00 / $593.26 / $406.74
Phone and Fax / $100.00 / $0.00 / $100.00
Water / $1,000.00 / $125.40 / $874.60
Officer Stipends
Stipend-President / $4,500.00 / $1,125.00 / $3,375.00
Stipend-Vice President / $3,500.00 / $875.20 / $2,624.80
Stipend-Treasurer / $3,500.00 / $875.20 / $2,624.80
Stipend-MCAA Chair / $3,000.00 / $750.00 / $2,250.00
Stipend-Programming Chair / $3,000.00 / $0.00 / $3,000.00
Stipend-Grants Chair / $3,000.00 / $750.00 / $2,250.00
Stipend-Lead Senator / $1,000.00 / $0.00 / $1,000.00
Stipend-Senators / $1,500.00 / $0.00 / $1,500.00
Stipend-University Council Representative / $200.00 / $0.00 / $200.00
Stipend-Assembly Speaker / $500.00 / $0.00 / $500.00
Stipend-Assembly Secretary / $500.00 / $0.00 / $500.00
Stipend-Judicial Board / $2,500.00 / $0.00 / $2,500.00
Stipend-Senate Council Representatives / $3,500.00 / $0.00 / $3,500.00
Administrative Support
Office Managers / $20,000.00 / $4,672.81 / $15,327.19
Public Relation Manger / $2,500.00 / $0.00 / $2,500.00
Parliamentarian / $800.00 / $500.00 / $300.00
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
NAGPS / $16,000.00 / $6,626.36 / $9,373.64
Strategic Plan Funding- President / $6,000.00 / $166.99 / $5,833.01
Strategic Plan Funding- MCAA Chair / $3,000.00 / $0.00 / $3,000.00
Strategic Plan Funding-Programming / $13,000.00 / $248.37 / $12,751.63
Strategic Plan Funding- Vice President / $1,500.00 / $0.00 / $1,500.00
INVESTMENT
Future Technology Purchases (Printer for Uptown) / $20,000.00 / $0.00 / $20,000.00

Note#1

We have to create another line for Payroll Expenses. We always pay employer portion tax expenses but we never show in the report. Those expenses are material and should be separately listed. Last year, we paid around $3245 for tax expenses. I think, we should allocate around $3500. I came up this amount based on the previous expenses and current wages. Above amount is best estimates and it may vary by the end of year little bit.

Equity and Inclusion Chair

Nothing new to report

Programming Chair

Events in November

Two programs have been provided in the past month. The first was the Social Permaculture program with Lisa DePiano. The event went quite well with 17 participants representing Philosophy, Sustainability, and Ed Psych RGSOs as well as reps from the E-board, Senate team, Judicial board, International Student and Scholar Services, RGSO committee, Programming/public relations Committee, GSA Office staff, Office of Sustainability, the GSA Assembly, and GSEU. Niche analyses were carried out to determine each groups resources, needs, behaviors, obstacles, and yields. Those that participated indicated that the program was helpful and reflective. We plan to replicate this program in the future for RGSOs and may bring in Lisa DePiano to the diversity conference that the EI committee is planning for the Spring. Another product of the program is the development of a “mind map” of the GSA network to help us identify where collaborations can occur to meet the needs of many groups at once. Once finished, we will be adding this map to our website and continually updating it. We also plan on creating a page on the website that includes each RGSO’s information (mission/goals) to make this information easily accessible and promote collaboration between groups as well as knowledge sharing.

The second program was the Call Congress day on November 18. We had a good amount of participation with 37 calls targeting Sen. Charles Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Rep. Paul Tonko. 37 calls were made out of the office. 15 of those calls were to Tonko’s office, 12 to Gillibrand’s, and 10 to Schumer’s. We reached our goal of 10 calls per hour. I would like to thank everyone that participated!

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, December 2 from 6-8:30pm we will be showing a Ted Talk by Brian Stevenson on mass incarceration followed by a panel discussion on the Ban the Box campaign which is an international campaign by civil rights groups and advocates for ex-offenders, aimed at persuading employers to remove from their hiring applications the check box that asks if applicants have a criminal record. Pizza will be provided!

Other notes

I am currently working on collaborating with the Office of Graduate Education to host a graduate finance planning seminar, which would be open to all graduate students. We might incorporate it into the spring GSA orientation. This is in the beginning stages and therefore I do not have much detail on what the program is going to look like. Topics span from budgeting, taxes, debt, compound interest, saving, investing, retirement, trainee funds etc. If there are any particular aspects of graduate student finance that you would like to hear or learn about, please email me at .

Grants Chair

Two brief notes comprise the Grants report for November.

First, if you have received an award letter for Fall 2015, please email your reimbursement information to .
Second, the forms for the Spring 2016 funding period will be made available on MyInvolvement by December 1st. If you are interested in applying for grant opportunities in the Spring 2016 period, please upload the appropriate files to MyInvolvement by January 31st, 2016.

Lead Senator

Greetings everyone!

So November was a pretty quiet month for the Advocacy Team and we’ll have several meetings to report on that are happening in December that will be sent out in a separate Semester-long report of all meetings from the semester once I’ve received them all, rather than waiting until February to report on business from early December.

Spring is looking to be a fair bit more busy. We are hoping that now that everyone has had a month to digest the proposed handbook for the Advocacy Team that we’ll be able to vote on it – please keep in mind that not all of the proposed changes can actually be accounted for via the handbook, several things will need to be discussed as going on the ballot for constitutional changes and a few others will need to become bylaws changes that we would hope to bring to the assembly in January and February respectively. Most of what can be passed is regarding attendance and reporting requirements – which at the end of the day are actually the most important pieces of the handbook as that actually mandates that these activities happen, when currently there is no written requirement in any of our governing documents.

With changing schedules there is always some upheaval in participation between Fall and Spring. We are definitely looking for a new Council Rep to sit on ULC (University Life Council), but if you’re interested in participating as a Council Rep or Senator please contact me by the first week of January – right now we’re running short on people who can step up should anyone need to step down and with changing schedules semester to semester its always good to have a few back-ups who are ready and willing!

Hanna Marie Pageau

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Senate Addendum

[US] University Senate

Bob Beach {S/President}, Hanna Marie Pageau {LS}, Tiffany Charles {S}, Henry Curtis {S}, Nakissa Jahanbani {S}

November 16th

Report

A. SUNY Senators’ Report - John Schmidt

Diversity Plenary
UA in the University Center Sector
SUNY Excels standards
Improvement funds that just went into SUNY Central – will hear back by the end of the year
Awaiting approval by SUNY Board of Trustees
Shared Governance and Faculty Consultation
Question from audience about what “diversity” constitutes

Varies from campus to campus
Emphasis on race and ethnicity (also emphasis by US government), but in plentary, tried to address in broadest way possible
Workshop on “information and knowledge sharing”
Question regarding expansion of degrees and certificates (per SUNY Chancellor)
Discussed by SUNY-wide Provost Cartright (pg. 2 of SUNY Advocacy and Budget Process)
Wanted to invent certificates (because adds to numbers)
Goal: 93,000 more students, and have 21,000 more from increased retention (and 80,000 students in online courses)
No talk of more funds to go into this
Difficult already to have good relationships with students
Academic value/success – why these certificates and programs (besides increase enrollment)?
One hand, prepare students for jobs (and be competitive with other universities to prepare students as a short-term training need)
Western European countries, more percentage of people have a BA, but US is falling

B. Graduate Student Organization Report – Hanna Marie Pageau, Lead Senator

Call Congress is November 18
Grads Have Debt Too
Orientation
Campus Expansion
NAGPS National Conference attendance
Won the Northeast Member School of the Year Award
Leadership Summit over the Summer

C. Student Association Report – Julia A., Senator

SA to join EOP to revive Perkins loan
SA Fireside Chats
SA Town Hall
President’s Council Opening
November 19 from 5 pm to 65 pm in University Art Museum

D. Council/Committee Chair Reports:

CAA – James Mower, Chair
CAFFECoR – Carol Jewell, Chair
Not here
CERS – Michael Jerison, Chair
Nothing to add
COR – Daniele Fabris, Chair
CPCA – Lynn Warner, Chair
Not here
GAC – Ronald Toseland, Chair
Two degrees pending at this Senate meeting
GOV – James Collins, Chair
In last meeting, looked at issue of administrative review and evaluation by the Senate
Instead of suggested form of action, asks Senate members ask departments what they think about the issue of Senate evaluation (responses to )
LISC – David Mamorella, Chair
UAC – Karen Kiorpes and Christy Smith, Co-Chairs
Simulation course of CEHC
Etc.
ULC – Michael Jaromin, Chair
Rescheduling meeting
UPPC –Joette Stefl-Mabry, Chair
Nothing to add

Approval of Changes in Council Memberships

Approval of some undergraduate members and other new members

New Business

Senate Bill 1516-01: PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A MASTER OF SCIENCE (M.S.) PROGRAM IN COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY
Introduced by: GAC and UPPC
School of Education’s Counseling Psychology
Modeled on CAS’s Clinical Psychology program (which has embedded Master’s)
This is a trend across the country
Not to enroll any new students
Additional resources or administrative burden: just faculty time
Would entail a capstone project (clinical data, empirical support, case study) and the approval of two faculty members
Unfeasible to add a Master’s thesis at this point, given the faculty time (can’t add the burden of a Master’s thesis to the faculty now)
Students can’t apply to national internships or get a job with a Master’s
Is this common for other universities? – yes
This is not a terminal Master’s degree – 60 credits, 18 months, comprehensive exam and no written thesis
What if students left with just this Master’s – would they be comparable to MA in other programs? – yes
Proposal passes

Senate Bill 1516-02: PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A B.A. ENGLISH/M.A. LIBERAL STUDIES PROGRAM
Introduced by: GAC, UAC, UPPC
Charles Sheppardson, Director of Liberal Studies program
Background
Has run in the university for quite a long time
Open for students to explore any course in any department
Not particularly well-advised, students falling out of the program
Concentrated in Social Sciences and Humanities
Also focus of this program’s intellectual core
Help students go on to a doctoral degree
Liberal Studies MA programs are fastest growing in the country, scattered across universities, courses taught by irregular faculty members
Cultivated interest across departments – Philosophy, LACS, History, Poli Sci, English, Anthropology, Music, Sociology
Interdiscplinary research on salient subjects: globalization, human rights, gender studies, etc.
Have this program serve as an engine for recruitment of international students
Students from China, Japan, Germany, UK, S. Korea, Taiwan, Iran, Jordan
UA been recognized by other universities
Recruit from pool of turned down Liberal Studies, PhD
The present proposal to recruit undergraduates to keep for an additional year at UAlbany
Modeled on BA/MA program in English department
BA English/MA Liberal Studies good prep for law school
Is a similar program present at other universities?
Don’t require the GRE for this program – because students apply in their Junior year – based on GPA, writing sample, letters of recommendation
Cultivated, individualized letters for recruitment
Hopes faculty in other departments would do the same thing
Would students only take classes in participating programs?
VOTE FAILED, DUE TO LACK OF QUARUM

Future Meetings