SASgov, General Body Meeting February 3, 2009 5:30-7:30 pm, 1st floor, 3619 Locust

Next Meeting: February 17, 2008, 6:00-7:30, Location: 3619 Locust Walk

Reps Present: Miriam Clinton, Kevin Funderburk, Serena Rezny, Melissa Venator, Charles Ham, Jos Lavery, Jacob Uriel (Sub), Allison Sullivan, Madeleine Wilcox, Raleigh Martin, Jonathan Fedors, Matthew Closter, Linda Lee, Andrew Hogan, Mary French, Robert Lannon, Mirko Visontai, Suzanne Bratt, Levi Thompson, Sarah Abichandani, Elske Straver, Bryan Chen, David Bateman, Junhow Wei, Stephanie Milk, Leslie Warden

Exec Present: Caroline Bishop, Carla Cue, Chris Schaefer, Rafael Walker, Andrew Rupinski, Deidre Loughridge

Agenda:

I. Committees/Dinner (5:30-6:30)
II. Election - GAPSA professional seat (6:30-6:40)
III. Approval of the Minutes (6:40-6:45)
IV. Speaker: Greta Lynn, Graduate English Association (6:45-7:00)
V. Graduate Student Listservs (7:00-7:10)
VI. GAPSA Report (7:10-7:20)
VII. Officer/Committee Reports (7:20-7:30)
VIII. New Business (7:30)

Details:

I. Committees/Dinner (5:30-6:30)

II. Election - GAPSA professional seat (6:30-6:40)

Jack Higgins: I am running for the GAPSA professional seat for SASgov. I have worked behind the scenes with Matt Closter on some surveys. I am very interested in doing the position because I would be proud to be a representative of so many diverse departments. I am a first year FELS student.

Jack Higgins was voted unanimously to the position of GAPSA professional seat representative for SASgov.

III. Approval of the Minutes (6:40-6:45)

Approved.

IV. Speaker: Greta Lynn, Graduate English Association (6:45-7:00)

Greta is interested in getting some information out so that some of the departments may be able to work together.

Greta: Grad students in the English department are finding themselves in dire straits when it comes to post-fellowship year (year 6 onward) funding, due to recent unexplained rules that have been levied against our budgeting practices. While we used to offer health insurance to any grad student teaching in LPS or in the department, the dean of funding is trying to prohibit this practice. Plus, our post-doc stipend– which are funded by the same source– have not risen with inflation, and now post-docs are asked to teach a 2-3 instead of 2-2.

Greta: Basically, I came to the meeting to put out feelers to see if students in other departments– especially the humanities– are facing similar post-fellowship year funding challenges. If so, I urge them to contact me at gll@sas.upenn.edu, because we are organizing to try to send a letter of recommendation to the dean of funding, as well as to put some pressure on the administration and our departments through other means, to combat what seems to be a systemic move toward offering less health insurance and less money for positions that used to guarantee both.

Leslie (GAPSA): Where is the funding coming from? Why?

Greta: It is money that comes from SAS through the department. Generally the department has complete control over the money. No reason was given for the directive that the department could not fund post fellowship students’ health insurance.

Linda (Folklore): What are the changes made to the post-docs?

Greta: The course load went from 2-2 to 2-3. All the small changes put together is very concerning. There was also no pay increase.

Linda: Is it possible to ask for that information from the graduate chairs?

Rafael (Policy): The Graduate Student English Association is taking hold of this issue, not SASgov.

V. Graduate Student Listservs (7:00-7:10)

Caroline: We are assuming that there are department graduate student listservs. Can students post to the listserv?

Some of the students do not have access to any listserv. Some of the lists have the faculty on the lists. Some people don’t know if they even have a list. The responses were varied.

VI. GAPSA Report (7:10-7:20)

Leslie: Important deadlines for funding: Travel grant deadline is this Friday, February 6 for research students and you have to be presenting. Professional student travel grant deadline is rolling. For now it is still a paper application and go to the third floor of the GSC and drop it off in a mailbox there. There is a leadership retreat with a February 20th deadline that happens March 13-14. There is a GAPSA Provost Interdisciplinary Award with a March 3rd due date. There is also a SAS travel subvention. Beware of your funding options! Go to the GAPSA website.

Caroline: Resolution passed in last general assembly meeting. It concerns university resources with children. GAPSA is trying to get the university to help students with children get more space and help with Penn cards, etc.

VII. Officer/Committee Reports (7:20-7:30)

Caroline (President): E-mails will now be forwarded to LPS students! Yay! Hopefully we will have greater LPS involvement.

Rafael (Policy): Now we can send out the Masters student survey with the LPS listserves. If anyone is interested in interviewing their graduate chair, please e-mail me. There has been some headway with the grievance procedure and it looks like it is almost done. I am working with the library on the task force this year that will later become GAPSA’s. Linda will probably be looking for people for a focus group on library usage, etc.

Deidre (Finance): We are reviewing interdisciplinary event applications. There were only 6 so there will be another due date.

Chris (PR): I am looking for someone who is interested in managing the website. If anyone is interested in taking it on, please e-mail me. No committee report.

Andrew (Social): There is a happy hour coming up. End of March will be next major event and April will be a trip to the Phillies.

VIII. New Business (7:30)