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Looking Back, Looking Forward

by Advocate Staff


We’ve taken a moment to con­sider the accom­plish­ments of the last semes­ter as we con­tem­plate new ways to improve stu­dent life at the Grad­u­ate Cen­ter. The DSC has worked to ensure that tuition increases would not be imple­mented, and that ser­vices at the Grad­u­ate Cen­ter will con­tinue to be offered at cur­rent lev­els, if not exceeded. We’ve mon­i­tored the NYSHIP roll­out and worked with HR, the Provost’s Office, and Stu­dent Affairs to pro­vide timely infor­ma­tion to stu­dents about our long-overdue health insur­ance option for grad­u­ate stu­dents. We’ve con­tin­ued to work to main­tain the tar­geted Fall 2010 roll­out for the stu­dent dor­mi­tory in Long Island City. We’ve launched opencuny.org. We’ve imple­mented and par­tic­i­pated in a task force on print­ing at the Grad­u­ate Cen­ter. We’ve urged our reps to remind their depart­ments to have open depart­men­tal meet­ings, per our gov­er­nance. We brought news about Social Secu­rity and Medicare exemp­tions for GC stu­dents at CUNY cam­puses (http://opencuny.org/ adjunctproject/social-security-and-medicare-refunds/). We’ve spread the word about new IT ini­tia­tives, includ­ing the under­used lap­top loan pro­gram (http://web.gc.cuny.edu/informationtechnology/tech_svs/laptoploan.htm). We’ve seen the Advo­cate expand to four fall issues, and we’ve seen our mem­ber­ship aver­age over sev­enty rep­re­sen­ta­tives, with quo­rum achieved and exceeded com­fort­ably at every fall meet­ing. We’ve issued a pol­icy paper on Finan­cial Aid and cost-of-living that has been esca­lated to the high­est lev­els of CUNY, with promises to take our research and make changes to how our finan­cial aid is cal­cu­lated for grad­u­ate students.

Look­ing to this semes­ter: There will be online nom­i­nat­ing and vot­ing for DSC elec­tions, reduc­ing costs and reach­ing more stu­dents for inclu­sion in stu­dent gov­ern­ment (last year we dou­bled par­tic­i­pat­ing: let’s try do to it again!). Duplex print­ers are being rolled out in depart­ment lounges. There will be more com­mit­tees to sit on, and issues to watch out for. There will be more par­ties, meet­ings, com­mit­tees, and advo­cacy for stu­dent issues by your DSC.

Keep look­ing out for ways the DSC is serv­ing you: check the DSC news in The Advo­cate. Check out our web­site, www.cunydsc.org. Attend our meet­ings and events, which are adver­tised in The Advo­cate and on our website.

And if there’s more we can do — if there’s more you want to do — talk to us. Drop by room 5495. Call x7888. Email dsc.​steering.​committee@​gmail.​com. Come to a meet­ing (see dates/times below). Talk to your rep — or fill an open­ing in your depart­ment and become a rep.

DSC Com­mit­tee Reports

Schol­arly Awards Committee

The Stu­dent Schol­arly Achieve­ment Award was estab­lished by the DSC to rec­og­nize the efforts of doc­toral stu­dents engaged in schol­arly activ­i­ties in their fields. All stu­dents who wish to apply must be reg­is­tered in a pro­gram at the CUNY Grad­u­ate Cen­ter and must sub­mit a dossier out­lin­ing their schol­arly achieve­ments. All stu­dents are encour­aged to apply and should check the DSC web­site to view appli­ca­tion requirements.

For details on other com­mit­tees, please refer to www.cunydsc.org for meet­ings and minutes.

Health Issues Committee

The Health Issues Com­mit­tee has ambi­tious plans for the Spring semes­ter: fol­low­ing on the suc­cess­ful Fall 2008 blood drive, there will be a Feb­ru­ary blood drive (see www.cunydsc.org for more infor­ma­tion). Plans are under­way for the annual well­ness fair, and, in accord with our new health insur­ance sit­u­a­tions, the Com­mit­tee plans to start a blog at www.opencuny.org to help dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion about health/wellness for GC students.

DSC Cal­en­dar

The DSC has the fol­low­ing meet­ings sched­uled. Guests are always welcome.

Ple­nary Meet­ings (all ple­nary meet­ings are held in room GC 5414)

Feb­ru­ary 13. 6:00 p.m.

March 20, 6:00 p.m. (Spring Party to follow)

April 24, 6:00 p.m.

May 8, 5:00 p.m. (2007 – 8 reps) May 8, 6:00 p.m. (2008 – 9 reps)

Steer­ing Com­mit­tee Meet­ings (all SC meet­ings are held in room GC 5489 except as noted)

Jan­u­ary 30, 6:00 p.m.

March 6, 6:00 p.m.

April 3, 5:00 p.m.

May 15, 6:00 p.m., room 5409 (2008 – 9 and 2009-10 Steer­ing Com­mit­tee members)

Media Board Meeting

Feb­ru­ary 27, 5:00 p.m., room 5489

March 27, 5:00 p.m., room 5489

Spring DSC Party

March 20, 8:30 p.m., room 5414

Steer­ing Com­mit­tee Office Hours

Come visit us for all your stu­dent gov­ern­ment needs. Buy dis­counted movie tick­ets, make a room reser­va­tion, pick up forms and/or fly­ers, or just chew the fat about grad stu­dent life.

Jill Belli: Thurs­days 2-5p

Gre­gory Dono­van: Wednes­days 4-6p & Fri­days 1-5p

Rob Faunce: Fri­days 12-5p

Allyson Fos­ter: Wednes­days 11a-2p

Anton Mas­terovoy: Fri­days 9a-12p

Chris­tine Pin­nock: TBA

Chris Alen Sula: Fri­days 12-5p

Suzanne Tamang: Tues­days 1-4p

Denise Tor­res: varies

Tasha Youstin: Tues­days 6:30 – 9:30p

You’ll be able to find out up-to-the-moment office hours, and so much more, by vis­it­ing us on the web at http://cunydsc.org.

You can also reach us on the phone at (212)817‑7888, via e-mail at dsc.​steering.​committee@​gmail.​com, or in per­son at room 5495 of the GC. 

Posted by Advocate Staff on Feb 15th, 2009 and filed under DSC Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site

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