There is a law in New York that basically says that public business should be conducted publicly with enough notice to the public that any member of the public can attend to witness this public business conducted on behalf of the public if he or she so desires.  I realize that in that sentence I overuse a certain word, but I believe that I’m overusing it to make a point.  This law is known as New York State Open Meetings Law—or just OML, and the premise behind it seems obvious and right.  Since CUNY is a public university, all of our business is public business.

We haven’t, however, always been so compliant with OML. Recently, a student was barred from attending a College Association meeting at Hostos Community College and was arrested.  This student sued the university, and the university lost.  The case is known as Perez v. CUNY(2005). The opinion in Perez was a bit wider than just the purview of OML; it included questions of quorum, which is the definition of the minimum number of voting members who must be present in order for business to be conducted.  The number now works out to 50 percent of all seats plus one member.  “All seats” happens to include vacant seats as well.

These issues of quorum do matter.  For instance, last May, many degrees were in jeopardy of not being granted because a meeting of Graduate Council, the meeting in which all degrees are voted on to be accepted, didn’t make quorum.  A special meeting was called in that moment of crisis so that those who had earned their degrees could actually have them awarded that month.

At the DSC this year, we’ve had a strong focus on our own governance, partly because two of the co-chairs are members of the Graduate Council’s Committee on Structure and partly for other reasons. There has been a flurry of activity from the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, and a new version of the constitution—which has been reorganized, streamlined, and brought up to compliance with OML, in light of Perez—was passed at the November 20 Plenary meeting of the DSC.

So, go vote on the proposed constitution.  You can find the copies of the old as well as the new and a link to vote at http://www.cunydsc.org/constitution.

A few other announcements

Don’t forget about the free legal services provided by the Campus Legal Resource Network.  Sign up for an appointment on the DSC webpage.

There are chartered organizations that still need members to be charted: L’Atelier, Turkish Students Association, Mise en Scène, Japan Study Group, Luso-Brazilian Studies Group, Eastern European Studies Group, PART (Art History Journal), Free CUNY, Middle Eastern Studies Organization, and the Africa Research Group.  If you have any interest in joining these organizations or helping them get their charter, then please go and sign-up for them.  A link can be found on the DSC website; otherwise, point your browser to https://eballot.votenet.com/dsc/.  Please go make friends: join a chartered organization.

Did you know that you don’t need to pay Medicare or Social Security Tax on wages paid by an institution at which you go to school?  What’s nicer is that you can get all those taxes that you paid back from previous years; just think of it as a nice check to pay for that debt you’ll incur on Black Friday.  Here’s the process: get a letter from the Registrar’s Office (7201) certifying that you were a student for each semester that you have taught in the CUNY system (adjuncting at other schools counts as well). Then go to HR at the school you’re employed at, present them the letters, and ask for a refund.  It’ll help greatly if you have copies of your previous W–2’s so that you can provide them with the dollar amount that they owe you.  If they don’t comply, then contact the IRS.  There is a form on our website (www.cunydsc.org/forms) that you can send to the IRS.  With any luck, you’ll get a fat refund.

Perhaps most importantly as you feel the need to unwind at the end of the semester: free booze! We’ll throw our annual holiday party on December 11, starting around 8 PM.  The last one was too much of a success, and so we’re planning on redoubling our efforts and finding ways to fit even more people into our space in a more comfortable way.

Here is a last plea that starts in the form of a question: what do you want us to do?  As representatives, we need to represent you, and so, please send us issues that you find are pressing or just ones that should be addressed.  You can filter them through me: dsc@shawnrice.org, and I’ll make sure that they are heard in the appropriate committees.

Upcoming Meetings

(starting at 6pm in room 5414):

Plenary meetings — Dec. 11, 2009, Feb. 5, 2009

Steering Committee meetings — Dec. 4, 2009, Jan. 29, 2010

Party: Dec. 11, 2009, starting at 8pm in rooms 5414 and 5409.

Share on Facebook

For this month’s installment of the DSC page, we have a mix of the practical as well as a more reflective section about what it means to be a student at the Graduate Center and also be employed by the Graduate Center itself. Let’s start with the practical.

Party

We’re having a party, and you’re invited. Find it on October 23, starting at 8pm in 5414. There will be booze, and there will be food; but, really, what more do you need for a way to let off some steam mid-semester?

Meetings

We have three more plenary meetings this semester: October 23, November 11, and December 11. All the meetings start at 6pm in room 5414. Everyone is welcome; please come if you have any interest.

Free Legal Consultations

Free legal advice is available for you at the Graduate Center. Look on the DSC website (www.cunydsc.org) for times and a form to signup. Walk-ins are welcome, time permitting.

Travel Grants

Go to a conference. Really, it helps your CV. Before you go, apply for a travel grant for up to $300. Save your receipts. Forms are available on the DSC website.

Voting for Chartered Organizations

Next, chartered organizations need to turn in rosters quite often to remain active in the eyes of the DSC. This has always been a tedious process for both the chairs of the organizations as well as for the Co-Chair for Student Affairs. This year, we’ve implemented a much more intelligent system that works through Votenet, the voting system that we use to run our elections.

Now, the chartered organization chairs no longer need to chase down members and potential members to receive the requisite number of signatures; instead you should receive a link to the voting system in which you can “vote” for the organizations, which is, effectively, a signature.

If you haven’t received an email, then please look at the DSC website for a link to the voting system. You might even find new organizations that you want to join.

•  •  •

Let’s move to the reflective. As graduate students in the Graduate Center, we hold the obvious position of being, well, students. I generally think of myself as a student first. Yet, much, perhaps too much, of my week is spent planning for classes that I’m about to teach and grading papers.

This is because I’m also an adjunct, and I probably spend each week worrying more about what and how I’m going to teach than I do with my work. In all likelihood, most of you are in the same boat, acting as both students and teachers, occupying both sides of the university.

As an adjunct, I am paid by Hunter College, and so there is a split: I’m a student of the Graduate School, and I’m an employee of Hunter College. However, those who have teaching fellowships, those who are Grad B’s and C’s are both students and employees of the Graduate School, making for a schizophrenic situation. But, as you might occupy both of these positions at once, most of us are looked at as students first and perhaps as students and students alone.

One practical manifestation of this situation, and the one that I want to focus on, is that Grad B’s and C’s make up a population of part-time instructional faculty at the Graduate School. Yes, you are teaching at other campuses, but you are technically employees of the Graduate School and not the campus at which you teach. Because of this, for lack of a better word, weirdness, we don’t have a seat that is due to us on the University Faculty Senate. I should actually say you don’t because, as an adjunct, I’m not one of the over 600 part-time faculty who are not represented.

And, even more practical, the DSC is sponsoring a snap-election of all part-time instructional faculty at the Graduate Center—a population that contains perhaps thirty others besides Grad B’s and C’s— in order to elect pro tempore representative to send to UFS.

So, if you fall into one of these categories, look out for the call for nominations. 

Share on Facebook

A New Start

As you know, this year started off with the biggest payroll fiasco that we’ve seen to date. And, as student representative and student advocates, we in the Executive and Steering Committees of the Doctoral Students’ Council have responded as quickly as possible. We have met with many different levels of administrators, trying to work out a coherent account of what went wrong when no coherent account was available. And we have worked with the tireless coordinators of the Adjunct Project, Renee McGarry and Alison Powell, to help disseminate this information and provide you possible solutions if you didn’t get paid.  And we must also thank the Bursar, Ab Abraham for the countless hours of unpaid overtime that he put in so that he could process paycheck advances for those students who didn’t get paid.  If you do have any unresolved horror stories, please email them to us so that we can help (dsc@cunydsc.org).

Here are the DSC people who have already started and will continue to work for you this year.

New Leadership

First, Suzanne Tamang has replaced Gregory Donovan as the new Co-Chair for Student Affairs.  She comes from the Computer Science program.  Last year she served on the Steering Committee and on the Graduate Council’s Committee for Structure.  We’re glad to have kept her around.

Shawn Rice has stepped into Rob Faunce’s old office, Co-Chair for Communications.  You will undoubtedly get way too many emails from him this semester regarding things that we hope you find informative, relevant, and useful.

Chris Sula returns for his second shot at the Co-Chair for Business.  Over the summer, we all appreciated Chris’ energy and dedication: he spent most of his summer trying to catalog and make sense of all of our financial records dating back to 1991. He hails from the Philosophy program.

Ally Foster from the English program consented to remain in her position as the University Student Senate Representative.  We all admire the endless patience that she has to remain in this position.

Jill Belli, also from the English program, is serving her second term on the Steering Committee.

Anick Boyd from the Comparative Literature program has become a new Steering Committee member.  You might know her in her alternate capacity as the “nice one” from the registrar’s desk.

Kyle Ferguson, also from philosophy, spent his summer training chimpanzees at a lab in Louisiana, and now he happily serves on both grants committees.

Kim Libman is also a fresh face on the Steering Committee. She is from Environmental Psychology where she studies urban food environments and plans to bring her expertise to work for us as she now chairs the Health Issues Committee.

From Anthropology, Christine Pinnock has returned to the steering committee for a second term and keeps us all mindful that some Graduate Center students are often in the field or stationed in labs not at 365 Fifth Ave.

Jared Simard, a representative of the Classics program, is starting his first term on the Steering Committee.  He aims to make student participation in program governance easier and more transparent.

We hope to do many things this year.  We hope to convince facilities to put in more electric plugs around the building to keep up with the number of students who want to use their laptops for more than two hours at a time.  We plan to act as student advocates by trying to ensure that students have adequate representation within their programs.  And, as usual, we plan to fight hard to expand the Travel and Research fund.

Emergency Loan Fund and Dissertation Fellowships

Last years’ DSC did a few things that were under-publicized but that they deserve much credit for doing.  The first is that they created four new dissertation fellowships to be distributed across the major fields in the Graduate School. They also contributed a large amount of money to an emergency loan fund, and their donation was matched by a generous alumnus.  The emergency loan fund is meant for students in times of crisis, be they crises brought about by a sudden change in financial aid status or, perhaps, an employer failing to pay on time.  Lastly, they also earmarked monies to try to make the ever-precarious and always underfunded Travel and Research Grant program more stable.

Free Legal Advice

In the last weeks of the summer, in late August, the Co-Chairs had an idea to start offering free legal services to students.  We didn’t think that we would be able to realize this idea until at least the Spring semester, but we asked the CUNY School of Law if they have any training programs for their students to provide legal advice or other services.  The Dean then pointed us to the Community Legal Resource Network, a group of CUNY School of Law graduates who have banded together to provide affordable legal services for those who normally wouldn’t be able to afford them.  The CLRN already had relationships with Baruch and Queens Colleges, and so we were able to use the same structure and network for the Graduate Center.  Now, since the first day of the semester, we have free legal advice available for you one day a week, alternating between afternoons and evenings.  Sign up for an appointment on the DSC website (www.cunydsc.org), or stop by for a walk-in appointment.

New Website

Over the summer, we redesigned the website so that we could streamline the process of many of our services.  For instance, to enter the locker lottery (for lockers in 5409 and 5414), one used to have to fill out a paper form and drop it off by our office.  Now you all received an email with a link to simple web form to sign up for the lottery.  (Un)fortunately this worked well, which is a testament that paper forms are so 2002.  We received 291 locker requests, up from 110 the year before.  That shows that we made the process easier, and, in turn reduced the chance of any person getting a locker from 54% to 21%.  We’ll now work on getting more lockers.

Similarly, we have moved old paper systems to the website, like Room Requests, Check Requests, Grant Applications, and Legal Appointments.  You can also see all of the events going on in 5414, 5409, and 5489 by clicking on the reservation calendar on our website.

We’ve also started posting short updates on an almost-daily basis, which get fed into our Twitter (www.twiter.com/cunydsc) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/cunydsc) pages. So far, posts have included announcements about important meetings and funding opportunities, as well as reminders about services we provide. They were also crucial in getting the word out about the payroll crisis.

Please, Get Involved

We will work for you, but we’d rather work with you.  Please, bring us your concerns.  If you’re having trouble with services on the campus and don’t know how to address them, come talk to us.  If you don’t like what we’re  doing send us an email (dsc@cunydsc.org), or, better, come talk to us in person, or, even better, come to one of our meetings and address the DSC as a body.  We are here to represent you, and we can’t do that well if we don’t know how you need to be represented.  Also, come unwind with us at our parties.  This semester, we’ll be throwing a Halloween Bash (costumes optional).  The party will be a few days before the holiday, but we can celebrate anyway (October 23^rd @ 8pm in room 5409).  We’ll also have an end of the semester party to help you blow off steam.  That one is on December 11^th.

Plenary Meetings (all are in 5414 and start at 6pm):

—Septemer 25^th,

—October 23^rd,

—November 20^th,

—December 11^th.

Share on Facebook

Adjunct Project

Keep up to date with the DSC’s Adjunct Project at http://opencuny.org/adjunctproject/.

The Adjunct Project exists to advocate for the rights of all graduate students working as adjuncts in CUNY, and liaises with other labor organizations to fight for fair working conditions.

Reservations!

If you check in at www.cunydsc.org, you’ll find that you can now check Room Reservations for 5414, 5409, and 5489 along the left-side tabs. Similarly, you can retrieve the form for room reservations at our website, www.cunydsc.org, and submit to dsc@cunydsc.org for processing via email. Very easy!

If you wish to borrow our coffee urns, that form is also at www.cunydsc.org. Isn’t progress wonderful?

Please note the various rules and responsibilities that go with reserving DSC rooms and coffee urns–up to and including accountability for the student events that go on in the rooms, and the care and upkeep of DSC property. These rules and responsibilities are clearly delineated in the forms you fill out, so there are no surprises!

To-do List: Elections!

As you read this, elections have begun: keep checking www.cunydsc.org/vote for constant updates on the election, and for complete instructions on how to participate (the same ones you hopefully received on a beautiful blue-green-on-white postcard, or in print in The Advocate, or in an email forwarded from your APO, EO or DSC rep or someone else…). Your voice matters! It always does!

Remember: no paper ballots this year! Go green, and participate. It’s your vote, your voice, your DSC!

The DSC Webpage

Have you checked out the website lately? www.cunydsc.org continues to be a hotbed of excitement, with news, information, and direction on the issues of the day. Remember to regularly visit www.cunydsc.org to keep up to date with the DSC!

DSC Group Page

Have you joined the DSC’s Google Groups page? It is free and available to all students, and provides you with direct access to many important announcements, as well as allowing students to post their own messages and receive replies from other students. Of course you can elect to receive no messages through this system, even after you are registered.

Once you are registered with the group, you can configure your profile so that you receive messages in one of four ways:

1. No emails at all (you go to the group page to view posted messages)
2. Individual emails
3. Digest emails in abridged form (you receive one email per day with the headings of recent postings)
4. Digest emails (you receive one email per day with the full body of recent messages)

It takes less than a minute to sign up and gives you more control over how you receive information. You don’t have to have a Gmail account to register with the group. You can visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/cunydsc.

DSC Calendar

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

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

April 24, 6:00 p.m.

May 8, 5:00 p.m. (2008-9 reps)

May 8, 6:00 p.m. (2009-10 reps)

Steering Committee Meeting

May 15, 5:00 p.m., room 5409 (2008-9 and 2009-10 Steering Committee members)

Other Committees of the DSC

Please check on our regularly updated website, www.cunydsc.org, for listings of other meetings of the DSC as they are scheduled and published to our website.

Chartered Organization News

In accordance with DSC Bylaw 2.6, the DSC Steering Committee voted to initiate the de-chartering process of the following four groups on March 6, 2009:

Association for Computer Machinery

The French Interdisciplinary Group for 17th Century Studies

The Future is Green Club

International Socialists’ Organization

Each of these groups have failed to submit rosters, activity reports, or check requests for at least the past three semesters.

It is the DSC’s preference that these organizations be re-activated, rather than de-chartered. Re-activation will entail the submission of a valid roster as well as a group constitution. Please consult DSC Bylaw 2 for what constitutes valid rosters and constitutions.

Please contact Gregory Donovan, the DSC Co-Chair for Student Affairs, if you are interested in “re-activating” one of these groups: dsc@gregorydonovan.org.

Up-to-date information on this de-chartering process can be found at: http://cunydsc.org/index.php/DeChartering_Process

A Word from Members of the Media Board

We are pleased to announce that James Hoff has agreed to return again as Editor-in-Chief of the Advocate. James has been, for so many years now, an active presence in our community, steering the Advocate’s content to aggressively protect the rights and privileges of our students; his continued leadership will guarantee that the Advocate will continue to be a well-designed, well-executed monthly newspaper serving the needs of the graduate student community at the Graduate Center and beyond.

We are also committed to encouraging students to be more involved with the Advocate. Part of the mission of the newspaper is to address concerns across disciplines that affect student life at the GC.

Please continue to read the Advocate–whether in print or on the web (a web presence we hope will be improved over the next year for easier navigation and readability).

Please consider writing for the Advocate–a variety of voices is so crucial to creating a newspaper that accurately reflects the rich tapestry of our community. Information is available on the Advocate website and via email at advocate@gc.cuny.edu on how to become a part of the Advocate–your student newspaper.

And if you have praise or concern regarding the newspaper, please feel free to direct it to the DSC at dsc@cunydsc.org, and they will forward it to the Media Board.

Rob Faunce, Chair, Media Board

Denise Torres, Member, Media Board 

Share on Facebook

Please attend upcoming plenaries to discuss the myriad issues in the Graduate Center, and to hear from GC administrators addressing student concerns. Plenaries are always open to the public–our next one is at 6 pm on March 20, and will feature Vice President for Student Affairs Matthew Schoengood.

We will continue to keep abreast of developments and post to our website, www.cunydsc.org, and continue to invite speakers to our plenaries who can speak directly to student needs and concerns.

Movies, Movies, Movies

For a mere $6 per pass, you, too, can go to the movies using our AMC Silver movie passes.

Drop by the office (GC 5495) during office hours (check www.cunydsc.org for updated office hours), and remember to bring your current GC ID and a checkbook to buy movie passes. For more information, drop by the DSC office!

To-do List: Nominations, Check. Elections, Upcoming!

Nominations are done! Thank you so much for nominating yourself, your friend, your peers, and everyone and anyone else who has been nominated for various DSC positions. Now, the Steering Committee is tabulating, formulating, and creating the ballot for Elections!

Elections begin April 1: keep checking www.cunydsc.org/vote for regular updates on the election, and for complete instructions on how to participate (the same ones you hopefully received in print in The Advocate, or in an email forwarded from your APO or EO or DSC rep or someone else…)

Remember: no paper ballots this year! Go green, and participate. It’s your vote, your voice, your DSC!

DSC Spring Party

The DSC Spring Party will be held on the evening of March 20th, from 8:00-11:00 p.m., in rooms 5414 and 5409.

Beverages and snacks will be served. We’re still working on a theme, but St. Paddy’s wares are never out of fashion in mid-March, right?

Please join your fellow students, your hard-working peers, and enjoy some mid-semester merriment and mirth!

DSC Calendar

The DSC has the following meetings scheduled.

Guests are always welcome.

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

March 20, 6p.m.

April 24, 6p.m.

May 8, 5p.m. (2008-09 reps)

May 8, 6p.m. (2009-10 reps)

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

April 3, 6p.m.

May 15, 5p.m., room 5409 (2008-9 and 2009-10 Steering Committee members)

Media Board Meeting

March 27, 5p.m., room 5489

Spring DSC Party

March 20, 8p.m., room 5414

Other Committees of the DSC

Please check our website, www.cunydsc.org, for listings of other meetings of the DSC as they are scheduled and published to our website.

Share on Facebook

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. 

Share on Facebook

Jill Belli is in her 4th year at the GC, working towards a PhD in English as well as certificates in American Studies and Interactive Technology & Pedagogy. Her interests also center on Composition & Rhetoric and Utopian Studies, subjects she teaches as a Chancellor’s Fellow at Queens College. After serving as a DSC At-Large representative last year, Jill is returning as an English program representative, member of the Steering Committee, member of the Tech Fee Committee, and co-chair of the Health Issues Committee. She looks forward to meeting many of you as the semester gets underway!

Gregory Donovan is the returning Co-Chair for Student Affairs of the Doctoral Students Council. He is beginning his fifth year as a PhD student in Environmental Psychology and is a certificate candidate in Interactive Technology & Pedagogy. Gregory also serves as a student representative on the Graduate Council’s Information Technology Committee and the Interactive Technology & Pedagogy Doctoral Certificate Program’s Executive Committee. He has previously served as an At-Large Representative for the DSC, as a Student Representative on the Graduate Center Technology Fee Committee and as the Environmental Psychology Student Officer for Academic Appeals. His writing and research concerns how cyberspace(s) shape young people’s identity development, education, and political engagement within urban environments. These interests, particularly as they regard educational and participatory cyberspace(s), are what he would like to advocate for within and on behalf of the Doctoral Students Council.

Rob Faunce is a fifth year PhD student in English, with emphases on queer studies, 20th century world literature, and intersectional theses. As a third year Steering Committee member and in his second term as Co-Chair for Communications, he is eager to keep lines of communication open with the GC community — so please feel free to contact him directly at robfaunce@gmail.com whenever a question, comment, or concern strikes. Rob also sits on the Executive Committee of Graduate Council and is a full-time lecturer in the Program for Writing & Rhetoric at SUNY — Stony Brook.

Allyson Foster is a 5th year PhD student in the English program, with a specialization in medieval literature. Her research interests include late medieval women’s literary culture, manuscript studies, and medievalism in the Victorian period. She is currently a Chancellor’s Teaching Fellow at Hunter College, and also teaches literature at Barnard College.

Anton Masterovoy is a student in the History PhD program. He is interested in helping students with all matters related to our major research tool and workspace — the GC Library, and hence chairs the Library Committee. Let’s work together on this!

Christine Pinnock is a 4th year doctoral student in the Anthropology program. Her research interests engage gender, immigration, kinship networks, and labor with a particular focus on Afro-Caribbean domestic workers in the U.S. and their social networks outside of the formal economy. This will be Christine’s first-year on the Steering Committee and she hopes to work towards developing a mentoring program at the G C. Please feel free to contact her for any questions or comments at christinepinnock@gmail.com.

Chris Alen Sula is a doctoral candidate in philosophy and a member of the doctoral certificate program in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. His research focuses on individuals’ interactions with each other and the world, including topics in metaethics, intentionality, and cognitive science, as well empirical work in moral psychology and evolutionary biology and formal models of social behavior and decision making. He is currently a Writing Fellow at Lehman College, where he previously taught for three years.

Denise Torres is a third year student in the social welfare program. She is a former homeless healthcare administrator and clinician who remains actively involved in assuring the delivery of health and behavioral health services to vulnerable populations. She has served as her Program Representative, as Business Co-Chair, and on Steering over the last two years. As a social work clinician she has worked on the Wellness Center situation and has chaired the Health Issues Committee. She is happy to be returning to serve the GC community and looks forward to an exciting and productive year!

Tasha Youstin is a student in the Criminal Justice Doctoral Program housed out of John Jay College on West 59th street. She received her MA in Criminology from the University of Florida. This will be Tasha’s first year serving on the Steering Committee, and she is enthusiastic about being a liaison to other students while helping to make policy improvement that will affect the GC community.

Tasha’s main focus this year will be on raising the estimated cost of attendance at the G C in order to allow student to take out more money in federal student loans. Tasha is a published author in the field of Criminology and focuses on sex offenders, theory testing, and statistical methodology. Aside from school, Tasha is a musician and can often be found singing in pubs around New York on the weekends. She loves to travel and spend time with her 2 year old dog — a puggle named Odin.

Summer Lovin’ Happened So Fast… Summer at the GC was not dull. Health insurance is coming (we are told), a new Nurse Practitioner is actually in the building (make an appointment if you need one!), a new Provost has been announced and will be welcomed very soon, the Technology Fee was raised by 80th St (if you blinked, you missed it) at a July meeting. Tell your DSC rep how you feel — if you don’t know him/her/them, visit cunydsc.org to find out!

Special Guest(s) at the DSC Plenary! With all the action over the summer in the Graduate Center, we needed special guests to clarify and elucidate what’s gone on. In that vein, we have enlisted many, many speakers to discuss the new Nurse Practitioner at the Wellness Center, the announcement of a new Provost, the Technology Fee increase that has surprised us all as we pay our bill this Fall, and much, much more: VP for Student Affairs Matthew Schoengood, Director of Student Affairs Sharon Lerner, Associate Director of Student Affairs and Director of Student Services Elise Perram, and Assistant VP for Information Technology Robert Campbell. All are welcome at a DSC Plenary: September 12, 6pm, room 5414 of the Graduate Center.

Important Dates DSC Plenary Meetings: Sept. 12

Oct. 24 (Fall party to follow)

Nov. 21

Dec. 12 (holiday party to follow)

DSC Steering Committee Meetings: Aug. 29

Oct. 3

Nov. 7

Dec. 5

DSO Media Board Meetings: Sept. 19

Nov. 14 

Share on Facebook

Looking to 2008-09

We’ve taken a moment to consider the accomplishments of the last year as we contemplate new ways to continue to improve student life at the Graduate Center.

We instituted an online elections process that reduced costs dramatically (postage alone was over $4000!) and yielded additional nominations and an over 7.7% voting turnout — a roughly 50% increase from last year! We’re thrilled by the turnout — showing our students care about participating in the democratic process of their representation — and we are already thinking about ways to improve it for next year!

The DSC has revamped its website, creating a more streamlined resource for students (visit www.cunydsc.org for many of your DSC needs!). In doing do, we reduced web operating costs over 70% while creating a more efficient back-end system — and we integrated this reduction into the 2008-09 budget!

We’ve welcomed the addition of five new chartered organizations (CUNY Women in Science, Engineering and Math; Early Modern Interdisciplinary Group; The GC Poetics Group; The Spatial Scholars Group; and The Eastern European Studies Group)! See www.cunydsc.org for more information on how you can charter your new organization!

We’ve responded to the Master Plan under consideration, and lobbied with Acting Provosts Edwards and Wrigley on meeting graduate student needs in the CUNY vision for the next four years.

We’ve worked to obtain health insurance for our graduate students, including lobbying efforts in Albany and participation in a rally outside the Graduate Center, and funding the massive letter-writing campaign spearheaded by the DSC Adjunct Project.

We’ve worked with Student Affairs to resolve the Wellness Center crisis, and implemented stopgap services. As this has dragged on all year, we’ve worked with Student Affairs to begin the development of safeguards to ensure this doesn’t happen again, including participating in the interview process for the new Nurse Practitioner.

We prevented the switch to Windows Live Hotmail by devising a White Paper in strong opposition to Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of our email services. We will continue to work to ensure a fair email system is created for graduate students. Go to www.cunydsc.org/email to read the history of the Microsoft situation, see our White Paper, sign our petition, and keep abreast of ongoing developments.

We’ve negotiated an extension of Travel & Research funds through the Office of Student Affairs, with pending additional funds from the DSC, to support the increased need for support of our community as it exercises its travel & research needs at the GC, across CUNY, and at conferences across this country!

Working with Mina Rees archivist John Rothman, we established the DSC archives in the Mina Rees Archive area. Indexing has begun, and the DSC (Area VIII to you budding researchers!) will have an operational archive in Fall 2008!

We secured a grant from the University Student Senate to provide additional funding to the Child Care Center.

We campaigned for and secured increased student representation on the Provost Search Committee.

Acting on the needs of our community, we helped establish two nursing rooms in the pantries on Floors 3 & 8 which offer our nursing mothers additional private spaces to attend to their children’s needs while at the Graduate Center.

We’ve sold over 600 movie tickets, held three wildly successful parties, two caffeinated coffee hours, achieved quorum at every meeting while maintaining membership at over 80% of possible seats filled with certified members, funded 28 Cultural Affairs & Professional Development grants, and contributed lots of door prizes to this year’s Wellness Festival.

We added this additional issue of the GC Advocate, making a grand total of four issues this semester, and seven issues in the 2007-8 academic year. We also approved seven issues for next academic year, so keep looking out for fresh copies of the Advocate!

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

Results: 2008-09 dsc elections!

For more about the positions and their responsibilities, please see http://cunydsc.org/vote. For updated elections results as they happen, check http://cunydsc.org/index.php/2008-9results. The below results are as of 5/8/08. 337 votes were cast, representing over 7.7% turnout.

All results are listed in descending order of vote total.

Faculty/Student Disciplinary Panel:

• Alissa Ackerman, Gregory Donovan, Crystal Rodriguez, Stephanie Domenici, Carolina Barrera-Tobon, Nazreen Bacchus

Media Board:

• Denise Torres, Gregory Donovan

SERC:

• Brenda Vollman, Alissa Ackerman, Carolina Barrera-Tobon

Department Academic Appeals Officers

• Anthropology: TBA
• Biology-PhD Program: Rachel Meyer
• Biomedical Eng-PhD Program: TBA
• Biopsy/Behvr Neuro-PhD Program: Gayle Serlin
• Civil Eng-PhD Program: Rouzbeh Nazari
• Classics-PhD Program: Michael Broder
• Comparative Lit-PhD Program: Leah Anderst
• Computer Science-PhD Program: Jeremy Seideman
• Criminal Justice-PhD Program: Meghan Sacks
• English: TBA
• Environmental Psych-PhD Prog: Desiree Fields
• Hisp/Luso Braz L&L-PhD Program: Carolina Barrera-Tobon
• History-PhD Program: Arto Artinian
• Political Science-PhD Program: TBA
• Social Welfare-PhD Program: Denise Torres
• Sociology-PhD Program: Nazreen Bacchus
• Departments without student Academic Appeals Officers: Art History, Audiology, Biochemistry, Business, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cog, Brain & Behvr, Developmental Psychology, Earth & Env Sci, Economics, Educational Psychology, Electrical Engineering, Forensic Psychology, French, German, Industrial/Org Psychology, Learning Processes, Linguistics, MALS, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Music DMA, Music PhD, Neuropsychology, Nursing, Philosophy, Physical Therapy, Physics, Public Health, Social Personality, Speech/Hearing Sciences, Theatre, Urban Education

DSC Departmental Representation

• Anthropology (2): Christine Pinnock, Mariya Radeva
• Art History (2): Whitney Thompson, TBA
• Biochemistry (1): Richard Able
• Biology (3): Oren Tzfadia, Samantha Sheppard, Kathleen Schnaars Uvino
• Chemistry (1/2): TBA
• Classics (1): Jared Simard
• Comparative Literature (2): Anick Boyd, Anna Finkelstern
• Computer Science (2): Jeremy Seideman, Suzanne Tamang
• Criminal Justice (2): Julie Viollaz, Tasha Youstin
• Earth and Environmental Science (1): TBA
• Engineering: Biomedical (1): Xiang (Ian) Gu
• Engineering: Chemical (1): Mehrdad Kheiripour
• Engineering: Civil (1): Rouzbeh Nazari
• English (3): Jill Belli, Allyson Foster, Amanda Springs
• French (1): Chong Wojtkowski
• Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Lit (2): Efrain Cardenas, Teresa Berenice Darwich
• History (2): Igor Draskovic, Anton Masterovoy
• Linguistics (1): Elizabeth Pratt
• Mathematics (1/2): TBA
• Music-PhD (2): Inessa Bazayev, Rachel Lumsden
• Nursing Science (1): TBA
• Philosophy (2): Kyle Ferguson, Chris Sula
• Political Science (2): Aaron Ibur, Patricia Stapleton
• Public Health (1): TBA
• Psychology: Bio (1): Preston Foerder
• Psychology: Developmental (1): TBA
• Psychology: Environmental (1): Stephanie Domenici Cabonargi
• Psychology: Forensic (1): TBA
• Psychology: Industrial and Organizational (1): Kimberly Iaffaldano
• Psychology: Learning Processes (1): Matthew Taylor
• Psychology: Social Personality (1): Stephanie Anderson
• Social Welfare (1): Larry Iannotti
• Sociology (2): Nazreen Bacchus, TBA
• Speech & Hearing Services (1): TBA
• Theatre (1): Frank Episale
• Urban Education (2): TBA (2)

DSC At-large Representation (22):

• Rob Faunce, Denise Torres, Gregory Donovan, Ericka Calton, Brenda Vollman, Lauren Klein, Armin Lahiji, Karyn Collie, Pamela Proscia, Boris Daussa Pastor, John DeCarlo, Charles Lieberman, Taylor Kennamer, Ethan Zadoff, Phillip Kopp, Linda Neiberg, Ian Foster, Neil Meyer, Rachel Meyer, Robert Azzarello, Andrew Dicus, TBA

Open seats for departmental representation (18):

• Audiology (1), Business (1), Chemistry (1/2), Economics (1), Engineering: Electrical (1), Engineering: Mechanical (1), German (1), Liberal Studies (1), Mathematics (1/2), Music-DMA (1), Physical Therapy (1), Physics (1), Psychology: Clinical (1), Psychology: Cognition, Brain, Behavior (1), Psychology: Cognitive Neuroscience (1), Psychology: Educational (2), Psychology: Neuropsychology (1).

Share on Facebook

It’s been a busy month in the struggle to get health insurance. Members of the DSC participated in lobbying trips to Albany to speak directly to lawmakers about this fundamental need that is not being met currently. The Adjunct Project has been particularly active (as you can see from Carl Lindskoog’s article on this topic elsewhere in this issue).

Please keep up the fight! Send emails and letters to your assemblypeople and senators. Up-to-the-minute information can always be found on www.cunydsc.org! Continue to press for your needs to be fulfilled – we need health insurance now!

Reservations!

If you check in at www.cunydsc.org, you’ll find that you can now check Room Reservations for 5414, 5409, and 5489 along the left-side tabs. Similarly, you can now retrieve the form for room reservations at our website, www.cunydsc.org, and submit to dsc@cunydsc.org for processing via email. Very easy!

If you wish to borrow our coffee urns, that form is also at www.cunydsc.org! Isn’t progress wonderful!

Please note the various rules and responsibilities that go with reserving DSC rooms and coffee urns – up to and including accountability for the student events that go on in the rooms, and the care and upkeep of DSC property.

These rules and responsibilities are clearly delineated in the forms you fill out, so there are no surprises!

To-do List: Elections!

As you read this, elections have begun: keep checking www.cunydsc.org/vote for constant updates on the election, and for complete instructions on how to participate (the same ones you hopefully received on a beautiful blue-green-on-white postcard, or in print in The GC Advocate, or in an email forwarded from your APO or EO or DSC rep. or someone else…). Your voice matters! It always does!

Remember: no paper ballots this year! Go green, and participate. It’s your vote, your voice, your DSC!

The DSC Webpage

Have you checked out the website lately? www.cunydsc.org continues to be a hotbed of excitement, with much news, information, and direction on the issues of the day. Keep visiting www.cunydsc.org to keep up to date with the DSC!

DSC Group Page

Have you joined the DSC’s Google Groups page? It is free and available to all students, and provides you with direct access to many important announcements, as well as allowing students to post their own messages and receive replies from other students.

Of course you can elect to receive no messages through this system, even after you are registered.

Once you are registered with the group, you can configure your profile so that you receive messages in one of four ways:

1. No emails at all (you go to the group page to view posted messages)
2. Individual emails
3. Digest emails in abridged form (you receive one email per day with the headings of recent postings)
4. Digest emails (you receive one email per day with the full body of recent messages)

It takes less than a minute to sign up and gives you more control over how you receive information. You don’t have to have a Gmail account to register with the group. You can visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/cunydsc.

DSC Calendar

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

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

April 11, 6:00 p.m.

May 9, 5:00 p.m. (2007-8 reps)

May 9, 6:00 p.m. (2008-9 reps)

Steering Committee Meeting

May 16, 6:00 p.m., room 5409 (2007-8 and 2008-9 Steering Committee members)

Media Board Meeting

April 18, 5:00 p.m., room 5489

Other Committees of the DSC

Please check our website, www.cunydsc.org, for listings of other meetings of the DSC as they are scheduled and published to our website.

Share on Facebook

Ch-ch-ch-changes?

Please attend upcoming plenaries to discuss the myriad issues in the Graduate Center, and to hear from GC administrators addressing student concerns. Plenaries are always open to the public — our next one is at 6:00pm on March 14, and will feature Assistant Vice President for IT, Robert Campbell, Vice President for Student Affairs, Matthew Schoengood, and Associate Provost and Dean for Doctoral Science, Daniel Lemons. The April 11 meeting will feature President William Kelly.

We will continue to keep abreast of developments and post to our website, www.cunydsc.org, and continue to invite speakers to our plenaries who can speak directly to student needs and concerns.

Movies, movies, movies

For a mere $6 per pass, you, too, can go to the movies using our AMC Silver movie passes. Drop by the office (GC 5495) during office hours (check www.cunydsc.org for up-to-the-minute office hours), and remember to bring your current GC ID and a checkbook to buy movie passes. For more information, drop by the DSC office!

To-do list: nominations, check. Elections, upcoming!

Nominations are done! Thank you so much for nominating yourself, your friend, your peers, and everyone and anyone else who has been nominated for various DSC positions. Now, the Steering Committee is tabulating, formulating, and creating the ballot for Elections, which begin April 1: keep checking www.cunydsc.org/vote for constant updates on the election, and for complete instructions on how to participate (the same ones you hopefully received on a beautiful blue-green-on-white postcard, or in print in The GC Advocate, or in an email forwarded from your APO or EO or DSC rep or someone else…)

Remember: no paper ballots this year! Go green, and participate. It’s your vote, your voice, your DSC!

DSC spring party

The DSC Spring Party will be held on the evening of March 14, from 8:30-11:00 p.m., in rooms 5414 and 5409. Beverages and snacks will be served. We’re still working on a theme, but St. Paddy’s wares are never out of fashion in mid-March, right? Please join your fellow students, your hard-working peers, and enjoy some mid-semester merriment and mirth!

DSC calendar

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

PLENARY MEETINGS (all plenary meetings are held in room GC 5414)

• March 14, 6:00 p.m. April 11, 6:00 p.m.
• May 9, 5:00 p.m. (2007-8 reps) May 9, 6:00 p.m. (2008-9 reps)

STEERING COMMITTEE MEETINGS (all SC meetings are held in room GC 5489 except as noted)

• April 4, 6:00 p.m.
• May 16, 6:00 p.m., room 5409 (2007-8 and 2008-9 Steering Committee members)

MEDIA BOARD MEETING

• April 18, 5:00 p.m., room 5489

SCHOLARLY AWARDS COMMITTEE MEETING

• March 14, 4:30 p.m., room 5414

SPRING DSC PARTY

• March 14, 8:30 p.m., room 5414

OTHER COMMITTEES OF THE DSC

Please check our website, www.cunydsc.org, for listings of other meetings of the DSC as they are scheduled and published to our website.

Help wanted: Adjunct project coordinator

The DSC will be a hiring a new Adjunct Coordinator for 2008-9. This is a paid position.

Further information about the job can be found at the DSC website, www.cunydsc.org.

Please send resumes to robfaunce@gmail.com or DSC, Attn: Communications, 365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5491, New York, NY 10016.

Share on Facebook