Graduate and Professional Student Council
General Assembly Meeting
3-25-2008 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Moment of Silence for Eve Carson
Voter Registration Information
Community Outreach Coordinator
No additions or corrections to Minutes
Minutes accepted as submitted.
Alethea Duncan – This week will be the PowWow, cosponsored with NASA; next week is the Masquerade Formal with tickets sold this week and next, $15 beforehand and $20 at the event. With your ticket you will get 2 DJs, 2 drink tickets and hearty appetizers. This is on Saturday April 5. All the Student Life committee members have tickets.
Supriya Munshaw – Duke is celebrating Earth month through April with lots of activities. GPSC will be having some community service events. April 5 Duke Forest Trailblazers and a Wakeview Elementary event where the school garden will be maintained. April 12 a cleanup of a stream. April 19th they’ll be working with SEEDS in Durham. April 26th they’ll be going to the Carnivore Preservation Trust. April 28th will be an Administrator’s Lunch Series with the leader of Campus Sustainability.
Quante Greenlee – There will be a Blood Drive for the Physician Assistant program on April 1 from 10am -2:30 pm. You will get a T-shirt if you give blood at this event. It will be at the Hanes House on Trent and Erwin.
Wadia Haddaji – Since the election season is here, we wanted to cover a few things on registration. We’re going to start with eligibility of voting. You need to be older than 18. International students cannot vote, including if you have a Green Card. Other than these rules, the states determine your eligibility. There are some states where if you have a criminal record you may not be able to vote or you may have a waiting period before you can vote. The other requirement is that you have to be legally mentally and psychologically competent.
Everyone has to register. In some states, the registration can occur on the day of the election (Idaho, NH, Wisconson, Wyoming). In other states, you have to register beforehand. Go to your state’s government’s website to get the absentee ballot application.
Another approach is absentee ballots. Some states you might have to justify your absence, whereas some states may not require an explanation. California has an option of a permanent absentee ballot.
If you move to school from a different state, and you live here, then you should vote in NC. You may be allowed to vote in your home state. If you live in campus housing, usually you need a signed affidavit or a form from the University saying you can vote here.
In Durham, you must register at least 25 days ahead of time and your registration form with all of your information will then be sent to you. If you’ve registered before you don’t need to register unless you’ve moved or changed your name.
Where can you get registration forms? Public libraries, DMVs, public high schools, customer service desk at Northgate Mall. You can also get them online from the Durham County website.
Cong Jin – Today she’ll present the survey results concerning conference travel fellowships here at Duke. For this survey there were 25 responses (23 PhD, 1 MD, 1 JD). If we see where they come from, there are 7 from the basic medical sciences, 5 from the natural/engineering sciences, the rest from social sciences and humanities. There is an even distribution in how long people have been here.
In the 3 different academic divisions, it seems that senior students in the social sciences students there are 6 conferences attended while here. In the medical sciences there is an average of 1 conference experience. For natural sciences/engineering senior students the number is about 6 as well.
Duke funding accounts for about 50-60% of the conference attendance for the social sciences students and the natural sciences/engineering students. For the basic medical sciences students, more like 100% is covered by Duke funding.
Other funding sources used included: Department/Program awards, conference awards, PI support, foundations outside Duke, internship funding. The funding at the University level is not that much of a factor here.
From the Graduate School administration, she obtained some data. In the last year, there were a total of 319 that benefited from this fellowship (94 from social sciences, 132 from natural sciences/engineering, the rest from medical sciences). It’s reported that about $474 are given on average for each conference. <1% of applications are denied (didn’t pass prelims or application was after the conference or students not registered). From the student data, the average conference length was 3 days.
For students who had applied before, it was easier for students to apply for Duke funding, but there were also people who found the process elaborate and wished it were more streamlined, or thought that it was difficult to keep track of receipts, or thought it was inconvenient to pick up the paperwork from the Department, etc.
Finally, people think the coverage is fine, in general (1/3 think it’s good, 1/3 think it’s adequate, 1/3 feel the coverage should be increased). Some people felt it would be good to increase the amount covered from $500 to $600.
Some comments included a desire for pre-prelim funding, for increasingly more stringent requirements for repeated applications from the same person, for better advertisement of the resources, and for increased funding for travel to and from airports.
Thank you to all who contributed to this survey.
Yvonne Ford – The Exec board is comprised of 11 people (2 people as co-chairs of Student Life). There is also a proposal for a Community Outreach Coordinator position to be added to Exec. We need leaders to run for these positions. You just have to be a GnP student, currently enrolled and you can’t hold more than one position at a time. The nominations can occur prior to the election meeting or during the election meeting. The nominee must officially accept the nomination. Self-nominations are allowed and encouraged. For nominations, send them to her at Yvonne.ford@duke.edu, and usually you should copy the person you are nominating.
There’s some helpful information. Candidate statements are due to Yvonne by Sunday April 6th. The election is Tuesday April 8. Candidates nominated during the meeting will also have the opportunity to address the GA before deliberation and voting. Be mindful that this new board will take office after the final GA meeting. The work of the GA continues through the summer through the action of the Exec board, who acts on behalf of the GA at this time.
There are two election information events, one tonight at Vita (formerly Verde, in Erwin Square near Parizade) to have some refreshments and to talk about positions you may be interested in running for. The other event will be April 1 at Tylers at 7:30 pm.
The average time per position per week varies by position, direct this question to individual members as desired. Nominations will be posted on the website as they are made, but will be posted by 5 pm by the day before, but this is also not the permanent slate because nominations will be accepted on the day of the election.
On the GPSC website there is a list of all of the offices with some position details, and there are also descriptions in the bylaws.
Yvonne Ford – This is sponsored by the Exec board and is presented by the Judicial Committee. What this would do is to create a new Exec position for a Community Outreach Coordinator. Part of the rationale for this is to create some permanence to a position that has been filled by the outstanding Julie Roy.
The proposed amendment is posted on the GPSC website. If there are questions, please email Yvonne.
Alethea Duncan – Right now Community Service is under Student Life, but this is difficult to do with all of the other events they plan so they were very in favor of this event as Student Life Co-Chairs.
Yvonne Ford – In the changes, there would be an added position with a description and would also take the responsibility for Community Service out from under the Student Life Co-Chairs.
David Kahler – There are two things that are key today. The President’s honoraria and next year’s proposed budget. This was sent out right before the meeting. He has a quick outline of the changes. The big ones are the retreat, where more money will be put in by GPSC along with hopes for about $4000 from external sources. The other big item are NAGPS conferences increasing from $3000 - $6000.
Ali Saaem – We wanted to set out to increase Duke’s presence on a national level. Unlike in previous years, we’ve sent double digits of people to various conferences. We currently have two people on the Exec board of NAGPS. We weren’t able to attend all the conferences this year, due to lack of funds. Next year he would like to ensure an increased Duke presence at these conferences.
Gautham Pandiyan – There have been many people who applied to go to these events recently that haven’t been able to due to funding restrictions. The interest has risen recently. NAGPS is the national version of GPSC. There are benefits to being in NAGPS, as all GnP students here are. You can go to conferences, you can be on the board, there is a health insurance comparison going on between many institutions nationwide.
Wadia Haddaji – There are many issues covered at these conferences that are applicable to us. Stipend taxation, international student issues, and others are treated.
David Kahler – There’s an anonymous motion to redistribute the President’s Honorarium evenly to the Exec board. This is $3000 and this would apply for this Exec Board.
Gautham Pandiyan – He seconds this motion to hear more discussion about it.
Wadia Haddaji – He does not agree with this. There are 11 people this would be distributed to. Also, this would really be a disincentive to the President, who spends the most time on his/her position.
Yvonne Ford – For clarification, the only honorarium is for the President, currently.
David Kahler – 3 years ago the honorarium had been split between the President and VP. Nationally, it seems that if the money is coming from the students there is not often honoraria. At schools where the money comes from the school, it is more likely that money is put into honoraria or even into stipends/fellowships for the Exec members.
Crystal Brown – She will say that from her perspective it is not about the money. She feels this is an excellent Exec board. If this is something that we want to do, she won’t take it personally.
[Closed Discussion amongst non-Exec Members]
Motion to distribute the President's Honorarium amongst the Exec Board defeated
David Kahler – There are several proposed changes to the budget. GA food will be increased unless you are okay with just pizza, in which case the current amount could be kept. Office supplies will be decreased, campout up a little, communications down a lot because we don’t use it.
There is a possibility of devoting $1000-1500 to cooperating with DSG to provide access to an attorney for student use, likely about once a week.
The actual budget has been sent out to you. Think it over so we can vote on the budget next meeting. After you consider it, you will have the opportunity to move to amend line items.
David Kahler – Everything we cover today recommends the advice of the SHIAC, is subject to the approval of the administration, is subject to all applicable laws and is subject to a contract of insurance between both parties.
It’s been 4 years since we sent out the last Request for Proposals (RFPs). We sent one out this year. This month we considered the top proposals – United Healthcare Student Resources, BCBS, Aetna Student Health. SHIAC has made the recommendation to Larry Moneta to accept the proposal of United Healthcare and now they will go through the background and rationale for this decision.
You may remember last year we changed our customer service provider from Hill, Chesson and Woody to a combination of Koster/BCBS. We have been with BCBS for 30 years and Hill, Chesson, Woody since the same time. Previous RFPs were done by Hill, Chesson, Woody but this year’s was done by SHIAC with the help of an independent consultant.
Michelle Tougas – She will give a background on the previous premiums and claims recently. Some may remember back in 2005 we switched to age-banding for premiums because the premiums that all students were paying were more expensive than the open market fee for young males, which are the cheapest to insure and so they were dropping out and endangering the program.
Amongst the age bands, claims increase based on age. The over 45 group is more expensive.
Eric Vance – What happens with insurance is that the claims determine the premiums. The insurance company predicts future claims based on past claims and then determines the premiums based on this, in addition to an administrative fee (25%). As student claims go up, the projected claims go up, and the premiums go up.
We were deciding between these companies. This past year there were a lot of complaints about Koster and BCBS, especially from students with families and the administrators. Customer service is a big deal if you are sick and so they really liked United’s customer service. It’s all under one roof and is very easy and several other schools recommended this service highly.
This year we’ll be changing the enrollment procedure so that all students will by default be enrolled. If you don’t want to pay the premium, you’ll go to the United Healthcare website and sign the waiver there. The waiver says that you need to have a health insurance policy with a US-based company, with coverage in Durham, with coverage for prescription drugs and mental health, with a catastrophic plan (no artificially low limits), and if you’re going abroad you have to have coverage overseas.
One important reason for choosing United is what’s called loss ratio. This is how much on top of the actual claims that the company tacks on for fees and profit. United had a lower target than BCBS, meaning that more of the money goes toward paying for healthcare and less goes toward their administrators.
In past years, we had about 10 million in premiums and 6.7 million was given out for health care. The target ratio for BCBS is 77%, so that year they gained 1 million extra dollars. This has been going on for three years. This year we’ll have a dividend account system, meaning that if the claims are under expectations, we get the money back. If we had this 3 years ago, we would have gotten 4.5 million back. This is a major reason to choose United. This money would be allowed to be used only for the benefit of students on the plan. Next year, if our claims are low and we got money back, the money would be put toward offsetting future costs. It is unlikely that there would be a refund, though this is an option. From the previous slide you see that the premiums are going up, as in the country. We’d prefer to have more gradual increases by offsetting rapid increases in premiums with this refund money.
Claire Gordy - The major changes that you’ll see is that we are moving away from co-insurance and moving toward a co-pay system. Also, we’re moving away from the deductable that you’d pay the first time you went to the doctor. So, to define some of these terms: the deductable is the amount you have to pay out of your pocket the first time you go to the doctor before the insurance kicks in (currently $150 and then BCBS pays 80% after that), coinsurance is the 80% that BCBS pays after the deductable and there is currently a $1500 limit on the coinsurance that students have to pay after which BCBS pays 100% of further claims. What we’re looking at next year is to have a $25 copay for visits, $45 for urgent care, $150 for ER, 3 tiers of payments for prescription drugs. Student health is still free. This helps because there are no deductables and you will be seeing a benefit the very first time you see a doctor. There will still be out-of-pocket maximums for visits and prescriptions. This will also include discounts on vision and dental care.
David Kahler – ER treatment for mental health was proposed to be free with this plan, there would be 60 mental health physician visits covered and both an inpatient and outpatient benefit for mental health, if the current proposal is accepted. Thus, mental health coverage has been increased.
The in-network providers will be changed slightly. There is a different set, but the PDC and the hospital are in-network and United will be contractually bound to keep them in-network for our plan. There are no referrals whatsoever. Surgeries in-network is 80/20, out of network is 70/30.
To clarify, this is United Student Resources, and not simply United.
Eric Vance – If we go over our projected claims for a year, we wouldn’t pay extra that year, but our premiums would probably go up the next year. However, they wouldn’t explicitly make up for the money they had lost in the year the claims were high, other than the premium increase based on the projected claims.
Motion to extend meeting for 10 minutes
Motion made and seconded
Motion carries
David Kahler – Extension of eligibility – COBRA. In this law it says that you can extend your insurance if you are fired. This isn’t a job, but we’re looking at including a COBRA-like extension plan for students. For example, a student who graduates in August and starts his/her job in mid-November might want the option to purchase some months of insurance to cover to prevent pre-existing exclusion issues later. There is a 6 month maximum and 150% of premium and is paid directly to United. Right now, it would only apply to the 2008-2009 policy year. They are looking into the cost to provide it for this year, and will notify students as soon as they know.
We have an included vision and dental discount plan and there will also be a voluntary dental insurance plan with a $50 deductable for non-preventative services, $1000 maximum, 80% is covered for surgical extractions. It doesn’t cover major services, but preventative services are free.
Eric Vance – Basically we’re proposing all rates stay the same except the over-45 group, which needs to be increased so it’s closer to the claims history. Right now there are about 150 people in the over-45 group.
David Kahler – There are some subsidies being provided by the youngest, single-person, age group (roughly $400) for higher-claim groups like over-45 individuals and families/spouses/children. Our proposed premiums for the lower age groups are the same. The max increases would be 12% for over 45, 4% for spouse+children, 6% for spouse.
Eric Vance – One thing to keep in mind is that students don’t pay the additional several hundred dollars in health fees, so the spouse coverage (which doesn’t include such a fee) is really pretty good.
Michelle Tougas – Take home points: waivers should be completed earlier, premiums shouldn’t be increased, pushing premiums to more closely match claims for fairness and the health of the system but we are keeping a subidy in place. We’re also going to see an increase in benefits.
Heather LaBreche – Will the Graduate School still be covering the premiums for graduate students?
Eric Vance – Yes, PhD students in years 1-6 will still be covered for the time being. There might be strain on the budget so this isn’t necessarily guaranteed for the extended time span.
Unidentified speaker – Will there be coverage outside of the local area?
Michelle Tougas – Yes. United Healthcare has multiple networks available to subscribers and we are getting the biggest coverage network with the best discounts among providers.
Unidentified speaker – So the $500 health fee, does it come out of the $1500 deductable?
SHIAC Reps – No. But it is still cheaper than you might be able to get.
Crystal Brown – She is thinking that we might be able to do the Think Tank on the last meeting, once the new Exec board is in place. This might be a good way to give feedback to the old Exec Board and give suggestions to the new Exec board.
Yvonne Ford – the next meeting is the election meeting on April 8 here in Law 3037. Join us at Vita tonight after this meeting if you’re interested in running for office.
Alethea Duncan – See me for Spring Formal tickets.
Adjourn: 8:41 pm