Claire Gordy – The Student Life Co-Chair election will occur via online survey and will be sent out tomorrow, but she needs everyone’s NetIDs in order to have the proper authentication. Be sure to send those to her in order to be able to vote, or else you will not be able to.

Alethea Duncan – There are some issues arising with regards to graduate student housing because they are renovating Few quad and taking the spots of many undergraduates, who will be pushed to Central, displacing some GnP students. This will be monitored, but it is important to preserve this space for GnP students.

IV. Administrator Awards

Elizabeth Rach – To thank the Representatives for their involvement in GPSC, we have gifts for every Rep present. In particular, we would like to thank those individuals with perfect attendance this year – Xing Zong, Ping Zhou and Abraham Thomas.

Christine Eyler – After many nominations, we have selected Dr. William Purdy and Graduate Student Affairs to receive our GPSC Individual and Group Administration awards, respectively.

David Kahler – Dr. Purdy is being honored for his work on the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee and on behalf of students. He has been a prime reason for the level of involvement of and input from students on SHIAC, and has worked hard to make sure that the student insurance plan benefits the students. He has put in an immense amount of time toward this, and we honor him tonight with the GPAC Individual Administrator Award.

Alethea Duncan and Jessi Bardill – GSA is a great organization which does things to benefit GnP students constantly. They have a very open door, so go by and meet them and even take some free candy. They are a great resource for many questions you may have with regards to student affairs, and they aid with GPSC a great deal. We honor GSA tonight with the GPSC Group Administration Award.

V. Year Recap

Crystal Brown – She wanted to recap some of GPSC’s activities and primary accomplichments after the year.

First, she’d like to re-update with regards to the QEP program. They will be revamping the undergrad curriculum as a part of this but this is a major point where GnP student involvement could be a very helpful and critical component, but has not yet been written in as such. This is a way we could possibly institutionalize our involvement at the University level, even if it is in a liaison type relationship. The QEP is still in the beginning stages and have to have their report by December, but this is something to keep watch of.

Central Campus is something that is evolving. We have had two wonderful reps, Pae and Stefan, on the Buildings and Grounds BoT Committee. We need to keep an eye on student housing on main campus and on Central. Also since the new Graduate Student Center will be created as a byproduct of this construction, we should be aware of the developments with regards to Central Campus. As part of this project, we hope to have a bar, locations for GSA and career services, as well as a GnP devoted CAPS person.

Safety issues at Duke have become increasingly apparent and have enormous impact. There are the Campus Services and Duke Police Department holding focus groups with students to see how they can improve safety on campus. She is hoping that Officer Day will be brought in again to speak to GPSC next year.

Greening at Duke has been pushed recently and there have been a wonderful group of students involved in this. This is something that Duke is really rolling with and should continue to emphasize.

Career Services is her biggest worry for next year. There are good things happening, and they are hiring a new director. There was a White Paper report that got finalized with regards to Career Services for GnP students. They are trying to figure out what to do with that report in terms of how to get the GnP students served.

We've been trying to strengthen ties with the Duke Alumni Association and get them to work for us. What she really wants is for us to have mentors and the opportunity for us to give back if we want after graduating.

In terms of Graduate Student Funding, in January the BoT approved a major initiative related to financial aid for Duke undergrads. What Dean Wright has been doing is asking for funding in general and we have been pushing for that. This year the endowment percentage that they are able to use for GnP students went up so there is more money available, but the Financial Aid Initiative package was not dedicated to GnP students. That's something that the BoT committee reps should look for in the next year.

Some things to watch for next year include: the QEP, Central Campus, Career Services, etc.

As in December, she will write the Reps a report with regards to campus services and the various GPSC-related things and will email it to the Reps.

Thank you to Exec and to the VP Elizabeth for all of the time and effort put into GPSC.

Thank you to all of the Reps from the bottom of her heart. The time that we have to spend in extracurriculars is very small. We appreciate the time you have devoted toward GPSC and toward improving life for GnP students on campus as a whole.

VI. Budget Approval

David Kahler – He sent out the proposed budget for the year earlier and we discussed it at the last meeting [see Appendix A]. Tonight we must vote on whether to approve it or not.

Move to approve the proposed 2008-2008 GPSC Budget

Motion made by the Finance Committee

Motion Carries

VII. Basketball Committee Policy Approval

Sara Crider –One of the hurdles they had to cross as co-chairs is the fact that the University has commandeered some of the area that we usually camp on for the varsity track and field space. In place, the University has offered two large plots of land to the left of Wallace Wade, off of Bassett Drive. This will end up doubling the tenting area and leaving about the same RV area. It is good to have room to expand because campout grows every year.

Michael Schwartz – So this is at the bottom of the green zone?

Co-Chairs – Yes.

Kat Mitchel – Since this will mean the tent area and the RV area will be separate, will there be 2 check in locations so people don’t have to run up a hill to check in?

Sara – They are working on figuring this out.

Julie Roy– Will you be sending this info out to be passed on to our constituencies?

Sara – Yes

Mickey Tekippe – Last night the Basketball Committee met to approve the policy for the upcoming year. Other than the dates, there were only 2 significant changes.

First, they want to increase the campout fee from $5 to $10. Traditionally, this has been used to cover the Tshirts, which were $6.50 last year. There are growing concerns about whether the cost of these will get back to $5. In terms of why they want to raise it by $5, it is very difficult for line checkers to handle $7 or $8 when checking in hundreds of people. This also provides a registration fee which could be stable for multiple years. Hopefully by going up to $10 it will be enough to keep this price stable without making it egregious. The increased money will give them more options to help expand what is provided to campers. For example, when he started camping there were no meals provided, but now there are many meals. Finally this will allow us the possibility to supplement the canned food donation with a money donation. They can get a lot more with money donations.

Eric Vance – Why don't campers pay and register at the same time [online]? Then the checkers don't have to handle the small bills.

Mickey – The question would be how to accept that. The way they've looked at it is Duke Flex. In the past, the committee felt that forcing everyone to sign up for Flex in order to camp out is unfair.

Michael Schwartz – Is the decision made to do this increased fee instead of canned food donations?

Mickey – We would still ask for food donations in addition.

Gautham Pandiyan – Can there be an option of Flex for people who want to pay that way?

Mickey – You can pay with Flex if you wish.

Laura Simmons Kovaks – Currently only about 80% of people that sign up to come to campout actually do. If they paid ahead of time but didn’t come they would deserve a T shirt, which would make for many logistical difficulties.

David Kahler– Currently there is $6300 put into Campout by GPSC at the beginning. What do you need the extra money for?

Mickey – Just the extra $1.50 to cover the extra T-shirt money would be $3000 that would have to come out of the fees.

David Kahler – Also, recently the account has gone up by a lot.

Laura Simmons Kovaks–There was a glitch at one point this year causing a lot of money to come into their account. This is an accounting issue that is being worked out, but they do not have that much in the account.

David Kahler– How much carryover will there be?

Laura – $5000, which is what has been done before.

Sara – We need the money to get the Port-A-Potties and pay lots of fees before we have the revenue from the registration fees.

Michael Schwartz – As far as paying online in terms of Tshirts, why don’t you just say that you register but don’t attend you lose the opportunity to get a Tshirt.

Sara Crider – Also for the past 2 years, they have wanted to add a clause to the policy codifying the tradition of giving 2 tickets to the GPSC President by saying something like, “if available, 2 tickets will be allocated to be used by a GPSC member.”

Eric Vance – What do you mean “if available”?

Mickey – Currently the Athletic Department gives us these 2 extra tickets. We just wanted to build something in in case this tradition of them giving these tickets comes crashing down since they don't want to take those two tickets out of the lottery pool. They don't foresee that happening this year, however.

David Kahler – Just for clarification, this means the tickets are available to be sold to GPSC, since we pay for them.

Gautham – If they’re traditionally given to the President, should the clause say “…by the President” instead of “…by a GPSC member?”

Mickey – The GPSC President can decide who gets to go, sometimes there are other people more appropriate to go with guests than the President.

Yvonne Ford – When Audrey was President, I thought she had more than 2 tickets.

Consensus - No , she won one in the lottery, in addition to having these other 2 available.

Move to approve the proposed 2008-2009 Basketball Committee Policies

Motion made by the Basketball Committee

Motion Carries

VIII. Board of Trustees (BoT) Standing Committee Elections

Elizabeth Rach – Before we begin, the President Elect, Alethea Duncan, is allowed to select one committee to participate in.

Alethea Duncan– She selects the Institutional Advancement BoT Committee.

Elections for the Business and Finance Board of Trustee Committee (2 available positions)

Candidates: Jim McDonald and Ali Saaem (David Kahler withdraws his candidacy)

Ali Saaem - He has been on this committee this past year. He is pressing on with some advances in building and finance and looks forward to pursuing them over the next year.

Question and Answer:

Eric Vance – What agenda item are you pushing for this next year?

Ali – Both of us are pushing for more financial aid for this next year for GnP students.

Jim McDonald – He would like to say something to show that he is a good choice for this position even if he is uncontested. He was recently elected a GPSC rep and will be 3^rd year law student next year. He is running for this because of: financial aid, central campus, and the future GnP student center, amongst other issues. He will work as a grad resident in Aycock next year.

[no questions]

Move to forego a closed discussion for this election

Motion: Patti Thomas, Second: Unidentified

Motion Carries

Move to vote on these candidates as a slate

Motion: Patti Thomas, Second: Michael Schwartz

Motion Carries

Ali Saaem and Jim McDonald are elected to this committee

Elections for the Buildings and Grounds Board of Trustee Committee (2 available positions)

Candidates: Randy Clark, Howard Conyers, Justin Jaworski, Pae Wu, Jianming Eric Zhang

Pae Wu - She is currently serving on Buildings and Grounds. The main thing right now is about Central Campus. She and Stefan have been meeting about once a month, on many occasions through many-hour sessions. Since Stefan is not running, she would like to stay on to provide a degree of constancy with GnP representation on the committee. With recent meetings, she feels that a good historical perspective is very beneficial.

[no questions]

Howard Conyers – He's a 4^th year PhD candidate in MEM. Central campus is an issue near and dear to heart. The GSA office is actually on Central campus . Losing that office space would be major to everyone here. Being a grad school recruiter, he sees these issues as very important to maintaining our ability to recruit quality students. We need to make sure graduate students that need it are housed. We also need to have a student center for GPSC. We need to have a central place to interact with other GnP students.

Kat Mitchel – What experience do you have with working with organizations on campus, such as GPSC?

Howard – In a way, he’s an outsider looking to bring a new perspective. As an undergrad one of his passions was promoting a green focus to new buildings built on campus.

Ashley Brown – She knows that he is not involved in GPSC, but he is involved in many other things. Can he elaborate on these?

Howard – He participates in a mentoring program on campus. In this he focuses on trying to work with undergrads on various campuses to get into grad school. He has been a grad school recruiter for the past 2 years. He has participated with BGPSA and has attended many of their events over this past year.

Justin Jaworski (absent, speech read by Kristine Obusek) – He's receiving the Student Dean’s Mentoring Award this evening so he could not attend this meeting himself. He would like to first thank GPSC for the opportunity to participate in this position. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s at Duke. Over the past 10 years, he has witnessed an overhaul of major aspects of Duke. He has lived and worked on all three major campuses and understands their importance at the University. Over time he has developed a substantial Duke network of friends and colleagues to keep his finger on the pulse of the University. He has gained valuable experience in student advocacy through student groups in department. In this role, he has increased the budget by 20% for students over 2 years. He has also negotiated more student influence in the department. Eager to do this at University level as a BoT Rep.

Some of his plans include meeting with past Reps on this committee and acting to maintain a dialogue with GPSC. He would like to plan on offering ways to tailor decisions made on this committee to GnP student needs. He would welcome any and all input.

[no questions, candidate is absent]

Randy Clark – For those who haven't read the statements, he would like to introduce himself and his candidacy. He would like to focus on things that comprise the graduate student lifestyle. In terms of the place where we learn, Duke does a good job. However, less attention is placed on where GnP students live – Duke needs to provide more amenities to graduate students. When people come from all over the world to come here, we need to offer better things to encourage people to continue to come here.

Here in the law school it's currently a construction zone. He would like to influence people through this role so that even though we have to renovate, we focus on how we can help people who are already here.

Questions:

Unidentified – In terms of housing, are you looking for more on-campus housing or a subsidy program for people living off campus?

Randy – He’s looking for more housing options to be presented to students. International students could get a better deal by not living in University housing but don't know when they first get here – these options should be made clear.

Claire Siburt – Do you have any construction or design experience in your background?

Randy – He comes from a family of underground contractors, mostly dealing with sewer and water utilities. He has grown up learning about these things, which gives him a lot of experience.

Ashley Brown – It is interesting that you bring up the library, because she remembers the disruptive construction that occurred at Perkins library in the absence of any other study location options. What do you see this position’s voice being with regards to this sort of thing?

Randy – When things are being planned for construction in one area we need to be able to consider students that will be affected and what should alleviate the negative effects. His voice on this committee would do this. For example where do you turn when 2 libraries are being renovated at the same time? These are issues that should be addressed.

Laura Barnard – Will there be any conflict of interest considering your family interest in utility work?

Randy – No, his father lives in Florida.

Jianming Eric Zhang – He’s in the department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, as many people are. He has been here for 3 years and is amazed by Duke culture: from Duke East to West, from the gothic playground to the Duke forest. All of this defines the uniqueness of Duke. We need to strive to keep this. If he sat on this committee, he would keep the uniqueness on Central Campus. He also sees the need to unify the three campuses. A lot of the things involved in this committee actually require a lot of math and linear algebra in the optimization process so we should use various people we have on campus to optimize these processes. He would like to get more space on Science Drive for places to study since these things will be moved away soon (e.g. the libraries for biology and physics).

[no questions]

OPEN DISCUSSION:

Eric Vance – He would like to bring Pae back in to see if any of the other people have contacted her about what is involved in this committee.

Elizabeth Rach – This is not possible, now that we have moved out of the Question/Answer session.

Crystal Brown – Howard has contacted herself about the position.

Michael Schwartz – He felt that they all presented their cases very well. Is there any way anyone would be able to frame this in a way to differentiate between them?

Gautham Pandiyan – He has seen Pae work on committees. She is very blunt, insightful and involved.

[Moved to Closed Session and Vote]

Pae Wu and Justin Jaworski are elected to this committee.

Elections for the Institutional Advancement Board of Trustee Committee (1 available position in addition to President Elect, Alethea Duncan)

Candidates: Julie Roy, Julian Pridgen, (Yvonne Ford and Gautham Pandiyan withdraw candidacy)

Julie Roy – She is the outgoing Community Service chair. She would like to offer that she's been at Duke for almost 13 years. If you read her statement, she had a story that came from her heart. She has many goals for this position. She would like to use the role to obtain involvement for GnP students in Duke Engage. She would like to work on ways to attract and retain the best students from around the globe. She would like to promote a culture of collaboration at the University.

Questions:

Kat Mitchel – What have you done this year to prepare yourself for this role?

Julie – She has had conversations with Administrators about the Duke Engage program. She knows what steps need to be taken next to get us in there now. Her goal as Community Outreach Coordinator has made her accessible to many viewpoints on campus. She has gotten a feel for what she will need to do in the future.

Julian Pridgen – He is a 3^rd year in Divinity school. He has faithfully served several boards in the city and also he has pastored. He is on the board of the Boys and Girls club. He helps at a homeless shelter in NC and has overseen many of the aspects of the business of the meetings. He knows the value of public affairs and has a love for humanity and serving people. He has great interpersonal and communication skills. In this role, he promises to advance and represent this institution. The most effective plug is that he's old and might relate well with the other Trustee Committee members

Questions:

Kat Mitchel – What do you see as the future of Duke University?

Julian – He’s a 3^rd year so he is a student, pastor, married and has children, so he does not spend a lot of time on campus, but if he were elected, the student concerns would be his concerns.

Laura Barnard – What ways will you stay connected with the other members of the student body?

Julian – He would definitely be open for advice. He would find a way to communicate with the other schools. He hasn't been involved with GPSC yet, but it has been his intent to do more on campus in his last year.

OPEN DISCUSSION: None

[Moved to Closed Session and Vote]

Julie Roy is elected to this committee, Alethea Duncan will serve in the other spot.

Elections for the Faculty, Graduate and Professional Student Affairs Board of Trustee Committee (2 available positions)

Candidates: Gautham Pandiyan, Zhizhong Li, Cong Jin, David Kahler (Julie Roy withdraws her candidacy)

Gautham Pandiyan – He is a fourth year Molecular Cancer Biology student running for reelection to this committee, as he has served on this committee for a year. In this time, he has learned the way things work. For example, he knows how to get an agenda item placed, which will be helpful because one of the things they’re trying to do right now is get the Career Services Report on the agenda and it looks like after a lot of his effort this is closer to happening. Before all of the meetings they started having a breakfast meeting with the student reps (including undergraduates) to get everyone on the same page. Later on, the undergrad rep stood up for them, which is good to work as a united student body.

Questions:

Laura Barnard – Have any of the other candidates spoken to you about this position?

Gautham – Zhizhong Li has spoken with me about this.

Zhizhong Li – He is a third year Molecular Cancer Biology student. He is currently serving as the president of the Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association, which has 1000 members including 400 GnP students and as part of this role, he hears a lot of peoples' voices. He hears lots of suggestions that people have that relate to student affairs. Just a few ideas he has is that he’d like to propose to make a flexible rotation system for all programs. In addition, he wants to make it easier for graduate students to participate in professional school classes, as he had the opportunity to do this year. There are also many issues with regards to international students that he would like to promote if elected to this committee.

Questions:

Laura Johnson – You and Gautham are in the same program. If you are both elected, how would you intend to reach out to other schools and programs?

Zhizhong – One very good way is through his connection with other Chinese students distributed throughout campus.

Daniel Griffen– DCSSA is a large time commitment. Will you have time for this BoT position?

Zhizhong – He will be stepping down after his term as President next month.

Cong Jin – She is a fourth year Molecular Genetics and Microbiology student. She has been involved in GPSC for 2 years: as a Rep 1^st year, and as Academic Officer during her 2^nd year. The thing that she's most excited about is to work with people to improve the GnP student community. We are all willing to contribute our time and this is why she is running for this position. The reason for her to run for the committee is that she has always been interested in Academic-Related affairs, and she has gotten a good exposure to them through the GA, the administrator lunch series and the academic council giving her an idea of the academic life of the university. She would like to advocate for two goals: 1) to improve graduate student conference support, and 2) to provide better career services for students here at Duke. She would like a specialized career fair for graduate students. She would be open to advocate for any valuable suggestions.

[no questions]

David Kahler – The Board of Trustees Committee Reps have the unique position to advocate for GnP students and also be exposed to the most powerful people on campus. The purpose is to help the committee address the issues important to the GnP students in the University. This means meeting with the administrators on the board to lobby for the current issues. The issues he sees as being important, in addition to the current things are: Central Campus renovations, student space and housing and a need to focus on synergies that GnP students bring to the table. We must have our opinions solicited. Julie mentioned Duke Engage and community engagement, transportation and safety is a big issue and is an issue facing all of us. International student concerns and career services are also prominent issues facing us.

Questions:

Laura Johnson – You declined your candidacy for Business and Finance. Why this committee?

David – Lately numbers have been making him crazy. These issues are more interesting to him.

Kat Mitchel– How do you feel your role as GPSC Treasurer has prepared you for this position?

David – He has had a lot of interaction with different people from the University and the various constituencies to feel out the various issues and points.

Eric Vance – How do you plan on communicating what occurs during the meetings to GPSC and to GnP students?

David – He has strong ties with people on GPSC and the Exec board and has many interactions with other members that will assist him with this.

Olga Voronina– Can you elaborate on your concerns for international students?

David – He knows of many issues, including access to visas, social security numbers, and health insurance options. He would like Duke to provide assistance with those things. The University should play a large role Health insurance, which he's been working very hard on.

OPEN DISCUSSION: None

[Moved to Closed Session and Vote]

Gautham Pandiyan and Zhizhong Li are elected to this committee.

Elections for the Medical Center Affairs Board of Trustee Committee (1 available position)

Candidates: Benson Okeiyi

Move to vote on this position without discussion or speeches

Motion made and seconded

Motion Carries

Benson Okeiyi is elected to this committee.

Elections for the Undergraduate Student Affairs Board of Trustee Committee (2 available positions)

Candidates: David Kahler and Jessi Bardill

[Candidates have no other statements]

David Kahler and Jessi Bardill are elected to this committee.

Meeting Adjourned

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