2009-2010 Officer Reports

Read this page for Executive Council Officer Reports

Also available: Officer mid-year reports (2009-2010):

Chair Mid-Year Report.doc

Vice-Chair Mid-Year Report.doc

External Chair Mid-Year Report.doc

Treasurer Mid-Year Report.pdf

Secretary Mid-Year Report.doc

PRO Mid-Year Report.doc

COD Mid-Year Report.doc

November 2009

November 12, 2009 Vice Chair Karinna, Public Relations Officer Stacey, GSADC Abbie Boggs, and I met with Dean Gibeling to discuss his work as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Council of Graduate Schools; discrepancies in GSR salaries; TA positions, fees, and compensation; and the ''In Abstencia'' policy.

November 13-18, 2009 External Chair Marrah and I attended the Annual Conference of the National Association for Graduate-Professional Students. At this conference Marrah and I gave a talk titled "Large Scale Event Planning: A How-To Guide for GSAs" and Marrah gave a talk titled "Fostering Campus and City Collaboration". CBDD is always a hit with other schools. BYU started a CBDD after learning about our events at the NAGPS Western Regional Conference that we hosted here this past Spring. The graduate students from the University of Pittsburgh is now interested in starting a CBDD there. Other sessions that I attended included Lobbying 201, Campus-Community Collaborations: Grad Students Can Make it Happen, Youth Engagement and Public Achievement in Policy Change: Click-4-Life as a possible model for Graduate & Professional Student Engagement. We also had a presentation by Interfolio titled "Hook! How to get an edge in your job search", a presentation from Inside Higher Ed, roundtable lunches-I attended the one on Grad Student Diversity, Regional Committee meetings-BYU will be hosting this year's Western Regional Conference, a presentation from Suicide Prevention and 1-800-GRADHLP, a legislative lunch with a representative from Nebraska's State Capitol who discussed the importance of lobbying, and a NAGPS National Membership meeting at the State Capitol where we voted on amendments to the By-Laws and Constitution and held elections for NAGPS Officers.

November 20, 2009 We had a pre-meeting of various student leaders (representing undergraduate, graduate, and professional students) to discuss our presentation to the UC Commission on the Future. From our discussions four groups were formed to address an overarching theme: Maintain Quality Without Privatization of the University. Under this umbrella were the Academics, Departments, Resources, and Curriculum; Access and Diversity, Advocacy, and Recourse and Accountability groups. I worked on the Advocacy section with LSA President Victoria Hassid, ASUCD Vice President Chris Dietrich and Nick Sidney, Chair of ASUCD's Election Committee. We will be meeting soon to work on publish the final presentation that was presented to the Commission during their visit.

November 29, 2009 The student leaders met once again before the Commission's visit to practice our presentations.

November 30, 2009 The UC Commission on the Future made it's visit to UCD. I presented on behalf of students who were concerned with Advocacy for the UC. Please click the link to view the page that I created. Over the Thanksgiving holiday I learned that I had been appointed to the Research Strategies Working Group of the Commission. I created the page so that students can stay informed about the UC Commission on the Future and my work on the Commission's workgroup.

December 2009

December 2, 2009 The Research Strategies Working Group had our first meeting. Please view the UC Commission on the Future page for more details on that meeting.

Officer report for 02-03-10 GA meeting. Two items:

I, along with Marrah, have been attending G/SHIP meetings as they have been called. This year, our duties involve making sure the student body gets the best deal on renewed contracts for Anthem Blue Cross and VSP (vision insurance) contracts. Although prices for next year will increase slightly, these increases are in line with general health insurance premium increases, and they may come with some new benefits that will help the student body access health resources more readily.

I also have been working on creating some stress-relief opportunities for grad students, namely a stress-reduction workshop open to grad students and occurring on Feb 16 from 12:00-1:00 in the Moss Room (MU). If the need for such workshops continues, I will be happy to facilitate further opportunities. The House provides excellent and informal opportunities to find stress relief for no cost and no hassle.

February 2010

• As a follow-up to last month's announcement about the cups: We got them a couple of weeks ago. They've been a huge hit! Come by CBDD to claim yours. They are the exact same design as the last round, so if you already got one, I kindly ask that you leave them for the students who haven't yet gotten one.
  

• Winter quarter's Pizza Night is scheduled for Thursday, February 18. The event starts at 5:00pm and goes until the food runs out. Try to show up on time, since there have been events when the food runs out quickly. Since we aren't doing these every month, I recommend you take the time to attend, and bring your grad student friends.
  

• Depending on how this one goes and the amount of money we spend, I still am hopeful to have enough in the line-item to try to hold an extra Pizza Night during the year. Stay tuned!
  

• Strangely, CBDD had a bit of a lag in the first few weeks of the quarter. This last week it finally started picking up again, and we are on track to get back to the 300+ attendees per week.
  

• Please, if you come, I plead that you read the signs and only take one bagel OR one donut. I feel bad every time I have to call someone out on it, but it's really important as things get busy again. If you are there with friends and you see them going for a second item, kindly remind them. I'm doing my best to get the word out, but every week I am confronted with "I thought it was one at a time!" or "I thought it was one of each!" If you have any ideas on how I can get the word out, please let me know...
  

• I'm looking at one other non-pizza social event to have before spring break. Last year's bowling event as a huge hit, and that's the tentative plan. I'd love suggestions if you have any other good ideas, so please let me know. Bowling will be pending on grad student interest, availability of the MU Games Area, and a good price. Watch your email for an announcement if that'll happen.

January 2010
Not a lot to report this month:

• The cups you asked for are on order. I placed the order with local company Ink Monkey Graphics. They cannot do them in house, but they placed the order with a third-party. Expect to see those in the next couple of weeks.
  

• CBDD is back for the quarter!
  

• Budget may allow for an extra pizza night to get squeezed in this year. Stay tuned!

December, 2009

• Last CBDD of fall quarter is this week (December 4). We do not hold it during finals week or breaks, so CBDD will be back on January 8.
  

• Per the request, coffee mugs will make their (re)debut in winter quarter! Stay tuned...
  

• Pizza Night is tomorrow (December 3). Note that this is earlier than usual due to scheduling issues with Woodstock's. Starts at 5:00 until 7:00 or the food runs out, whichever comes first.
  

• Both CBDD and Pizza Night are a chance to bring food to the GSA's food drive to benefit the Yolo County Food Bank.

December General Assembly Meeting Officer Report, As we didn't have a chance to give our reports at the meeting on December 2nd, here is mine:

1) The EC generated two documents for public comment at the UCLA Regents meeting 11/19 in response to the vote for fee increases and system-wide GSHIP. We partnered with UCLA GSA and ASUCD to have them present these documents during public comment. The document regarding fee increases was already presented to you tonight for discussion. At this point, we do not need additional support for our document on GSHIP as I've received the following note regarding the progress for GSHIP:

"We are ecstatic about the Regents unanimous vote last Thursday (11/19) to make GSHIP a mandatory non-academic requirement for the UC system. This change has been sought by the Student Health and Counseling Directors for many years and it would not have occurred this year without your support and the strong support of UCOP and The Regents. We initiated this work last year because student leaders, the Council of Graduate Deans, the Council of Vice Chancellors of Student Affairs, and the Monitor Group each concluded independently that the existing GSHIP structure does not effectively serve the needs of students or the University. Earlier this year, UCSA made the improvement of GSHIP one of its top priorities."

2) The GSA has been actively attempting to keep students up to date regarding the activities surrounding the recent fee increases. Please make sure to send us information of events you may hold of interest to graduate and professional students on campus. We will send this out to our list-servs. We've sent out a few emails to our lists regarding the arrests at Mrak. If you or another student requires grievance assistance or legal aid please contact gsavicechair@ucdavis.edu or gsaexternalchair@ucdavis.edu. Additionally, UCDOC has generated a document of talking points for students who wish to engage the administration, Regents, UCOP or the Governor about the fee increases. Pleases see the GSA webpage for a copy of this document. I will be drafting an additional document within the next few weeks geared specifically to upcoming lobbying events next quarter. Right now, the GSA legislative assistant is working with LobbyCorps (ASUCD) to get the GSA involved in lobby visits at the capitol. I will also be working on a Washington, DC campaign with the UCDC office to lobby for higher education funding at the national level. If you are interested in participating in these Sacramento capitol visits or working on the state or DC campaign, please email gsaexternalchair@ucdavis.edu.

3) I have no committee meetings scheduled for this month, with the exclusion of my UCD-City Liaison Commission meeting. We will begin implementing our renter's rights workplan, which will hopefully include a Davis Guide to Renting as well as a revision of the Davis Model Lease. I will update my page on this work as it is ongoing.

December 2009
During the first week in December the GSA held a Food Drive at three of its larger events. Grads at the General Assembly meeting, Pizza Night, and Coffee Bagel Donut Day all donated nonperishable food and cash to the Food Bank of Yolo County. A few programs even had their own drives run by grad students. On that front special recognition needs to go out to the Comparative Pathology Department who gathered up four big boxes of food and a nice wad of cash for the food bank. All together the GSA drive collected 273 pounds of food and 113 dollars for the Food Bank. Beyond that effort, in December the COD started work with the UCD-City Liaison Commission to create a list of student friendly businesses in town. Finally, I organized another quarter of Yoga for Grads.

January 2010

• SSFAAC was able to visit the new, not yet opened, student health service. It is a very nice looking building that is intended to emphasize both health and wellness; it is on schedule for completion and the plan is to move over to the new space during the two weeks surrounding spring break.
  

• GSA travel awards had "low turn out" this session. There were fewer applications (~50% compared with previous January submissions), and fewer judges volunteered via email. This is one of the motivators to change the way GSA announcements are run.
  

• Fall quarter department fund allocations have been calculated and submitted for processing. Typically, processing requires approximately one month.

February

• SSFAAC is working to modify their website so that it will be more user-friendly, up-to-date, and easier to access appropriate information.
  

• Fourteen applicants received GSA Travel Awards. Many thanks to the volunteer judges who made this possible!