A project of the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly
You are currently browsing the archive for the Graduate Assembly category.
What: A workshop on the basics of self defense taught by Som Pourfarzaneh of the YWCA and sponsored by the Graduate Women’s Project. Please wear loose clothing and no hand jewelry.
When: Friday, October 16, from noon to 1 pm.
Where: Stephen’s Hall on the 3rd floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union.
What: The Graduate Women’s Project Fall Mixer, featuring free wine, cheese, and food from Rick and Ann’s catering; music by DJ Pegah; a raffle; and a chance to meet up with friends, old and new.
When: Thursday, September 17th, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.
Where: Anthony Hall patio.
Who: By and for graduate women, but all are welcome.
All that’s needed for this free event are your student and photo IDs. For more information, email gwp@ga.berkeley.edu.
The Graduate Women’s Project (GWP) is one of seven projects sponsored by the Graduate Assembly (GA). Established in 1981, the GWP works to address the personal, social, and academic needs of graduate women. In addition to mixers, the GWP hosts a variety of workshops, lunches with female leaders from the campus community, a distinguished women lecture series, and the Graduate Women’s Caucus. To learn more about these activities visit the GA website or contact the project coordinator. Better yet, stop by the mixer!
Members of the Technology Committee meet and sign up new recruits.
Thursday night, the Graduate Assembly (GA) held its first delegates’ meeting of the 2009-2010 school year. Budget cuts and campus responses to them, including an at times heated debate of what official position the GA should take, dominated the evening’s discussion. Befitting an introductory meeting, GA officers also gave an overview of the structure and mission of the GA and GA committee chairs reported on their accomplishments from the previous year along with their goals for the coming year.
Mitch Celaya, Chief of the UCB Police Department, and Claudia Covello of University Health Services (UHS) discussed how their departments were coping with budget cuts. The Police Department has had 19% of its budget cut and UHS lost 23% of its campus funding, which amounts to roughly $2 million. Both departments have responded by cutting positions; the police department has lost seven officers and UHS has eliminated 20 staff positions. To meet their budget shortfall while continuing to provide care six days a week, UHS has also decided to add fees. Beginning September 21st, students will be charged a co-pay for visits to primary and urgent care. A primary care visit will now cost $15 and an urgent care visit will cost $30. The average graduate student uses campus medical services 2.2 times per year and can expect their medical costs to go up accordingly. Both these departments want to increase their engagement with students and encourage student input. You can email Mitch Celaya at ucpdchief@berkeley.edu or contact UHS via lmigdal@uhs.berkeley.edu.
Emotions ran high as delegates debated a resolution proposing that the GA support the faculty walkout on Thursday, September 24, and endorse the letter circulated by the Graduate Student Organizing Committee in favor of the walkout. (Follow these links to view the full text of the open letters to UC graduate students and UC faculty that have circulated this week.) The letters and walkout protest how the budget cuts have been managed by the University of California administration. After extensive debate, the GA passed a modified resolution directing the President of the GA to draft a letter from the GA in support of the faculty walkout. This letter will be written with input from the delegates and posted on the GA website. Over the course of the evening, delegates struggled with how to balance the time-sensitive nature of this resolution with having adequate time to discuss these issues with students in their department. The budget cuts and GA actions regarding the budget cuts promise to be an issue throughout the semester, so contact the delegate(s) from your department and let them know what you think.
For more detailed information, consult the meeting minutes, which will be posted on the GA website.
Interested in part-time work for the 2009-2010 school year? The GA is hiring a new Chief of Staff to the President and Campus Affairs Vice President of the Graduate Assembly. This job focuses on coordinating ongoing Graduate Assembly affairs and enhancing the work output of the Presidential and Vice Presidential offices. The position pays $768.00 per month for 12 hours of work per week at a rate of $16.00 per hour. To apply submit a resume to Susan Hsueh, Business Manager at the Graduate Assembly in Anthony Hall. She can be reached by email at manager@ga.berkeley.edu or by phone at (510) 643-0394.
Like so much on campus this summer, The Berkeley Graduate blog is under construction. Over the next few weeks we’ll be adding features and we’ll begin regular, but light, posting. By the time the fall semester starts, we hope to have everything running normally.
This is a blog for and, with your help, by Berkeley’s graduate and professional student community. Please return here often for more on graduate student life, research, and other undertakings.