Robertson Hall Room 3
Presidents Address
Mike Fischer said that first of all, there is no meeting next week
because of midterms. So, he said that means that there are three weeks
before the next meeting. First, Fischer said that the Senate would hear
about the meeting on Friday with the Directors of Studies from Chris
Spiro. Fischer was there and said that it was very productive and
everyone else there thought so too. Peter DiCola will talk about
elections. Importantly, DiCola will need people to work the colleges.
Fischer said that he has talked to people about the Millstown Bypass,
which will come up in tomorrow's U-Council meeting. He asked the Executive Committee to stay after the meeting.
DiCola thanked Senate members for help and said that he would
not be needing anyone else. He asked if everyone was aware of where
they were working and where they will be. He said that there will be
run-off elections because there are 10 candidates for president. It may
have to happen Monday. He said that they are required to do paper
ballots for that election. DiCola said that he will let the Senate
members know when that election is; he does not know now because he does
not know when the registrar will be ready.
Emily Liu told Senate members to try and free up their time so
that they can sit at the election tables.
Academic Advising Update
Last Friday, Fischer, Colleen Shanahan, David Ascher, and Chris
Spiro talked with Dean McCulloch about general rules for revising the
academic advising system. Spiro said that they share a lot of the same
goals. He is pretty confident because the administration has recognized
that there are problems with academic advising. Right now, the Dean of
the Colleges office wants to develop their own plan for a pilot program
in the colleges next fall. Spiro said that they will meet back in
December, when the Senate representatives will come with their own plan.
Once they get their own plan, they will only sign the administrations
if they agree. Then it will be publicized. Spiro did not want to
discuss the specifics of the plan as of yet. He said that it is still
open to negotiation.
Kelly Prill said that it will not be until Spiro graduates that
any changes take place if this test program is for next fall? Spiro
said that if the pilot program works then the University will implement
it the following year. Ascher said that the test program is good and
would like to set up a training and peer-advising program. Fischer said
that the Senate is not limited to just one. He said that the Senate
should wait and see what happens after the pilot program. Jeff Siegel
asked whether anything was said about freshman advising. Spiro said
that they asked whether freshman advising was necessary, to which the
Senate representatives said yes. He said that they would take that into
consideration when writing the final report.
Literary Guild Grants
DiCola said that the publications subcommittee had a meeting and
met with Dave Grossman, Will Stevenson, Prill, and him. The Guild got
requests from 9 publications. The committee needs to work with 2 of
them, which they will do later. To run through them again, 4 are asking
for debt relief: Spigot was granted $250 of $250 requested; The
Eclectic, $600 of $750; Distractions, $500 of $600; and Tiger $800 of
$1000. These amounts are just a certain fraction of their debt; the
committee generally gave them about 80% of what they requested.
Capital expenditures: The Pacific Asian Review asked for $600,
so that they could expand their size with four new pages. The committee
gave them $600. Some of the publications are self-sufficient but need
more computer equipment. The committee granted The Progressive $500
matching what they could get for the computer. The Nassau Weekly asked
for money for a new monitor. The committee thought the Nassaus goal was
admirable, so matching funds were worked out there too. They have been
doing alumni raising and have done some good fund-raising. The
committee gave them $570 and $250 matching. So, total, there are grants
for $3220 and $750 in matching funds. The total is below the budgeted
$6000. The committee decided on capital expenditures first, then
expansion, and then debt relief. The meeting went really well and
the Guild hammered out some reasonable requests. The committee did not
have to do too much. The Guild is structured to make sure that there
are no exorbitant requests. DiCola was really pleased. This is it for
this semester. There will not be any more requests until the spring.
DiCola said that the Spigot and Distractions can pull themselves out of
debt. Someone on the Guild or committee will be able to advise them.
The Eclectic and the Tiger are the problems. Both have active and
competent editorial staffs. Tiger has cut its debt in half. The
publications subcommittee will meet with them and get plans on how they
plan to pull themselves out of debt. The committee will see whether it
lessens its debt.
Sujata Barai questioned the 80% figure that DiCola mentioned.
DiCola said that it was coincidental this time. The committee was still
$2000 under the cap it had to work with. It did not want to go over the
budget. The 80% was not used with everyone; Spigot got the whole amount
requested. Mark Mahan asked whether they could talk to CIT about
getting a cluster for publications. DiCola said that the Guild is
talking with people about getting that done for the campus center.
Right now there are no plans, Mahan asked. DiCola said that they are
currently looking toward the campus center; no one has thought of
anything for now. Fischer asked regarding the publications that were
granted debt relief, how does the committee know that these publications
are not operating at a loss. None of these publications seem to be,
DiCola said. Prill said that the Tiger for a couple of issues has not
published unless they have the money to publish. That is why their
issues are not on time. Mike Smith asked about the groups that had
incomplete applications at the time the e-mail was sent out. DiCola
said that the two publications that did not understand the application
process will be heard from again. With those two, the committee may go
over its budget.
Brief U-Council Update
Siegel briefly outlined the U-Council agenda. The International
Center and its moving status will be discussed. 20 minutes will be
spent on the Millstown Bypass, Dormnet, and 20 minutes on academic
advising.
Consolidation Update
Brian Johnson gave a breakdown of the issue the students are
facing in November. Currently, there is the donut analogy with the
township being the donut, and the borough, the inside. The borough
extends from past Nassau Street to the imaginary line between Fine and
New South. The township includes Butler, Forbes, and Jadwin.
Basically, Johnson said, there are two Princetons. It is something that
came up for vote a couple of years ago. This is a second motion. It
did not pass last time, which was 10 to 15 years ago. They decided to
conduct a study and published a report in July. The commission
consisted of people from the borough and township. It concluded that
pro-consolidation was the better way. Quickly, Johnson said that the
pro-consolidation argument is that as one community, it would give voice
to one community and make public works more efficient. Developing
pressures could be handled better.
The borough thinks that those in the township would not be as
willing to preserve Historic Princeton and that there is no reason to
consolidate. They are also afraid that joint efforts will create
tension. On the other side, looking at the boroughs financial
resources, they are afraid that it may not be able to support its
services. If there are any questions, ask, Johnson said. He asked the
Senate for the best way to disseminate this information. Mahan. asked
how this would affect the University itself. Johnson said that he met
with Bob Durkee, who said that in the near future, the effect would be
minimal. The direct effect would be minimal at most. The handling of
run-off water is handled differently in the township and borough.
Ascher asked about the universitys taxes. He heard that it would have
to pay less under the consolidation and that would affect tuition.
Johnson said that the university is tax-exempt. Fischer said that
eventually the borough would run out of a tax base, so the university
gives a voluntary contribution. If they do no consolidate, Fischer said
that the borough would be under the university. Right now, if the
university cannot get something from one, they can go to the other.
Johnson said that there is a feeling that the university will end up
supporting the borough. The university has no official stance because
it, as an institution, cannot vote. As far as institution, they are not
pushing for anything. Fischer said that there is a significant chance
that the student vote will make a big difference. They will do whatever
professors tell them to do. It is a pretty complicated issue. People
on both sides are pretty adamant about it. Johnson has done a good job
with the issue.
Siegel said that students will determine the future of this
vote. Last time it failed by 33 votes and that was a non-election
year. With 1000 students voting, it will turn the tide one way or
another. This is not going to get the students to run out the polls,
but there are some quality of life issues. There are some that say
students would have a more efficient parking regulation system. Another
issue is the borough says there cannot be trailers. The university had
to put the trailers with the practice rooms by the armory. They got an
exemption, so they could move them back up to Palmer.
Johnson asked for input as to ways to bring this to the student
body. It has been suggested putting it up and taping to doors,
e-mailing it to students, and working with the Prince to get it out.
Beth Fitzpatrick asked where the students are voting. Siegel said at
Trinity Church, close to Pequod. If students live in the Township, they
will vote at Jadwin. Ascher suggested having tables in the dining
halls. Liu said that if there were any questions to call Johnson.
Career Services Report
Karen Loane said that their goal is to make positive changes and
ways to access information in terms of graduate schools and jobs. They
are looking to change the copy system, which does not take copy cards
and is a dime a copy, and the hours, which are 8:45 to 4:45. One
suggestion is extended hours, on the weekend, or one night will get
evening hours. Another issue is the information at career services is
in binders. Their home page has a list of meetings at the Nassau Inn,
but a student needs to go to Career Services to find out anything except
which companies are coming. They do not tell you when sign-ups for
interview start, so a student has to go every day. There is also only
one copy of the magic binder. She hopes to extend the web page and do
an on-line registration and hopes to change the paper process to a web
process. She is suggesting even having more paper copies of the binder.
Rebecca Schlieckert says currently there seems to be a lot of
responsibility on departments themselves to get the information out.
Career services should be more vocal about when the deadlines are for
the GRE and LSATs. It should not be a real challenge. She is looking
to make it more widely available. Schlieckert also hopes to update the
specific info about the different schools; many of the books are from
1992. A lot of the top business schools were not even there. She is
suggesting telling them to make calls and get info sent there. She
asked for more suggestions from the Senate. Schlieckert and Loane
talked about students telling career services where their interests lie
to get on a big e-mail list. They are also talking about having a
master calendar on the web, which would have when recruiting deadlines,
MCAT, LSAT, and GRE deadlines were.
Howard Chan met with Moulder Johnson, who is in charge of
internships. They have a survey that they are going to send out to
juniors and seniors. They are going to pay someone to do a survey on
the web and have graduates come back to fill it out. They are hoping
to get together a bunch of organizations that have job openings. They
want the Senate to put out this survey to the undergrads to get ideas.
Loane said she hopes to get students to work there, people who can keep
it open and working. Liu suggested that Senate members call Loane,
Schlieckert, and Chan to give them places that they can focus. Barai
asked if there was a reason students could not work there. There was
none. Loane said that they cannot take anything out. Siegel said that
the ideas are great, but do they have a particular strategy or next
step? Schlieckert said that they are talking to people about the
different parts. She asked the Senate whether, out of the things talked
about, there is one thing that is better than the others? Barai said
extending hours. Fitzpatrick said the calendar.
Recognition of New Student Organizations
Liu asked members if they got the e-mail. PACE currently has 20
members, who have been meeting. Ascher said that he called Paolo
Casartelli, and it sounds like a good group to him. They had 20 people
at their last meeting. Liu said that they are looking to increase their
awareness of culture and hope to go to see activities. Schlieckert
asked if they knew that they cannot get funding for off-campus events.
Liu said yes, and that they hope to get a subscription at McCarter. The
group is open to the public. This would be another non-alcoholic venue.
Fitzpatrick asked how they would advertise. Liu said that they had not
been recognized, so they could not publicize their events; right now, it
is through word of mouth.
PACE approved (21:0:0).
Meeting adjourned at 7:54 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Yu
Grants approved (21:0:0).
USG Executive Secretary