November was a busy month for the Doctoral Students’ Council. There were several new spaces where students might be in contact with one another: a new DSC listserv that all Graduate Center students can subscribe to and post messages on; a GC Town Hall; and the first Office Hours with the Provost. To join the DSC’s listserv, find it listed at gc.listserv.cuny.edu, and follow the links to subscribe, or email ccc@cunydsc.org.
At both the Town Hall (hosted by the DSC with the Adjunct Project) and the Provost’s Office Hours (held at the suggestion of the DSC), students raised questions about the new fellowship packages, and the effects of the capped PhD admissions on academic life, as well as on CUNY’s mission of serving the people of the City of New York. Starting next year, the Graduate Center will offer students $25,000 stipends, with a 1:1 teaching load in years two to five. This pay is quite different to the existing funding for Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellows, an $18,000 stipend with a 2:2 teaching load. Students were also concerned that the GC Dissertation Fellowship deadline was months earlier than in previous years, but the change was only announced in the Fall. The Provost’s Office responded by changing the deadline back to January 15, 2013.
The DSC has also been in conversation with the administration about the need for a Parental Leave Policy. At the November Plenary, the DSC voted to form a Working Group on Parental Leave. A survey will be sent out to students through their DSC representatives to gather information on how students have navigated family-forming while at the GC.
Our guest speaker at the November Plenary was Jared Simard, a member of the DSC, former co-chair, and member of Graduate Council’s Structure Committee. He presented on student representation on program standing committees, an issue that the DSC has been discussing with its representatives and the Provost’s Office. Every program should have active Faculty Membership, Curriculum and Examinations, Admissions and Awards, and Elections Committees, and all of those committees should have elected student members, according to the Graduate Council Bylaws. As members of these committees, students should never be asked to leave meetings. He encouraged students to look at their program governance documents, and the Graduate Council bylaws. The DSC leadership will be issuing a survey in the coming weeks to collect information on how these bylaws are and are not being enforced in various programs. If you have questions on these issues, or would like to report on what happens in your program, please contact the DSC.
Monique Whitaker, the DSC Officer for Health & Wellness, reports:
DSC Health & Wellness (H&W) have had a number of queries from students as to whether the Wellness Center would be offering ‘flu vaccinations this year. Both H&W and the GC Wellness Center had been following up on this for some time, as the problem lies with the Department of Health (DOH) who supplies these vaccines and has not been very forthcoming in providing information on their availability. Last year the ‘flu shots arrived very late, due to problems with DOH’s distribution. This year, the Wellness Center’s Nurse Practioner was finally informed that the whole of CUNY would be getting only 400 ‘flu shots, which were then distributed across the various schools according to their proportion of total CUNY student enrollment. The Graduate Center was given approximately half a dozen shots.
But, the Nurse Practioner has been contacting all the other CUNY schools to try to get additional vaccinations from any colleges not planning to use theirs, and has managed to gather 40 more free shots for GC students.
The huge cut-back in ‘flu vaccination comes from the DOH and the CDC, who, facing significant budget cuts and having had problems with many colleges across the country not distributing many of the ‘flu shots provided to them, decided to make savings by greatly reducing the number of shots given to universities. There seems no chance of reversal on this. The same is the case for HPV vaccinations, which are no longer being provided free to colleges, and which will now only be available free to those under 18.
If you’ve had even just one of the series of shots to prevent HPV, though, you’ll be able to get all your remaining shots for free through the Wellness Center, so please do complete your vaccination!
As always, please contact us, if you have any health or wellness concerns or problems—whether you’re uninsured, or struggling to get your insurance to pay for covered procedures; need assistance with finding a good doctor, or anything else. We’re here to help. And don’t forget to visit the H&W blog for more grad student health info: opencuny.org/healthdsc.
Monique also hosts a Monday afternoon coffee break for students, from 2–4pm in the DSC Office, room 5495.
Students who are dealing with the effects of the Hurricane Sandy can be in touch with Elise Perram, Associate Director of Student Affairs (eperram@gc.cuny.edu). She can help students navigate various resources that may be available to them.
In previous issues of the Advocate, the DSC reported on efforts to move blood drives off-campus until the FDA lifts the ban on the blood of men who have sex with men (MSM). The DSC passed a resolution on this subject in Spring 2012, which resulted in the cancellation of the October blood drive. This month, the DSC Executive Committee met with representatives from the New York Blood Center, Matt Schoengood, Vice President for Student Affairs, and Yosette Jones-Johnson, Assistant Vice President for Faculty and Staff Relations. We established in that conversation that if a blood drive is held, it will not be on the GC campus, and information on fighting the FDA ban on MSM blood will accompany the advertising of the blood drive.
