General Membership Meeting 2/2/2017 5:30pm SOC 257 Minutes
Present Members: Colleen O’Leary, Alexandra Cowden Hindash, Kelley O’Brien, Keegan Shepherd, Guffran Rostom, René Herrera, Samantha May, Jean-Baptiste Subils, Mehrdad Vaziri, Dwight Lewis
Executive team present: Neal Fischer, Tanya de Dios, Jon Hendricks, Marcy Cockrell, Jacob Abraham, Bryan Delius, Erin Sauer, Suzanne Young, Ann Vitous
Agenda Updates
o Bargaining Round III . Our meeting is Feb 17th at 1pm in SVC2070 . We might be prepared to say no with regards to the supplemental appointments. . We might still try to apply for summer 2017 supplemental appointments, whether they grant it to us or not. . Possible that UFF will provide funding for some supplemental organizing position. Will hear back from Marshall.
o Grievances . No new grievances! . Marcy: There are Math department TAs according to Greg McColm, being given more work than is stipulated by their FTEs. Might be a department grievance. Suzanne gave one of these TAs paperwork to submit on his own, since he is not a GAU member.
o Organizing . Social on Feb 15th at Indy at 5:30p . At St. Pete: Folks know about the union, and more are signing up! . Will focus more on Organizing and increasing membership after Senate.
Status of healthcare (Suzanne)
o Still in limbo General Membership Meeting 2/2/2017 5:30pm SOC 257 Minutes
o Suzanna Perez emailed us a document a while back
o Suzanne emailed Perez to follow-up; will email again about status of contract for the sake of Bargaining III
EPA funding issues, how they affect GAs
o Grants are frozen. But everyone who applied in the past and got EPA funding should be good until the end of this spring semester because payment has already been disbursed and there is no way to get that back.
Executive Board positions open
o If you are interested in a position or know someone who is, email us at [email protected] or approach an exec member.
o Worthwhile to mention at the bargaining table that if you are passionate about the issues being discussed at the table, to consider taking on an official position in GAU. Can use the sign-in sheets at these bargaining sessions to send email as extra push.
o Social on the 15th to serve as a prebargaining meeting and meet-and-greet between current exec team and people who are interested in becoming exec.
Senate
o Senators next year needed! If you are interested, talk to us.
o It’s a good place for training and networking, and hearing firsthand about state legislature directly impacting graduate students. Senators vote on legislature and craft proposals to present at the Senate floor.
o Lodging and food are covered.
Immigration Ban
o Mehdi’s case . Mehdi Zeyghami went back to Iran in summer 2016 to care for his mother. Applied for a visa to come back to the US, but since Friday, cannot get stamp due to immigration ban. . His access to his USF email, bank account, USF server with data has been blocked “by federal law” but no explanation. Reached out to Gerard Solis (General Counsel USF) to ask what law is allowing USF to block Mehdi’s access to email. Chris Goff from AFT is saying that . We reached out to Rep. Kathy Castor, Sen. Bill Nelson, WMNF, TBT, Mechanical Engineering Department, Gerard Solis (General Counsel USF). . CAIR Florida and ACLU are looking into his case. . Keegan put together a Google Form that combines the scenario, an action call to call Nelson and Rubio, and a petition to sign that we can compile before reaching Judy Genshaft. General Membership Meeting 2/2/2017 5:30pm SOC 257 Minutes
Tip: Rubio’s phones have been switched off. So people have been taking to faxing their office. . Nelson’s regional director has been in contact with Erin. According to them, they are working with USF
o Similar case in FSU – student is not named in the article. Consider partnering with them to harness more GAU power on the same issue at the state level against Rubio and Nelson.
o Med student in USF St. Pete who contacted Marcy about their Nigerian student whose visa was revoked and sent back to Nigeria. Don’t know full details yet. Marcy will get back to us. Nigeria is not on the list in the executive order but we fear other students are just being put on the radar since Friday.
o We can file a complaint against the Diversity office about discrimination based on nationality.
o Consider adding fax resources to the Rubio contact on the Google Form. Samantha (USAS) says there are free fax services online that you can program/automate.
o We will wait until Monday to circulate the Google Form. In the meantime, compile fax info for Rubio to add to the Keegan’s Google Form.
Other updates
o USF St. Pete Marine Science – sexual harassment case. If considering grievance, make sure they have timelines and paper trails. Title IX will not investigate it. Both students involved are GAU members. . Will look into Safety Clause in GAU CBA. Can do a Step I Grievance, worth filing. The fact that this has not been promptly investigated in itself is grievable. . Contact CASA St. Pete. . Student Code of Conduct – chapter 4
Sanctuary Campus Coalition
o Community Protection in Hillsborough County
o 200+ in Diversity Advisory Council last night in Hillsborough County that was writing a letter of support of Community Protection to the County Commissioners.
o Suzanne is meeting with the Coalition that’s a part of it and will talk more about campus language we can adapt for Sanctuary Campus. We can use UCF’s language as a model.
o At Senate, would be nice if there was a strategic timeline for GAUs to have action or letter delivered on the same day with this statement of Sanctuary Campus. . Also craft a policy to make a motion on at Senate about a resolution re: sanctuary campus and county protection. General Membership Meeting 2/2/2017 5:30pm SOC 257 Minutes
o Would be nice to have a coalition on campus around this issue (plus undocument students), with USAS and GAU, etc. Student-run group in USF St. Pete is also active and worth reaching out to for this Coalition (Marcy will find out name.)