Minutes
January 10, 2007
On the agenda:
Scheduling
Planning for Semester
Click to Send
Grade-in report
Writing to Philip Eskew and rest of trustees
Letter to members about t-shirts
Grade-in Report
Vanessa really liked having individual people write their own responses to Theobald, and we need to utilize this more often. Almost every person who wrote a personal letter got a response. Vanessa also has pictures and a couple of interviews with bad sound. There were about 35-40 people who attended the grade-in; this is significantly less than the time before. Why? Perhaps the timing, being at the end of the fall semester with Thanksgiving and the holidays, was a problem. We were also a little slow with the outreach, and no one called individual GEO members. Last time, this made a real difference.
We also had a large turnout from the English department as usual, but we need more people from other departments. Anthro. Devorah indicated that stewards need to have some real information about the problem, and why students need to get involved. What does it really mean to have your maximum coverage amount changed? Because some students maxed out the amount in the past school year, and that is one of the major reasons why the amount was changed. This goes against what insurance is supposed to do. Those with health problems, who have kids/spouse/self with illness, this is an unfair burden for them. Anything could happen, and the insurance won't cover it...Once basic information is given, stewards can direct people to the GEO website. There is the additional reason for uniting under one organization: graduate students will be exploited as much as the university can. Schools with unions generally treat their graduate students better; there is money available. It's all about priorities and what choices they must/decide to make. The more of a pain we are, the more likely the administration is to pay attention and to give grad students more benefits.
Click to Send
Ursula will send budget information to Emily, and she will post the click to send quickly. It shouldn't take any longer than the end of the weekend.
Letter to Trustees
Emily will personalize the letter to Theobald to make it more applicable to the Trustees, and then she will bring it to a meeting soon for approval. Phil, Emily's contact with the Trustees, is running for the soon -to-be-open trustee position, and we should all get our signature on his petition. He wants to make IU more green.
We haven't sent many emails, so we'll do that rather than contact in other ways. Renee will write the email.
Outsourcing
IU Bookstore and Motorpool are moving toward outsourcing rather than hire employees through IU (meaning they get IU wages and benefits). They would fire their employees and then contract those jobs out through another company. Most of those people would not get insurance. This is a big deal with the CWA and AFSCME; they've been fighting this for years. There is currently a movement trying to foil the evil plan. Jobs of Justice, the local union which all unions are a part of and which has meetings once in a while, are staging a rally outside of a b-ball game. We need to be at the rally on Jan. 27th right before the game (early afternoon?). We need to be involved in this if we want their support in the future. We can also circulate their petition, etc. Ursula will keep us updated on this issue.
Plan for the Semester
- We need to build on and escalate on the grade-in. One thing we can do is really push the rally as the next big event. It will also be good publicity for us to be covered in the news with banners, showing our support. While supporting this, we need to make sure the rumor that the company being outsourced to is more expensive than the IU Bookstore. Vanessa will write a letter to the editor about the rally and we'll send an email.
- We will also have another mass meeting, for PR if for no other reason. We will plan on holding this meeting the Tuesday before the rally. (1/23) Ursula will get a room for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday Jan. 23. Should we do flyers, email, mailboxes, what? Ursula will let the IDS and WFHB (will try Herald Times too). Vanessa will try WIUX. Emily will handle WFIU. Renee will make the flyer (haha). Remember, folks, we don't have much time here! So get to it. Flyer should mention health care, outsourcing and that we want to hear about member concerns.
- We need an end-goal for the semester as well. Given the turnout of the grade-in, the walk-out idea would probably not work very well. So perhaps an arm-band or band-aid? Some kind of physical signifier would be a good idea. Perhaps we could pass out arm-bands on campus and "wear them until things change". We like that idea. Another idea presented is a music concert, some kind of worker's benefit where they play appropriate songs and someone speaks, offering support for the unions, etc. A concert would draw an audience whom we wouldn't normally reach. We can get funding if needed from the student government. We can also check with the Buskirk-Chumley or Second Story. Ursula has contacts with BC. The music could just be for a benefit concert rather than focus on work songs, etc.
Next meeting: 5 p.m. Tuesday Jan. 16 at the IMUG on the First floor of the Union.
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