The CSGSG Draft Charter

Original announcement of the creation of the GSG

At the Graduate Student Group Organizational meeting on Wednesday, it was decided that the former autocracy be replaced by a plurocracy, consisting of a 3-member steering committe which would be responsible for administrating and overseeing graduate student organization activities. It was also decided to form an interim steering committee, whose sole task was to establish election procedures and hold elections for a more permanent steering committee on or about January 22nd, 1991.

The members of the interim committee (Ricky Benitez, Russ Haddleton, and Darrell Kienzle) met last week to decide when and how the elections were to take place. It was determined that before elections could be held, a charter would need to be drafted and approved, in order to define the roles that would need to be filled by elections.

This posting represents a very rough proposed charter and a request for nominations for the three steering committee positions. Please mail all nominations to csgsg, which is aliased to the current steering committee members. We will contact those nominated to determine whether they wish to serve before posting a list of candidates. Nominations should be received by January 7th. Needless to say, if there are insufficient candidates, we will twist some arms to rectify the situation.

Graduate Student Group Charter -or- "We the lackeys..."

Purpose:

The purpose of the graduate student group is to use the combined resources and efforts of the graduate student community to improve the lot of graduate students, in terms of both social events and improving the work and study environment. The graduate student group is based on the idea that most graduate students are willing to participate, as long as such participation is small enough to not seriously interfere with their educational progress, and flexible enough to not interfere with any particular class or research tasks.

Structure:

The Graduate Student Group membership encompasses all U.Va C.S. graduate students. The organizational structure consists of a democratically elected 3-member steering committee. This committee will organize and oversee other committees of volunteers which will be assigned to specific purposes. Examples include the copy club committee, orientation committee, space committee, and picnic committee.

Each steering committee member will be elected by majority vote, the exact details of which will be determined at a later date. Each will serve for 1 year. Elections for a single post will be held every four months (each semester), so as to permit significant overlap in the members' terms.

The proposed dates of elections and terms of office are:

[In the very first election, one member will be elected for a 1 year term, one for 8 months, and one for 4 months, so as to enable the overlapping terms to be started] Details for resignations, recall votes, and exact voting procedures will be determined at a later date.

The Graduate Student Group will also encompass graduate student representatives to departmental committees. Procedures for determining such representatives will be worked out with the department at a later time.

At the present time, the Room Managers will also be considered part of the Graduate Student Group. They will be responsible for disseminating information to the people in their offices, and in forwarding suggestions or complaints from their offices to the appropriate committee.

Responsibilities of the Steering Committee:

The steering committee members' responsibilities, although numerous, are primarily administrative in nature. The steering committee members are responsible for ensuring that committees are established and volunteers sought for tasks that require effort. They are not default volunteers for every task that comes along. If the steering committee members are unable to find support for a given project, they are not responsible for doing it themselves - the project will simply not be accomplished. The purpose is to maintain a structured graduate student organization, in during periods of lean volunteerism.

Subcommittees

The steering committee will be responsible for establishing subcommittees. Rather than appointments, advertised elections will be used in creation and in filling vacant positions. The steering committe will also be responsible for overseeing the activities of the subcomittees, not to question their results, but to ensure that they follow the established processes.

Interface

The steering committee members willl serve as an interface between the students and the department, bringing student complaints and ideas to the attention of the department, and department concerns to the students. The steering committee members will be responsible for actively soliciting and acting on student suggestions, complaints and grievances. This can take the form of direct action or passing on to the appropriate committee. The steering committee will also be responsible for making the department constantly aware of student concerns: particularly representation in the decision-making process and dissemination of information.

Town Meetings

The steering committee will be responsible for holding monthly meetings of the student populace. These will be for the purpose of reporting activities to the students, soliciting input, and even holding impromptu elections. In addition, the steering committee will be responsible for advertising such meetings and summarizing the results to those not in attendance.

Faculty Committees

The steering committee will be responsible for overseeing the activities of student representatives to faculty committees, making sure that such representatives are indeed attending the meetings, raising student concerns, and reporting on the results. In addition, the steering committee will work with the department to ensure that student representation becomes even more widespread, and will be responsible for filling such positions.

Charter

The steering committee will be responsible for establishing, maintaining, and upholding the graduate student group charter.

Responsibility of Others:

Student Representatives on faculty committees are present to represent the student populace, and will thus be responsible to raise student concerns, even when not personally held, and disseminating reports to the populace.

Room Mangers will be responsible for bringing office-members' concerns to the attention of the appropriate committee. In addition, they will be responsible for keeping their office-members appraised as to the activities of the GSG, and encourage participation.

Election Process:

All elections will take place electronically, using a vote program to be written Real Soon Now. Calls for nominations must take place via advertisement in uva.cs.grads at least one week in advance. If an election is not necessary due to lack of response, a second call for nominations will be held. At this point, if sufficient nominations are made, elections will be held. "Polls" will remain open for at least 72 "work-week" hours, during which time the results will be kept secret.

The number of votes required to form a quorum will be decided upon in the future, after a few elections are observed.

Amendments:

The steering committee will be responsible for finalizing the charter and getting broad student approval for it. In addition, an exact process for amending the charter will have to be established. In particular, once the charter is approved, it should require an overwhelming majority to amend.