Officers Present: Adam Fagen, President; Elgin Eckert, Vice President; Matthew Leingang, Secretary, Christine Murasaki Millett, Treasurer; Kyriell Muhammad, Social Officer; Todd Bodner, Facilities Officer.

Departments not Represented: Chemical Physics, Health Policy, Organizational Behavior, Philosophy, Sanskrit and Indian Studies.

1. Announcements
   • GSAS Phonathon: November 3 and November 18. The Graduate Student Fund solicits donations from GSAS alumni to help student funding and provide certain facilities for graduate students. The two evenings will begin at 6:00p.m. with a complimentary dinner, and calling will be from 7:00p.m. to 9:00p.m. This is an oppurtunity to meet fellow students as well as alumni of your own department, and to help replenish the coffers from which you are paid. For more information, please contact Kelly Westerhouse.
   • Fall Conference and Summer Research Grants: Deadline is Monday, October 20
   • Student Families Brunch: Saturday, October 18, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., Common Room, Dudley House. Though mainly for students who are also parents, this event is open to all. There will be refreshments, games, the ever-popular clown, as well as the opportunity to network with other student parents who have similar needs and interests. Which segues well into...
     • GSC Child Care Exchange: The GSC is looking into developing a way for student parents to find affordable and recommended child care. As this is very much in the preliminary stages, comments and volunteers are highly encouraged. Interested people should contact GSC Vice President Elgin Eckert.
   • Harvard Graduate Council Party: October 16, 9 p.m. - 1 a.m., Loker Commons. The Harvard Graduate Council is composed of representatives of all graduate schools at Harvard, including GSAS, the law school, the Kennedy School, the business school, etc. This party is open to all graduate students in any school. There will be another party in the Spring, which would possibly involve reserving a club in Boston.
   • MBTA Semester Pass Program: Spring 1998. The Massachussetts Bay Transit Authority offers to universities in the Boston Area the chance for students to buy bus, train, or other passes per semester at an 11% discount from the price of buying a monthly pass each month in the semester. Currently, a monthly subway pass costs $27 per month, so a semester pass would be $96 for a four-month semester, at a savings of 12 dollars. But in order for a university to be eligible, that university has to set up a program with the MBTA. The GSC is working with Harvard's administration to see if this could be done.
   • NAGPS National Conferences
     • 1997 -- New Orleans: October 30-November 2
     • 1998 -- Boston (Sheraton Tara Hotel, Braintree): November 19-22.
     The National Association of Graduate and Professional Students (NAGPS) is a nationwide non-profit organization designed to represent students. NAGPS is very active in Washington; those of you who are on the GSC's mailing list received regular updates on the battle they led to keep Congress from making tuition waivers taxable (this would increase many graduate students' taxes by severalfold, though not students at Harvard). The delegates for this year's conference are Adam Fagen and Elgin Eckert. Next year, the conference will be in Boston, so we are expecting to be heavily involved with the implementation.
   
   
2. Representatives
   • Attendance Procedure: All students, especially those representing their departments, should check their names off on the attendance sheet when arriving at the meeting. Attendance at GSC meetings is mandatory for that department's students to be eligible for travel and research grants.
   • Responsibilities: Ideally, each department should have at least one person who attends all the GSC meetings. The representative's responsibility is to be a conduit of information between the department's students and the GSC, and therefore with the Harvard administration. The representative provides the perspective of students in his or her department, as well as relays news and upcoming events back to those students. Plus there is the chance to determine how some of the $15 GSC fee every graduate student pays is spent. Know your representative!
   
   
3. GSC Introduction: There are a few things that the GSC is best known for. They all have their separate pages.
   • GSC Conference and Research Grants
   • GSC Computer Room and Laser Printing Facility
   • GSAS Student Group Funding
   
   
4. Committees:
   The GSC nominates students to many committees on campus.
   • Committee on Graduate Education Education (CGE) [Paul Callan, Elgin Eckert, Adam Fagen, Christine Murasaki Millett, Stephanie Treloar]. This is a subcommittee of the Faculty Council, which is one of the major policy-making committees in the administration.
   • FAS Library Committee [Mark DeLancey, Stan Wong]. This committee discusses the library facilities, and is currently working on implementing a new HOLLIS system by the Summer of 1999.
   • FAS Information Technology Committee [Tom Jenkins]
   • Graduate Student Health Advisory Committee (GSHAC) [unlimited]
   • Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) [Carl Elkin]. This committee advises the Harvard Corporation in voting its shares in its wide investment portfolio.
   • GSC Budget Committee: This committee decides how student groups get funded, how travel grants are awarded, and what other events the GSC should spend the graduate students' money on.
   • GSC Social Committee: This committee envisions, plans, and runs the various social events that the GSC holds, such as Pub Nights and the Student Families Brunch.
   
   
5. Athletics Facilities
   • Results of GSC Athletics Survey: The Atthletics Department is opening up to feedback this month, and the GSC is endeavoring to convey qualitatively the graduate student voice on the the subject of their facilities. In a survey taken on registration day, a majority of students asserted that they would like the MAC open earlier than 9:00a.m., the hour it currently opens. Once the analysis of the survey is complete, the GSC will pass it on to the Athletics Department.
   
   
6. Home Run Shuttle. This shuttle service is unique in that it actually takes students home. Graduate Students living in Somerville or North Cambridge can enjoy a bus ride home for the low price of $1.50. Previously, this was by a pre-paid ticket, but now anyone can ride by presenting his or her Student ID. The cost is added to the student's term bill. This valuable service is in danger of extinction due to lack of ridership. Thus it is imporant that as many students as possible know that this shuttle is available.
   
   
7. Student Progress Review / Advising Quality: An ongoing project of the GSC is an attempt to have a more structured, GSAS-wide method for allowing students and advisors to regularly (perhaps annually) determine the progress of a student towards his or her degree. Selected advisors in almost all departments have been known to ignore their students, while students have been known to let their studies slide. The spirit of this project is that the student/advisor relationship should not allow either of these extreme cases to occur. The GSC will continue to discuss this with the CGE, both by providing appropriate mechanisms to assure student progress towards degree and by assuring that faculty are taking their role as advisor seriously. Those interested in addressing the quality of advising and student progress should contact the GSC.
   
   
8. Treasurer's Report
   • Current allocations and budget: The current budget was distributed.
   • Student group requests allocations: At the Monday, October 6 meeting of the budget committee, three groups were recommended funding, awarded tonight. The Harvard University Taiwan Study Club received $200 for operating expenses, Jewish Students in Arts and Sciences received $88 for an event, and the Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay Graduate Students received $500 annual operating expenses.
   
   
9. Other Business
   • Activities with GSCs at MIT and Tufts: Nothing is planned yet, but it's possible there could be a "down the river, up the hill" cross-campus event in the works.

Respectfully Submitted,
Matthew Leingang
GSC Secretary