Officers Present: Carlos Lopez, President; Ian Richmond, Vice President; Stephanie Abundo, Secretary; Zoltan Maliga, Treasurer; Gabriella Gonzalez and Kyriell Muhammad, Social Officers.

Departments NOT Represented: Anthropology, Astronomy, Business Economics, Chemical Physics, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Classics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Economics, English and American Literature and Language, Government, Inner Asian and Altic Studies, Linguistics, Medical Sciences (DMS), Molecular and Cellular Biology, Political Economy and Government, Psychology, Public Policy, Slavic Languages and Literature.

1. Announcements
   • GSC Conference Grants: Deadline to apply is Monday, January 11, 1999. Completed applications due in the GSC Office by 5:00 p.m. This is open to all GSAS students whose departments are represented at the GSC meetings and have paid their GSC fee.

   • GSC Pub Night: Friday, February 12, 1999, from 9pm to midnight. To be held at the Medical School Area (specific location to be announced).

   • Semester T-Pass deadline: Spring '99 Semester T-Passes must be ordered by January 12, 1999.

   • Ellen Fox: GSAS Director of Student Services met briefly with the GSC to discuss workshops for GSAS students. She would like to meet with student to discuss ideas for future workshops, programs, and publicity.

   
   
   
2. Matters Arising from the minutes of November 1998 meeting: None.

   
   
   

3. Treasurer's Report
   • The Budget Committee will be meeting to review the process for evaluating funding requests. Their recommendations will be presented to the February GSC meeting.

   
   
   
4. Committee Reports
   • FAS Library Committee: Hollis II is targeted to go on-line in the summer of 1999, but is likely to be delayed. The Widener stacks will be renovated, which will require closing sections of the stacks one section at a time. During that time the books in the sections being renovated should be accessible by request, but not by browsing.

   • Graduate Student Health Advisory Committee (GSHAC): The deductible for prescription medication is $750 per year. Some financial aid is available for students with serious medical needs who are unable to cover the deductible. Contact Kathleen Dias, the UHS patient advocate at 5-7583 or kdias@uhs.harvard.edu to discuss this confidentially. UHS keeps appointments open for same day primary care appointments.

   • Harvard Graduate Council: New members elected to the council, which represents all the Harvard Graduate Schools: Alicia Walker, History of Art and Architecture, Gabriella Gonzales, Sociology, Stephanie Abundo, Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning.

   
   
   
5. NAGPS (National Association of Graduate and Professional Students)
   • The National Conference was held November 13-15, 1998 in Braintree, MA. Ian Richmond, and Adam Fagen represented GSAS. The nationally reported issues of student suicides and advising problems at Harvard -- "the Harvard Issue" -- was a major topic at this conference. Other big topics were unionization and health insurance. The US Federal Budget did not appropriated funding for the Javits and GAANN Fellowships for next year, so unless action is taken these fellowships will be cancelled.

   
   
   
6. Excellence in Mentoring Award.
   • This award will be presented at a reception held in conjunction with the Spring Student-Faculty dinner in April. The composition of the Selection Committee for the award was discussed.

     RESOLVED: The Selection Committee will be made up of: the Chair of the Excellence in Mentoring Award Committee, one GSC officer, and one student from each of the three disciplines within GSAS: Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences.

     The following Selection Committee members were elected: Wendy Zhang, G2, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences; David Ager, G3, Organizational Behavior; Robert Krikorian, G2, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. Adam Fagen, Chair of the Excellence in Mentoring Award Committee, and Kyriell Muhammad, GSC Social Officer, will also be on the committee.

   
   
   

Respectfully submitted,
Stephanie Abundo