Minutes 2-18-05
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February 18, 2005 Minutes

UC Davis

Attendees:
UC Berkeley: Shawn DeMille (Chair), Debi Fidler
UC Davis: Sheri Atkinson, Steve Cha, Jeff Lagasca (Student Chair), Ed’d Luna, Rachel Messer
UC Riverside: Marlenne Felix, Clare Gmur, Jami Grosser, Tatiana Svolopoulos, Nancy Jean Tubbs (Vice Chair), Jocelyn Wong
UC San Diego: Sarah Archibald
UC Merced: John White
UC Santa Barbara: Rodolfo (Rudy) Lopez, Kyle Richards (Secretary)
UC Santa Cruz: Tam Welch
UCOP: Emily Nalven
Not present: UCI, UCLA, UCSF, LANL, LBNL, LLNL
Guest: Adam Rosenthal – Student Regent Designate

5:05pm Meeting called to order (Nancy Tubbs)
Welcome and introductions

5:09pm Approval of 10-23-04 SCOM Minutes with corrections (Sarah Archibald moves, Shawn DeMille seconds)

5:13pm Student Suicide Rate at UC - Student Regent Designate Adam Rosenthal

  1. Appointed to Board of Regents in September (gets to vote July 1)
  2. A lot of campuses have been affected this year by student suicide
  3. LGBTQI community is statistically more affected (2-3 times more likely)
  4. UCLA – 3 student suicides this year among LGBTQIA people
  5. Staff team creating information brochure and programming about the issue
  6. Related to mental health issues
  7. UCR – Counseling Center doing training & awareness (e.g. warning signs, what to do high risk groups)
  8. Other universities (NYU & Cornell) have good programs identifying high-risk students early on
  9. Wider issue of mental health issues
  10. Re-evualuate registration fee (reg fee) which is where the money for counseling centers comes from (as opposed to ed fee)
  11. Data on QPOC suicide rates? What about people who aren’t out? – Difficult to know (for one, not easy to even identify whether or not a death is a suicide vs. accident)
  12. LGBT students may be reluctant to talk to a counselor about relationship problems if they don’t feel the staff is supportive
  13. Correlation to pressures faced by students – graduate in 4 years, jobs, number of units, etc.

5:32pm Agenda for General Assembly

  • Welcome by officers
  • Welcome by Student Regent Designate
  • Reading of Resolution – Restrooms
  • Caucus/Vote on Resolution
  • Announcements from floor / Counting of Votes
  • Vote Results
  • Reminder of Spring SCOM and Elections
  • Other? New ideas or initiatives?
  1. Resolution is either approved or not – cannot be amended during GA meeting
  2. Thank you to Nancy from John White about the website – gives history & context of the conference
  3. Give cards for people to identify top issue(s) that they’d like the SCOM to deal with
  4. Facilitators for caucuses? Delegation leader(s)? – SCOM will help to facilitate the caucuses, or at least identify members from the delegation who can facilitate (Emily Nalven will contact UCLA, and John White will contact UCI)
  5. Caucuses will be given 10 minutes, which can be extended by 5 minutes if requested.

6:00pm CUCSA and staff participation on Regents Committees (John White)

  1. Counsel of UC Staff Assemblies – 2 delegates from each site that meet once per quarter
  2. Leadership has limited access to Regents
  3. Ward Connerly sponsored resolutions to have staff give formal input the Regents in some way – pilot project for 2 years (chair and former chair will have a seat on 2 committees)
  4. Two Regents committees will include staff advisors
  5. Chair of the Regents & President of the University will choose which 2 committees
  6. Lots of work and decisions happen at the Committee level

6:03pm Gender Neutral Restrooms

  1. Adam Rosenthal announces March 3rd meeting at UCOP – “major players” (including Stan Kowalksi – Director in Human Resources & Benefits under Judy Boyette)
  2. General survey of each campus – how many facilities will be affected?
  3. Johnny Torres – Director of Facilities Management at OP is a good person to contact

6:11pm Financial Aid DP Equity

  1. Issue is now on UCOP website
  2. No students have yet registered

6:14pm Trans Health Benefits

  1. Two issues: Employees & Student Health Insurance
  2. Chart from OP – what’s covered and what’s not
  3. Student – campus by campus issue (Student Health Insurance Committees)
  4. Which strategy to take? – push first or work behind the scenes?
  5. Shane Snowdon is in process of training staff of health centers (& counseling centers)

6:17pm Military Recruitment on Campus

  1. UC Policy – no illegal discrimination (dated July 27, 1984)
  2. Recent legal decision in Philadelphia Court of Appeals – does not apply to California
  3. Student groups have more leeway to protest against military recruiters than staff
  4. Peace Corps discriminates against same-sex couples (doesn’t recognize same-sex couples as married)
  5. USSA making up a fact sheet for military recruitment
  6. Create a resolution around this issue for the Spring Meeting?
  7. Find out if anyone else on our campuses is working on resolutions (UCSB, UCSD?)
  8. Build coalitions: with peace activism & POC

QPOC Retreat

  1. Sometime before the next SCOM? Jeff Lagasca, Ed’d Luna, Rigo (San Diego)
  2. Faculty/Staff QPOC organizing?
  3. Institutionalize a space for QPOC issues – create a position, caucus, etc.

6:40pm Upcoming Meetings

  1. SCOM Spring 2005 @ UCLA – May 14
  2. SCOM Fall 2005 @ Oakland / NGLTF Creating Change Conference – Nov 9-13, 2005
  3. UCOP; Tentative Date: Saturday, November 12
  4. General Assembly Winter 2005 @ Conference or UC?
  5. Conference host bids may include the University of Utah and Oregon State
  6. UC Merced? John White will contact Student Affairs to see if they will host
  7. Riverside would be willing to host also
  8. SCOM Spring 2006 @ UCSC

6:48pm 2006 conference

  1. What is this conference doing for the non-UC?
  2. Where is it hosted in the future? (U of UT & Oregon State)

6:50pm How LGBT people are counted (or not)?

  1. Housing forms – do you want to be housed with someone queer-friendly?
  2. Riverside – LGBT & Gender-Neutral theme hall next year
    1. Not an opportunity for a homophobe to refuse a gay roommate
    2. Do not ask similar questions around race & religion
    3. What does LGBT-friendly mean? What about trans people? Gender non-conformity?
    4. Decided not to include it on the form
    5. Housing forms ask gender: male, female, self-identify (specify)
  3. Include self-identification of LGBT for newly-hired staff?
  4. “Would you be interested in using LGBT resources on campus?” instead of asking identity on UCI climate survey

7:00pm Sarah Archibald moves to adjourn meeting; Clare seconds. Meeting adjourned.

Minutes submitted by Kyle Richards.