Minutes 2-21-03
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February 21, 2003 Minutes

UC Riverside

Present -

Berkeley: Jonathan Winters
Davis: Daniel Bayless; Sharon McDonell; Nathan Thomas
Irvine: Kathy Eiler; Pat Walsh
Los Angeles: Steven Leider; Ronni Sanlo
Riverside: Vianey Ramirez, Nancy Tubbs
San Diego: Sarah Archibald; Debbi Blake; Barbara Estrada; Max Harrington; Erica Lo; Kimberly Marino; Chilan Ta; Shaun Travers
San Francisco: Shane Snowdon
Santa Barbara: Kyle Richards; Peter Russell; Joseph Severino
Santa Cruz: Deb Abbott; Tam Welch
LANL: Kathy Elsberry
Office of the President: Emily Nalven

Merced, LBNL & LLNL had no representatives present.

Meeting was called to order at 4:10pm

Introductions

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from 11.02 meeting were discussed. Previously circulated electronically.
Moved by Emily Nalven and seconded by Sarah Archibald to approve without further revision.

Officer Elections

Chair Travers explained process of elections and positions. Nominations are open until elections at April 5, 2003 SCOM meeting @ UC Davis. Additional call for nominations will be made at the General Assembly.Three officer positions will be open for election: Vice Chair, Student Chair & Secretary. Current Vice-Chair Nancy Jean Tubbs will rotate to become Chair, as proscribed in Constitution.

Future Meeting Calendar

  • Spring ’03 SCOM, Sat April 5, 2002 at UC Davis
  • Fall ‘03 SCOM @ UC Irvine. (Date TBA)
  • UCLGBTIA 15th Annual Conference & General Assembly, February 20-22, 2004 @ UC San Diego
  • Spring ’04 SCOM @ UC San Francisco. (Date TBA)

2005 Conference

No Location yet for 16th Annual conference in 2005. Discussion about that conference.
Many concerns expressed about impact of budget cuts on the ability to have conference at any campus.

Suggestions: scale back for a ‘lite’ general assembly would soften the cost to campus.
Encourage a West Coast conference hosted at another campus (CSU; private), not hosted by us but allows us to have space for our internal meetings.

  • UCI (8 yrs.) & UCSC (7 yrs.) have had the longest gap since last hosting the conference
  • UCI will have major construction beginning in 2005 and through 2006, which will affect LGBT center and largest venues.
  • UCSC is concerned about budget, as it cannot afford the campaign a conference would require
  • UCLA will consider hosting only a scaled-down conference in Feb 2005
  • UC Merced potential future SCOM—early as 2005; will eventually host conference as a Northern campus.

General Assembly Plans

Discussion with Lecia Brooks, who will facilitate the two sessions: Setting the Student Agenda (Saturday) and Strategizing the Student Agenda (Sunday).

Lecia –trained facilitator; asked questions of specific student SCOM reps, what their views were.

Process will be tables of 10 people reporting their campus and issue. Some will be all from one campus. Brainstorm at tables; summarize issues. Bring back an analysis to the Sunday event.
Make sure it is clear students are welcome.

Student empowerment theme will help highlight student issues// What is important to students and what they want to get out of the UCLGBTIA. Frame discussion for keying in on student-focused outcomes.

Some opinions were given about what were perceived to be the major issues on specific campuses:

DP’s not necessarily a student issue per se.

Major general issues:

  • Campus safety// Hate Crimes
  • Attendance at LGBTQ campus events
  • Level of collaboration on each campus.
  • Suicide
  • Coming Out on Campus
  • Queer studies programs - UCSD (and others) have classes, not a minor program.
  • Gender-neutral bathrooms

Concerns regarding the SCOM were also raised:
Difficulty in getting to SCOM meetings at other times.
What are student expectations of SCOM? How do they define success?
Success through events, building a queer presence on campus.

Long-time SCOM representatives pointed out a similar exercise was performed at the ’97 & 2000 General Assembly sessions. At the time issues such as LGBT centers on each campus, and then DP family housing eligibility.

Report backs on Gender Issues

Subcommittee did not meet on the issues November last SCOM meeting.

Bathroom issues -
UCSD surveyed single-stall bathrooms for gender markings. Currently identified in several different ways. Labeled as any of: Men/women/bathroom/restroom; also circle/triangle markings.
Wrote to VC on campus to change signage on existing single bathrooms.
Some “family” bathroom - diaper/changing table/parent & child; open to gender neutral.
“Restroom” is desired signage. No symbols if possible.

ADA/Accessibility issues - no requirement on single-stall facility to which we can refer.
May have requirements on signage. (Triangle/circle; Braille lettering.)

Gender Neutral forms - No progress/ no report on this. UCSC petition effort did not yield results.

In-state Tuition Waiver for Faculty Member & their DPs.

Tuition waivers currently given to spouses of faculty as incentive, but not for DP’s.
Case at UCD went to UC general counsel. General Counsel ruled this is a Regents’ issue.
Unclear when issue will surface on Regents’ calendar.

Question was raised regarding cases of student w/ DP & tuition reduction
Opposite sex couples that marry immediately qualify for in-state tuition (one partner is a state resident). Students w/ DP from out of state are not eligible. UC counsel office not willing to offer help.

Student is not looking for Waiver, but in-state tuition (vs. out-of-state tuition).

Regents' standing order 110.2 defines matters of who is a resident. Additional Federal laws apply to financial aide and tax dependent status of students, as well as citizenship & immigration.

Potential objection regents will have is that there will be fraud to qualify for saving tuition $$.

Assembly bill this session to equalize DP registry to marriage.
Possibly legislators could put the pressure to bear on this issue. ACLU letter to UCOP?
Dennis Galligani is VP whom we would work through on this matter.
Subcommittee to work on the issue was empowered.

Additional Old Business

Retirement - retroactive benefits for current retirees
Student Health Benefits - negotiated by local campuses; separately from faculty/staff.
Student Health committees can ask for Transgender inclusion; surgery & hormones.
UCSF is moving ahead to enact this. UCSD Guardian—editorialized on the issue. Opposed it.

Welcome Statement from Judy Boyette, UCOP

Judy’s statement was mostly a welcome and summation of improvements to benefits, but there were a number of questions regarding the paragraph on transgender coverage.

Inclusion of benefits is a surprise to SCOM members. During presentations at individual campuses, benefits officials have flatly denied availability of coverage for hormones, surgery & mental health services for Transgender people.

It was agreed that a letter from SCOM officers to Judy Boyette would be sent to seek clarification. But despite any outstanding questions, the statement would be read in its entirety, without alteration, at the General Assembly

Announcements

Kathy Elsberry attended from LANL. First time an affiliate from Los Alamos has attended SCOM.

Situation there is difficult; heightened security issues and potential change in management may affect DPB’s offered through UC. University of Texas has been mentioned as potential new academic relationship.

Un-named women of UC Riverside issued copies of a leaflet and a letter from a UCR Professor Piya, presented them to SCOM members. The statements condemned a personnel inquiry that was conducted by Tobias Wolff (UC Davis), who was retained as a consultant.

Notes submitted by UCLGBTIA Secretary Jonathan Winters.