UEC minutes, 29 Sep 2001

present: L. Nodulman (outgoing chair), R. Plunkett (N), C. White (N),
R. Erbacher (C), R. St. Denis (C), J.Huston (N), B. Tannenbaum (C),
H. Ray (G), S. Towers (N), W. Taylor (N), J. Conway (N), M. Sorel (G),
M. Kirby (G).

absent: G. Watts (C), R. Rusack (C), S. Koutsoliotas (C)

(C) - continuing member  (N) - new member   (G) - GSA officers
_______________________________________________________________________

The meeting was brought to order by Larry Nodulman, the outgoing
chair, and began with the introduction of new and continuing members,
including the new members of the GSA.

We reviewed the purpose, activities and organization of the UEC.  The
UEC addresses issues including quality of life, outreach (including
the annual visit to Congress in spring, and arranging the annual Users
Meeting in June.  In the recent past the UEC fostered changes in
things such as graduate insurance, housing allocation in the Village,
and office space.

We then turned to election of the new chair.  There was one candidate
for the office, Benn Tannenbaum, who was elected unanimously.  Larry
continues as chair emeritus, and will be secretary.  Gordon Watts will
be as webmaster.

Expression of interest for membership and chairs of the standing
committees was then discussed.  These are

- Quality of Life (QL)
- Inreach (IN)
- Outreach (OR)
- DC Visit (DC)
- Users Meeting (UM)

Initial expressions of interest for membership (chairs will be
determined at a later meeting) are

                 QL      IN      OR      DC      UM
Nodulman        x               x
Plunkett                x                       x
White                           x       x       x
Erbacher                                x       x
Conway          x                       x       x
Taylor          x       x
Towers          x                               x
St. Denis               x       x       x
Huston          x               x       x       x
Tannenbaum
Sorel           x       x
Ray             x       x
Kirby           x       x       x

Rick St. Denis raised the issue of visas.  There has been a visa
denial recently for a B visa application.  Benn expressed his
willingness to continue working on this issue with Lab officials.

Mike Witherell came and spoke about several issues.

- CDF and D0 have new buildings.  Space allocation in them is left to
the individual collaborations.

- Lab security: subsequent to 11 September, DOE has issued new
guidelines.  People entering the Lab must have a valid ID or a
visitor's card.  For the Krauss lecture 2 Sept, this was relaxed by
containing vehicular motion.  For the future, the hope is to return
to an open site.  In the mean time, provision will be made to ease
the burden on, for example, spouses who enter the site for daycare,
visitors to residents of the Village, etc.  Bruce Chrisman is
collecting information about various scenarios that need to be
addressed, along with George Robertson.

- Lab budget: Administration request up 4%, $7M added by senate to
cover "university problem" but House is balking.  A budget agreement
including $25B (mainly for military) has reportedly been reached,
though given the late date a continuing resolution is in the works.
In the absence of the Senate's $7M, the lab will likely get somewhat
less than the $291M request.  The highest priorities remain Tevatron
operation, NuMI/MINOS and MiniBooNE construction.  The collider and
experiment upgrade TDRs are nearly complete, and will be reviewed in
the coming fiscal year.  Accelerator and detector R&D will most
likely get hit rather hard.

The next UEC meeting will be 13 October, and the next one after that
is tentatively 10 or 17 November, to be determined.

The meeting was adjourned.