Minutes
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Monday, March 23, 2009
Big Red Barn Greenhouse
5:30–7:00 P.M.

I. Welcome

M. Leinfelder called the meeting to order at 5:36 p.m. M. Leinfelder welcomed the members. She said there is a lot to cover at today’s meeting.

II. Open Forum

There was nothing presented.

III. Old Business

1. Approval of Minutes

M. Leinfelder asked members to review the minutes from the last meeting of the GPSA on February 23, 2009. N. Evensen motioned to approve the minutes. B. Forster seconded. The minutes were passed with a vote of 9–0−3.

2. Executive Updates

M. Guerrero said after a full year of trying, the Graduate School worked out a way to send monthly GPSAINFO messages to all graduate students. He was very thankful for the support from the Graduate School. M. Guerrero also said that the Big Red Barn has a large screen TV for advertising events. Anyone who wants to publish events could contact Kris Corda for details.

D. Rose said the Assembly is looking for people to serve as next year’s committee chairs and members. She asked members to share this information.

M. Leinfelder said the next CoR meeting would have a presentation from EARS and the election of members for next year. At the next business meeting, next year’s officers would be elected. Also, after the next business meeting, an end of the year party would be held. M. Leinfelder also gave an update on graduate and professional student on-campus housing, saying that Campus Life had already filled the designated 25 single student units at Hasbrouck. There’s now a wait list for single student contracts. Campus Life is planning to fill the family requests first and then go back to the wait list.

3. Committee Updates

a. Student Advocacy Committee

B. Forster said that all documents the committee had worked on this year are posted on the Student Advocacy Committee website. B. Forster reminded the members that on April 3rd, officers from Geneva’s SAGES are coming down to visit. The committee will be hosting them at TGIF and later for dinner to further the collaboration between the two campuses. Regarding the resolution on mental health (R. 6), Gannett has scheduled a meeting this Friday. Both parties, graduate student representatives and the administration at Gannett, would participate in the meeting. S. Dittman sent out a file saying there’s a reduced price for contraception for students from the university health center. B. Forster reminded everyone that the Town Hall meeting is next week, and he will send out posters this week to all CoR members to distribute. The committee meets again this week.

b. Events Committee—Grad Ball

M. Leinfelder said that K. Capassola was still away on a class trip. B. Forster said the latest GPSAINFO online has Grad Ball information.

4. R.9 Regarding Charter Revisions and Recommendations

Submitted by: A. Richter, C. Mansfeldt, and Charter Review Committee

C. Mansfeldt presented the charter, by-laws and the funding documents individually. A. Richter recorded all questions and comments raised by Assembly members during the presentation.

The floor was opened up for discussion and amendments. Friendly amendments were made and accepted. Grammar, formatting, and spelling were corrected.

For the Events Committee portion in the Charter, M. Guerrero didn’t think it was necessary to have the Town Hall meeting in the Charter. He said he thought the Charter should exclusively say how we do things. M. Leinfelder said it’s sufficient enough to have the events in the by-laws, which only require a majority vote to change. M. Leinfelder asked for a motion to delete the line in the Charter about the Town Hall meeting. A motion was made and seconded. With a vote of 5–6−3, the motion didn’t pass.

A. Richter moved to approve the Charter as amended at the meeting. K. Hermans seconded. The charter was passed with a vote 11–0−1.

IV. New Business

1. R. 10 Regarding Support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Services and Administrative Support

Submitted by: M. Guerrero

M. Leinfelder asked for a motion to move item IV 1. (R. 10) to the table and postpone the rest of the discussion of the previous agenda item until after R.10. The motion was made by N. Evensen and seconded by B. Forster. A vote approved this agenda change.

M. Guerrero briefly went over the resolution and explained that it came as a response to a number of meetings that have been held with undergraduate and graduate LGBT students, the community, administrators, and staff. He explained that there has been one position vacant for a year and a half. Two positions are also currently vacant in the LGBT Resource Center. He described the LGBT community’s desire to be proactive in rebuilding the LGBT Resource Center.

B. Forster indicated the lack of definition of “Q” in “LGBTQ” in the document. M. Guerrero took it as a friendly amendment. M Roman questioned the use of word “sexual preference”, and proposed to use “sexual orientation” instead, as an amendment. M. Guerrero said — though he agreed with M. Roman — the language comes directly from a document, so no amendment to the resolution was made.

M. Leinfelder asked for a motion on the resolution. A motion was made by N. Evensen and seconded by B. Forster. The resolution was passed with a vote of 10–0−3.

Amy Richter motioned to extend the meeting to 7:15 p.m. R. Harbison seconded. The members voted and the motion passed.

5. R.9 Regarding Charter Revisions and Recommendations (cont.)

Submitted by: A. Richter, C. Mansfeldt, and Charter Review Committee

M. Walsh made a point of order, and asked about the validity of voting on the Charter without 2/3 of the seated members present. There was a brief discussion of the definition of a “seated member”. M. Leinfelder said “seated member” refers to all the members who have a voting seat on the Assembly. Based on the current Charter, 13 seated members are required for a vote to take place. Thus, the previous vote on the Charter (with a vote 11–0−1) was not valid. M. Leinfelder said the documents would have to go back to the Charter Review Committee.

M. Leinfelder suggested that the Assembly could come together at the beginning of the next business meeting and vote on R.9 and the Charter documents. The new Assembly members that would get elected at the next CoR meeting could also be present but not vote on the documents. The elections for next year’s officers could take place after the vote on R.9.

By-Laws: There were no suggestions or edits from the floor for the By-laws.

Byline Funding Allocation Procedures: There were several questions asked, and some minor edits were made to the document.

GPSA Eligibility Criteria and Obligations for Byline Funded Organizations: There were several questions asked and some minor edits made to the document. M. Walsh commented that, from his experience, petition signatures from 15% of the graduate and professional student population is hard to get, so maybe this could be reconsidered. J. Kupferschmidt disagreed. M. Leinfelder said this would have to go back to Committee and that the meeting be advertised to the entire CoR so that members could give comments.

V. Adjournment

A. Richter made a motion to adjourn. M. Roman seconded. M. Leinfelder adjourned the meeting at 7:19 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Yezi Li
Office of the Assemblies