GSA General Assembly Meeting Minutes 9/5/2007

By Laura Thomas on February 6, 2008 2:33 PM |

Graduate Student Assembly - General Assembly Meeting Minutes

Meeting Date:  September 5, 2007

Start Time:  7:00 p.m. HGS 119 A&B

 

I.  Welcome and Introductions

 

 

II.  Additions to the Agenda Request

  • Nick Goodbody (Publicity Chair) announcement about GPSS GPSCY events

 

 

III.  At-large Representatives

a.  Discussion

  • Will send an e-mail with the exact wording of the proposed change
  • Will vote on the exact wording of this new by-law at the next meeting
  • Current Voting Options:
    1. No allocation of seats per division - 9 open slots+
    2. Allocation of 3 seats per division
    3. Allocation of a maximum of 3 seats per division - but no inequality among divisions

 

§         General Concerns and Suggestions

·         Weight at-large representative proportionally according to division?

·         Disadvantages for candidates from small departments due to lack of support?

·         Appointment by GSA itself would be undemocratic

·         At-large representative have no direct responsibility to their departments, but are instead representing graduate students (in general or in their division); however, they may choose to participate in departmental events.

·         Time of year during which at-large representatives are elected - Consider having these elections in the Fall so first years can get involved and so empty slots from the previous GSA departmental representative election can be filled.

b.  Vote

 

§         In favor of having at-large representatives IN GENERAL? - Most people

§         No allocation of divisions (9) vs. Division specific slots (3/3/3) - (options 1 & 2 above)

·         12 votes for just 9 general representatives

·         18 votes for 3/3/3 division specific representatives

·         6 abstentions

 

New Business

  • Announcement (Nick Goodbody) -  GPSS notification that GPSCY lounge is available to rent for free once per year for each department (with karaoke option).  Accompanying drink packages are priced per person - he will send out contact info.

 

 

IV. Amendments to the By-laws

a.  Discussion

 

Additions

  • A.5.  Representatives for BBS and one-year master’s degree programs that constitute their own programs will be elected in the fall, at the same time as elections for vacancies and at-large representatives.
  • A.6.  Each fall the Elections Committee will arrange elections for at-large representatives.  Each division will be allotted the same number of at-large representatives. At-large representatives will be elected by the registered students in their divisions.  (The exact wording of this motion will be voted on at a later date, when the proposed wording is available)
  • D.5.  Conference Travel Fund Director.  Handles all issues related to the organization and implementation of the CTF.  The CTF director publicizes the rules and deadlines, collects all applications and verifies that they are valid, makes the applications anonymous and distributes them to the appropriate readers, reassembles the applications and the readers’ decisions, conveys decisions to applicants, and transmits all award decisions to the financial aid office for the distribution of funds.
  • D.6.  Publicity Chair.  The Publicity Chair handles issues of publicity, public relations, and printed material.  Duties include:  writing the GSA Corner for the Graduate School Newsletter, writing GSA-related articles and ads for the YDN, dealing with PR issues such as interviews and relations with the press, as they arise, and heading any advertising campaigns.
  • D.7.  Webmaster.  The webmaster is in charge of maintaing the GSA website, ensuring that all links function, information is up-to-date, minutes are posted, etc.  The webmaster will be assisted in up-dating information by the Secretary, as needed, and by any other student(s) she/he should appoint.
  • Current D.5 and D.6 will be re-numbered as D.8 and D.9.
  • Allow for elections in the Fall for BBS reps? Motion - 2nd - Unanimous

 

Deletions

  • Strike:  The Vice-Chair may serve as Treasurer, but not Chair or Secretary.
  • Strike:  Section E - redundant - provisionally strike it if the Charter doesn’t contain it.
  • Strike:  Budget Committee (has been non-functional)
  • Strike:  Publicity Committee (has been non-functional)
  • Strike:  References to the above two committees from Section F 
  •  

 

Alterations

  • B.2.  Move “Chair asks for new business from the floor” to immediately below “Approval or agenda.  Agenda is deemed approved unless amended” (the beginning of the meeting).
  • F.1.  Having a status between Standing Committees and Ad-hoc Committees, Traditionsal Committees may have non-GSA representatives as members, but must be chaired by a GSA representative.
  • F.3.  Traditional Committees are ad-hoc committees that have been in existence for many years, but not deemed in need of the label “Standing Committee.”  These committees need not be reformed each year, but are considered to continue to possess their mandate until thay are voted unnecessary by the Assembly.  Examples of such committees are:  Housing, Transportation, Security, Teaching, etc…  (This saves voting on whether to have these committees at the beginning of each year).
  • F.5.  Elections Committee.  The Vice-Chair heads the Elections Committee.

 

 

b.  Vote

 

Additions

  • A.5.  Motion - Seconded - Unanimous
  • A.6.  Will vote on official wording later.
  • D.5, D.6, D.7.  New officer positions - get to serve on steering committee - every officer position needs to be in the by-laws.  These are voted on at the end of the year.  Motion - Seconded - Unanimous.         

 

Deletions

  • Vote on all proposed deletions at once.  Motion - Seconded - Unanimous.

 

Alterations

  • Vote on proposed alterations B.2, F.1, F.3, F.5 at once.  Motion - Seconded - Unanimous.

 

Additional Notes

  • Defer voting on the membership of some of the committees until at-large representatives are elected?

 

 

V. Election of the Executive Committee

Description:  The Chair, Vice Chair, and three additional GSA representatives (one from each division) will serve on the Dean’s Executive Committee in addition to 6 Faculty Members and 7 Deans.  Biweekly meetings this year will be Wednesdays at 11:00 and usually last for approximately 90 minutes.  Deals with official Graduate School Business such as creating/destroying departments, grading policies, etc…  This is different than the GSA Steering Committee which deals more with student advocacy and the GSA agendas with the Dean.

 

a.  Nominations:

Natural Sciences:

  • Christopher Crick (Computer Science)
  • Andrew Davis (Astronomy)

Social Sciences: 

  • Noah Shamosh (Psychology)
  • Florian Ploeckl (Economics)

Humanities: 

  • Trevor Verrot (History of Art)
  • Isaac Elias (Near Eastern Languages and Civilization)

 

b.  Election

Natural Sciences:  Christopher Crick

Social Sciences:  Noah Shamosh

Humanities:  Isaac Elias

 

 

VI.  Other Committees

  • Nomination of Erich Round (Linguistics)
  • E-mail other nominations to Vice-Chair Andy Bellemer
  • What is the University Securities Committee?
  • Write Steering Committee on committee description sheet and re-send
  • Send out At-large representative official description
  • Elections e-mail will be sent out regarding filling empty slots.

 

 

VII.  Motion to adjourn - 2nd

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