OFFICIAL MINUTES OHIO UNIVERSITY GSS Feb. 11, 2013
I. Call To Order.
President Tynita White called the regular Graduate Student Senate Meeting of Monday, Jan. 28, 2013 to order at 7:16 p.m.
II. Roll Call.
Ashley Furrow, Vice President of Communications, called the roll.
ROLL CALL: Executives Present: / Commissioners Present:Tynita White, President
Ashley Furrow, VP of Communication
Ed Gaither, VP of Legislative Affairs
Molly Yanity, VP for Finance / Pronoy Rai, International
Leah Ward, Black Affairs
Svetlana Bondereva, Minority
Joel Newby, Grad Student Life
Executives Absent: / Commissioners Absent:
None / Lance Poston, LGBT Affairs
Lacey Rogers, Women’s Affairs
Senators Present:
Katie Mitchell, Arts & Science
Ben Weiner, Engineering
Shawn Cuevas, Osteopathic Medicine
Rudy Nasir, Ctr for International Studies
David Foster by proxy, Education
Jessica Furgerson, Communication
Natasha Aduloju, Health Sciences & Professions
Senators Absent:
Chet Miller, Fine Arts
*Press Will Drabold
III. Approval of previous meeting’s minutes
Motion to approve Ed Gaither, Seconded by Molly Yanity. Approved unanimously.
IV. Student speak out.
None.
V. Presentations
Ohio University Health Insurance Administrator- Anna Wenning
If you need anything or have any questions, her office is in Campus Care, Room 233 or email her at or call 740-593-1931. Her office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and she takes lunch around 12:30. She deals solely with United Healthcare and is an expert in helping you with denied claims or appeals.
She is beginning negotiations for the 2013-14 policy, and the goal is to have it finalized by mid-April. Please speak to your peers to find out what their concerns are, what they would like to see changed, and email me your feedback. She will be back at the next GSS meeting to get some of that feedback from you and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Athens Beautification Day- Alex George
Brought by Office Campus Life commission and go out and clean up Athens. Started in 2005 with men’s water polo team and last year had over 150 volunteers; what’s new about 2013, efficient use of volunteers, transportation, food for volunteer.
Sunday, April 14, at the Scripps amphitheater: check in noon pep rally 12:30 starts at 2:30 p.m.; several project locations and you can request an area. How you can help: a. volunteer, create a city council team at www. athensbday2013.event.brite.com; b. become a sponsor. Asked GSS to sponsor this event.
8th Annual History Graduate Student Association Conference-Kyle Churman
Here to request money for our annual conference; its become a great project for his department; 14 different schools are being represented; 24 total presenters; it’s on Saturday, Feb. 16, first panel at 9 a.m. in 2nd floor in Baker Center; keynote address by Ohio University alumnus Dr. Carrie Pitzulo, Assistant Professor of History at the University of West Georgia. Dr. Pitzulo’s lecture will focus on her first book, Bachelors and Bunnies: The Sexual Politics of Playboy at 5:10 p.m. Baker 242.
Requesting $100 for the honorarium. Two panels on Modern and Medieval Women, Suffrage Movement, US Foreign Policy, American Cultural History, Civil War and 20th Century Military Conflict; Open to the public. He will send out of the conference schedule on the listserv.
VI. Officers reports
President White. Scheduling meetings to improve the lines of communication between Student Affairs and GSS. President is on the same page as us, meeting with VP of Legislative Affairs next week.
Doing research on pregnancy policy and reading other policies to help create a policy.
Applications for Grad Research Series @ Alden are due Monday, Feb. 18. Link on the GSS Homepage.
Vice President Gaither. Resolution for At-Large positions. Trying to get more representation for graduate students so we don’t get blindsided by things we have in the past. More for representation is needed. For example, at Wednesdays student senate meeting, a tuition model was discussed but very little consideration toward graduate students and their tuition fees and funding. More grad students on campus because of switch to semesters, one-year programs have gone to two years.
Yanity: For more representation, but historically get lots of involvement for public affairs and political science and have a big shift in representation in their programs and don’t have a lot of representation from the hard sciences. In resolution, can we make sure we don’t have too much rep in certain departments.
Newby: It’s necessary to work into the resolution because we don't want to overweight it. If a person is willing to do work for us, I don’t want to constrain it too much. If we can prevent it, we should, but not sure how to word it. No more than a couple from same program or something like that.
Furgerson: Is this entirely motivated by expansion of programs? What is the aim of increasing the representation?
Newby: Not representatives, but senators at large because the grad student population is growing. It’s a broad expansion, and the more we can get graduate students involved the better. It would not be specialized and everyone on campus could vote for them. They would cover any graduate problem, especially programs where we don’t have representation. Not supposed to favor one body. The best way to expand our ability to gather knowledge.
Vice President Yanity. Current budget stands at $2,612.22. If you have events, let me know about them and we will try to get them funded.
Vice President Furrow. Grad Fest Spring Kickoff on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m with karaoke beginning at 10 p.m. Drink specials and pizza if we pass the resolution. Grad Fest will also occur on March 16 and April 20. Wristbands available starting tomorrow at the GSS Office, 302 Baker.
Commissioner Ward, Black Affairs. Life After OU Workshop Series- Grad school and Teach For American Information, Baker 226, at Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 p.m.
Commissioner Newby, Grad Student Life. He will attend the first meeting about the general fee next week so if you have any ideas or questions to take to the committee, please bring them to me. We do get a buy down in our fee already so keep that in mind.
Commissioner Rai, International Affairs. No report.
Commissioner Rogers, Women’s Affairs. No report.
VII. Old business.
Natasha Aduloju-Ajijola: Candies and Condoms Update: Handed out 80 baggies, 160 condoms; Great turnout.
Megan Chapman: The Task Force will be conducting two surveys (the following is the internal survey) and three open forums to gather baseline data about tobacco use on campus and to solicit opinions, ideas, and conserns from all involved on the issue of a potentially tobacco-free Ohio University. Please take the survey and plan to attend an open forum to have your voice heard.
Internal Survey –http://uohio.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_bEruaFF8ft18ziZ
Updated Open Forum schedule:
February 20 @ 6:00 PM in Nelson Dining Hall
February 21 @ 4:00 PM in Baker Center, Room 230
February 22 @ 12 Noon in Baker Center, Leadership Center
VIII. New business.
IX. Resolutions.
Resolution 1213-17 - A Resolution Appointing New Members to the Graduate Student Senate: Jessica Furgerson moves to waive reading; Ed Gaither seconds. Molly Yanity moves to adopt resolution; Furgerson seconds. Motion passes.
Resolution 1213-18- A Resolution Adding Three At-Large Positions to the Graduate Student Senate:
Newby: Each senator has department representatives under them to assist them, but the commissioners have no assignment to them and this resolution would allow them to have that help They are titled at-large to give them the power to cover anything related to graduate students.
Hashim Pashtun: Why three at-large?
Furgerson: This feels like bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake. Most GSS candidates ran unopposed in the last election and we are creating sports which could face the same unopposed election. Do we have the interest? The reasoning is to bring information to the GSS, but why would these people provide insight where we can’t get it elsewhere?
Yanity: They don’t have a departmental spot to fill so it seems like there is not extra interest. But there are many additional people interested in certain departments such as political science.
Furgerson: Should we be arbitrarily picking people? Nothing prohibits you from getting involved and branching out of your college and department. Why new senators needed?
Newby: This idea is a product of being in student senate; not a new idea to me.
Molly Yanity moves to suspend resolution; Gaither seconds. Motion passes. Put the resolution out on the listserv and get the necessary feedback and put together another resolution for the next meeting.
Resolution 1213-19 – A Resolution Calling for the One-Time Donation of $100 to Help Fund the 8th Annual History Grduate Student Association Conference: Yanity moves to waive reading; Gaither seconds. Ed Gaither moves to adopt resolution; Miller seconds. Motion passes.
Resolution 1213-20- A Resolution Calling for a One-Time $100 Donation to Help Fund Athens Beautification Day: Furgerson moves to waive reading; Gaither seconds. Ed Gaither moves to adopt resolution; Miller seconds. Motion passes.
Email Tynita to be on the team.
Resolution 1213-21- A Resolution Calling for a One-Time Donation of $200 for GradFest: Furgerson moves to waive reading; Gaither seconds. Ed Gaither moves to adopt resolution; Mitchell seconds. Motion passes.
X. Announcements.
Pashtun: Association of Cultural Exchange Valentine’s Day event on Wednesday, Feb. 13, from 7-9 p.m. in Baker Center. Feb. 15 deadline to take part in research symposium.
Undergrad diversity affairs committee continues the “Is this what feminist looks like?” poster, If you want to be on it, come to Baker 230 between 3-5:30 on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Email if you want to be on the poster, but cannot come during that time.
The Bobcat Medal, most prestigious away on campus, islooking for grad students to award it. Contact Mary Kate Gallagher at if you are interested.
XI. Adjournment. Ed Gaither moves to adjourn at 8:13 p.m.; Yanity seconds. Meeting adjourns.