GPSA Meeting Minutes

October 10, 2008 - MU Room 222

PRESENT: Omasta, Lantzer, Bugg, Reid, Gyeszly, Roesser, Reed, Carnahan, Morley, Rutkowski, McEwan, Storey, Charkhtab Tabrizi, Estrella, Trifiro, Newcomer, Araz, Murray, Seyedmadani, Vaidya, Martinez, White, Barrett, Meders, Gilliard-Matthews, (Martin, Boren, Eden, Bettis, Barratt, Veksler, Knight, VanderMeer, Allison)

ABSENT: None

I.Call to Order at 3:00 PM.

II.Approval of the 09/05/08 Minutes – Motion to approve by Carnahan, seconded by Seyedmadani. Minutes approved.

III.Amendments to the Agenda : No Amendments.

IV.Executive Reports

Matt Omasta, Assembly President: Mr. Omasta announced five newly appointed Assembly Members at this meeting. He discussed assembly seats still available. All Executive Officer reports, Meeting Minutes, and the full text of funding bills will be available online only. Legislative bills and resolutions and an abbreviated summary of funding bills will be available at each meeting. A search has begun for ASASU Elections Director. Mr. Omasta, President Martin, Dan Ashlock, and Jean Bettis are working to hire a new GPSA Office Specialist. The University Senate, inspired by our iClicker system, has purchased their own. Mr. Omasta has been looking into the creation of funding history reports for GSO’s that request our support. An allocation of $305,700 has been received from the ASU Student Programming and Facilities fee. This is lower than estimated so we may be restricted from engaging in new substantive programming this year. The Assembly Operations committee reviewed funding bills this cycle and approved three.
Brad Martin, President: The Regents passed the tuition proposalallowing tuition to be at the top of the bottom one third but not increasing more than 5% for each consecutive year. The Capital Improvement Plan was discussed. Public Awareness Committee, Solutions Through Higher Education, campaign was discussed. Tuition task force and application was discussed. TuitionHearingEventTown Hall annual tuition hearing is scheduled for Monday, November 17th from 5-7pm. University Senate, Graduate Survey, and Football tickets Sign-Up sheet were all topics of discussion as well.
Justin Boren, Vice President of Internal Affairs: Mr. Boren discussed the record-number of requests and funding for this funding cycle because of increases in funding from the student fee. The application period for the Graduate Research Support Program ended on September, 30, 2008 with 140 applications for the research grant requesting over $210,000. Sarah Riforgiate is now soliciting individuals to be on the grant review committee. We will be soliciting members to be part of the GPSA Teaching Excellence Award Program committee. GPSA hosted a debate watch colloquium and reception on the Tempe Campus on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 in PSF-166 from 5:30-9pm.
Vice President of External Affairs: Office Vacant. No report.
Jen Eden, Vice President of Professional Programs: The Professional Development Travel Grant Competition received 10 applications and 8 were approved for the September 15, 2008 cycle. The Professional Development committee met for 30 minutes before the Assembly meeting to submit ideas for future PD activities. The financial planning workshop was scheduled for the week after the October meeting. Future PD activities include a panel discussion including interviewing for academic jobs and giving job talks. Details were discussed at the October meeting.

V.Committee Reports

Carie Lyn Carnahan, Chair, Government Operations: The committee has not met.
Susan Gyeszly, Chair, Graduate Student Center Committee: The art in the GSC Conference Room has come down and they are looking for a new art show to display.

VI.External Reports

Phil VanderMeer, University Senate: The Senate has had their second meeting. They are still working through their reorganization issues and getting committees up and running. The main thing they focused on at their meeting is the University’s reorganization proposal – focusing on the 5 different colleges.
Dr. Maria Allison, GraduateCollege: Strategies for Success Prof Dev Podcasts are up and running right now on the GradCollege website.
Undergraduate Student Government
Associated Students of Arizona

VII.Old Business

VIII.New Business

Appointment of New Assembly Members
Alexandria Estrella, Education: Confirmed by Assembly vote.
Sarah Newcomer, Education: Confirmed by Assembly vote.
Maral Charktab Tabrizi, Design: Confirmed by Assembly vote.
Aditya Vaidya, Engineering: Confirmed by Assembly vote.
Andrew Reed, CLAS/Humanities: Confirmed by Assembly vote.
AB 14: Sustainability Jedi: Bill not funded, representative not present.
AB 15: Society for Art Video: Sponsor is Jacob Meders. Sarah Hatten from the Society speaks on behalf of the bill. Event is Cartune Xprez- A multimedia show featuring Peter Burr, a practicing professional artist. Bill passes for $500.
AB 16: Frontiers in Life Sciences: Sponsor is Michael Rutkowski. Brad Butler speaks on behalf of the bill. Event is Desert Dynamics Conference- a conference to share knowledge and analytical approaches that address the unifying theme of resource uncertainty in deserts. Bill passes for $2,000.to be used towards breakfast for one day, printing and binding of the conference program, snacks for one day, and printing of posters.
AB 17: Women Law Students’ Association: Sponsor is Emily White. Angela Walker speaks on behalf of the bill. Event is Women Law Student’s Association 2009 Symposium- topics covered include ethics, business, community involvement, the political process, and moving beyond private practice. Bill passes for $2,000 to be used for catering and speakers gifts.
AB 18: Amendment of the 2008-09 Budget: Introduced by Shukmei Lantzer. This bill would approve the changes to the 3 budgets and associated budget lines – Operations, Travel & Student Fee Allocation budgets now that the Student Fee monies have been allocated to the student governments on a per capita basis. Questions were raised about the amount of money proposed for Assembly member’s salaries and the possibility of using some of these funds for student initiatives/project funding rather than for salaries. Officers pointed out that we received less student fee allocation than originally proposed. Omasta puts the question and Assembly votes. AB 18 is adopted. Bill was reopened after discussion on AB 19. Ms. Murray discussed putting the proposed $40,000 for salaries towards future projects. Motion to create a future projects line in the operations budget by McEwan – line was created and the $40,000 that was budgeted for Assembly member’s salaries was moved to the new line by passage of an amendment. Ms. White urges Assembly members to ask their constituents how this $40,000 should be used and pointed out that Mr. Boren has created a Task Force to survey what grad student’s needs are. Various students did some brainstorming on ideas for how to use this money. Omasta pointed out that Assembly Member’s jobs are to go out and find out what their constituents want – that is the point of this Assembly. Amendment to move $2000 from Future Projects to Assembly Operations in the budget to fund more substantial food offerings at Assembly meetings – amendment passes.
AB 19: Resolution on Assembly Salaries: Introduced by Erica Morley. AB 19 establishes policies for the payment of stipends to Assembly members (which was approved in the previous bill AB 18. Discussion items: some Assembly may not be able to accept payment due to other restrictions of their department or fellowship; payment may change who is allowed to become an assembly member; it is suggested $1000 seems too high for the amount of work done; Ms. White asks how the money can be used other than to pay assembly members; adopting an argument of how else the money can be spent could hurt the argument to pay assembly members; motion to table this resolution, failed; discussion extended 10 min; salary might be an incentive for those members who do not always show up for and/or stay for meetings; need better insight on what graduate students need and want; completion fellowship award recipients cannot hold any kind of employment during the semester; issue of whether the issue is receiving the salary or the terms on which it will be paid; using the money for another project; motion to table bill to part i.and move i. to j. and reconsider AB 18 by McEwan and seconded by Ms. White. Passes by 2/3 vote of Assembly. After further discussion of AB 18, a vote was made and this bill in its current form was tabled indefinitely.
AB 20: Resolution on Student Programming Fee: Introduced by Shukmei Lantzer for Angie Martinez. AB 20 states GPSA’s position on the student fee allocation as it relates to the use of and creation of a student fee allocation board of 10 members. GPSA believes that any future allocations of student fee money should be conducted through a dual-tier proposal based process – 50% to student governments, 50% to non-student government organizations. Bill passes.
Vice-President of External Affairs Discussion: Mr. Omasta asks if anyone in the Assembly is considering taking this position. Ms. Murray offered to be acting chair of this committee and attend some meetings but is not able to be considered for the position officially. Emily White wants to be officially considered for this position. A 5 minute recess was called and Mr. Omasta & President Martin confer on this appointment. President Martin appoints Ms. White as VP of External Affairs. Assembly confirms this appointment by vote.

IX.Graduate Student Forum: Mr. Rutkowski is concerned about dental and health care plans. Ms. Veksler is concerned with advertising. She asks for more support in getting advertisements to more people. She asks if there is interest in having another event this semester. Mr. Omasta suggests an end-of-semester party. Ms. Veksler talks about justifying the budget for this event. Ms. McEwan asks if the event could be on a Friday. Ms. White asks if a cash bar is allowed at an event. Ms. Veksler explains about having a cash bar on campus. She also answers more questions about catering and cash bar at events. It is decided to hold an end of semester/ holiday social. Ms. Veksler will plan and advertise it. E-mail groups are discussed. Ms. White attended Power of Women and Overcoming Obstacles and Changes and says GPSA was recognized as a supporter in print and through certificate. Mr. Omasta notes that 6 people have left the meeting before 4:30pm and ask if there is a better time to hold the meetings. He discusses different times for meetings to be held. He addresses putting a cap on meetings and says doing so would be problematic. He will look at 2:30pm or 3:00pm as the new meeting time. Putting a break in the meeting is suggested by Mr. Omasta.

X.Announcements

XI.Adjournment:Motion to adjourn by Murrayand seconded by Estrella at 5:48pm.