Select Committee on the Future of GPSF

November 14th, 2016 at 5:30pm

Bondurant 1074

1. Call to Order / Roll Call

Attendance:

Mac Gilliland (MG): present

Nick Levis (NL): present

Caroline Miller (CM): absent

Katie Stember (KS): present

Toney Thompson (TT): absent

Dylan Russell (DR): present

Brian Coussens (BC): present

Anel Jaramillo (AJ): conference

Anginelle Alabanza (AA): present

Marie Eszenyi (ME): absent

Madelyn Percy (MP): fieldwork

Desmond Spencer (DS): absent

Autumn McClellan (AM): absent

Also in Attendance:

2. Update from Bobby on Separation Plan

· Dylan will email Bobby with priorities and peer institution data. Give them some time, and request in writing a timeline for changes at UNC to occur; otherwise, people will want to file a lawsuit especially after BOE hearing. And to be fair, Christi Hurt sent Dylan, Bradley an email the week of the election but we haven’t heard back yet and it sounds like administration isn’t being involved based on that. We only have a few days to file a suit after the BOE hearing. Want to take some time to let the process play out, but people are nervous because Crisp has promised us things in the past and they haven’t happened.

· Phone call with Bobby:

· Bobby: it’s not an accurate thing from what Crisp said because last year’s election lawsuit allowed student self-governance to run its course. Even if it wasn’t 66.6%, it was very close, and we are now in a very different place.

· Met the week before the November 8th election – meeting on the 9th to talk over it, but election took priority over student election

· KS: where we’re coming from: our committee’s hands are tied until we know what’s happening – several other committees in GPSF are also tied because of this. Don’t want to drag process out and we’re now a few weeks post-election and don’t have updates for grad students. If we haven’t heard anything, we’re starting to get nervous. We have timelines that we need to meet but can’t work on anything until we hear back.

· BK: aren’t going to be able to move forward on anything because once they come up with a decision, we’re going to have to do a lot of shifting of documents

· KS: that’s what our committee is for, to make changes based on the result.

· BK: whatever changes happen, we are moving more towards what the student body voted

· DR: timeline: talks 1st week of December between Crisp, BK, other admin. Chancellor and Cabinet will have to approve changes (must be strategic – needs to make sure it doesn’t have repercussions on student self-governance).

· BC: reason timelines are important are because the changes that will have to happen on all sides. Is our original implementation timeline even a possibility at this point?

· BK: good question, no answer yet

· BK: all the changes impact Bobby as an advisor. Have to be cognizant of that. It is a priority that everything is up and running by April 5th inauguration.

· KS: would it be helpful to send top 3 priorities of the Future committee?

· BK: Bobby is happy to include as supplemental information, as part of his recommendations based on conversations with Dylan

· KS: also include peer institutions data on structure

· DR: we only have 72 hours to file lawsuit. Bobby recommends drop it if we want to see change happen this year.

· BK: the lawsuit will elongate the process so that we may not see a change by February or March

· It also affects other things that we’re trying to do.

3. Peer Institution Research – Ideas? Questions? How can we use this?

· KS: include information from peer institutions in her email to Bobby?

· Future committee says yes – provides data to back up our concerns

· 10/14 have separate student governments

· MG: can we tell from our GPSF website if we are separate from student government?

4. BOE Hearing Update

· Entire verdict that there are more than 10 violations about both campaigns – what do we do with that information?

· Gives us fodder if we need to go to Supreme Court to challenge and redo the election

· Dylan emailed Bobby to ask about separation, because Future committee can’t plan anything until we understand what the status is – Bobby didn’t answer

· Katie emailed Bobby, response: I don’t have any answers of you for this time. Scheduled a meeting to talk about it on Wednesday morning, but in light of election, their meeting had been changed to talk about election. Bobby is leaving for vacation next week, will try to tentatively have another meeting to discuss it before he leaves. Should have more information after the meeting takes place. Said it was a priority and doesn’t want it to drag out.

· KS: sounds like good news, but don’t want to believe everything without promise

· We have 48 (or 72?) hours from verdict to decide if we want to pursue Supreme Court case, 2 weeks after to prepare

· KS: Pursuing Supreme Court is only way to get a fair election

· DR: it’s not the only way to get fair election – can present to Congress and show statistics about why 65.97% of people aren’t being listened to

· BC: Cole said at SACC that 65.97% doesn’t even matter because it’s only a percentage of the student body

· DR: based on talks with admin, it looks like we’re moving towards something that we don’t have now. Looks more like Two for Two.

· KS: how do we know that? They’re not talking to anyone

· DR: admin thinks talking to DR is enough. Problem is Crisp has promised things in the past and hasn’t followed through. But we are past point of no return on this. We need to have a little faith that they are going to follow-through (by end of semester we should have idea where we’re headed). If no response by end of semester, we need to start moving forward with another plan.

· See point 1 for conversation with Bobby and resultant action

· Decide not to go through with Supreme Court case or else it will delay the plans for separation for too long

5. Other Campus events we can encourage grad students to attend?

6. Other TO Dos/Deadlines

· Remind Dylan that entire committee should be included on all emails – Nick and Mac weren’t able to see the BOE verdict

· Dylan emails Bobby with our top 3 priorities and info on peer institutions

· No Future meetings planned until we hear back from Bobby/admin on what our future will look like