GSA Assembly Meeting

Friday, February 5, 2016

Campus Center 375

Speaker Caitlin Janiszewski called the meeting to order at 6:05 pm.

  1. Approval of the Agenda. Motion to approve the agenda. Second to the motion. No objections. Agenda approved.
  2. Robin Brennan was elected Assembly Secretary.
  3. Approval of the December 5th Minutes. Motion to approve the minutes. Second to the motion. No objections. Minutes approved.
  4. Officer Reports (Executive Board)
  5. President – Kat Slye
  6. There was an error in December payroll and Caitlin Janiszewski was paid her full amount for the year instead of half. If she was asked to pay the other half back this would cause more of a tax problem than it is worth so Caitlin and President Kat Slye worked out an agreement for repayment if Caitlin does not fulfill her obligations, there were no objection to Caitlin keeping the money.
  7. GSA State Legislative Action Days (LAD) - if you are interested in coming to the capital contact Kat Slye.
  8. Two upcoming NAGPS conference events – National Legislative Action Day (LAD) which is the week after our LAD and Annual Gala. March 12-15.
  9. NAGPS Regional Conference to be held at Stoney Brook, we might be able to send more people because no flights need to be occurred. April 15-17.
  10. Acting Vice President – Hirah Mir
  11. RGSO training completed– 25 returning RGSOs, 5 new RGSOs, total of 30 RGSOs contact Hirah if your RGSO needs training
  12. New strategic plan - increase collaborations among the RGSOs.
  13. Treasures Report Hina Thalho
  14. Nothing to add – treasurer’s report was approved.
  15. Equity and Inclusion Report – Amani Edwards
  16. Conference April 23rd – looking for volunteers to help with the conference
  17. Programming Chair – Lisa Cassidy
  18. Looking for people for committee
  19. Flyer on table about Doctoral Student Discussion Forum in February and March
  20. Surviving Graduate School
  21. Future Faculty Leadership Council is presenting this and it is about self-care, burnout prevention, and productivity. It is being held Feb 26th, from 10:30 am -12:30 pm in Humanities 137.
  22. Meeting the GSA Advocacy Team
  23. Feb 18th, 5 pm in Lecture Center 12 free Pizza and refreshments.
  24. Feb 15th – Making Valentines for President Jones.
  25. April 5th – Power Dialogue – Deputy Director of the Department of Environmental Conservation is coming to UAlbany as well as Richard Kauffman who is the Energy and Finance Chair in the Governor’s office, they are coming to have a dialogue with students about what these power plants do. We will have a Graduate Student to interact with them and workshops all day long.
  26. Sherri Fink – ($3,000) Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security and Cyber Security forum on April 15th.
  27. Grants Chair – John Stovall
  28. Final count for all grants are in and they are being reimbursed or are already reimbursed.
  1. GSA Representative Reports –
  2. UCR – Caitlin – nothing to report
  3. ALS – Nakissa – few changes on top of page 13, it should read “Henry Curtis stays on CAA”
  4. UAS – Dylan Card – we are working on updating prices for 2016-2017 meal plans, kosher meal plan will move from Dutch to Indian dining hall. Plans are still being worked on as to which retail options will be available.
  5. WAB – Caitlin – nothing to add
  6. Judicial Board Report – Sam Byrne
  7. They handed out official reports to every in the room. They stated that there are a few areas in the constitution simply confirm commitment to equity and inclusion from a proactive stance and Caitlin asked if we could exam things to see if we are meeting those requirements. They found a few things they wanted to report; first being that it is the duty and the right of the Equity and Inclusion Committee to review governing documents and make recommendations to the assembly pertaining to that document, second is that they recognize that that be specified at a frequency of maybe once a semester or once a year.
  8. Assembly or Equity and Inclusion committee does not communicate with the entire graduate student body and they feel that this needs to be rectified.
  9. RGSO and Grants funding should be more equitable and inclusionary, and non-biased and more transparent.
  10. Some areas of vagueness – the Equity and Inclusion Committee to look at what the J-Board and the governing documents and come back and give a report.
  11. Scott states that the J-Board has next to no institutional memory and they are coming up with a SOP.
  12. Kat states that we have been denied access to communicate with the entire Graduate Student body and she has offered to look into it.
  13. Amani questions – lot of debate about her title, how do they cement a name for her current position
  14. Scott – out of the governing document – they used the one that was most recent and which was Equity and inclusion officer
  15. Hirah about the rubric for RGSO guidelines - Sam says it is not clear how the decisions are made and that there is room for changes to be made, Scott thinks Amani’s committee should be involved in helping with making decisions for RGSO’s.
  16. Old Business –
  17. WAB Chair – Caitlin – Invest in everyone a little bit or raise the stipends/other incentives and be able to hold them accountable. WAB committee include in their report a method of accountability. Do we concentrate just on E-Board or keep it like it is now? If we keep it the way it is now we need a way to hold people accountable. Scott is all for streamlining accountability with an oversight committee – tabled.
  18. NAGPS Attendance Proposal – tabled
  19. Confirmation of appointment of Vice-President made by Kat Slye of Hirah Mir
  20. Hirah Mir confirmed
  21. Confirmation of appointment of Lead Senator made by Kat Slye of Nakissa Jahanbani
  22. Nakissa Jahanbani confirmed
  23. Confirmation of new Senator made by Kat Slye of Kim Berg
  24. Kim Berg confirmed
  25. Confirmation of new Senator made by Kat Slye of Caitlin Janiszewski
  26. Caitlin Janiszewski confirmed
  27. New Business –
  28. Ban the Box resolution – Amani Edwards gives report – revised
  29. Amendment to include the background which was put up on the projector. (Ban the Box is a civil rights initiative concerning ex-offenders, aimed at persuading employers and institutions of higher education to remove the check box that asks is applicants have a criminal record. The University at Albany, SUNY is focused on banning the box for individuals with past criminal records so they can receive the same fair advantage during the application process as others. The initiative has higher societal implications, as those with past criminal records are less likely to re-offend if they are afforded more opportunities. Banning the box would ensure that no individual feels insecure or deterred from pursuing a higher education opportunity.)
  30. Debate on the amendment, to amend the amendment for changing the wording
  31. Debating the amendment CUNY schools don’t have the box, we are wanting to replicate that system. There was a discussion about what Ban the Box is actually about and what is actually going to be involved in removing the “box.”(University at Albany, SUNY Graduate Student Association).
  32. Motion to amend the amendment. Second the amendment.
  33. Debate the amendment to the amendment. How are people going to be given the chance to explain themselves if the box is taken off and there is then no place for them to give a written explanations of what they did and what they learned from their experiences? Amani was unsure how this was going to happen or if there was going to be a place to give an explanation of things they have done in their past or not. One thing that is for sure is that most of the people that have been spoken to are for “banning the box” all together. It is also more logical and more frugal to do background checks on everyone who wants to come to the University. Ben is sitting on the SUNY panel to ban the box and you can contact him for more information. Most people who see the “box” won’t even finish the application and doing away with it will bring in more applicate pool.
  34. Amendment will go at the end of the resolution in a space called Background.
  35. No Objections. Amendment Passed.
  36. Close debate, any questions or objection to add to resolutions.
  37. Several people for the resolution, no against the resolution
  38. Any objections, none
  39. Vote – motion passed
  40. Formation of election committee – Volunteers to help Lisa with nomination – Keith, Lisa, Erin
  41. Adjustment to office budget – Hina
  42. Need more money for office supplies, was only given $1,000.00 last semester.
  43. Kat – clickers got labels, some unexpected cost were incurred after Kat became President
  44. $38,000 not allocated
  45. $1,000 to be given to office supplies
  46. Motion made. Second to the motion.
  47. Vote – passed
  48. Updates to Presidents Strategic plan
  49. Take part of VP strategic plan with her – amendment to strategic plan. UAS contract up this year, Kat is working with UAS already on the contract. They are wanting us to pay the payroll processing fee. Motion to pass the strategic plan. Second to the Motion. No Debate. Typo in strategic plan – Vote passed.
  50. Discussion of constitutional and bylaws amendment
  51. We are going to be voting and change these documents
  52. Kat spoke - UAC and Lead senator positions should be appointed and not elected to be voted on at a future time. Formal debate next meeting. Comments – Eli not for appointment, but to keep it as a democracy and that we are centralizing power with the E-Board, Marina also for voting, Scott appreciates the respect to inclusion but it might be the case is the rational is that the important voices already involved like the president should be considered more importantly and things should be re-evaluated who get appointed and who gets voted, Abbie – if somebody is appointed the assembly would then confirm the appointment, Kat builds off what Scott says. Eli – sympathetic with re-vamping how we vote and appoint people.
  53. Open Forum –
  54. No other business
  55. Meeting adjourned at 7:53 pm.