The resolution for City Council Liaison passed at the Graduate Student Senate’s meeting Oct. 6.
“While researching city ordinances and ordinances in similar sized college towns, it came to my attention that Graduate Student Senate is lacking in our knowledge about the decisions that Athens City Council makes,” said Maggie Clark, senator for the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, who filled in for Vice President for Committees and Legislative Affairs Hannah Farchione at Monday’s meeting.
One member from the Governmental Affairs Commission will attend each bimonthly City Council Meeting and take notes, said Clark.
“We would like to show the Athens City Council that as graduate students we respect and appreciate all that they do,” Clark said. “It is time that our relationship extends beyond simply voicing our opinions about newsworthy issues and instead moves towards being continuous.”
“Instead of having a ping pong back and forth of tension, we can build a rapport,” said Chelsea Foster, Governmental Affairs commissioner.
Instead of coexisting with residents of Athens, Graduate Student Senate wants to collaborate and live in solidarity, Clark said.
The graduate student emergency medical/parental leave policy was not discussed because presenter Susanne B. Dietzel, director of OU’s Women’s Center, could not come to the meeting. GSS was supposed to discuss the medical/emergency leave policy at Monday’s meeting, but no presentation was given. It will be discussed at the next GSS meeting on Oct. 20, GSS President Carl Edward Smith III said.
Smith said graduate students are concerned that they could lose their job or other standing on-campus if they get pregnant, sick or have to otherwise leave campus. There is currently no policy that allows graduate students time off, unlike policies that exist for faculty and staff, he added.
“President Roderick McDavis asked me, ‘where is the funding going to come from?’ ” Smith said. “He told me to wear an administrative hat and figure out where the money will come from. I told him no, I will wear my student hat.” He met with McDavis on Sept. 23 to discuss creating a leave policy for graduate students.
The administrative standards and review committee was also introduced at Monday’s meeting, in light of reports of hostility between McDavis and students last week. The committee’s creation follows undergraduate Student Senate’s staffing of an Administrative Accountability Committee last month.
The committee is in response to “several reports concerning McDavis’ office hours” where graduate students felt intimidated, Smith said. “They will investigate it and will return their findings in two weeks for us.”
In addition to Farchione’s absence, Vice President for Communication John Strohl was also not present at Monday’s meeting.
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