Graduate Student Senate will meet monthly after passing a resolution Monday to limit the number of times per year it meets.
GSS previously met every other week.
“Graduate students carry heavy workloads with academics and graduate assistantships,” Carl Edward Smith III, Graduate Student Senate President, said.
The room has been reserved for every other week for the rest of the semester and that bi-monthly time could be used in Walter Hall for meeting commissioners and working, Vice President for Committees and Legislative Affairs, Margaret Clark, said.
The resolution was debated before it was approved. Hashim Pashtun, Vice President of Finance and Administration “strongly opposes” the resolution.
Pashtun said he feels meeting once a month would not be enough.
A handful of other commissioners also voiced concerns when the resolution was up for discussion, but the majority approved the resolution.
“Balance would be found in monthly meetings,” Smith said.
The meetings would be longer now that they will be once a month and there will be more time for speakers, Clark said.
GSS amended a resolution to condemn the 5.1-percent tuition increase for incoming freshmen as a part of the OHIO Guarantee. The resolution will be re-introduced at the next meeting.
“Board of Trustees said that all shared governance approved the tuition hikes and Graduate Student Senate never examined or approved this,” Smith said.
Administrative senate, classified senate, faculty senate, student senate and graduate student senate make up shared governance.
“It is wrongful for them to say they received approval,” Smith said.
The resolution will form a joint resolution with a similar one from undergraduate Student Senate, Smith said.
A resolution for organized-boycott of the Center for Student Legal Services was approved. The Center for Student Legal Services has previously allowed Graduate Student Senate to appoint a graduate student board member, this year it did not. This resolution calls for all graduate students to waive the student legal fee.
Every term that a graduate student is not on the board GSS plans to boycott Student Legal Services, Smith said.
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