An approval to a previously discussed National Association of Graduate-Professional Students Conference Bid and other long-standing issues were discussed at the regular business meeting of the Graduate Student Organization on Wednesday.

The meeting took place at Lyman Hall where there was a smaller turnout than that of previous meetings, with 22 voting members present.

President Rajesh Kumar started the meeting by giving his president’s report. Kumar said the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry has agreed to support the NAGPS Conference Bid, which was presented to GSO senate at the last meeting.

He also thanked the senate for the support of the bid.

“We also got support from the chancellor, provost, the dean of student affairs and the dean of the graduate school,” Kumar said.

SUNY-ESF has not agreed on how much monetary support they would give to the bid yet, Kumar said. However, they would still be able to use the SUNY-ESF facilities and have ideological support from them.

Kumar also said GSO, the Department of Public Safety and the Syracuse Police Department were working together on the installation of security cameras around the Syracuse University campus. He had mentioned plans for this project at the first GSO meeting.

The free speech policies, Kumar said, had been revised and put online for review and comments. He invited the GSO Senate to go online and share their input on the revisions, as the final draft would be prepared according to feedback.

Kumar also touched on some longstanding issues during the meeting. He said they had met with the provost and chancellor for review of career services.

“They need data from us about departments. There is a survey designed to collect the data,” Kumar said.

He added the provost was informed that the GSO had limited resources for data and an external review from faculty members would be better. The provost had agreed on this issue, he said.

The provost was also notified the Ombuds Office did not include many students, and the provost had agreed to include graduate student representatives in addition to faculty and staff, Kumar said.

A Childcare Task Force project was brought at his final remarks. About 171 children needed care during the day but the units could host only 61, he said.

“SU created a task force last year … but got a $1,000 plan to increase the capacity to six more children only,” he said.

The chancellor agreed to form a new task force to increase the amount of kids to be provided for in childcare, he said.

Vice President of Internal Affairs Can Aslan gave his internal vice president’s report after Kumar. The collaboration spaces for committees and RSOs for GSO, he said, was coming along.

“I’ve been waiting for something from ITS for the past 10 or so days,” he said. “They need to flip a switch and when they do, we’re gonna have a space for all committees and RSOs.”

Aslan also said he was continuing to work on the GSO website and had solved a lot of problems. He added that he hoped to present it to the Senate on the last meeting.

After Aslan, Vice President of External Affairs Peta Long gave her external vice president’s report. Long also thanked GSO for their support of the bid.

“Conference bid went very, very well, everyone’s envious and I’m so proud of us,” Long said.

The budget was $17,000 before being presented and came to an overall $23,000 in cost, Long said, adding they were also proposing to do pre-conference workshops to talk about topics like health insurance and voting rights.

Long also talked about past events, and said the election watch party was a success. She reminded attendees that ultimate trivia and Graduate Student Appreciation Day were coming up. There would also be a winter wine tasting, which Long said was the crowning event.

She invited the Senate to email her suggestions for events to be done in the spring.

Published on November 10, 2016 at 1:48 pm

Contact Deniz: dsahintu@syr.edu