Graduate Student Senate approved five and withdrew one of the 10 proposed resolutions at its meeting Tuesday evening.
One resolution proposed a constitutional amendment to add a section about how to manage the senate's money. The resolution led to resistance from some members of the general body.
Specifically, Fatma Jabbari, international graduate student affairs commissioner; Angie Chapman, vice president of legislative affairs; and Sabrina Paskewitz, department representative for geography, said they crafted a new resolution that will be proposed at the next general body meeting.
However, the members who opposed the amendment said they agree that there should be mention of responsibilities regarding money in the constitution. The resolution they will propose is less specific than the initial resolution, Paskewitz said.
“Our constitution says nothing about our finances right now, and we do think that is a hole,” Paskewitz said. “I think that’s something that kind of gets overlooked, but we think one sentence saying ‘Hey, we’re going to be responsible with our cash,’ is enough. Everything else should be in the R&P.”
GSS President Ian Armstrong, a sponsor of the original resolution, later withdrew that resolution, and it was not voted on.
Additionally, GSS passed a resolution to make the deadline to submit proposed changes to the Rules and Procedures document due one week before the meeting, so the
The proposed resolution was amended to include language to say the Rules and Procedures Committee should meet in person for the first review of the resolutions, but any further review could be done by other means, such as email.
Several general body members said meeting in person to discuss those resolutions would add valuable time to consider the amendments to the document.
“I think it’s a good idea to maybe take some time every once and a while and not just rush amendments through,” Zebulon Martin, senator for the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, said. “I think it’s good to take the time to make people meet in person.”
The general body also approved a resolution that proposed changing the format of the Rules and Procedures document from three columns to one.
Chapman said she thought changing the document to one column would add about 10 pages to it, which would make it harder to read.
GSS also approved allocating money for several events. OU GradFest ‘17, a GSS-sponsored event that will take place March 31 and April 1, requested GSS funding for marketing, live music, food, rental equipment, and "a few minor amenities," according to the resolution.
The general body allocated $1,510 for the event after members debated for about 15 minutes about how much money is appropriate to put toward the event. Some members said they believed that was a lot of money to spend on the event. Others, however, thought it would be a great way to market GSS and what it does.
“This is a great event for GSS, and it’s a great marketing tool,” Alec Koondel, senator for the College of Business, said. “It’s great that we allocate our funds toward this.”
GSS also set aside money for pizza for the Industrial and Systems Engineering department during a Better Bystander training and to the World Music and Dance Festival and Concert.
The remaining five resolutions on the agenda were tabled until the next meeting.
