Graduate Student Senate will discuss a resolution that would provide feedback to proposed changes to Title IX regulations at the general body meeting on Tuesday.
The regulations would make it so schools are only required to respond to formal complaints of sexual harassment when it occurs at a school sponsored education program or activity and on school grounds.
According to the agenda, the regulations would put survivors in a vulnerable state by making them confront their assailants therefore increasing the protections for those accused of assault and reducing the university’s liability.
Regulations would also limit university investigations to only on-campus incidents which would affect graduate students because a majority live in off-campus housing. The public will have a 60-day period to comment on the proposed changes to the Title IX regulations.
Four other resolutions will also be discussed at the meeting. GSS will look to pass a resolution to condemn House Bill 565.
According to the agenda, the bill would criminalize women who receive abortions and the medical providers that help those women with punishments of life in prison or even the death penalty. It is an extension of House Bill 258, or the Heartbeat Bill, that would ban all abortions once a heartbeat can be detected.
Four other resolutions will be looked at by GSS members at the meeting.
One resolution will affirm the position of GSS as the sole voice of Ohio University graduate students on campus instead of Student Senate, according to the agenda.
Maria Modayil, GSS president, said, as a result of a conversation the body had at its last meeting, it has decided to propose some changes in the GSS mission statement.
Another resolution would approve a budget request to use GSS funds for membership in the National Association for Graduate Professional Students. GSS recently discovered it has not paid its membership dues in 2017. Because GSS utilizes the membership benefits of NAGPS, it would like to pay the annual $167.70.
The last resolution will discuss the Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week in April 2019.
The body also will hear a presentation from Graduate College. Modayil said Graduate College will discuss more broadly what it does and what its position or role is to GSS.
GSS will meet on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Walter Hall room 235.
