Ohio University's Graduate Student Senate unanimously passed a resolution amending its election bylaws at last night's meeting.
The bylaws are now more in line with what the senate does, said senate President Dominic Barbato, a co-sponsor of the resolution.
Major changes to the bylaws include a new senate general election date and the removal of the College of Osteopathic Medicine senator from the election ballot.
The new date will make it so that GSS elections will always occur on the same date as Student Senate elections. The new date is the Thursday of the eighth week of Spring Quarter. If that Thursday falls just before Memorial Day weekend, the election will be on the Thursday of the seventh week of Spring Quarter. Last year, both elections occurred on the same day, but the bylaws did not dictate that it had to happen every year.
The senator from the College of Osteopathic Medicine will now be appointed from within the college because of that college's exam schedule.
The revised bylaws also specify that the time frame for campaigning before the election date is two weeks and that parties and independent candidates may distribute only items whose value is $2 or less. The bylaws also detailed the composition of the Appeals Board and the timeline for the certification for election results.
Drew Pusateri, senator from the College of Education, recommended further revision of all the senate bylaws by a committee.
The election bylaws are just one part of the bylaws
he said. Our bylaws are full of crap that we're not doing.
Barbato also emphasized the importance of forming a committee to rewrite the bylaws, and said the senate bylaws were created before the senate actually existed.
We've fallen out of step with them (the bylaws) he said.
The senate also discussed the GSS Grant Fund. This year, the grant fund committee has about $50,000 to distribute among candidates applying for grants to conduct research, travel to present research and promote professional development. The money comes from a base amount of $23,000 a year and one-time-only money from the provost's office. The senate wants to raise the base amount to $50,000.
The senate also discussed suggestions for possible changes to health services offered through OU's student insurance plan. In past years, the senate has helped OU negotiate its healthcare plan.
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