The Graduate and Professional Student Council discussed budget cuts and elections at their meeting on Tuesday, September 13 in the Copper Room of the Student Union Memorial Center. Two new members were sworn in, Austen Thompson as a representative of the College of Medicine, and Vishnu Pradeep, as the Eller MBA representative.
GPSC members Jasmine Sears, administrative vice president and Jim Collins, treasurer, argued over the approval of minutes from previous meetings. One position believed the minutes were too subjective by including adjectives to sway an opinion. Approval of minutes for the June 23 and August 22 meetings were both tabled for the next meeting.
The graduate executive board consent agenda was also tabled to save for a later date.
The majority of the meeting was dedicated to voting on budget cuts, specifically for the events section. GPSC voted on decreasing budgets for the GPSC grant winner expo, Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation week, joint events, Arizona 3-Minute Grad Slam, graduate student open houses, social events and marketing.
Due to the budget discussion taking longer than expected, the GPSC constitution regarding the election process of a president was tabled for next meeting because of the absence of Jude Udeozor, GPSC executive vice president. GA salary increase was also postponed to next week.
GPSC is having a special election next week, if someone wants to run, signatures must be turned in by noon September 14.
The final old business they discussed was approving the proposal to extend the deadline to students who have previously applied for Professional Opportunities Development funding or had an event before the Sept. 15 deadline to Oct. 15.
New business included giving money to the UA Campus Pantry, which they said Associated Students of the University of Arizona President, Michael Finnegan asked them to consider. They also discussed POD and club conference funding and setting GPSC’s goals for 2016-2017.
The meeting adjourned at 6:57 p.m.
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