The Graduate and Professional Student Association held a special meeting Saturday to clarify the constitutional amendments on which graduate students will vote.
The GPSA election will be April 19 through 22, and the ballot will allow students to vote for a president, as well as eight amendments, said GPSA President Lissa Knudsen.
All amendments were passed by GPSA last October.
One amendment requires that the more than 40 committees that operate under GPSA write meeting reports and submit them to the president. The committee’s president is responsible for taking
attendance, finding out where all the meetings are and monitoring each committee, but Knudsen said that duty isn’t realistic.
“It wasn’t just me who had a problem with this — it was previous presidents, too,” Knudsen said at the meeting. “Requiring the committees to make reports provides accountability.”
Another amendment puts the GPSA president in charge of the GPSA Web site. Danny Hernandez, GPSA council chair, said that no one person was in charge of the site in the past, which created confusion in the council.
“I think it’s a sign of the times,” Knudsen said. “The constitution was created when Web sites didn’t exist, and now they do.”
The president’s financial
stipend will also be more clearly defined, Knudsen said. Presidents who have a master’s degree and those who don’t will get the same amount, she said. This change makes it easier for GPSA to make their budget, she said.
One amendment defines when the executive council – the president, council chair and committee chairs – can make decisions in the presence of the entire council.
The amendment limits the executive council’s power to make decisions only in the summer, intersession and in an emergency.
Other amendments are simple changes that make the constitution consistent, Knudsen said, such as adding numbers in parentheses after numbers are spelled out.
