The Graduate and Professional Student Senate met to discuss end-of-the-year details on April 22, 2013.

University President Steven Leath spoke to the senators about the year’s achievements.

In Leath’s first year as president, the undergraduate population reached 31,000 students; the student body grew by 25 percent. Leath said the ISU faculty needs to grow as well, so there is a push to hire 200 more faculty members, a 10 percent increase, over a two-to-three-year period.

Leath would like to increase graduate student population by 2,000 students. That would lead to a 40-percent increase. An increase in doctorate student enrollment and degrees award is also on Leath’s agenda.

The Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student Organization presented two proposals to the Senate for the next academic year.

The proposals are to obtain better communication among graduate students, to promote communication between faculty and graduate students and to enhance the quality of graduate students.

The Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student Organization used Graduate and Professional Student Senate funding to purchase clickers and a laptops to be used during meetings.

The Curriculum and Instruction Graduate Student Organization also presented to the Senate about its future ideas for the next academic year. Former Professional Advancement Grant Chairwoman Alissa Stoehr is the new secretary for the Curriculum and Instruction Graduate Student Organization.

The  Curriculum and Instruction Graduate Student Organization is for all graduate students in the School of Education and provides opportunities to grow in academic and social life.

The organization assists of on- and off-campus students, with 37 active members. The organization is currently seeking new members.

Graduate and Professional Student Senate funding helped purchase food and drinks for the fall social and winter bowling events for members of  Curriculum and Instruction Graduate Student Organization. The remaining money from the Graduate and Professional Student Senate is $892, and the money will be used for marketing tools, speakers as guests at meetings and addition of a website.

Senator Huiyi Zhang, graduate student in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, presented the summer workshop of energy. This student-run workshop will be July 17-19 at the Memorial Union. The three-day workshop will feature three keynote speakers in academia, government and industry fields along with panel discussions.

There was a clicker demonstration to show senators how the use of clickers could improve the meetings. Clickers would be used for attendance and voting on bills. The amount of time saved could add up to 20 minutes per meeting with the use of clickers. Older clickers from previous uses can be used or donated for use.

The introduction of two bills and two resolutions were presented at the meeting. The Senate bills were “Executive Council Scholarship Revision” and “Transfer of FY2014 Summer PAG Funds to Surplus Account.”

The resolutions were “Promotion of Graduate Involvement and Leadership” and “Providing Affordable Health Insurance for Family Members.”

President Cory Kleinheksel thanked the Senate for their work over the past year.

There were large steps made forward, more Senate seats filled and success in socials in fall and spring, Kleinheksel said. A vacation and sick leave policy was adopted this year, along with an arrival-of-child policy.

Vice President and Rules Committee member Jose De Leon said 16 bills were presented to the committee over the year, and all were favorable.

University Relations Legislative Affairs Chairman Brian Tlach said President Leath is giving out 20 presidential scholarships to graduate students next fall.

PAG Chairwoman Alissa Stoehr presented awards to the winners of the peer teaching and research awards. The winners received a certificate and $200.

Katrin Hollinger, animal science, Sonali Diddi, apparel and hospitality and events management and Alissa Stoehr, school of education, received the peer teaching awards. Yanan Zhang, mechanical engineering, Joseph Hammer, psychology, Kapil Kandel, chemistry and Benazir Fateh, electrical and computer engineering, received the peer research awards. All are Ph.D students in their respective field.

Three bills were passed amending the constitution. The bills were “Inclusion of Compulsory Statements and Correction of Syntax Errors,” “Redefining the Officers of the Senate and Redefining Senator Roles” and “Graduate Student to Senator Ratio.”

The Senate bill of “Executive Council Scholarship Revision”
 and “Senate Resolution of Providing Affordable Health Insurance for Family Members” was passed.

Senate Resolution of “Promotion of Graduate Involvement and Leadership” failed.

Lastly, the Senate bill “Transfer of FY2014 Summer PAG Funds to Surplus Account” was tabled until the next Senate meeting in August.

The new executive council will now be in power for all Senate matters.