The Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) held a listening session with Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen on Friday in the Cardinal Room of the Memorial Union. 

This event was an idea of Wintersteen’s when she was first selected for the presidency in the fall of 2017.

“I won’t know all the answers, but I promise to look into any issues brought up today,” Wintersteen said.

Graduate Senator of Microbiology Daniel Nielsen brought up opportunities to be a teaching assistant (TA) in the Graduate College and difficulties finding these opportunities at the session.

Wintersteen praised TA opportunities and their impact on graduate students’ careers and said she would discuss options with the deans.

“What I’ll do on this is visit with the deans,” Wintersteen said. “I’ll visit with the deans and see what might be a more formalized path [for TA opportunities].”

Maggie Norton, graduate senator for sustainable agriculture, brought up the slash in funding for the Leopold Center last year by legislators, asking what kind of support the university can provide to support the Leopold Center. 

The Leopold Center was established in 1987 and works to help farms become more sustainable while also remaining profitable and reducing negative impacts on agriculture from farming. 

Wintersteen addressed this saying the university was vital in keeping the Leopold Center running, however didn’t have an optimistic answer for Sen. Norton.  

“The university simply doesn’t have the resources to do anything about that internally at this point,” Wintersteen said. 

However the Leopold Center has approximately $5 million in endowment currently which will help sustain the center.

“It’s not a good situation, we weren’t supportive of the action [to cut funding], they took the money away and we don’t have the resources to make up for that action,” Wintersteen said.

Senator of Toxicology Niranjana Krishnan, and candidate for treasurer and research conference chair for next year, brought up concerns regarding salary increases for graduate students. It is highly likely the promised $100 a month increase in stipend for graduate students will not go through and was discussed at Monday’s GPSS meeting.

Wintersteen said she would talk with Dean of the Graduate College Bill Graves with GPSS President Vivek Lawana regarding it but did not have a response on if this would happen.

“Last year we had very limited ability to do any salary increases,” Wintersteen said. “Vivek and I will work and visit with the dean.”

Lawana pointed out to President Wintersteen after her response that it would look bad if there was a salary increase for faculty and staff and not graduate students. 

Following that, another concern raised by graduate students was the Prosper Act and its potential negative impacts on the Graduate College, including the new lending cap. Currently graduate and professional students can borrow as much as they need to go to school, but the new bill would result in a $28,500 maximum per year.  

Wintersteen assured her and Vivek would discuss with Sophia MaGill — the university’s federal liaison — on the matter, and that she would be taking action.

“We’re planning on doing a better job of showing what a great return investment Iowa State University is and the other regent universities are,” Wintersteen said. “We’re going to make sure our legislators know.”

Many students raised concerns over state level budget cuts as well, and Wintersteen assured the GPSS senators that she would address their concerns.

“I think we’re going to do some analysis — the three regent universities together — to find the value of the tax payer dollar investment on the universities,” Wintersteen said. “We’re going to get aggressive on this.”

Wintersteen addressed that there is a limit to what the university can do with the frequent cuts to state level funding, however she would like to put a stop to it.

“Whether we’ll be successful at a state level, I can’t promise that, but boy I’d sure like to stop the reductions,” Wintersteen said.

Economics Senator Diego Cardoso asked Wintersteen about mental health concerns of graduate students, with the psychological stress currently put on graduate and professional students while being considered unfit for work if they show signs of psychological stress. University Relations Legislative Affairs Chair Michael Belding also addressed this during the listening session. 

“Well certainly we care deeply about the well-being of our students,” Wintersteen said. 

Wintersteen did not have a comprehensive answer on how the university is addressing this, however she did promote Graduate Student Wellness Week, which will be taking place April 9 to 13 in partnership with the Student Wellness Center, Student Affairs and the Graduate College. More information to come.

Reductions in diverse graduate student applications, faculty and staff background checks, chapter nine of the Iowa State handbook and veterinary medicine concerns were also raised and addressed at the listening conference on Friday.

The event concluded at 5 p.m. on Friday, and the GPSS will meet for their next senate meeting on March 26.