The Graduate and Professional Student Senate met Monday evening in the South Ballroom for its final session of the year. To close out the year, GPSS voted on allocation bills and nominations to the Senate for the 2016-17 year as well as listened to multiple speakers throughout the night.

A resolution standing in support of permitting graduate students to display academic hoods as a part of their regalia was tabled at 54 percent in order to gather more information from other institutions.

Senator George Weston nominated Humair Nadeem, graduate student in mechanical engineering, to the Senate for next year. GPSS confirmed Nadeem’s nomination at 98 percent.

The Geology Graduate Student Organization is planning a fall field trip to Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wis., and has requested a special allocation from GPSS in order to take its members on the trip. GPSS voted at 88 percent to pass the special allocation.

The Natural Resources and Ecology Management Graduate Student Organization requested its regular allocation of $546 since its first allocation request had a clerical error and was not seen through. GPSS voted at 96 percent to pass the regular allocation.

The Society for Neuroscience requested a funding of $600 before the body to support a speaker of interest to the organization. GPSS voted to pass the special allocation at 89 percent.

The final bill to be voted on before the Senate was an update to the allocations’ guidelines and documents. The previous documentation was “burdensome to read” and “out of date,” according to the finance committee. GPSS voted at 92 percent in support of the bill.

Board of Regents member Rachael Johnson was invited to attend April’s meeting. She discussed her role on the board as well as her role in the voting process of the international student tuition increase, which took place in December. Because many graduate students are international students, GPSS had discussed sending a resolution of disapproval for the increase in October and November, but the resolution was never drafted.

Johnson said she had only heard from two separate sources before she voted on the tuition increase, and therefore did not think her constituents were that bothered by it.

GPSS told Johnson that it was never reached for input of the increase, and that in order for Johnson to serve the 3.2 million Iowans under her constituency, she should have communicated better.

GPSS President-elect Vivek Lawana said there were problems from both sides when handling the increase.

“I think we are more upset with how the situation was handled than the actual increase of tuition,” Lawana said.

GPSS President Zack Zenko asked that Johnson be more communicative with the Senate and with the university relations legislative chair, and she agreed to being open to more comments and discussion.

President-elect of Faculty Senate Jonathan Sturm presented on ethical research and Ed Holland, director of benefits within ISU HR, discussed changes to student and scholar insurance plans.

Holland said the insurance plans are changing to the first of the month instead of operating mid-month, and an open change has been made for when students may enroll, from Sept. 1 to July 1.

Premium costs for graduate students are dropping across the board, and the number of categories for graduate students has changed from six to four: student only; student and spouse/domestic partner; student and one child and student and two or more children; and student, spouse/domestic partner and one child and student.

GPSS may be able to look forward to additions and changes to the graduate students’ rights and responsibilities after a long year of supporting the resolution. The rights and responsibilities draft is still being discussed by the Graduate Council.

The Senate has also been able to accomplish a solution to its representation issue this year. GPSS has also been able to promote a tax break for graduate students who choose to stay in Iowa after graduation throughout its 2016-17 legislative session.