The Graduate and Professional Student Senate met in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union on Monday to discuss graduate student rights and revisions to the GPSS Constitution.

GPSS introduced six bills and resolutions to be discussed. A bill revising the senate By-Laws; a bill revising the GPSS constitution; a resolution to extend the deadline for graduate and professional students to make changes to their schedule without penalties; a resolution to support chapter nine changes to the graduate student handbook of graduate rights and responsibilities; a bill for special allocation for the 2016 GPSS research, teaching and leadership awards and a bill for GPSS fiscal budget for 2017.

The senate By-laws need to be updated in order to be effective and consistent with senate practice. Each amendment passed with unanimous consent and the bill passed at 98 percent. (Some previously present senators had left, so their attendance was still counted while their vote was not.)

The senate’s constitution was due for an update. The most important issue to be addressed for change was the representation section of GPSS’s constitution. The current constitution has senators elected by their department, not their major, which leaves some majors that cross between departments left out. Instead of going through the registrar’s broken link in the constitution, the proposed amendment will look to majors for senators to represent through Iowa State’s eData warehouse.

A friendly amendment to the bill was introduced to change “his or her” to “their” when speaking about academic departments. The amendment of revision passed with unanimous consent.

The overall bill passed at 98 percent for a written and amended constitution. The next meeting will also have the constitution on the agenda to be passed again. It takes three votes in order to change the constitution.

The resolution, which discussed the need of an extended deadline for graduate students to make changes to their schedule without suffering any penalty, was voted on as well. Graduate students currently have five days to change their schedule without a $12 fee. GPSS recognizes the need for graduate students to have more than five days and would like to see a 10-day deadline. The resolution passed at 96 percent.

The resolution in support of changing chapter nine of the graduate student handbook of graduate student’s rights. The proposed bill is going to the graduate college and the resolution shows GPSS’s support of the bill. The bill consists of outlining responsibilities of graduate students while still promoting their rights. The resolution passed at 96 percent yes, 2 percent no and 2 percent abstained.

The special allocations bill calls for a transfer of funds of $625 from the 2016 GPSS surplus to the special allocations budget in order to recognize and award the hard work that graduate students put in for research, teaching and proven leadership. The additional funds would result in $3000 for these $200 awards to be split among 15 winners. The bill passed at 91 percent with 7 percent no.

The last senate bill consisted of passing the 2017 fiscal year’s budget. The bill was not allowed to be amended, only to be sent back for additional work, rejected altogether or passed as written. The budget bill would add a one-time distribution of $4000 to professional advancement grants as a line item, any unspent money for mid-year socials be moved to Spring socials and any unspent money be moved to the 2017 surplus. The bill was voted on as “approved, rejected or send to committee” instead of the regular “yes, no or abstain” because of the nature of the bill. The bill was approved with 98 percent and no rejections.

Dr. Reginald Stewart, vice president for diversity and inclusion, spoke about his ability to wear both hats of a chief diversity officer and a vice president. Not only does he make pathways and recommendations for policies, but he insures the spirit and nature of the existing policies are adhered to. He also recognized the misrepresentation of his position needed to “find solutions to problems.”

“The most common question I get asked is ‘What’s the plan?’” Stewart said. “We always want to fast forward to the end, and I caution you: don’t do this. Many people think of diversity and inclusion as a problem we need to solve, this is not a problem, people are not problems.”

Stewart explained that Iowa state has a strong volume of diversity problems, however the problem he finds is that the programs don’t necessarily work that well together. The issues he finds fall into microaggressions, operational definitions and colorblindness.

“How many microaggressions equal a macro[aggression]?” Stewart asked. “Be very cautious not to throw microaggressions around and be so comfortable with it.”

Stewart said colorblindness is something that needs to be “drilled a little bit deeper.”

“The next time someone says something to you that’s off-putting, I want you to ask ‘why?’ When someone says ‘I don’t see color,’ I want you to say ‘why? How is that even possible that you don’t,’” he explained. “First and foremost, if you don’t want to have these conversations and you don’t have these competencies you are not employable for the future. People have been raised to talk around or avoid these topics. Until you can get to the root of why people say they’re colorblind, then you will be at an impasse.”

Government of the Student Body presidential and vice presidential candidates Zack Reece, Cole Button, Raghul Ethiraj and Cole Staudt stopped by the meeting to introduce themselves and their ideals for their hopeful positions. After their introductions, GPSS voice-voted to extend the time the candidates were allowed to speak. GPSS senators asked questions of concern over the candidates’ dead week policies, their efforts of inclusion and allocations of funds for scholarships.

Maria Mantilla Perez, professional advancement grants chair, discussed her work with the Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award. The award is given to ISU graduate faculty who serve as effective mentors and enrich student-professor relationships. Each graduate department is able to receive one nomination per GPSS senator, or in the case of departments without senators, GPSS will accept nominations from graduate students in those departments.

Perez revised the way evaluations of nominees were conducted and brought sources of bias to attention when selecting award winners. A score from zero to five was also implemented to evaluate the applicants.

The next GPSS meeting will take place March 28, at 6:30 p.m. in the South Ballroom.