A format design change was one of the big items on the GPSS agenda as well as the 2016-17 budget.

The Graduate and Professional Student Senate, GPSS, met and discussed Thielen Student Health Center, the 2016-17 fiscal year budget and the re-design of diplomas at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Martino Harmon, associate vice president for Student Affairs, and Erin Baldwin, director of Thielen Student Health Center, were hosts to an open forum regarding the changes and future of the health center.

“It’s really important for you to understand that we have a really comprehensive Student Health Center,” Harmon said.

Harmon had previously served as interim director of the Student Health Center after Michelle Hendricks, previous director of the Student Health Center, retired in September 2014.

Touching on the interim roles, including Mary Hensley, who took charge of the health center after Harmon and before Baldwin, Harmon said “to be able to meet the growing demand has been a real challenge.”

The Keeling & Associates report, which was released in March 2015, was also mentioned, as it was a key factor in the health center management revamp. The report concentrated on a larger issue, which was the “serious, chronic and corrosive lack of leadership.”

This prompted leadership, along with access, to be some of the main problems Baldwin and Harmon aimed to work on as they move forward in improving the health center.

Baldwin said the reorganization of the leadership structure is 75 percent complete. The health center aims to improve the leadership by adding an assistant director of administrative services, quality improvement officer and interim associate director of clinical services.

They also hope to improve access by sending out reminders of appointments, improving patient experience by introducing more surveys and improving resources, by increasing student fees beginning the 2016-17 school year.

Questions introduced by the GPSS included the framework in which patients are cared for, how students are routed through the health center, how to help international students who may be confused about the system and helping students understand costs.

Harmon and Baldwin also suggested the possibility of a new building that will allow for expansion.

A fiscal draft for 2017 that noted a 2.5-3 percent growth in graduate student enrollment was recognized after the forum. The projected total income for the fiscal year was $190,000, including a surplus from the previous two years.

The motion to re-design the diploma was also brought to the floor during the meeting. The new diploma design will take effect beginning fall semester of next year, and meetings to go over the design will begin within the next few months.

The meetings are meant to go over expectations for the diploma, looking at proposals made my marketing teams as well as approving the final outcome.

The new diploma design could include anything from fonts to sizes to the way the diploma is delivered to students as they walk across the stage on graduation.

Cory Kleinheksel, graduate in electrical and computer engineering, said that graduate students graduating in the fall can purchase a diploma of the new design if they prefer.

Two bills were then introduced to revise the GPSS standing rules along with allotting a special allocation in the budget for the 2016 R.F Baker Plant Breeding Symposium.

GPSS President Zachary Zenko, graduate in kinesiology, also introduced an update from his meeting with Dean of Library Services Beth McNeil, in which they discussed an updated database for textbooks, a suggestion for private space for graduate and professional students and an expansion in the IT services and writing center help.

“I also passed on a suggestion for private space for graduate and professional students, so grading can be done, rather than out in the open, and students who do not have a space on Central Campus can have a place to utilize,” Zenko wrote in the GPSS reports and remarks document.

The next GPSS meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 29 in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union. The senate voted to invite someone from the Diversity office to act as its next speaker.