Apart from that, I think you VGSA and GPSS guys should be havin’ your previous conversations in an email thread!

I was present throughout the meeting and do not recall being asked to move the voting to the start of the meeting. Trevor do you recall something?

The E-board is biased, more seriously certain members in it are not being honest towards the senate (i.e the “multiple” letters case from eh last meeting).

The committee reports are an option for me and the other senators to hear not an absolute necessaty like the voting and the finance requests. therefore they should be moved to the end of the meeting letting senators who have to go home leave. even if there is one person remaining in the room the committee chairs should give their shpill and the all thing did not take less than an hour.

Please keep VGSA out of it, VSGA historically being the best umbrella org. has nothing to do with voting/not voting for E-board proposals. I am not mad about my proposal not being chosen to replace the current situation ( I am perfectly fine with keeping the situation vague) but I am very happy it outrulled the E-board proposal and unvailed certain traits that the E-board works hard to conceal. BTW, I am raising my opinion, the fact that you don’t like it is not my problem.

If something your folks should work on reducing the student fee rather than increasing your debt so you’ll have to increase it on the students again soon, I don’t buy the argument that it is a small amount from the student fee because 80% of your funds have to go to travel funds (worst case for you) starting a payment plan while you are still making payments is a bad idea. moreover it does not provide something tangible for the students that they don’t already have, even if it will called the Barack Obama lounge me and the rest of the grad students could still use it.

I am all for GPSS getting non-senators students involved that was all my proposal was about, If you want to contact me I think I have some good suggestions about how can you go about it. what I am against is having 20 committees for 0 affairs just to create paid E-board positions and force senators to be active in them. My suggestion is keep only the committees that are essential for the function of GPSS (to be determined by he senate) and the rest of the committees can function as voluntary committees from head to tow.

last I think posting something here w/out putting your name/position on it is cowardness

have a good weekend

Nadav

First of all in case you were not listening properly the idea of having the voting in the end was only a trial to see if it is more convenient for senators. I however do not remember you raising any objections when this was suggested at the start of the meeting.

In case you have not realized yet, the E Board has no voting privileges whatsoever. So to suggest that E Board is biased is quite unreasonable. I think the senators are smart enough to know what they want.

The committee reports are less than an hour and it should concern you. We present it to the senate because we are accountable to you. If you do not want to know if we are doing our duties then we will be quite happy to stop giving the reports. To say that it does not concern you shows you do not yet know your responsibilities. The most powerful component of this whole graduate system is neither the students nor the Eboard, it is the senate. So imagine if the senators become non active. I agree they already have enough work, but they do have a responsibility, because they are the ones with the power. So for you to say that its o.k to have non active senators is quite worrying.

Just because a decision was not made in your favor does not mean it is a bad decision. It was a decision made by a majority. As a president of VGSA you need to be respectful to others opinion especially when other fellow senators are speaking or else it gives VGSA an unnecessary bad image. VGSA has a very good reputation built over several years and have consistently bee the best umbrella organization over the years. You are in an important position and the way you carry yourself is how people will judge VGSA. If you have an opinion, then by all means make your point but do not try to enforce it on others. Mudslinging is not going to get you anywhere.

To everyone else,

I agree it is a big amount. I understand the concerns this raises. But I would like to clarify that this money is coming from a small percentage of the recent fee expansion. So that means this is coming from a new inflow of money so it does not interfere in any way with the existing allocation of funds. The fee expansion is the money paid by students who take less than 6 units. They also have an option to opt out of paying. This expansion is bringing in a new inflow of $200,000 of which only 20% or less than that will be used for the payment of the lounge. Besides that every year we have a large excess of money leftover from the travel grant funds, so we can use that excess money to pay too. This was not a decision made on impulse or for bragging rights.

To those who have commented who are not a senator, it would be nice if you could become a senator or at least attend the senate meeting as a non senator. We can always do with an opinion. Your comments would be very valuable during the meeting and may help the senate in making the decision. If you attend and you are not a senator you may not be able to vote, but definitely you can voice your opinion which is important and is what we want. Senate meetings are every first Monday of the month. Check the gpss website at usc.edu/gpss for the location.

If you have any further question regarding this issue or on how to get involved please contact me at gpsspr@usc.edu. Also elections are coming up so if you have a strong opinion and feel you can do good things for graduate students, consider running for the elections.

Cheers
Abhinav

This proposal is a good opportunity to “grab” some extra relaxation/study space for the graduate students who would otherwise be packed into the basements of the libraries, or as was mentioned prior, sitting in their cars. There is no meeting place that I am aware of that is currently designated a “Graduate Lounge” where students from any discipline have group space to meet and work.

There is, of course, the counter-point of the “What’s in a name?” argument that was brought up at the Senate meeting and in this article. For this particular space, I think that having the name means quite a bit. I am not particularly interested in meeting my colleagues in the “Undergraduate Lounge” even though I would technically have every right to do so, and I would assume the same is true in the opposite case for anyone who is not a graduate student to want to use the “Graduate Lounge.”

Obviously, I am not of the opinion that this is a waste of money. The operating budget for GPSS is quite large; although someone from the Finance Committee please correct my facts if I am wrong. The proposed payments amount to about 5% of the GPSS total operating budget for the year, each year, for the next 5 years. This would amount to about a $2.50 fee on each graduate student to name this particular space; when each student pays in about $31.00 per year in programming fees. Not only is the lounge going to be available in the immediate future, but I believe that this lounge will exist for far longer than the proposed 5 year payment plan, and I look at it as an investment in our future graduate students who don’t work in an office or lab to have some place that they can call “home.”

Each incoming GPSS Board should focus on something larger than party boats and BBQs (although they have their place, too); a long term-plan of building something “good” for future generations of graduate students to benefit from. For this year’s GPSS, I think that this lounge is a good goal. I trust that Johannes, along with the rest of the Board, will conduct the contract negotiations with USC in a professional and competent manner to make sure that this space is kept as the “graduate student lounge,” and moreover that it continues to be used as a lounge because it is definitely true I am not interested in a future 3000 sq ft storage space called the “Graduate Lounge.”

Perhaps I am the only one reading or caring at this point, but I would recommend that Senators/Proxies that voted on this particular agenda item post their vote/view with their first name and the department they represent. This way, students we represent in the GPSS Senate at least have the name of someone they can contact with questions or concerns. For those that are impassioned about this particular issue or another issue regarding USC graduate life: get involved with GPSS or your local umbrella organization even if you are not a Senator, or at the least: contact your Senator. Let your opinions be heard!

Should senate disclose who votes Yay, who vote Nay?

Dose the senate have the right to spend money that does not belong to them, the money belonging to the future senates? Shouldn’t this matter be decided by all graduates who pay the fees?

Idiots.

Has undergraduate senate put in $200k to name an undergraduate lounge? Where would they go between classes?

Such a moronic idea to waster money!

I think GPSS deserves more scrutinies, in whatever fashion it entails.