Constitutional Amendment
CURRENT LANGUAGE
ARTICLE VI: THE GSA ASSEMBLY
Section 2: Representative Membership: Each Recognized Graduate Student Organization
(RGSO) shall have one voting representative (and alternate) in the Assembly. A RGSO with
forty (40) or more GSA members shall have one additional voting representative. A RGSO may
select any of its members to serve as its voting representative(s) to the GSA Assembly, provided
that individual is also a member of the GSA.
Every university department or intra-departmental program with GSA members is entitled to one
representative in the Assembly. Departments or intra-departmental programs with forty (40) or
more GSA members within said program shall be allotted one additional Assembly
Representative. Each department or intra-departmental program is also entitled to declare one
alternate for each Assembly Representative. Representatives and alternates must be chosen from
graduate students enrolled in the department who are members of the GSA.
University departmental and intra-departmental representatives will not be included in the
quorum for voting.
PROPOSED LANGUAGE
Section 2: Representative Membership: Each Recognized Graduate Student Organization
(RGSO) shall have one voting representative (and alternate) in the Assembly. A RGSO may
select any of its members to serve as its voting representative to the GSA Assembly, provided
that individual is also a member of the GSA.
Every university department or intra-departmental program with GSA members is entitled to up
to two representatives in the Assembly. Departments or intra-departmental programs with
seventy-five (75) or more GSA members within said program shall be permitted one additional
Assembly Representative, for a total of three (3). Each department or intra-departmental program
is also entitled to declare one alternate for each Assembly Representative. Representatives and
alternates must be chosen from graduate students enrolled in the department who are members of
the GSA. The number of representatives for each department or intra-departmental program will
be determined based upon a list of department enrollment obtained by the GSA Vice President in
July/August of each year from the Department of Institutional Research.
University departmental and intra-departmental representatives will not be included in the
quorum for voting.
RATIONALE
The RGSO Sub-Committee met and discussed how we might change our representation
structure. Our peer organizations in NYS only have department reps but we decided we do not
want to eliminate RGSO reps (or department reps) so we moved to a discussion of how the two
can best be represented.
Our proposal is ultimately based on the idea of the US House and Senate. RGSOs will all get the
same representation based upon the fact that they are all student created groups some of which
pull membership from multiple departments (e.g. GSS), some are created by small departments
(e.g. Philosophy or Africana Studies), and others pull membership from the entire graduate
student population, regardless of department (e.g. Yes+). We wanted to ensure equal
representation for all groups. Also, given that many groups, regardless of the size of the
department they are from, have similarly sized “membership” numbers on my involvement,
which are smaller than their department size. We did not suggest 2 reps from each RGSO
because many groups currently have a hard time finding one rep and we want to ensure RGSO
representation is equal, so we decided to suggest 1.
We decided that departments, which do vary in size considerably, should be granted
representation based (somewhat) upon that size. We considered a scale, as was previously
proposed, but ultimately decided to suggest the median of department size (75) as a cutoff point
between getting 2 or 3 representatives. We felt this allowed departments or programs who want
additional representation or are more actively engaged in GSA activities to have the opportunity
to be represented without putting added strain on RGSOs or the Assembly’s ability to meet
quorum.
OUR NOTES FROM THE MEETING
Department representation for department reps
Myinvolvement for rgso membership
 Get more members for the number of students who sign up for your page
 Rewarding involvement
Get rid of department reps? Not used very much
Department reps based upon size (scale like I suggested)
RGSOs all get 1 rep and that is it – only one rep and not two because we don’t want to put more
strain on RGSOs
RGSOs = Senate
Department = House
Could push us out of meeting at the other campuses and only meeting uptown
Under 75 (median) you get 2 department reps
Over 75 (median) you get 3 department reps