Graduate Student Government
Senate Meeting Minutes – January 23, 2012
Chair: Margaret Keaveny
Present: Dave Swanson, Stephanie Viola, Lara Lewis, Marissa Basile, Kate Vertucci,
Fabian Muehlboeck, Jing Gao, Jonathan Whitson, Serge Severenchuk, Dan
Henkoff, Christopher Skutnik, Dave Walsh, Dan Brown, Zach Pardey,
Christopher Cunningham
Executive Board Reports
VP Academic Affairs – Jeff Coots
 Town Hall meeting tomorrow, January 24, 2012 at 7:00 PM to discuss graduate
student life, wants and needs.
 Please spread the word and attend!
VP Student Affairs – Stephanie Viola
 The Constitution and By-laws have been updated and are now being looked at by
our faculty advisor and, subsequently, Vice President of Student Affairs
Madeleine Estabrook. Once the documents have been approved, I will provide
copies for all Senators and summarize all changes.
 Last week, I met with SGA Student Involvement Board Chairperson to learn
about their new student organization approval process. Since have no by-laws
dictating how we approve student orgs, I am contemplating creating by-laws for
our portion of the approval process. This way, student organizations know what
they are getting into prior to the presentation to GSG.
 Graduate Women in Science and Engineering are working with me to finalize
their constitution.
VP Finance – Lauren Vela
 N/A
VP Programs and Administration – Dave Swanson
 Looking for input for next hockey and basketball outings:
o NU Men’s Hockey – Either February 17 or 18 at 7 PM
o NU Men’s Basketball – February 22 at 7 PM
 Relay for Life registration is officially open and graduate students should sign up!
 Looking into a multi-university graduate student trivia night with Tufts and
potentially other schools
VP Media and Membership – Chris Cunningham
 Overview of results from Senator Evaluations
 What attracts Senators to GSG?
Graduate Student Government
Senate Meeting Minutes – January 23, 2012
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o Representing and serving their respective colleges, departments, and
programs;
o Responsibility for communicating information as a conduit to and from
the GSG;
o Leadership opportunities;
o Meeting other students;
o Contacts and networking;
o Ability to influence decisions; and
o Career development.
What are GSG strengths?
o Communication and ability to disseminate information;
o Open and engaging atmosphere;
o Dynamic between leaders and Senators;
o Strong leaders with great organizational skills;
o Productivity;
o Speaker Series; and
o Building a graduate community.
Suggestions for improvement?
o More opportunities for service;
o Increased committee work;
o Increased number of Senate meetings;
o More hockey game events;
o Participation in projects;
o Conference funding further reforms;
o Increased access to information;
o Increased flexibility in scheduling; and
o Coffee and cookies.
Questions or comments?
o Possible political advocacy regarding university movement of switching
from large to local banks:
 Is this something we can do?
 Will acting affect undergraduate co-ops?
 Any assertion of a GSG position will need thorough research and a
presentation.
 Chris is looking into this.
o Problem with access to software as a TA/RA that staff/faculty use:
 Only available to faulty/staff.
 E-mails that provide access, ---@neu.edu, have been taken away
from TA/RAs.
Graduate Student Government
Senate Meeting Minutes – January 23, 2012
Gail says sponsored accounts are a possibility, but this is
department dependent and also depends on who you ar working for
 nothing to do with money.
 Chris will look into this.
o Possible Student Affairs Board dealing with student organization
recognition and assistance:
 Does the number of student organizations make creating a board
necessary or a burden?
 Perhaps an amendment to the constitution could say that power is
delegated to some outside body if necessary.
 Student Affairs committee might be the perfect place for this.
 Stephanie is looking into this.
o Acquisition of Bean Pot tickets possible?
 Jeff Benham in Student Affairs knows the answer.
 Graduate students very interested in attending the Beam Pot, but
problems with NEU Ticket website last year.
 Dave is looking into this.
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Speaker Series: Priority Funding Presentation Overview
 Chris Cunningham and Margaret Keaveny provided a run-through of the priority
funding presentation that will be presented to the NU Senior Administration
team this Thursday, January 25 at 5:30PM
 Chris and Margaret solicited input from Senators
Next GSG Senate Meeting: Monday, February 6 at Noon in CSC 342