order of business - gsg|clemson universitygsg.people.clemson.edu/assets/docs/order of business/gsg...

THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

602 University Union | Clemson | South Carolina | 29634 (864) 656–2697 | [email protected] |http://www.gsgcu.com

Order of Business Graduate Student Senate Meeting

Date: Thursday, November 2, 2017

Time: 8:00 p.m.

Location: Clemson University Student Senate Chambers

Attendees: Senators and general public

1. Call to Order—Aury Kangelos, Graduate Student Body Vice President and President of the

Senate

2. Call of the Roll

3. Approval of the Minutes for October 19, 2017

4. Special Guest

a. Andy Bluvas, Technology Commercialization Officer—Clemson University Research

Foundation

5. President’s Report—Courtney Allen, Graduate Student Body President

6. Executive Reports

7. Steering Reports

a. PEGAS Committee—Amber Mann, Awards Chair and John Sherwood, Applicant

Reviewer Chair

b. Activities Committee—Amaris Tejada, Chair

c. Finance Committee—Elaine Sotherden, Chair

d. Sustainability Taskforce—John Sherwood

e. Rules and Procedures Committee

8. Old Business

a. GB 315 A Bill to Change the Name of the Travel Grant Program

9. New Business

a. GR 77 A Resolution to Endorse a Redefined PEGAS Review Rubric

b. GR 78 A Resolution to Express Joint Support for the DREAM Act of 2017 with CUSG

c. GB 316 A Bill to Recognize New Graduate Student Organizations

d. GB 317 A Bill to Approve Allocation of Funds

10. Other Announcements and Open Remarks

11. Good of the Senate

12. Adjournment

THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 602 University Union | Clemson | South Carolina | 29634

(864) 656–2697 | [email protected] |http://www.gsgcu.com

Meeting Minutes Graduate Student Senate Meeting

Date: Thursday, October 19, 2017

Time: 8:00 p.m.

Location: Clemson University Student Senate Chambers

Attendees: Senators and general public

1. Call to Order—Aury Kangelos, Graduate Student Body Vice President and President of the 1

Senate 2

2. Call of the Roll: 41 present 3

3. Approval of the Minutes for October 5, 2017 4

Senator Solomon: Propose amends to the minutes 5

Line 51: Change Sass software to SAS software. 6

Minutes approved as amended! 7

4. Special Guest 8

a. Shelia T. Lischwe, Ph.D, Director—Office of Sponsored Programs 9

Thank you everybody. I am one of you, a second year grad student in the new Masters of 10 Arts program! 11

Is anyone of you on a research grant here? We are within the division of research. In the 12 pre-award area, primarily helping faculty find funding, write proposals, and when award 13 notification comes in, we negotiate that. 14

The kind of grant in my office, when we talk about grants, we don’t talk about financial 15 assistance, it is more project based. Grant definition in presentation. We deal with both 16 public (state, local) and private agencies. 17

There is not a lot of help out there to help grad students pay the tuition. Areas they typically 18 fall in are travel and conference grants, dissertation completion grants (NSF) except for 19 medical fields, NIH grants for undergrad, grad and post grads. 20

Typical situation we have seen, if you work with a faculty member on a grant, you get your 21 stipend and tuition paid for, that’s a typical situation here for grad students. 22

If you go to the link at bottom of slide in presentation, you can do a keyword search about 23 how to look for different funding opportunities. 24

Processing & managing grants: we don’t have a lot of control. All federal grants have to be 25 treated same way. We are audited against federal regulations. 26

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.gsgcu.com/




The Principal Investigator (grad student can’t be a PI) has to be a faculty member as 27 somebody need to be here to manage the grant after you graduate. 28

What happens when you apply for something here: We help you put together the 29 application, we will tell you what you need. Create a proposal narrative, create a budget. 30 And this is routed to Clemson for institutional approval, college pre-award team. Once you 31 receive an award, we need to review terms & conditions before it can be accepted, negotiate 32 with sponsor about that. Private sponsors take a little bit longer. 33

Then it goes to post award office after approval, they set up your account, you spend your 34 money as proposed, write reports and then account is closed at the end of grant period. 35

You can email me directly to do a focused workshop for your areas of interest, what grants 36 you can get or to do grant writing tips. 37

38

Senator Geller: What about the taxes on grants? 39

Dr. Lischwe: You have to look at particular tax regulations. 40

Senator Ehlert: Is there support for grad students applying for NSF grad fellowships? 41

Dr. Lischwe: Not really, it is managed by grad school. However, there is a new office in our 42 department for office of research, they might be able to help you on a workshop for grant 43 writing. Contact me directly if you are interested. I highly recommend you to learn writing 44 grants, it’s a good skill to show on your resume. 45

Thank you very much! 46

47

5. President’s Report—Courtney Allen, Graduate Student Body President 48

President Allen was not able to join us tonight! 49

6. Executive Reports 50

a. Research Initiatives: If you have sign up for 3MT, we will be sending out more info. Finals are 51 on Nov 3 at Watt Center. Students who signed up from Greenville campus will have their 52 competition in Greenville. 53

b. Community Outreach: Hurricane relief still going on. Whoever donated, thanks for that. If you 54 have anything to donate, bring to Graduate Student Center. Next week we are packing care 55 packages. Follow us on Facebook, all events posted there. Email: [email protected] 56

Weekend SnackPack Program: Saturday, October 21 from 9am to 11am, come and pack over 57 30,000 pounds of food for kids. 58

Strengthening Families Progarm: Every Monday at United Assembly of God, Seneca 59

Planning to go to retirement homes and goody bags for veterans and custodial workers. 60

Tigers for babies, send me an email and we can make a team to sign up for the 5k, drinks, food, 61 games, stuff like that. 62

7. Steering Reports 63

a. PEGAS Committee—Amber Mann, Awards Chair and John Sherwood, Applicant 64







Reviewer Chair 65

Senator Sherwood: Application period for spring opens Oct 30. Also a session on 66

Monday, Oct 30, 7:30 pm on how to apply. Committee working on reforming the 67

system to work a lot better. 68

Senator Namara: Who is eligible to apply? 69

Senator Sherwood: Any grad student as long as it is for something research related. 70

Senator Namara: How long before we have to apply? 71

Senator Sherwood: For events happening in spring, application opens Oct 30. Dates 72

on website. 73

74

b. Activities Committee—Amaris Tejada, Chair 75 76 Bowling night tomorrow, Friday, Oct 20, 6-8pm. 77 Denver Downs Nov 4, transportation provided. Buses leave Sikes 5.30 pm and come back 9 78 pm. Sign up for that in the newsletter. 79 Holiday Party: Palmetto Smokehouse, Pendleton. Saturday, Dec 9, 7-11 pm. Transportation 80 arranged. 81 Tailgate with BGSA for Florida state game. 82 Coming up in November: Pottery painting night, Trivia night, Movie Night and possibly Game 83 night. 84 Senator Namara: When is the bowling? 85 Senate President: Tomorrow at union. 86 87

c. Finance Committee—Elaine Sotherden, Chair 88

Next meeting is Oct 25th. Deadline for your funding form is 24 hours before meeting for events 89 occurring close to that date. 90

d. Sustainability Taskforce—John Sherwood 91

Working with President’s Committee on Sustainability, it’s under the Provost now. Working on 92 STARS assessment and will have a meeting to discuss other goals. 93

94

8. Old Business: None 95

9. New Business 96

a. GR 76 A Resolution to Clarify the Mission Statement of the Travel Grant Program 97

Senator Sherwood: Goal of the resolution is to develop a mission statement for PEGAS as we 98 don’t have a statement for now. 99

Senator Anglea: I feel like it is very long, it should just be the first sentence and other sentences 100 removed. 101

Motion to amend the mission statement: Seconded! 102

Senator DeFever: I urge to vote against the amendment. It is the outcome of hard work and based 103 on a survey that was sent out last semester to grad students. Thus last two sentences are very 104






important. I urge to vote against the amendment. 105

Senator Davis: I like to keep it as is. 106

Senator Solomon: I urge to keep it as is, it is telling us the goals of the grant. I urge to keep the 107 statement for full understanding. 108

Senator Ehlert: I agree. It helps refine and keep us focused on the purpose of PEGAS. 109

Senator Anglea: I don’t think they are bad, but I feel like it’s too long. Have a more concise 110 statement. 111

Senator Anderson: PEGAS is a standard committee and is in constitution. Will this be included in 112 there? 113

Senate President: Yes. 114

Senator Solomon: Clemson university statement is a paragraph long. We should have it available 115 for our students to read without having to dig through for it. 116

117

Vote on amendment: Yes: 7. No: 32. Abstain: 1. Motion failed! 118

119

GR76 as stated back to floor! 120

Vote on GR76: Yes: 36. No: 2. Abstain: 1. Motion Passed! 121

122

123

b. GB 315 A Bill to Change the Name of the Travel Grant Program 124

Senator Sherwood: This will go in effect starting Aug 2018. This is to make it more clear for 125 grad students when they search for travel grants. We will be rolling out changes in pieces rather 126 than a big bill. We will be changing the system to make it more effective. 127

Senator DeFever: Motion to table the bill for next meeting as we don’t have enough attendance 128

Seconded! 129

Senator Namara: How did we pass previous vote? 130

Senate President: Resolutions and bills need different majorities. Bill to constitution takes 2/3 of 131 total number of senators. Resolutions need half of the members present. 132

Senator DeFever: Point of info. We are going to remove senators from the roll who don’t attend 133 and then this will require a lower number of senators to pass. 134

Senator Anderson: Can we create a ballot for future proposed bill? 135

Senate President: Currently no. 136

137

Vote on motion to table GB 15 till Nov 2. 138

Vote: Yes: 37. No: 2. Abstain: 0. Motion Passed! 139

140

10. Other Announcements and Open Remarks 141

Senator Ehlert: Wish those who celebrate, Happy Diwali and Happy New Year. It’s important to 142 acknowledge all the religions and celebrations! 143

Senator Bruner: I was approached by a friend of mine from Ohio, who is the chief of staff of 144 Undergraduate Senate. She wanted to know if we are interested in a joint resolution for a non-145






discriminatory policy for Clemson. We should have more cooperations and I feel like this resolution 146 should be moved forward. Gender expression and identity to be included in the Clemson Statement. 147 Email to me if you are interested: [email protected]. We should present a united front to the 148 university. 149

11. Good of the Senate 150

Senate President: If you want to propose any amendments, please send in advance to Sruthy, 151 <[email protected]> so that we will have it processed before the meeting and it will save us some 152 time. 153

Our new website is up. Ayush did a great job. gsg.people.clemson.edu 154

Senator Davis: Don’t put www before gsg. Otherwise it redirect to old website. 155

Senate President: We are in process of moving everything to this website. It will be our central hub, one 156 point of info for everything. 157

Need people for strategic committee. 158

Senator Bailey: Email a list of all current committees. 159

Senate President: Sure I will. 160

Senate President: There is a Supreme constitution for all senates. Undergrad president and I are 161 working on to update that to make it easier for joint statements. 162

12. Adjournment 163







Date Filed: 10/16/2017

Date Enacted: 11/3/2017

Sponsor: Amber Mann

Co-Sponsors: John Sherwood

G.B. 315

A Bill to Change the Name of the Graduate Student Government Travel Grant Program

Whereas the Clemson University Graduate Student Senate wishes to ensure that the travel grant

program, currently called the Professional Enrichment Grant Application System (PEGAS), has

a clear purpose and is well known by as many graduate students as possible;

Whereas the Clemson University Graduate Student Senate recognizes that the name of the travel

grant program must be simplified to better achieve this goal.

Therefore, be it enacted by the Clemson University Graduate Student Senate assembled,

That the Professional Enrichment Grant Application System (PEGAS) will, beginning in August

of 2018, be referred to as the Graduate Travel Grant (GTG)

That the Rules of Order of the Clemson University Graduate Student Senate be amended as

follows:

Section 3.2.1.4 be amended to read:

“Graduate Travel Grant Committee (“GTG Committee”). The mandate of the GTG Committee is

to award Graduate Travel Grants to Clemson University Graduate Students.”

That in Appendix D, “Professional Enrichment Grant Application System” and “Professional

Enrichment Grant” be replaced with “Graduate Travel Grant;”

That in Appendix D, the initialisms “PEG” and “PEGAS” be replaced with “GTG.”

That these changes will take effect beginning in the 2018-19 funding year.



________________________________________________ __________________________

Courtney Allen, Graduate Student Body President Date

_________________________________________________ __________________________

Aury Kangelos, President of the Senate Date

_________________________________________________ __________________________

Almeda Jacks, VP of Student Affairs Date



Date Filed: October 31, 2017 Date Enacted: November 3, 2017 Sponsor: John Sherwood Co-Sponsors: Amber Mann

G.R. 77 A Resolution to Endorse Refined PEGAS Review Rubric

Whereas, the grading rubric for PEGAS applications has redundant questions and misaligned scoring criteria (shown below for reference),



Whereas, grammatical errors manifest in lower scores for clear and concise writing, Whereas, the “Overall, this is a good essay” question is redundant (as the answer should be just the sum of other question scores), Whereas, the rubric has no mechanism to explicitly credit heavy student involvement in event activities (e.g. running a workshop, volunteer at help-desk, conference steering committees, etc.), Therefore, be it resolved by the Clemson University Graduate Student Senate assembled endorses changes to the rubric to clarify reviewing, That the grammar criteria should be removed, That the “overall essay” question should be removed, That a new category should be added to explicitly credit students taking an active role in event planning, That the new rubric, including criteria, should take effect August 2018 and appear as:

Question 5 4 3 2 1

The essay was clear and concise

Clear and concise writing

The essay was clear, but could be a little more concise

The essay meandered in getting towards a not-very-clear point

The essay was neither clear nor concise

The essay represents the antithesis of concision and is the epitome of unclarity

The applicant conveys the benefit of this event to his/her professional development

The event substantially benefits professional development (e.g. research specific trainings, multiple items)

The event benefits professional development (e.g. only presenting research)

The event marginally benefits professional development (e.g. only networking)

The event does not benefit professional development

The event is a detriment to professional development

The applicant conveys the relevance of this

Career goals clearly stated, high

Career goals clearly stated, some

Career goals clearly stated, no correlation

Career goals are vague and do not

Attending event would be a



event to his/her career goals

correlation to event

correlation to event

to event correlate to event

detriment to career goals

Applicant demonstrates readiness for making the most of the event

Applicant clearly knows details of event and lists specific actions

Applicant knows of event activities but does not clearly list acting on them

Applicant has a vague idea of conference events

Applicant does not demonstrate knowledge of events or activities

Applicant has written that they will actively avoid their event

Bonus points:

Applicant is involved with event planning / implementation (If section is not applicable towards event, such as data collection, score as “not involved”)

-- Applicant has worked substantially to create event activities (e.g. hosting workshop, part of event steering committee, session chair)

-- Applicant has / will assist in conference activities (e.g. student volunteer, technology assistant, session help)

Applicant is not involved in conference / event creation

is approved by the Senate.

_________________________________________ _____________________ Courtney Allen, Graduate Student Body President Date _________________________________________ _____________________ Aury Kangelos, President of the Senate Date



Date Filed: October 30, 2017 Date Enacted: November 3, 2017 Sponsor: Diane Dotson Co-Sponsors: Bridget Blood, Katie Dudley, Paritra Mandal, Devyani Singh, and Pallavi

Sirajuddin

G.R. 78 A Resolution to Express Joint Support for the DREAM Act of 2017 with CUSG

1. Purpose: To express Clemson Graduate Student Senate in joint support with Clemson 2. Undergraduate Student Senate for petitioning the Clemson Board of Trustees and the 3. South Carolina Delegation to Congress to support the swift passage of the DREAM Act 4. of 2017.

5. Whereas, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program was 6. established in 2012 to protect immigrants who were brought into the country unlawfully 7. while under sixteen years of age from deportation, and

8. Whereas, to be eligible for DACA protection, an individual must be enrolled in school, 9. have a high school diploma or GED, or be honorably discharged from the Armed Forces 10. of the United States, and

11. Whereas, DACA recipients may not have been convicted of a felony, significant 12. misdemeanor, or three or more other misdemeanors, and must not pose a threat to 13. national security or public safety, and

14. Whereas, nearly 800,000 people are protected under DACA, including over 6,400 South 15. Carolina community members and many Clemson students and members of the Clemson 16. Family, and

17. Whereas, the bipartisan Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, or 18. DREAM, Act of 2017 was introduced by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and 19. would permanently protect DACA recipients from deportation with a pathway to 20. permanent legal status, and

21. Whereas, the DREAM Act would enable Clemson students (both graduate and 22. undergraduate) to continue to attend classes, pursue their education, keep their driver's 23. licenses, apply for and take on employment, remain enrolled in a health insurance policy, 24. and be eligible for in-state tuition, and



25. Whereas, The purpose of the Graduate Student Senate is to represent and promote the 26. welfare of all graduate students thus it is GSG’s responsibility and obligation to support 27. and advocate for all Clemson students, including those protected under DACA. 28. Therefore,

29. Be it Resolved by the Clemson Graduate Student Senate assembled in regular 30. session the following:

31. That the Clemson Graduate Student Senate, in joint effort with Clemson Undergraduate 32. Student Senate, calls upon Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Tim Scott, Representative 33. Mark Sanford, Representative Joe Wilson, Representative Jeff Duncan, Representative 34. Trey Gowdy, Representative Ralph Norman, Representative James Clyburn, and 35. Representative Tom Rice to move immediately and unconditionally to pass the DREAM 36. Act of 2017, and

37. That the Clemson Graduate Student Senate, in joint effort with Clemson Undergraduate 38. Student Senate, calls upon the Clemson University Board of Trustees to take decisive 39. action to encourage the passage of the DREAM Act of 2017.

_____________________________________ ____________________________ Courtney Allen, Graduate Student President Date

_____________________________________________ __________________________________ Aury Kangelos, President of the Senate Date



Cc: Almeda Jacks (arogers) Chris Miller (lcmille)

Courtney Allen (callen7) Leigh Dodson (dleigh) Leland Dunwoodie (ldunwoo) Jaren Stewart (jarens) Killian McDonald (killiam) Aury Kangelos (akangel) Amy Lawton-Rauh (amylr) Julie Garcia (jgarcia)

Altheia Richardson (lalthei) Dan Hofmann (hofmann) Emma Hume (ehume) George Smith (smithg)



Date Filed: October 31, 2017

Date Enacted: November 3, 2017

Sponsor: Elaine Sotherden

Co-Sponsors: Ryan DeFever

G.B. 316

A Bill to Recognize New Graduate Student Organizations

Whereas, the Graduate Student Government has evaluated the recognition status of all

Graduate Student Organizations and determined that the following organizations have met

conditions for recognition or derecognition.


That the following organizations are recognized as Graduate Student Organizations:

School of Computing Graduate Student Association (SoCGSA)

Automotive Machining Club

Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA)

Courtney Allen, Student Body President Date

Aury S. Kangelos, President of the Senate Date

Almeda Jacks, Vice-President for Student Affairs Date



Date Filed: October 31, 2017

Date Enacted: November 3, 2017

Sponsor: Elaine Sotherden

Co-Sponsors: Anastasia Kamenstskii

G.B. 317

A Bill to Approve Allocation of Funds

Whereas, the Turkish Student Association has submitted all paperwork required to request funding the event

entitled “The Republic Day of Turkey,”

Whereas, the Clemson Indian Students Association has submitted all paperwork required to request funding the

event entitled “Navrati,”


That the following amounts be withdrawn from fund earmarked for organizational funding and allocated to

organizations as follows:

Turkish Student Association

$591.94 for food and delivery, contingent on the submission of an Excel list with names and

CUIDs of attending graduate students

Clemson Indian Student Association

$800 for food and beverages, contingent on the submission of an Excel list with names and

CUIDs of attending graduate students

Courtney Allen, Student Body President Date

Aury S. Kangelos, President of the Senate Date

Almeda Jacks, Vice-President for Student Affairs Date




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