Feb. 4, 2025

 

The UNLV Graduate & Professional Student Association

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING

GPSA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING 44-12

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

1:00 PM

MINUTES

HYBRID PUBLIC MEETING:

IN PERSON: GRADUATE COMMONS CONFERENCE ROOM

LIED LIBRARY 2ND FLOOR

VIRTUAL: https://unlv.zoom.us/my/gpsa.meeting.room

PASSCODE: GPSAUNLV

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE AGENDA AND PUBLIC MEETING NOTE:

PERTAINING TO VIRTUAL MEETINGS:

This meeting will be held via teleconference only pursuant to Section 1 of the Declaration of Emergency Directive 006 (“Directive 006”) issued by the State of Nevada Executive Department. If a physical location is required for the meeting, participants may be able to access the livestream by visiting the Graduate Commons at the Lied Library 2nd floor.

Public Comment may be submitted via email to gpsapresident@unlv.edu.

Messages received by 9:00 AM on the Monday prior to the meeting may be entered into the record during the meeting. Any other public comment form submissions and/or voicemails received prior to the adjournment of the meeting will be transcribed and included in the permanent record.

Members of the public wishing to listen to the meeting may do so via: https://unlv.zoom.us/my/gpsa.meeting.room

CONTINUED:

Below is an agenda of all items scheduled to be presented and considered at the meeting. Notification is hereby provided that items on the agenda may be taken out of the order and presented, two or more agenda items may be combined for consideration, and an agenda item may be removed from the agenda or discussion relating to an item on the agenda may be delayed at any time.

Some agenda items are noted as having accompanying reference material. Copies of the reference materials that are distributed at the meeting may be requested by emailing the Executive Board at gpsa@unlv.edu.  

This meeting’s agenda has been posted in accordance with NRS 241.020. Copies of the agenda and reference material will be made available as follows: 1. Digitally at the UNLV.edu/GPSA/Agendas and the Nevada Public Notice Website, 2. Physically located on the First Floor of the Lied Library at 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 3. Physically located in the Carol C. Harter Classroom Building Complex (CHB) at 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV.

Reasonable efforts will be made to assist and accommodate persons with a disability attending the meeting. Please email the GPSA Manager at gpsa@unlv.edu in advance so that arrangements may be made.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Public comment will be taken during this agenda item. No action may be taken on a matter raised under this item until the matter is included on an agenda as an item on which action may be taken. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person. Persons making comment will be asked to begin by stating their name for the record and to spell their last name. The Board Chair may elect to allow additional public comment on a specific agenda item when that agenda item is being considered. In accordance with Attorney General Opinion No. 00-047, as restated in the Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law Manual, the Chair may prohibit comment if the content of that comment is a topic that is not relevant to, or within the authority of, the Body, or if the content is willfully disruptive of the meeting by being irrelevant, repetitious, slanderous, offensive, inflammatory, irrational or amounting to personal attacks or interfering with the rights of other speakers.

EXECUTIVE BOARD

PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

TREASURER

SECRETARY

☑ Teresa Marie

☑Aliciah Carr Entered at 1:06pm

☑ Devin Lopez

☑ David King

PRESIDENT’S CABINET (EX-OFFICIO, NON-VOTING)

Engagement & Outreach Director

Chief of Staff

Director of Communications & Marketing

◻ Ariadna Gutierrez ABSENT

◻VACANT

◻ Delight Ejiaka ABSENT

Members of the Public Present

☑Virginia Smercina – GPSA Business Manager

☑Bill Robinson, Ph.D. – GPSA Faculty Advisor

John Colombo, Ph.D. – GPSA Faculty Advisor

Valarie Burke, Ph.D. – Graduate College Representative

CALL TO ORDER

Called to order at 1:02 pm

ROLL CALL

Quorom has been established.

  1. PUBLIC COMMENT                                                                                                INFORMATION ONLY

(See foregoing notation regarding public comment)

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES                                                                                   FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

Minutes from the 44-09, 44-10, 44-11 will be voted on at this meeting

                    Motioned by Treasurer Lopez, seconded by President Marie.

                    An amendment has to be made to the 44-10 minutes to change “1st” to “FIRs”.

Motion for approval for 44-09 and 44-11 minutes made by Treasurer Lopez, moved by VP Carr. Passed unanimously.

  1. REPORTS & RECOMMENDATIONS                                                                  INFORMATION ONLY

3a) GPSA Executive Board & Committees

    1. President

President Marie will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

  • Board of Regents 1/16 & 1/17 @ NSHE building on Maryland parkway
    • $80 million in student fees

President Marie reported that she received the full spend down report and the fees paid by the dental students are going to go towards necessary resources for them and their school. There was no specific mention for graduate student support from this funding, but after discussions part of the money that was going towards Tuition+ for undergraduates ($750,000) will be going to graduate students ($40,000).

  • Upcoming Events & Participation

        President Marie discussed the help needed for events this semester. Secretary King and President Marie also discussed creation of a sign-up sheet for these upcoming events.

    1. Vice President

Vice President Carr will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

VP Carr reported that $12,806.48 was awarded to eligible applications in the November cycle.

    1. Treasurer

Treasurer Lopez will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate Student body.

Treasurer Lopez requested clarification for spending of the sponsorship budget to make sure that it’s not going over budget.

    1. Secretary

Secretary King will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate Student body.

No updates.

3b) GPSA Business Manager & Advisor


Business Manager Virginia Smercina will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

  • Renovations
  • Multi-factor
  • Forum

Business Manager Smercina discussed setup for the new graduate student orientation event. She also discussed the process with MFA integrated to all official GPSA accounts and how each account can be accessed with multiple MFA methods (security key, google authenticator, Okta, etc.). The research forum has been moved to May 3rd. Business Manager Smercina also reported that the council meeting room has changed to the student union. Treasurer Lopez asked if the meetings will still be hybrid, and Business Manager Smercina clarified that it will still be in-person.

3c) GPSA Faculty Advisors

       

  1. Faculty Advisor Bill Robinson will report to the Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

Faculty Advisor Robinson reported that there is a lot of unspent student fee income that should be utilized in a resourceful manner for students. The board of regents drafted a 41-page master plan that contained a poorly written page about research and did not include anything about graduate students.

  1. Faculty Advisor John Colombo will report to the Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

3d) GPSA President’s Cabinet

  1. Engagement & Outreach Director
  • Update on how the Wind Orchestra Event went.
  1. Director of Communications & Marketing

  1. UNFINISHED BUSINESS                                                                                     FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

Unfinished Business is any motion or action item that was under discussion and was postponed or moved to this meeting at the discretion of the public body as approved by the chair.

  1. NEW BUSINESS                                                                                                    FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

New business is any motion that is new to this meeting. All items will be for action unless otherwise stated.

Motioned by Treasurer Lopez, seconded by Secretary King.

5a) Fee Increase Proposal updates                                                                         INFORMATION ONLY

President Marie requests time for discussion and possible vote on an action plan for a GPSA fee increase.

Treasurer Lopez shared previous GPSA budgets from the past six years.

President Marie called for a motion to suspend Robert’s Rules of Order until the item is completed. Motioned by Secretary King, seconded by Treasurer Lopez. Passed unanimously.

VP Carr shared the Fee Increase Support Survey for graduate students to submit feedback/opinions about the proposed GPSA fee increase. The executive board discussed and shared feedback on the survey. Additionally, the executive board discussed pulling information from previous budgets and surveys in support of the proposed fee increase.

5b) Tiny Home Project                                                                                             FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

President Marie requests time to discuss and possible action on a town hall for graduate students to discuss the tiny home proposal by UNLV Leadership.

Faculty Advisor Bill Robinson reported that President Whitfield travelled to Hawaii to see the tiny homes that are being built there.

5c) Spring 2025 Events                                                                                               INFORMATION ONLY

President Marie requests time to discuss the graduate commons open house, spring elections, networking ideas, and spring swag order.

  • GPSA Open House 1/21/2025
  • Dining Commons events in the spring:
  • Wednesday, January 29, 2025 (second week of spring semester) and
  • Wednesday, April 9, 2025 (during National Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week, Apr 7-11, 2025)
  • GPSA Fee Increase Town Halls
    • January 27th 11am
    • February 28th 12pm
  • GPSA & Grad College event Importance of Gendered Pronouns 01/29/2025 4-5pm SU Ballrooms
  • February Council Meeting 2/6/25
    • Mental health graduate group CAPs
    • Election committee
  • February Lobbying Trip 2/27
  • March Elections Open
  • March Date for Tiny Home Open House
    • President Marie will be taking RTC to and from nellis a few times through the next few months to calculate the time it takes to take public transportation
    • Possible help in doing personal car drive times during the week and peak hours would be appreciated
  • April 17th Graduate Appreciation with the Orchestra
  • May 1 meeting – initiation of new Executive Board
  • May 3rd Forum

         The Executive Board discussed the various events and involvement needed to run these events.

5d) Discussion of NSHE Procedures & Guidelines Manual Revisions for             INFORMATION ONLY

Student Government Officers Financial Support - UPDATE

GPSA Teresa Marie requests time to discuss the update for the proposed revisions to the NSHE Procedures & Guidelines Manual, which mandate that compensation for student government officers (e.g., stipends) be issued exclusively as scholarships, eliminating employment-based compensation. The revisions stem from BOR Chair Carvalho’s response to public comments highlighting disparities in student government leader compensation across institutions, particularly undocumented students unable to receive traditional employment pay.

President Marie reported that they will not be going for the scholarship option.

5h) Call for New Business Items                                                                                INFORMATION ONLY

Items for consideration at future meetings may be suggested. Discussion is limited to description and clarification of the subject matter of the item, including the reasons for the request; emergency items  added at the discretion of the President (GPSA Bylaws Article IV, Sec.3).

  1. PUBLIC COMMENT                                                                                                   INFORMATION ONLY

(See foregoing notation regarding public comment)

  1. ANNOUNCEMENTS                                                                                                 INFORMATION ONLY
  • GPSA Awards

GPSA Awards need to be worked on soon and will be discussed during the next council meeting.

  1. ADJOURNMENT                                                                                                  FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

Adjourned at 2:47 pm