A lack of communications left some candidates out of the Graduate and Professional Student Council’s Board of Trustees committee elections Tuesday evening.
Ten graduate students were elected to six different Board of Trustees committees. Three nominated candidates, two of whom said they were never told when the elections would be held, were not present at the elections. The students said that their ability to be elected to the committees was hampered by this miscommunication. The third student could not be reached for comment.
A GPSC e-mail was sent Tuesday at 2:54 a.m., but it did not note that the general assembly would be voting on representatives or taking nominations for the Board of Trustees standing committee representatives, candidates said.
After the meeting, former GPSC vice president Yuvon Mobley, a second-year graduate student in the department of molecular genetics and microbiology, said this year’s notification procedure differed form last year’s.
“Last year I do know that I personally sent e-mails to all of the individuals who had been nominated giving them the date of the meeting and the format,” Mobley said.
Outgoing GPSC Vice President Adam Pechtel, a third-year law student, said the bylaws do not require the Executive Board to send another notification of the date and time of the election to the candidates.
“It was on our Web site, on GPSC News, as far as I know, and we could have sent some reminder e-mail and we probably should have but I mean, it slipped my mind and they have a responsibility as candidates to find out when the elections are,” Pechtel said. “Although [sending a reminder e-mail] would have probably been a best practice that we should in the future implement, it’s not something we’re required to do.”
GPSC President-elect Daniel Griffin, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in classical studies, added that the election date was posted in the minutes from GPSC’s March 23 meeting, which were available to view on the GPSC Web site.
Crystal Withers, a third-year MD and Ph.D. student who was nominated to run for the Medical Center Affairs committee but did not show up to the meeting, said she could find information about the committees but not about the election on the Web site.
“I don’t know where the sites are where they give details about meeting agendas,” Withers said.
Griffin said GPSC is working to include more students, but getting people involved had been a problem this year. He added that as president, he hopes to further promote student involvement next year.
Mobley and Yang Yang, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in physics, were elected Faculty, Graduate and Professional School Affairs representatives.
Emeline Aviki, a student in Fuqua and the School of Medicine, was elected to the Medical Center Affairs committee.
Griffin and Yvonne Ford, outgoing GPSC President and a fourth-year Ph.D. student, were elected Institutional Advancement standing committee representatives.
Mili Doshi, a first-year Fuqua student, was elected Undergraduate Student Affairs committee representative.
Ali Saaem, a graduate student in biomedical engineering, and Karen Lilley, a first-year Fuqua student, were elected Business and Finance standing committee representatives.
Liz Bloomhardt, a third-year graduate student in mechanical engineering and a Chronicle columnist, and Caleb Varner, a student in Fuqua and the Sanford School of Public Policy, were elected Facilities and Environment standing committee representatives.
In other business:
GPSC members also approved a new strategic plan (pdf) at the meeting.
The plan calls for GPSC to improve communications with graduate students, advocate for graduate students in the Duke community and provide opportunities for graduate students to engage with communities beyond the University.
A table of contents and executive summary were also added to the plan. The mission statement was adapted from GPSC’s bylaws and a vision statement was created, Pechtel said.
Griffin said the new plan will act as guidelines for GPSC’s activities in the coming years. He added that the Strategic Plan was revised based on GPSC’s goals and aspirations.
“[It’s] a way for us to identify what problems we might have in achieving our goals,” Griffin said.
Some students expressed discontent with the changes made to the plan. Bloomhardt said she was under the impression that the Strategic Planning Committee was to only make minor changes to the plan.
“These are not minor changes,” Bloomhardt said.
Some students were also worried that the new plan was directed to a different audience than the previous one. The new plan is more of an internal strategy for GPSC, Bloomhardt said, not one to present to administrators.
Griffin said he thought this document was better organized to present to Board of Trustees members.
The 2010-2011 budget was also approved. More funds were allotted for group funding and student life.
Graduate student Campout for men’s basketball tickets has been set for October 1-3 said Basketball Committee co-Chairs Allison Schmitt and Rebecca Wilusz. Wilusz is a biomedical engineering graduate student and Schmitt is a graduate student in chemistry.
Campout will be held at the same site as last year, where there will be space for both tents and RVs.
EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this article contained a quote that was incorrectly attributed to Aris Baras, a graduate student in the School of Medicine and the Fuqua School of Business. The quote has been removed in light of this error. Please contact Will Robinson (wrr3@duke.edu) with questions.
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