Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Government gathered for the general assembly’s first meeting at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11, in Hodge Hall.
President Benjamin Verdi and other executives addressed the newly appointed or elected representatives, briefing them on procedures, recapping last year’s initiatives and introducing possible committees.
A new committee for student health and wellness was created this year out of what used to be the student affairs committee. Verdi said part of the impetus for the creation of the new committee are the intentions of Anne Tinder, IU Student Association president, to devote resources toward improving mental health care, student health and wellness and overall campus safety.
He said graduate students need to play a role in these initiatives.
Skyler Hutto, vice president of GPSG, chairs the new committee and said he feels student mental health and overall wellness issues are newly identified, though not necessarily new, issues. He said graduate students have different needs when it comes to overall health and wellness.
“One thing that I think we (graduate students) experience at a higher level is stress: academic stress, professional stress,” Hutto said. “A lot of us work and are students, so it’s just a different environment. We’re hoping to target some of our advocacy towards addressing those concerns for graduate students, but I think there would be a lot of spill over to benefit undergrads as well.”
Verdi said another reason for the committee’s creation was last year’s initiative to change language in sexual assault alerts on campus, which he said seem to place blame on victims in the safety tips provided.
The initiative met resistance, and Verdi said the new committee could deal with issues surrounding sexual assault. He said the committee for health and wellness can also work with other committees, such as the committees for diversity or benefits, to supplement their work.
Other issues Verdi said he hopes GPSG will deal with pertain to sustainability. Last year the GPSG assembly passed the Omnibus Sustainability Resolution, which called for IU to list sustainability as a “grand challenge,” IU President Michael McRobbie to sign the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment by the end of this academic year and IU-Bloomington to expand solar power to one megawatt in two years’ time.
Verdi also said he wants to revisit the idea of divestment from fossil fuels. GPSG previously pitched the idea to the IU Foundation, but he said the plan was rejected because representatives did not make an economic argument for why IU should divest from fossil fuels.
This year, Verdi said he hopes GPSG can convince the IU Foundation to create a divested fund parallel to the foundation’s regular investment portfolio, with the hope it would show a higher return rate than the normal portfolio, since he said alternative energy companies are among the fastest growing.
“We have to be able to tie financial benefit to environmental progress if we’re going to convince people on a wide scale to be able to get behind it,” Verdi said.
Another issue brought up during the meeting was improving disability services on campus. Diversity officer Brittany Witherspoon brought up the topic when she introduced herself to the assembly. The issue was further discussed when the assembly broke out into committees.
“Through observation, I realized that a lot of the disability-accessible things on campus aren’t actually working,” Witherspoon said. “I think it will be a really good idea to try to come up with some initiatives to get it to work or to improve our services in general.”
