The amendment said the committee would maintain standing relationships with the Health Center, Culture of Care and Counseling and Psychological Services.
“The committee will take a holistic approach to health and wellness, including campus safety and a number of other things that go beyond just physical health,” said Skyler Hutto, vice president and chair of the new committee.
The amendment said the vice president will chair the committee, as was true of the student affairs committee, or a person can be designated by the executive committee to chair the health and wellness committee.
Debate arose about that part of the amendment because an appointed head to the committee would be uncompensated, though the other committee heads are compensated.
Verdi said the issues raised in discussion about the committee are necessary and should be addressed moving forward, but added that he felt it was important to codify the committee as soon as possible.
“The issues that the health and wellness committee are tackling aren’t going to wait for us to figure out internally how best to handle them,” Verdi said.
Additionally, during the meeting, diversity officer Brittany Witherspoon announced progress from her committee’s efforts regarding disability access on campus for graduate students.
The committee inquired as to why graduate students could not use the shuttle, which helps transport physically-disabled students around campus to get to a teaching assignment.
Graduate students could request the shuttle when they needed it to get to their classes but could not request the shuttle when they needed to get to a class they taught.
Witherspoon met with administrators, and now graduate students can use the shuttle to get to their teaching assignments if they are temporarily or permanently physically disabled.
GPSG did not have to write a resolution for the change.
“Disability Services’ priority was getting students to class,” Witherspoon said. “I posed the question, then, of what happens when associate instructor or teaching assistant gets temporarily impaired and can’t go to teach their classes ... Moving forward, (administrators) want to address that in their policy.”
At the beginning of the meeting, IU Police Department Sgt. Rebecca Schmuhl spoke to the assembly about sexual assault. She discussed the role of graduate students, particularly with regards to reporting incidents.
Verdi said one main point Schmuhl made was that if an incident occurs, the Title IX coordinator for IU, Emily Springston, not just the police, should be contacted.
“It was good for her to be able to tell us exactly who to refer this stuff to because she said the common myth is that you just call the police,” Verdi said.
Another point Schmul made, Verdi said, was if an incident occurs between a student and a non-student, it can and will still be investigated by IUPD, and it is no less valid to report such an incident than to report an incident between two students.
The role of graduate students relative to sexual assault can be different than undergraduate students, since graduates students are often in a staff role where a student might confide in them about an incident, Verdi said.
Because of this role, Verdi said it is important for graduate students to understand the procedures regarding sexual assault reporting on campus.
“That can be a distressing time for not only the person, obviously, providing that information, but the person receiving it,” Verdi said. “There’s a lot of leadership expected of students on campus.”
