- New confirmed Delegates: Alex Cassell, Sandeep Krishnakumar, Lauren Katch, and Brooke Mattern.
- New confirmed Associate Justice: Schonn Franklin.
- Virtual Town Hall to be hosted by GPSA at the end of September to give an opportunity for GPSA to hear from people and groups they are not able to hear regularly to gather and collect concerns to gain a clear idea of what GPSA should advocate for
- Resolution 70-05 Statement of support to Coalition of Graduate Employees at Penn State: COVID Justice passed. This resolution states that the Graduate and Professional Student Association formally supports the demands created by the Coalition of Graduate Employees (CGE) at Penn State
- Bill 70-06 Virtual Grad Cup was also passed that approved the virtual event and budget for the annual event.
- The GPSA Advocacy and Diversity Committee is committed to supporting the scholars strike- day of action/teaching of social justice advocacy that is happening between September 8th and 9th
Kicking off the first Assembly Meeting of the Fall 2020 semester was a special presentation from the Director of the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Ben Locke. Locke described the process of turning CAPS fully remote during a quick turnaround last semester and continuing the remote resources this semester. Although many challenges in both technology and license aspects were brought up during their shift, CAPS is ensuring they will continue to take as many steps as it takes to gain resources for students across the states to be able to get the help they need. To be able to provide counseling, a license in the state of the recipient getting the counseling is required which was a problem when everyone went home in March. As CAPS pairs up with other colleges like the University of Texas-Austin, more resources are becoming available each day. Last spring, you.psu.edu launched quickly to provide all members of the Penn State Community resources revolving around the three themes: succeed, thrive, and matter. Anyone with a Penn State access account is able to log into the website and utilize everything it offers.
Following the special presentation, were the Executive reports in which Alex Zhao (president of GPSA) commented on the planned virtual town hall event to be near the end of September and more details are to follow. The virtual town hall will give an opportunity for GPSA to hear from people and groups they are not able to hear regularly to gather and collect concerns to gain a clear idea of what GPSA should advocate for. It was also commented that to ensure social distancing, voting that was originally scheduled to be in the hub will be moved to the BJC Center this year.
In the New Business Portion, four new delegates were confirmed including: Alex Cassell, Sandeep Krishnakumar, Lauren Katch, and Brooke Mattern. A new Associate Justice was also confirmed: Schonn Franklin.
Resolution 70-05 Statement of support to Coalition of Graduate Employees at Penn State: COVID Justice was passed during the assembly. This resolution states that the Graduate and Professional Student Association formally supports the demands created by the Coalition of Graduate Employees (CGE) at Penn State. Some of what is outlined by the CGE is fully-remote instruction, the need for Penn State to invest in resources for online pedagogy and commit to providing all materials necessary for instructors, and more. Bill 70-06 Virtual Grad Cup was also passed that approved the virtual event and budget for the annual event.
During the Reports Section, Diego Hernandez, from the Advocacy and Diversity committee brought up how GPSA is committed to supporting the scholars strike- day of action/teaching of social justice advocacy that is happening between September 8th and 9th. The rest of the committees updated them on their meeting times and upcoming plans.