- The Assembly started off with a special presentation from the CAPS Mindfulness Strategies Workshop that focused on mindfulness activities to help cope with stress. Some useful mindfulness apps that graduate and professional students can get are Headspace, Calm, and Smiling Mind.
- There are only two Assembly meetings left and President Alex Zhao encourages those working on current initiatives and resolutions to recognize that and finish the year strong. Those interested in running for reelection is encouraged.
- Vice President Julia Kelliher is organizing the Night of Remembrance Event to honor those students who has passed away in the past year and last (since last year’s event was cancelled due to COVID-19).
- In New Business, Bill #70-19 Virtual Trivia was passed which is an event to provide an opportunity to socialize and destress with a virtual trivia night for graduate and professional students.
- Bill #70-20 Virtual Take-Home Crafting Events was passed which is an event that will partner with The Makery for at-home craft kit boxes that every participant can do together on Zoom for a one-time event that can hold 40 participants.
- Bill #70-21 GPSA Office Computer Replacement was passed which will allocate funds to replace the obsolete office computers in the GPSA HUB office to carry out GPSA business
- Bill #70-22 Spring Additional Professional Headshots was passed which aims to continue the highly popular professional headshot event GPSA has been hosting this semester to allow funding for another 108 participants
- Bill #70-23 Virtual Take Out Night was passed which will bring back the highly popular event from April 2020 where GPSA sponsored a series of take-out nights to assist graduate and professional students impacted by COVID-19 while also supporting local business in the State College Community
- Bill #70-24 Executive Session passed which allows for a Bylaws Amendment to Allow Assembly Meetings to Move to Executive Session
- Bill #70-25 Response to the Racist Attacks Towards the Black Community at Penn State was passed which builds upon a past legislation since the January 27, 2021 attack on the Black Caucus has been followed by more racist Zoom attacks in other Penn State meetings.This is in an attempt to hold the University more accountable followed by recommendations by GPSA
The Assembly started off with a special presentation from the CAPS Mindfulness Strategies Workshop that focused on mindfulness activities to help cope with stress. They defined mindfulness as paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, and in the present moment which can help increase focus and cope with stress and anxiety. They also did small activities like square breathing and grounding techniques. Some useful mindfulness apps that graduate and professional students can get are Headspace, Calm, and Smiling Mind.
In Executive Reports, President Alex Zhao mentioned that there was a Faculty Senate visit to the graduate school and a lot of the discussion in that meeting focused on disconnects between qualifying exams and what it means to be a graduate student in different departments and there were concerns about the COVID-19 universal testing policy not being well-suited towards the behavior of graduate and professional students. There are only two Assembly meetings left and he encourages those working on current initiatives and resolutions to recognize that and finish the year strong. Those interested in running for reelection in certain positions is encouraged.
Vice President Julia Kelliher encourages everyone to message her with ideas to improve the mental health and well-being of graduate and professional students. She is also organizing the Night of Remembrance Event to honor those students who has passed away in the past year and last (since last year’s event was cancelled due to COVID-19).
In New Business, Bill #70-19 Virtual Trivia was passed which is an event to provide an opportunity to socialize and destress with a virtual trivia night for graduate and professional students. It requested funding for the gift cards for the top three teams who win which will be gift cards to the Berkey Creamery.
Bill #70-20 Virtual Take-Home Crafting Events was passed which is an event that will partner with The Makery for at-home craft kit boxes that every participant can do together on Zoom for a one-time event that can hold 40 participants. They are still figuring out which exact craft kit they will choose for everyone. This is to have a new event similar to the very popular at-home pottery events GPSA has held in the past.
Bill #70-21 GPSA Office Computer Replacement was passed which will allocate funds to replace the obsolete office computers in the GPSA HUB office to carry out GPSA business. An audit of the office computers were done by Penn State Student Affairs IT (SAIT) and they recommended replacing them within the next six months.
Bill #70-22 Spring Additional Professional Headshots was passed which aims to continue the highly popular professional head shot event GPSA has been hosting this semester to allow funding for another 108 participants. Slots for the original event filled up in a week and many people expressed they were still interested. The new photographer, Darya Alvarez, will bring all equipment they need and the event will be held for three hours for three days.
Bill #70-23 Virtual Take Out Night was passed which will bring back the highly popular event from April 2020 where GPSA sponsored a series of take-out nights to assist graduate and professional students impacted by COVID-19 while also supporting local business in the State College Community. This time, each order will be limited to $25 per take-out order inclusive of a 20% tip ($20.8 in food/non-alcoholic drink and a $4.16 tip)
Bill #70-24 Executive Session passed which allows for a Bylaws Amendment to Allow Assembly Meetings to Move to Executive Session. This is in response to both the Judiciary and Executive Board both being able to to vote in private (executive) sessions but not for the Assembly yet until now.
Bill #70-25 Response to the Racist Attacks Towards the Black Community at Penn State was passed which builds upon a past legislation since the January 27, 2021 attack on the Black Caucus has been followed by more racist Zoom attacks in other Penn State meetings.This is in an attempt to hold the University more accountable followed by recommendations by GPSA. Some examples of the actions GPSA recommends the University to take are: President Barron should reach out personally to the members of Black Caucus who were affected by this racist attack to see what next steps they believe are appropriate and what actions they want implemented, A university-wide mass email, not only a blog post or Penn State News article, detailing what happened and steps being taken to rectify the situation, as well as concrete information on what is being done to ensure that it never happens again and this email should be sent out immediately, Penn State should track all racial injustices and incidents reported across all campuses annually, and more.
In Committee Reports, the Advocacy and Diversity Committee is getting the results of their mental health survey and working with a group on campus who will create a short animation and video to highlight the results of the survey. The Programming committee hopes to send out a chocolate-tasting bill before the end of the semester.