After failing to meet quorum at their meeting April 7, the Graduate and Professional Student Council elected the remainder of their executive positions Tuesday.
Rachel Rothendler, a second year Ph.D. candidate in French, and Jon Wright, a Masters in Engineering Management student, were elected co-directors of student life.
Wright previously served on the student life committee and will graduate in December. He plans to do most of the social event planning prior to his matriculation.
Yuqian Shi, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in biochemistry, was elected director of communications. He ran against Rui Dai, a second-year MD/Ph.D. candidate, and in the first vote, there was an exact tie.
Part of the GPSC bylaws stipulates that in the event of a tie, the presiding officer may vote to break the tie. The presiding officer was Attorney General Paul Escajadillo, a second-year MBA student, who said he would recuse himself since he worked with Dai on the Judicial Committee.
In the event that the presiding officer refuses to vote, it goes to a revote. In the revote, Shi was elected. Later in the meeting, Dai said that she as a representative could have voted, and this would have decided the vote. The issue will be taken to the judicial committee.
Stephanie Reist, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Romance Studies was elected Executive Secretary. Reist is currently working abroad, but incoming President Abigal LaBella—a fourth-year PhD candidate in Genetics and Genomics—said Reist is committed to remaining in Durham next year.
Hants Williams, a fourth-year student in the School of Nursing, was elected director of operations. This position manages the GPSC house as well as the food for meetings.
Lanair Lett, a first-year masters student in biostatistics, was elected director of community outreach after being nominated from the floor.
Due to time constraints, it was decided that an electronic meeting will be held next week. Quorum will be made up of all who receive the election materials regardless of how many votes are received.
Courtney Ramsey, a representative from the School of Nursing, voiced concerns that representatives from the nursing school will be abroad during the voting period and will be unable to access the internet.
During the diversity-focused meeting, current director of finance Sahil Chaini said that $25,789 was given this academic year to student groups on campus and to special events that promote diversity. Chaini also proposed an amendment that would allocate $2,500 in funding to a diversity committee that has existed within the GPSC bylaws, but never been created.
The amount of money proposed was amassed from cuts from several other budget items, including food for General Assembly meetings, the GPSC retreat and General Assembly networking events.
Lett said that $2,500 is less than the amount given to increase the budget of the GPSC retreat this year.
The diversity committee would be appointed by the director of university affairs and approved by the General Assembly in a slate.
Although some attendees felt the amount was insufficient, Chaini said that it would be easier to allocate a small budget and grow the amount over time rather than ask for a large sum that would not get used and lose funding for the following year.
“This is not the solving of a problem, this is the starting of a process,” Chaini said.
The amendment was passed by an overwhelming majority, Escajadillo said.
Following the vote, the group moved into discussion about their experiences and ways to move forward.
Current GPSC President Ben Shellorn noted the importance of thinking prospectively and brainstorming ideas together.
“In order to fix the problem you always have to look at the structure, and the structure has some very big cracks that need to be fixed,” said Dustin Pickett, a graduate student in the Divinity School.
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