Jul. 1, 2024

GPSA logo

The UNLV Graduate & Professional Student Association

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING

MINUTES

GPSA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING 44-03

THURSDAY, JUNE 13th, 2024

4:00 PM

HYBRID PUBLIC MEETING:

IN PERSON: GRADUATE COMMONS CONFERNCE ROOM

LIED LIBRARY 2ND FLOOR

VIRTUAL: https://unlv.zoom.us/my/gpsa.meeting.room

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE AGENDA AND PUBLIC MEETING NOTE:

PERTAINING TO VIRTUAL MEETINGS:

This meeting will be held via teleconference only pursuant to Section 1 of the Declaration of Emergency Directive 006 (“Directive 006”) issued by the State of Nevada Executive Department. If a physical location is required for the meeting, participants may be able to access the livestream by visiting the Graduate Commons at the Lied Library 2^nd floor.

Public Comment may be submitted via email to gpsapresident@unlv.edu.

Messages received by 9:00 AM on the Monday prior to the meeting may be entered into the record during the meeting. Any other public comment form submissions and/or voicemails received prior to the adjournment of the meeting will be transcribed and included in the permanent record.

Members of the public wishing to listen to the meeting may do so via: https://unlv.zoom.us/my/gpsa.meeting.room

CONTINUED:

Below is an agenda of all items scheduled to be presented and considered at the meeting. Notification is hereby provided that items on the agenda may be taken out of the order and presented, two or more agenda items may be combined for consideration, and an agenda item may be removed from the agenda or discussion relating to an item on the agenda may be delayed at any time.

Some agenda items are noted as having accompanying reference material. Copies of the reference materials that are distributed at the meeting may be requested by emailing the Executive Board at gpsa@unlv.edu.

This meeting’s agenda has been posted in accordance with NRS 241.020. Copies of the agenda and reference material will be made available as follows: 1. Digitally at the UNLV.edu/GPSA/Agendas and the Nevada Public Notice Website, 2. Physically located on the First Floor of the Lied Library at 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 3. Physically located in the Carol C. Harter Classroom Building Complex (CHB) at 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV.

Reasonable efforts will be made to assist and accommodate persons with a disability attending the meeting. Please email the GPSA Manager at gpsa@unlv.edu in advance so that arrangements may be made.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Public comment will be taken during this agenda item. No action may be taken on a matter raised under this item until the matter is included on an agenda as an item on which action may be taken. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person. Persons making comment will be asked to begin by stating their name for the record and to spell their last name. The Board Chair may elect to allow additional public comment on a specific agenda item when that agenda item is being considered. In accordance with Attorney General Opinion No. 00-047, as restated in the Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law Manual, the Chair may prohibit comment if the content of that comment is a topic that is not relevant to, or within the authority of, the Body, or if the content is willfully disruptive of the meeting by being irrelevant, repetitious, slanderous, offensive, inflammatory, irrational or amounting to personal attacks or interfering with the rights of other speakers.

EXECUTIVE BOARD

PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

TREASURER

SECRETARY

◻ Teresa Marie - PRESENT

◻Aliciah Carr - PRESENT

◻ Devin Lopez - PRESENT

◻ David King - Designate

PRESENT

PRESIDENT’S CABINET (EX-OFFICIO, NON-VOTING)

Engagement & Outreach Director	Chief of Staff	Director of Operations	Director of Communications & Marketing
◻ VACANT	◻VACANT	◻ Naseem Benjelloun - Present	◻ VACANT

Members of the Public Present

Virginia Smercina – GPSA Business Manager

Lila Hearn - Member of the Public

CALL TO ORDER

Call to Order 4:10pm

ROLL CALL

PUBLIC COMMENT INFORMATION ONLY

(See foregoing notation regarding public comment)

No Public Comment

APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR POSSIBLE ACTION
1. The GPSA Executive Board will consider approval of the minutes from the May 2024 Executive Board Meetings (44-02) as posted to the public GPSA Drive.

President Marie moved approval to the next meeting as Secretary King only sent them out to President Marie.

REPORTS & RECOMMENDATIONS INFORMATION ONLY

3a) GPSA Executive Board & Committees

1. President

President Marie will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

President Marie reported that the UNLV Parking and Transportation department attempted to increase fees at the Board of Regents meeting, but this request was denied.

Business Manager Smercina reported that fees were requested from many departments, but were mostly denied by the administration.

President Marie strongly recommended to the board to be prepared to present evidence as to why a fee increase is important to fund GPSA.

1. Vice President

Vice President Carr will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

Vice President Carr discussed going over the Sponsorship Operating Policy to ensure the language is up to date and succinct. The operating policy was compared to other universities, and it’s important to provide more clarity on the Tier lists/definitions of activities.

1. Treasurer

Treasurer Lopez will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate Student body.

Treasurer Lopez reported the ending balance as of June 1st is $229,700.23.

Business Manager Smercina provided a breakdown of the account balance.

Treasurer Lopez discussed that reserves need to be reallocated towards the GPSA Sponsorship program for FY24. A Ways & Means meeting was called on Monday, June 17th to handle the issue.

1. Secretary

Secretary – Designated King will be introduced to the process of the executive board meetings.

Secretary King asked a question about GA insurance during the wintertime and President Marie discussed that enrollment played a role in this.

President Marie and Member of Public Lila Hearn discussed dissertation credits enrollments as it pertained to this issue. It was suggested that workshops could be created to discuss this issue, as well as workshops pertaining to GA insurance.

3b) GPSA Business Manager & Advisor

Business Manager Smercina will report to the GPSA Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

Business Manager Smercina will provide input in New Business.

3c) GPSA President’s Cabinet

Engagement & Outreach Director
Director of Operations - Naseem Benjelloun
Director of Communications & Marketing
Chief of Staff

UNFINISHED BUSINESS FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

Unfinished Business is any motion or action item that was under discussion and was postponed or moved to this meeting at the discretion of the public body as approved by the chair.

None

NEW BUSINESS FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

New business is any motion that is new to this meeting. All items will be for possible action unless otherwise stated.

5a) Review of Sponsorship Budget Exhaustion and Outstanding Items FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

President Marie requests time to discuss and possible vote on resolutions for Sponsorship Committee’s exhausted budget and identify solutions for funding critical outstanding items.

Moved by Treasurer Lopez, seconded by Treasurer King.

President Marie discusses reallocation of the FY24 Budget towards sponsorship as well as making sure that the sponsorship for FY25 can stay afloat.

Business Manager Smercina discussed that in TDX, the process of grading the application could be seen for transparency. According to the operating policy, despite the grade of the application, full funding needed to be considered as there was no cut–off for funding in the language. Additionally, notifications through the portal confused some applicants as well. The visibility through TDX has been turned off as a result of the situation.

A total of $113,954.66 will be paid out for March and April sponsorship.

Debts can be paid during June 1 - September 1 by the GPSA Executive Board. A motion was opened to reallocate funds from the appropriate accounts towards sponsorship.

Treasurer Lopez mentioned that the May and June applications were not considered in this reallocation of funds. The motion was canceled and the discussion was reopened for a portion of the funds to be considered for the May and June applications.

A motion was made by President Marie to allocate funds from the appropriate accounts (total of $80,000) to consider the March and April sponsorship applications.

Moved by Vice President Carr, seconded by Treasurer Lopez. The motion was passed 3-0, Secretary King abstained from the vote.

5b) Moratorium on Funding Programs Pending Policy Review FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

President Marie requests time to discuss and a possible vote on a temporary halt on all programs offering funding until the operating policies can be reviewed and revised to ensure proper checks and balances on spending.

Discussed in 5a, but action is tabled as well the rest of new business as council meeting was starting.

5c) Expanding the Committee for Bylaws and Constitution FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

President Marie requests time to discuss and a possible vote to expand the bylaws and constitution committee to include the operating policy documents for internal committees of the GPSA. Discussion of changing the name to the GPSA Policy Review Committee.