Feb. 20, 2025

 

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The UNLV Graduate & Professional Student Association

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING

GPSA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING 44-14

MINUTES

Thursday, February 13th, 2025

10:00 AM

HYBRID PUBLIC MEETING:

IN PERSON: GRADUATE COMMONS CONFERENCE ROOM

LIED LIBRARY 2ND FLOOR

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

PASSCODE: GPSAUNLV

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 2nd 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

☑Aliciah Carr

☑ Devin Lopez

☑ David King

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

Engagement & Outreach Director

Chief of Staff

Director of Communications & Marketing

◻ Ariadna Gutierrez EXCUSED

◻VACANT

◻ Delight Ejiaka EXCUSED

Members of the Public Present

☑Virginia Smercina – GPSA Business Manager

Bill Robinson, Ph.D. – GPSA Faculty Advisor

☑ John Colombo, Ph.D. – GPSA Faculty Advisor

☑Valarie Burke, Ph.D. – Graduate College Representative

☑ Annette Day, UNLV Libraries

☑ Cory Tucker, UNLV Libraries

CALL TO ORDER

Called to order at 10:03am

ROLL CALL

Quorum has been established

  1. PUBLIC COMMENT                                                                                                INFORMATION ONLY

(See foregoing notation regarding public comment)

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES                                                                                   FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

Minutes from the 44-13 will be voted on at this meeting (Tabled)

  1. 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.

    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.

    1. Treasurer

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

    1. Secretary

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

3b) GPSA Business Manager & Advisor


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

  • Forum

3c) GPSA Faculty Advisors

       

  1. Faculty Advisor Bill Robinson will report to the Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.
  2. Faculty Advisor John Colombo will report to the Executive Board concerning UNLV related issues or events important to the UNLV graduate student body.

3d) GPSA President’s Cabinet

  1. Engagement & Outreach Director
  • Spring orchestra event update?
  1. Director of Communications & Marketing

  1. 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.

4a) Tiny Home Project                                                                                             FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

President Marie requests time to discuss and possible action on a town hall for graduate students to discuss the tiny home proposal by UNLV Leadership.

 4b) Memorandum to UNLV Leadership Addressing Student Concerns                FOR POSSIBLE ACTION Relating to New Federal Administration Mandates

President Teresa Marie requests time to discuss and possible action on a GPSA executive board memorandum to the UNLV leadership to request guidance for graduate and professional students on how to address potential ICE raids on campus and what rights students, faculty, and staff have regarding such requests.

  1. NEW BUSINESS                                                                                                    FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

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

5a) Memorandum regarding Elsivier/Science Direct Contract                           FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

Secretary King requests time to discuss and possible action for a memorandum asking UNLV Leadership to re-evaluate the decision to not maintain the Elsivier/Science Direct Contract.

The library has been facing a fiscal crisis, with its budget held flat for eight years. Despite receiving an inflation supplement of $450,000, this was stopped in fiscal year 24 and 25. The library has had to cut resources due to the lack of inflation supplement, which has led to the cancellation of 55 Elsevier journal titles and 138 online journals. The library also discussed the business model of Elsevier, which requires academic institutions to maintain a core list of individual subscriptions and pay an additional fee for access to the remaining Elsevier journals. The library has not met the required annual spend, leading to the loss of access to 1,700 Elsevier journal titles.

Cory Tucker and Annette Day from University Libraries discussed the challenges faced due to the cancellation of Elsevier journal subscriptions, which has impacted graduate students' research and dissertation work. Secretary King, a chemistry major, expressed his concerns about the lack of access to important research in his field. President Marie suggested that better communication channels could be established to reach students more effectively, possibly through social media or direct correspondence with faculty. She also mentioned the possibility of implementing a mediated or unmediated ILL system to access articles, but cautioned that this would not be a sustainable solution. The board also discussed the budget constraints and the potential for future cuts. The conversation ended with a discussion on the strategies of negotiating with publishers for better deals and the importance of monitoring ILL statistics.

The university libraries discussed the challenges of maintaining a research infrastructure budget and the need for faculty support in promoting open access publishing. They highlighted the high cost of information and the negative impact of commercial publishers on libraries. President Marie also mentioned the possibility of a workshop on publishing in non-conglomerate journals and the need for cultural shifts in the academic community. Dr. Colombo and David King shared their experiences with open access publishing, with Dr. Colombo expressing frustration at the university's refusal to support open access publishing and David King highlighting the financial burden on graduate students.

5b) Memorandum asking for additional GA Lines for GPSA                                 FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

President Teresa Marie requests time to discuss and possible action on a GPSA executive board memorandum to the UNLV Graduate College asking for additional GA lines to support the ever growing GPSA program and the need to help maintain back of the house and front of the house operations.

BM Smercina discussed the possibility of requesting additional Graduate Assistant (GA) lines for GPSA to support its growing program and operations. The GA lines would be used for the Director of Communications and Marketing, the Engagement and Outreach Director, and potentially the Legislative Affairs position. BM Smercina also considered the idea of utilizing student workers to support engagement outreach, reducing the need for volunteers. The decision to request these GA lines was left open for further discussion.

5h) Call for New Business Items                                                                                INFORMATION ONLY

Items for consideration at future meetings may be suggested. Discussion is limited to description and clarification of the subject matter of the item, including the reasons for the request; emergency items added at the discretion of the President (GPSA Bylaws Article IV, Sec.3).

  1. PUBLIC COMMENT                                                                                                   INFORMATION ONLY

(See foregoing notation regarding public comment)

  1. ANNOUNCEMENTS                                                                                                 INFORMATION ONLY
  • GPSA Awards

Spring 2025 Events                                                                                                      INFORMATION ONLY

President Marie requests time to discuss the graduate commons open house, spring elections, networking ideas, and spring swag order.

  • Dining Commons events in the spring:
  • Wednesday, April 9, 2025 (during National Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week, Apr 7-11, 2025)
  • GPSA Fee Increase Town Halls
    • February 28th 12pm
  • GPSA & Grad College event Importance of Gendered Pronouns 01/29/2025 4-5pm SU Ballrooms
  • February Lobbying Trip 2/27
  • March 6th & 7th Board of Regents NSU campus
  • March Council Meeting Thursday March 13th
  • March Elections Open
  • March Date for Tiny Home Town Hall
    • President Marie will be taking RTC to and from nellis a few times through the next few months to calculate the time it takes to take public transportation
    • Possible help in doing personal car drive times during the week and peak hours would be appreciated
  • April 17th Graduate Appreciation with the Orchestra
  • May 1 meeting – initiation of new Executive Board
  • May 3rd Forum

  1. ADJOURNMENT                                                                                                  FOR POSSIBLE ACTION

Adjourned at 12:48 pm.