GAPSA mad about meeting

A number of graduate students expressed outrage at last night's Graduate and Professional Student Assembly meeting over the cancellation of the January University Council meeting. "It's the [second] biggest violation of internal rules . . . I've seen here in ten years," said Michael Goldstein, former GAPSA chairperson. In December, Council's Steering Committee cancelled next week's Council meeting because members said they felt there was not enough to discuss. "We wouldn't want to pop something on people right after they came back from break," Faculty Senate Chairperson David Hildebrand said later last night. "There was nothing ready to discuss." But Goldstein said GAPSA Chairperson Allen Orsi will ask Undergraduate Assembly members to help insure that a meeting is held anyway. "There will be a meeting of University Council a week from today," Goldstein insisted last night. "If the president and provost choose not to attend, I'd suggest someone pass a resolution of censure." Goldstein said the steering committee does not have the power to cancel the monthly meetings, which, according to Council bylaws, are supposed to be held on the second Wednesday of each month. "It's really not an optional thing," said Goldstein. "If steering committee can cancel this meeting then they can cancel a meeting when there's a topic . . . that they don't want to discuss. It's important as a matter of principle." Some faculty members of Council said last night that meetings should only be held when there are issues to discuss. "You don't meet just to look at each other," said Council moderator Will Harris, an assistant political science professor. Graduate student Council members said they had already worked out an agenda for the meeting, and were planning to discuss the possibility of converting the empty Theta Xi house into a graduate student coffee house or pub. The cancellation has set them back, they said. "I'm disappointed that the University doesn't see that there are enough issues to discuss," Orsi said. Some student members of Council said they will attend the meeting if one is called. Medical student Jon Maltzman, a Council member, said he is disappointed over the meeting's cancellation. "One thing I use Council for is to get information about the . . . issues," Maltzman said. Undergraduate Assembly member college junior Kirsten Bartok said she is "saddened by the fact that the University thinks there are no issues to discuss," but added that since classes only recently resumed, "it's true there aren't many issues to discuss."

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