GAPSA to hold own Council meeting

The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly will hold an open forum this afternoon, in response to the cancellation of the University Council meeting originally scheduled for that time. GAPSA officers said they plan to discuss the issues they had originally planned to bring up before the meeting of President Sheldon Hackney's advisory board was cancelled by the Steering Committee. GAPSA Chairperson Allen Orsi sent a memo to all members of Council's Steering Committee this week announcing the alternate meeting and outlining the issues GAPSA plans to raise. According to the memo, topics will include campus safety, HIV/AIDS education, and health insurance costs for students. Orsi said that he has been talking to undergraduate Council members to inform them of the meeting. "We feel that there are many issues that the Council could address and so we're getting students, faculty, and administration together so they can . . . make recommendations to Steering of ideas they want to talk about," Orsi added. Faculty Senate chairperson David Hildebrand said he will attend the meeting. "I'll bring my ears," Hildebrand said yesterday. Hildebrand added that he does not feel the forum will represent any form of protest against Steering's authority. "People are free to do what they want to do . . . I don't think it needs to take on any great symbollic overtones," he said. Hildebrand also said that GAPSA's reaction would probably not affect the Steering Committee's actions in the future. "I don't think it makes that much difference," Hildebrand said. "Graduate students wanted simply to use the time that was free to get some things off their chest." Hackney could not be reached for comment. At last week's GAPSA meeting, graduate students expressed anger at the Council Steering Committee's decision to cancel the monthly gathering. Hildebrand said the Steering Committee cancelled the meeting because most members felt there was nothing to discuss. GAPSA members, however, said they had planned a long agenda of items to discuss and felt the cancellation was a direct violation of Council bylaws. "It's really not an optional thing," graduate student Michael Goldstein said at last week's GAPSA meeting. "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." The open forum will be held in room 17 of Logan Hall from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

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