GPSO’s November Assembly passed resolutions in regard to support of Freedom Indiana, IU Preferred Name policies, and potential changes to the IU SAA pay schedule and stipend disbursements.
Full copies of each resolution are available on the Resolutions homepage.
Freedom Indiana
GPSO passed a resolution in support of President Michael McRobbie and the IUB campus administration in the decision to join the bi-partisan Freedom Indiana coalition in opposition to House Joint Resolution 6 (HJR6). HJR6 is a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the State of Indiana to explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage.
The 2013-2014 GPSO operates specifically with a vision of advocacy “for an inclusive and empowered graduate and professional student community.” Representatives and executives maintain that HJR6 would send an unwelcoming and negative message to the rest of the country, making it more difficult for Indiana University to recruit top-tier faculty, staff, and students while having an unjustifiably detrimental effect on members of the campus at all levels.
Preferred Name Policies
GPSO passed a resolution urging Indiana University to prioritize preferred names in IT systems, to hide legal names in as many instances as possible, and to protect access to legal name information via request process to data stewards.
This resolution was prompted in part by concerns regarding academic honesty and course registration, university ID cards, and forced gender identification in the university application process, as expressed by the transgender community at IUB.
Read the IDS article.
Indiana University policy states that it will not discriminate against characteristics such as gender and gender identity. GPSO presents the “Preferred Name Resolution” in support of Indiana University respecting the right of its community members to use names other than legal names to identify themselves and acknowledges that a “preferred name” can and should be used wherever possible.
SAA Pay Schedule
GPSO passed a resolution urging Indiana University to enact a September 5 initial pay date for fall 2013 Student Academic Appointees (SAA) and to evaluate the effectiveness of this change, with the goal of moving the first SAA pay date to August 31 in the future.
In the current SAA pay schedule, Indiana University Associate Instructors and Graduate Assistants receive payments twice in the month of September, beginning after the first biweekly pay period. This resolution responds to financial concerns of graduate students whose entire livelihood relies on a predicable disbursement near the beginning of each month. In future negotiations, Assistant Vice Provost McCammon, IU Payroll, and the GPSO will give particular consideration to the timelines specific to first-year and international SAAs.
Press releases have been issued to local and statewide media sources – keep an eye out for GPSO in the news!