Graduate Student Government Senate Meeting
October 24, 2020
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Zoom Recording: http://bit.ly/GSGSM1024
AGENDA
- Financial Affairs
- Guest Speaker: Andrew Watkins – Academic Mutual Aid Foundation (AMAF)
- Interactive Q&A session
- Contest Announcement – VP of Programs and Operations
ITEMS DISCUSSED
Vice President of Marketing and Outreach, Santhoshi Bathina hosted the meeting and greeted the senators. Announcement about the senate meeting attendance was made. Senators who have attended the meeting for a signification amount of time but are not able to stay till the end and mark the attendance will be sent an email with the attendance link. The attendance should be marked within 24 hours. This would help with fair tracking of the senator status and gift card giveaway.
1. Financial Affairs
Vice President of Financial Affairs Simone Winston presented information on the following topics:
- Funding student groups and events
- Funding attendance for conferences
Funding is available for the above-named items. The application for funding is requested to be completed four weeks before the need for funds. Application are available on the Graduate Senate Government website https://www.northeastern.edu/gsg/. For more information, contact Simone on winston.si@northeastern.edu.
2. Guest Speaker: Andrew Watkins – Academic Mutual Aid Foundation (AMAF)
Andrew Watkins, the founder of AMAF from Stanford University gave the presentation on the Academic Mutual Aid Foundation (AMAF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Andrew said their mission is to empower students and student employees facing financial fragility due to pandemic, through financial and social resources that allow them to weather the regular financial and personal stresses without compromising their academic goals.
AMAF believes its role as “a mutual aid organization whose goal is to help the academic community to help itself.” The organization has distributed $15,000 to individuals in sixteen states. An online application is required to request for funding for all students at any U. S. institution. Funding is provided on a first come first serve basis. The funding request is set to $50 as a maximum one-time request. The organization is not prepared to respond to chronic problems for now but AMAF will assist to identify resources that can help.
AMAF is affiliated with Stanford Basic Needs Fund and Columbia/Barnard’s Students Helping Students. Donations are welcomed from the community, educational foundations, student organizations and companies. For more information visit https://academicmutualaid.org/, contact studentmutualaid@gmail.com. Andrew welcomed an affiliation with Northeastern University through the Graduate Student Government.
3. Interactive Q&A session
Each student in attendance introduced him/herself to the group. This was an opportunity for each senate member to get to know the other members. Ice breaker questions were asked on Zoom poll by Prajakta Deshpande
(1) What is your favorite holiday? (Popular choice: Christmas),
(2) What is your favorite New England destination? (Popular choice: Vermont), and
(3) What is your favorite season? (Popular choice: Fall).
Santhoshi Bathina asked “What is your favorite go-to Dunkin’ item?” (Popular choice: Coffee), she encouraged students to tag @northeasterngsg on social media when they avail their $5 Dunkin’ gift cards that are received for attending the senate meeting.
4. Contest Announcement – VP of Programs and Operations
Vice President of Programs and Operations Prajakta Rajesh Deshpande announced the Contest “Ruff Around the Edges” for Oct 24- Oct 30, 2020.
Instructions:
- Open to all Graduate students
- Holiday themed
- Individual entries only
- The background image must be original
- Minimum resolution of background image: 1280 X 720 pixels
Prizes will be announced soon.
President Gagan Prabhu asked the attendees if anyone see something that Northeastern University should be working on, he asked them to email him the suggestions/ideas if any. Gagan also encouraged the members to send an email to him with other ideas. Good ideas and proposals will receive a $20 gift card.
- Romaric Belmier, a member of the Student Affairs Committee, asked about capacity building (how am I going to be helpful in the community after graduation, etc.), programming for the student body from the Graduate Student Government.
Answer: Gagan said GSG will do more to inform the student body of GSG’s programming.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 4 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm.
ADJOURNMENT
The Senate meeting was adjourned at 3:20pm by the President Gagan Prabhu.
Meeting Attendance
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