- Written October 11, 1997
- Revised December 28, 1997
- Revised April 22, 1998
- Adopted 1998
Constitution of the Graduate Student Advisory Committee
Want to learn more about our Graduate Student Advisory Committee?
Want to learn more about our Graduate Student Advisory Committee?
The Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) of the English department was founded at Indiana University to act as a liaison organization between graduate students in English at Indiana University, the administration of the English department, and the administration of Indiana University. This Constitution and the accompanying Bylaws establish the organizational identity for GSAC. The Bylaws authorize GSAC to affiliate for specific purposes with graduate students in English, the English department, and Indiana University.
This organization will be called the Graduate Student Advisory Committee, formerly known as the English Department Graduate Student Organization, and shall hereafter be referred to as GSAC.
The Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) is a committee comprised of graduate students in English, who are elected to the positions by their fellow graduates students in the English department to serve a two year position, whose aim is to represent graduate students in the following capacities. The organization's primary purpose is to:
There shall be no less than seven officers of GSAC who shall fill the positions of chair (or chairs, in the case of Co-Moderators), treasurer, secretary, fundraising chair, conference coordinator, elections officer, and publicity director. The duties of said officers shall be delineated in Article VIII. The officers of GSAC shall also include the two (2) graduate student representatives from the Creative Writing Advisory Committee, who shall serve as ex-officio members of the GSAC governing body.
The officers shall be appointed annually by the voting membership of the GSAC member body to serve two year terms.
The appointment of officers shall be made by vote of the active voting membership, defined in Article III.
Chair (or Co-Moderators) shall be responsible for the following:
The treasurer of GSAC shall be responsible for the following:
The secretary of GSAC shall be responsible for the following:
The Conference Coordinator of GSAC shall be responsible for the following:
The Elections Officer of GSAC shall be responsible for the following:
The Publicity Director of GSAC shall be responsible for the following:
The eligible voting membership of the GSAC constituency shall consist of all graduate students in English who are enrolled as candidates for the M.F.A., M.A., or Ph.D. in the Department of English, in accordance with and as defined by Indiana University and Indiana University Department of English policy.
The governing body of GSAC shall meet at least monthly, or more often as deemed necessary by the GSAC governing body.
GSAC shall hold open forums for all graduate students in English, at least twice a year: one in the Spring semester and one in the Fall semester. GSAC shall advertise these forums at least two (2) weeks in advance and solicit contributions from its constituency for Forum agendas.
GSAC shall meet at least once a semester with the chair of the department, and at least once a semester with the director of graduate studies.
GSAC shall meet at least once a semester in a joint session with the Faculty Advisory Committee. These meetings may include discussion of any business before the Faculty Advisory Committee, except business involving individual graduate students, and/or specific hiring, promotion, or tenure decisions.
GSAC shall, as the need arises, have the power to appoint graduate students in English to Standing and Ad Hoc committees that will report directly to the GSAC governing body. The GSAC governing body shall make the findings of any and all Standing and Ad Hoc committees available to the eligible voting membership.
GSAC shall conduct elections for graduate student representatives to committees, as defined in Article VI, and Officers, as defined in Article III, in the Spring semester of each year.
In the case of resignation of graduate student representatives or Officers, GSAC shall conduct emergency election proceedings. Voting membership shall be given one (1) week to make nominations for said vacancy, and the voting period shall consist of no more than one (1) week.
The GSAC Elections Officer shall be responsible for all distributing information concerning elections, nominations, results of elections.
GSAC shall elect graduate student representatives to the following committees yearly, with the number of graduate representatives indicated in parentheses below:
The qualifications to be elected as a graduate student representative are as follows:
GSAC shall require that all representatives elected to committees submit, in writing, a semester report (both Spring and Fall) on the decisions made by their committee that affect graduate student education. These reports shall be distributed by GSAC to all graduate students in English.
GSAC shall also, as the need arises, appoint graduate student representatives to Faculty Hire Committees. No less than two (2) graduate students shall be selected for each hire committee. The qualifications for representatives are as follows:
GSAC shall also, as the need arises, reserve the power to appoint a member of its constituency to the Department Chair Search Committee. The Appointee shall act as a liaison between graduate students and the Chair Committee. The Appointee shall work in conjunction with the GSAC governing body to canvas the opinions of graduate students on the current state of the department, issues of graduate concern, and nominations by graduate students for the chair.
The Appointee shall have limited participation in the Chair Committee. The Appointee shall not be involved in Faculty interviews, which shall remain the sole domain of the Chair Search Committee. However, the Appointee, with the governing body of GSAC, shall arrange for open meetings between the Chair Committee, and graduate students to discuss, prior to the recommendation of the Chair Committee to the Dean, possible candidates for the position of Chair of the English Department. The qualifications of the appointee are as follows:
The Parliamentary Authority for GSAC shall be the latest edition of Robert’s Rules of Order.