The UMGPS held its first general meeting of the fall semester on Sept. 16, with more than 40 students attending online and several others participating in person. Information about this hybrid meeting including how to register to attend had been sent out since Sept. 9.
Emma Heath, UMGPS president, chaired the meeting which opened with the proposed agenda. This included voting on the proposed UMGPS bylaws and the slate of board candidates. Both were passed by members.
As part of procedure, graduate students had earlier been invited to submit questions in advance. The first question was regarding the allocation of funds for departmental graduate student associations (DGSAs), and the second was a request for UMGPS to resume administering the conference grant system. There was also a statement made by a student regarding bylaws.
Departmental grant
Heath’s response to the question about fund allocation suggested that the ratification for DGSAs would have to first take place, which began Sept. 17.
In alliance with the new bylaws passed in the meeting, DGSAs “will be asked to submit a letter to the UMGPS office that is signed by their department head,” said Heath. This is to confirm the association’s recognition and the number of graduate students in the department. The new deadline for this letter to be submitted is Oct. 9 “in recognition of the late opening of the ratification period.”
UMGPS has now allocated $30,000 for DGSA grants this academic year. The funding will be divided into two $15,000 payments, one for the fall semester and one for the winter semester. Each payment will be distributed among eligible DGSAs on a per-student basis.
Conference grant
The concern here was about whether the grant program could return entirely to UMGPS rather than continuing through a partnership with the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral studies (FGPS). Heath said, “UMGPS does not at this time have the administrative capacity needed to undertake the administration of conference grants.”
“We partnered with FGPS on this because they provide faster turnaround times, more consistent support with less mistakes, in addition to greater total financial support,” Heath added.
According to Heath, the previous UMGPS-administered conference grants had generated complaints about funding amounts, processing times, communication, administrative mistakes and funds running out.
“All of these concerns have been alleviated by our partnership with FGPS,” she assured.
Returning the program to UMGPS would require an additional staff member and more funding, which Heath said could mean higher student fees. However, she included, “If [anyone has any] good reason to believe that the system has negatively impacted student autonomy in attending conferences or receiving funding for conferences […] please reach out to me.”
In addressing the statement the society received from a graduate student before the meeting, Heath said it was being mentioned “in the interest of transparency,” despite the UMGPS not understanding what the student meant by simply submitting the phrase, “Exploiting the bylaws.”
Heath clarified that UMGPS “staff [followed] up directly with this student, but they did not reply” as of the time of the meeting.
She claimed that she had no reason to believe the bylaws had been exploited during her term as president, and assured members, “I will continue to not exploit the bylaws for my own benefit in the future.”
Other concerns raised
Travel award eligibility also drew attention from a graduate student who said he had been denied funding because he was no longer registered, despite not yet having convocated.
The student said he had defended his thesis near the end of his program and only secured a conference opportunity afterward.
“I think [students in this category] should still have the benefit of getting the travel award,” they said.
Heath confirmed that the joint UMGPS-FGPS travel award is currently only available to registered students. However, she said the concern would be raised with FGPS.
The meeting also included an announcement that longtime executive director Willow Josephson resigned, effective Sept. 4. A hiring committee made up of UMGPS executives, board members, Health Sciences Graduate Students’ Association executives and graduate students has begun reviewing applications. Interviews are expected to follow and a new executive director is targeted for October.
The association also announced that graduate students can reserve its event space at 217 University Centre free of charge, provided they make a request at least seven days in advance.
UMGPS’ next board of directors meeting is scheduled for Sept. 23 and will be partially open to be observed.
