GSAB Meeting Minutes

GSAB Monthly Meetings 2025-2026

  1. Delegates are needed to volunteer for the Big Event happening on October 18th.
  2. Consensus, IT Research Company, has reached out with regard to potential collaboration with the Graduate Studies department. More information on this will be issued in the next meeting.
  3. GSAB needs to strategize and work together to become more engaging in raising more funds for the One Day, One KU event.
  4. Formal and professional support is needed to assist international students in navigating current immigration laws and pursuing their ambitions
  5. GSAB members need to work on updating their online profiles (https://studentsenate.ku.edu/meet-gsab). Students needing assistance can reach out to me through Teams or email, and I can assist them in doing this as soon as possible. 
  1. Jin Wang, our new representative in GSAB, was formally welcomed to the team.
  2. Chair of the meeting, Graduate Student Body President, updated members of GSAB on the meetings that took place during the week.
    1. JED is currently working on certain initiatives, namely: Be Well and Mantra. JED has formed boards that will meet in February 2026. Matters raised then will be shared with GSAB.
    2. An update of the Consensus meeting was shared. The ideas of collaboration were shared. Issues behind their marketing approach were questioned. Their credibility and compliance with KU AI guidelines were questioned. Further discussions will be had on the same issue.
    3. An update of the Student Senate Executive meeting was shared. Boards were formed during this meeting, and further information will be shared when they start functioning.
  3. GSAB members agreed to share their personal professional headshots in the next 24 hours for a revamp of the GSAB online page.
  4. Appointment of the GSAB representatives for the School of Architecture & Design, Law School and Professional Studies is underway.
  5. Members of GSAB consented on the need for the appointment of the Community senator and International Graduate representatives, who will represent the GSAB in the KU Senate.
  6. Concerns about the proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to change "Duration of Status" were raised and addressed in the meeting.
  7. The meeting was called to an end by the chairperson at 4:49 pm

In Attendance: 
Fredrick Karanja, Dr. Ric Steele, Ana Martines, Shawn Khokher, Jin Wang, Omowunmi Olaleye, Eduardo Suarez, Grahmm Funk
Not In Attendance: 
Rim Chaif, Peyman Jahanbin, Helena Ferreira, Anne Cao, Clement Feyjimi, Kennedy Frost

 

Meeting Information
Date: Wednesday, November 5th 
Time: 4 – 5:00 pm 
Zoom Link: https://kansas.zoom.us/j/87267936115  
Passcode: 2025

 

Meeting Agenda

1. Icebreaker session + Introductions: (10 mins)

  • Icebreaker: Would you rather fly or teleport?
  • New members:
    • Ana Paula Martinez – School of Education
    • Eduardo Munoz Suarez – International Students’ representative
    • Trenton Bilhimer – School of Law

       

2. Updates on Month Events (10 mins)

  • KU Senate 4th Cycle Meeting
    • 99% of student organizations bringing up information to Student Senate are undergraduate focused, while very few are graduate student organizations
    • GSAB members are always welcome at Student Senate Meetings -> 5th cycle is happening tonight at 6:30 in Alderson Auditorium in the Union
  • Fee Review Training Session
    • KU allows students to deliberate where their student fees go, and this process is consistently contentious
    • The training session will give participants balance sheets and historical information on previous fee review cycles
      • Training upcoming in December
    • Eduardo asked about the process and specifically about SafeRide being removed last year
      • Follow-up: Is it possible to bring SafeRide back to the table?
  • Consensus App Training (Nov 21st: 3-4pm)
    • Integrated AI with Google Scholar-type search for references
    • App has a collaboration with the KU libraries
      • KU has a full year contract
      • Training on November 21st from 3-4pm

         

3. Elections/Nominations (15 minutes)

  • The committees that need occupancy are the following:
    • Academic Computing and Electronic Communications (ACEC)
      • Assigned: Megan Carlson
    • Academic Policies and Procedures (AP&P)
      • Assigned: Jin Wang
    • Athletic Committee
      • Assigned: Fredrick Karanja
    • Calendar Committee
      • Assigned: Grahmm Funk
    • International Affairs (IA)
      • Assigned: Ana Martinez
    • Libraries Committee
      • Assigned: Shawn Khokher
    • Planning and Resources (P&R)
      • Assigned: Eduardo Suarez
  • Community Senator
    • A community senator is someone who will represent GSAB within the KU Student Senate (every Wednesday 6:30-9:00pm)
    • Have a graduate student from CLAS interested in being the community senator?

       

4. Brainstorming session: (15 minutes)

  • KU and Lawrence City partnership
    • Angel, Andrew (SBP), and Fredrick meeting with a mayoral candidate for Lawrence, Kansas
    • Jin suggested Music Therapy
  • Coat drive
    • Teaming up with the Office of Graduate Studies
    • Decorated box at OGS in Strong 213 with social media information distribution -> box will be there for 3 weeks
      • Fredrick decorating the box this week
      • Sabbatini Multicultural Resource Center always has a Community Clothing Closet but the need surpassed the supply of coats last year
    • Ana asked for a flyer/an email to forward to our respective schools and departments
  • Bi-weekly GSAB Internal meetings
    • Have not been happening this semester
    • Shorter and very focused
  • Physical once-a-semester meetup
    • Happy hour or a meal together once a semester

       

5. AOB (5 minutes)

 

Meeting closed at 5:03pm

Meeting Agenda 

Updates on events (25 mins) 

  • Consensus App training
  1. Fedrick and Grahmm attended the Consensus AI app training in the library
  2. It is found helpful to graduate students (e.g., data collection and training other tools)
  3. Another AI workshop will take place in February
  4. GSAB Reach out to Applied Behavioral Science GSO
  • Winter Coat Drive
  1. Finished out successfully, the school of architecture has the most donations
  2. Also received donations from Kansas unions and the office of graduate studies 
  • Sponsorship
  1. Consensus offered to fund $150 for the GSAB meet-up event
  2. We need to be very careful about how to handle sponsorship and look for funding opportunities from KU
  3. Check in with the KU Senate about the mutual account and how funds should be used
  • Fee Review Training session
  1. Introduction to fee review
  2. KU has a student-led committee on fee review
  3. $532.50 fee is divided among different departments
  4. 12 voting members, with 3 of them from graduate students 
  5. Next fee training: Between Jan 20th and Jan 28th 
  6. There might be an increase in the student fees
  • Updates from Dr. Steele – Matters Policy and University Events
  1. Name change of office: Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs (website and social media)
  2. Policy change: fewer requirements on conflicts of interest for GTAs
  3. Approved policy: graduate students who left KU and come back for another program, their previous academic record (e.g., GPA) will be wiped clean (clean slate policy)
  4. AI-related issues: updated AI guidance policy for theses and dissertations 
  5. The committee, mentor, and chair should have a meeting on AI
  6. Graduate students and their mentors should initiate the conversations
  7. University AI Guidelines | Generative Artificial Intelligence 
  8. Fellowship: make sure departments receive awards for graduate students who are using the best mentorship practices, using student-centered data
  9. The GTA teaching award is under review
  10. Will be posted Jan/Feb
  11. Self-graduate program
  12. Workshop on Jan 13th morning for any graduate students
  13. Provost search in progress -There might be a campus presentation from candidates
  • Elections/Nominations (5 mins)
  1. Step down and new nomination of the School of Journalism representative
  2. Working with the Dean about the new nomination right now 

B) Brainstorming session (10 mins) 

  • Next year's plans 
  • One Day, One KU event
  • There will be more communications on this next year
  • Videos, testimonials are needed from GSAB to tell people why we need donations
  • Please repost the social media and email advertising
  • Ideation of an annual interdisciplinary expo in Lawrence
  • Looking for small business companies
  • Questions on whether GSAB should get involved in this 

C) AOB (5 mins) 

  • Meet-up at Merchants Pub & Plate