Graduate Student Senate passed a resolution Friday regarding the mandatory tracking of hours that begins Nov. 7 for graduate students.

The tracking of hours is in response to the Fair Labor Standards Act that will go into effect Dec. 1, 2016. The new federal law will require overtime pay for hours worked exceeding one’s contracted hours.

This new law will especially affect graduate students, who sometimes work more hours a week than their contacts prescribe.

The resolution passed states the stance of GSS regarding what hours should be recorded and how current work contracts should be amended in consideration of the new law.

A section of the resolution reads “undocumented hours worked over the contracted amount may be considered ‘for the student’s educational benefit’ but that in other cases a student may consider this time benefiting not themselves, but rather benefiting the university, and are entitled to document these hours for pay.”

The resolution passed overwhelmingly.

Admittedly, the resolution may not cause current contracts to be amended, President Amira Hassnaoui said, but it will allow the University to be aware of the formal stance of GSS on the issue.

“It expresses our dissatisfaction with what is going on, as a first step,” Hassnaoui said.

Aaron Kane, shuttle and parking manager, presented to GSS on the future of parking services at the University.

“We’re going to move into license plate recognition software,” Kane said. “Instead of using hang-tags we’re going to use your license plate as your parking pass.”

LPR software uses cameras, which will be installed on parking services vehicles, to read the license plate numbers on cars to determine if cars are parking in accordance with the rules.

Ohio State University and Cleveland State University both use LPR software already.

“It will improve the customer experience,” Kane said.

The process of purchasing a parking pass will be the same, but hang-tags will no longer be utilized. The pass can still be transferred between vehicles, but only after changing the vehicle and plate number in MyBGSU.

Daily and hourly passes will also be purchasable through the web. The kiosk system will move from “pay and display” to “pay by plate.”

Efficiency of enforcement will also increase. No longer will parking employees have to park and walk around checking permits.

“We’ll have two students in each vehicle … we’ll have one person driving and one person on the laptop,” Kane said.

Because the current system only uses one employee per vehicle, job opportunities will not be cut. Having two student employees working together will also increase the safety of the workers, who sometimes must handle confrontations when issuing citations.

The new software will also allow for data mining. Data including occupancy counts, enforcement statistics and officer performance will be collected.

Environmental Affairs Chair Joshua Chamberland presented the topic of sustainability on Friday.

The University is a member of the Climate Leadership Network, comprised of over 600 colleges and universities.

President Mary Ellen Mazey also signed the President’s Climate Committee in November 2014. One of the goals set when Mazey signed onto this committee is for the University to be carbon neutral by 2040.

“BGSU has three overarching strategies for making our University more sustainable, those are reducing our emission, reducing our waste and conserving our resources and educating and reaching out to our campus community,” Chamberland said.

The Office of Sustainability is a coordinating position, so it does not dictate making policy.

The office encourages students to take action, including unplugging appliances when not in use, recycling when possible and even writing proposals to the green initiatives fund committee.  Electronic waste can be recycled through the office, too.  

Academic Affairs Chair Joseph Robertshaw announced, starting in 2018, terms will be changed from 16 weeks to 15 weeks – with 14 weeks of instruction and one week of exams.

Many details must still be ironed out, including housing, food and financials.

“We’re doing this so we can line up with other universities in Ohio, and it will help us to take courses at multiple universities if that’s something that we need to do,” Robertshaw said.