Current cyle Travel Grant funding allocated

As of November 4th, 2009

 GPSA can no longer accept new Pre-Approval applications
for conferences occurring between
October 1st and December 31st, 2009. 

All of our funding has been allocated for this cycle and our waitlist for this cycle is full.  GPSA encourages all students to submit their Pre-Approval applications as early as scheduling allows for the appropriate cycle. 

GPSA apologizes for this inconvenience.

Upcoming GSPIA Blood Drive

The GSPIA Student Cabinet is pleased to announce that it will be hosting
its first GSPIA Blood Drive on Wednesday, November 18th from 11am-3pm on the first floor of Posvar Hall.

You can schedule an appointment in advance by clicking on the link to
www.centralbloodbank.org; please enter CU190076 as the Sponsor Code.

Please contact the GSPIA Student Cabinet at stcab@pitt.edu if you have any questions.

Donating only about a half hour of your time can save up to three lives here in Pittsburgh! Please come out to donate life and ensure a successful drive!

FREE FOOD and a drink!!

We're heading to what is probably your backyard this time!

FREE FOOD includes appetizers of pizza, wings, fruit, cheese, chips, and salsa.

And your first drink is on us!

See you there!!

Congratulations to the Turkish American Student Association!

Congratulations to TASA and all Turkish Americans in Allegheny County for the pasage of Turkish Republic Day. The Turkish American Student Association, which is a GPSA Assembly Group member, lobbied specifically for this honor for Turkish Americans in the county.

October e-Bulletin, Issue 3 now Available

The current GPSA e-Bulletin can now be found at http://www.gpsa.pitt.edu/bulletin.php. This issue contains:

• GPSA Night at the Movies Thursday October 29th
• Nominations for Provost's Excellence in Mentoring Award due Soon!
• GPSA Masquerade Ball Date Moved
• Mandatory New Pitt ID cards for Graduate and Professional Students
• GPSA G-20 Resolution
• GPSA and PUMP Health Care Forum Recap

Due to circumstances beyond our control, The GPSA Masquerade Ball is postponed. Another appropriate time to hold such an event occurs during the time year when the Carnival of Venice, which popularized Masquerades, is traditionally held, several days before Ash Wednesday. Save your masks, then, for our Valentine's Masquerade Ball.

What will you be doing this Friday night?! GPSA recomends picking up the free food along 5th and Forbes at 5pm (wristbands and maps can be picked at the corner of Forbes and S. Bouquet St courtesy of Oakland Tailgate Taste Fest), weighing in on this important debate at 6pm, attending GSPH's reception at the Athletic Association for more food, drinks, and food for thought at 7:30, and catching the Fireworks at 9:30pm!

The University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly & the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project present

The 2009 Pittsburgh Healthcare Forum

DC Policymakers discuss health care legislation with Pittsburgh students & the community

Reception for Pitt students, faculty, and alumni to follow at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association

Why should young people care about Healthcare Reform? On October 23rd the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate & Professional Student Assembly (GPSA) and the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project (PUMP) will host an educational forum giving people of all ages a chance to be part of this controversial conversation.

This event will afford attendees an inside-the-beltway view of this pressing national and international issue.  Participants will have the opportunity to ask these key legislators questions while critically assessing ways to relieve the problems in our national healthcare system as legislation nears completion in Congress.

Representative Jason Altmire (D - PA 4) Co-chair of the New Democratic Coalition’s task force on healthcare reform and a subcommittee chairman on the Small Business Committee. Prior to his election to Congress in 2006, he served as a Congressional Health Legislative aide and UPMC Vice President for Governmental Relations.	Paul O'Neill 72nd Secretary of the Treasury, Co founder of the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative, Founder of Value Capture, LLC. Former CEO Alcoa, Former Chairman RAND Corporation. During his government service, Mr. O'Neill helped to shape many of the policies which define the American health care system today.	Representative Tim Murphy PhD (R - PA 18) "Dr. Tim", Co-chair of the 21st Century Healthcare Caucus, Mental Health Caucus and Men’s Health Caucus, and currently serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee. He is a former Pitt Psychology professor and a former health care expert for KDKA.

Moderator
Dr. Beaufort Longest
M. Allen Pond Professor of Health Policy & Management, Director Pitt Health Policy Institute

This information can be downloaded as a Flier and printed here

Senator Arlen Specter to speak with students at Pitt

Senator Arlen Specter will be visiting Pitt Monday, October 19, 2009. The Senator will hold an open-to-the-public Student Town Hall Meeting at the Alumni Hall Auditorium 7th Floor from 2-3pm.  The Senator will speak briefly and then take questions from the audience.

The Student Town Hall Meeting is not a campaign or fund-raising event, and though the event is focused on college/university students, it is open to the entire university community and to the public.

Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-7) joined Pitt students Tuesday morning for GPSA's 2nd "Pancakes & Politics". 84 students joined GPSA and the Student Government Board's Governmental Relations committee for pancakes from Pamela's and a chance to engage with one of the candidates for Pennsylvania's senate seat in the upcoming primaries. Representative Sestak spoke about foreign policy and recent developments in Iran before taking questions from students:

Pancakes & Politics, Pitt student Q&A

GPSA Pancakes and Politics: Joe Sestak from Pitt GPSA on Vimeo.

Around 100 students attended our happy hour last Friday evening! On behalf of The GPSA and AGORA, we'd like to thank all those students who made the night a lot of fun. For those who couldn't make it, you can check out the photos from the event at the link below, and we hope to see you at our next one.

Facebook Photo Album

The video from our first Pancakes & Politics session with Congressman Mike Doyle is finally available.

The following Letter to the Editor by GPSA President Daniel Jimenez and SGB President Kevin Morrison was published in Thursday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (10/01/09).

Pitt students' G-20 contributions have been overshadowed

The vast majority of University of Pittsburgh student participants in demonstrations during the G-20 were observing or peacefully participating, as reported in the Post-Gazette. The Allegheny County district attorney has recognized this, quickly dropping charges against four Pitt students and promising to review the cases of the other 47 Pitt students arrested. The university has also backed away from a previously stated commitment to process all arrested Pitt students through the university's Judicial Review Board and is actively working with the district attorney to review the arrests of Pitt students.

The Pitt students involved in the Oakland G-20 demonstrations were participating in the unique life experience the Pittsburgh summit presented during their college years. The vast majority did this within the university's code of conduct and within the safety advice on participating in the gatherings given by the dean of students. As evidence of this, no major property damage was reported in Oakland outside of the damage done Thursday, for which one person has been charged. Several large, organized demonstrations such as the People's March through the Pitt campus and a demonstration Saturday night went without incident.

University of Pittsburgh students have a long tradition of contributing to the city and region. During the Pittsburgh summit, students demonstrated this commitment by welcoming and engaging Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Japanese first lady Miyuki Hatoyama at the university.

More than 100 multilingual students volunteered as translators at summit hotels and welcome centers. During the summit, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon students organized a women's soccer game between Iranian students and American students in a demonstration of international collaboration. Prior to the summit hundreds of Pitt students came out to help "redd up" Pittsburgh as part of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's cleanup campaign. It's a shame that acts of a single vandal Thursday night attracted such overwhelming and aggressive police force Friday and temporarily overshadowed the contributions of our students to the summit, to the University of Pittsburgh, and to the city.

Student leaders will continue to work with university officials to restore our students' sense of home, safety, and pride in Pittsburgh.

DANIEL JIMENEZ
President
University of Pittsburgh Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
KEVIN MORRISON
President
University of Pittsburgh Student Government Board
Oakland

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09274/1002163-110.stm#ixzz0SjfPlPTR

Join GPSA for breakfast and an opportunity to speak with federal representative Joe Sestak: Oct. 6th, 2009 in the Lower Lounge of the William Pitt Union at 8:15am! Congressman Joe Sestak (PA D-7th) will join University of Pittsburgh students for the 2nd Pitt GPSA Pancakes & Politics breakfast session. He will speak on recent events concerning Iran and foreign policy issues before taking questions from students. Representative Sestak was born in Pennsylvania, attended the US Naval Academy, and achieved the rank of Rear Admiral through 31 years of service in the Navy.In his 2nd term in congress Rep. Sestak is vice-chairman of the Small Business Committee and a member of the Education and Labor and Armed Services committees. On August 4, 2009, Sestak declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Pittsburgh, posing a democratic primary challenge against Senator Arlen Specter.

Joe Sestak is serving his second term as the Representative from Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, which includes most of Delaware County and parts of Chester and Montgomery Counties.

GPSA will have a buffet including French Toast, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Apple Fritters, Coffee, & Orange Juice.

For more info and to RSVP see our Facebook event page. Hope to see you there!

The GPSA October e-Bulletin is now availble! Visit it at http://www.gpsa.pitt.edu/bulletin.php?month=September&year=2009 for information about our upcoming Graduate Masquerade Ball, open GPSA Committee Positions, our Upcoming Community Healthcare Forum, New Travel Grant Requirements, and our G-20 and other event Wrap-ups!

After months of measured debate and close examination of our current Travel Grant award system, GPSA has adopted new proceedures and requirements for our Travel Grant program, which is now our Travel Award and Grant Program. We hope that this will correct certain weaknesses in our old system and allow for more equitable distribution of gradaute students' funding. Detailed explanations of these new requirements and the new forms students will need are available by clicking "Services," then "Travel Grants" (or just click here). These updated giudelines are effective October 1, 2009. After October 1st, every student wishing to apply for pre-approval must use the new pre-approval form availalbe on our website.

Early October Happy Hour

The first one of the Semester!