Next Tuesday April 17th at 4:30, GSA, CCSG, and UPUA will be co-sponsoring the second Penn State Student Town Hall Forum. It will be held in the HUB Auditorium. You all may remember the last town hall forum last November following Thanksgiving. As part of his continuing efforts to be accessible and visible to students, President Erickson agreed to this second town hall of hopefully many to come in the future. Panelists include:

President Erickson
Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims
Vice President for Administration Tom Poole
Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses Madlyn Hanes
Vice President for Finance & Business David Gray
Vice President for Development Rod Kirsch and
Vice Provost for Educational Equity Terrell Jones

I encourage you all to attend and spread the word on the event to your departments. 

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Spring into the Green: A benefit gala for Sustainability          

Date: April 14, 2012

Time: 7:30pm to 11pm 

Place: Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center - Tickets are available with a suggested donation of $15 at the GSA office (315 HUB, Open 12pm-4pm)

-All proceeds will be going to the Clear Water Conservancy! (find out more at http://www.clearwaterconservancy.org/index.htm)

The International Student Council and the Paul Robeson Cultural Center are seeking grad student volunteers to help serve food at the Taste of the Diaspora event on Wednesday, March 28th (next week) from 12 - 3 pm in Heritage Hall.  Volunteers shifts run from either 12 - 2 pm or 1 - 3 pm.  All volunteers will get an awesome World Cultural Festival t-shirt and the opportunity to sample delicious food from around the world!

The Taste of the Diaspora is part of World Cultural Festival, an annual event to celebrate world cultures that continues to receive an overwhelmingly positive response from our campus and surrounding community.  For more info about World Cultural Fest, check out the PRCC's facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/events/304605302920159/.

If you're interested in volunteering, please e-mail Kristen Wong at knw3@sa.psu.edu, preferably by 5 pm on Monday, March 26th with the shift you're available for so we can get a good idea of how many volunteers we have.

Come join us at our open GSA Assembly meeting tonight at 6 pm in 330 HUB! Refreshments will be served and our guests tonight will be from University Health Services, which manages graduate student health insurance.

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The Graduate Student Association is now accepting Intent to Run forms for the 2012 elections. All registered graduate students are eligible to run for positions on the Executive Board (including Faculty Senate and the Graduate Council) and the University Park Allocations Committee. Additionally, graduate students may run for delegate positions in the General Assembly for their respective Academic Programs.

If you are interested in running for a position in the GSA, you can submit the Intent to Run form online anytime over the next few weeks. The elections will be held online starting Monday, April 2nd and ending Wednesday, April 4th. For more information about running for office or the elections process, please contact the Chair of the Judiciary, David Simpson (dbs200@psu.edu).

The GSA is now renting out parking permits to graduate students for work-related use. 
These permits are what are known as "floaters".  They allow for 30 minute parking in any
staff lot on campus, except those marked specifically for 24 hour parking only or those
utilizing meters.  Primarily, this means any brown and yellow parking areas.  In
addition, these permits will allow entry to graduate students that need to pick up or
drop off people or items in areas that are currently blocked off by guard kiosks during
business hours.  Permits may be rented by walking over to the GSA office in 315 HUB
during office hours.  Please make sure to bring your driver's license, student ID, and
knowledge of your license plate number.  These floater passes come with standard parking
passes so that any car, including those that do not already own a pass of some kind, may
be used.  You may also call ahead (814-865-4211) during office hours to check on the
availability of passes and/or to put a hold on a pass you will be renting within the next
hour.  Please see the supplementary info attached to see a copy of the waiver that all
renters will be required to sign, as well as to see what the rules and regulations are
regarding these passes.

This program is only for graduate students.  If you or people you know are not graduate
students but are interested in getting your organization to start a program of a similar
nature, please contact Dave Rench at dwr162@psu.edu.

Come join us at our open GSA Assembly meeting tonight at 6 pm in 330 HUB! Refreshments will be served and our guest will be Penn State President Rodney Erickson.