Ohio University Graduate Student Senate passed a resolution Tuesday to create an advisory committee within the body.
The Graduate Student Orientation Advisory Committee will help the orientation process for incoming graduates feel more “authentic,” Kayla Gross, GSS representative for the counseling and higher education department, said.
“There is a need for graduate school orientation to have more input, especially from graduate students who have been through the process and understand what needs to be introduced those first few days,” Gross said.
GSS sponsored a mandated reporting training session Friday. Some members said they believed that kind of training should be included during orientation.
Gross said there is a plan for compensation for those selected for the committee.
Body members also discussed a tabled resolution from Dec. 5 that would create an official stance of the body. GSS President Maria Modayil said if the resolution passed, members would have to change their constitution, and it would then go through the OU Board of Trustees.
GSS receives $3,354 annually from the Graduate College, Modayil said. Members discussed the difference in their budget versus Student Senate’s, which receives about $30,000 per year from the Division of Student Affairs. Also, the Senate Appropriations Commission within senate receives about $500,000 annually.
Modayil said the body has a "real chance" at separating itself from Student Senate in streamlining the duties of both governmental bodies and how that relates to graduate students.
Maria Funcheon, GSS representative for the sociology department, said she learned about the difference in OU’s budget for GSS in comparison to other schools after going to the National Association for Graduate-Professional Students conference in March.
“Our budget is pennies compared to the Student Senate activities budget and general budget,” Funcheon said. “I realized that this was a really serious issue that we are grappling with.”
Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs Senator Daniel Williams said he would be interested in sponsoring a new version of that resolution and discussed several points on the original that should be addressed.
During that discussion, Student Senate President Landen Lama said he thought the original resolution suggested that GSS is removing Student Senate from the shared governance system at OU.
“We’re perfectly fine with you going forward and not wanting to collaborate about how we can move forward to speak on the behalf of graduate students,” Lama said. “But that wordage does seem like you’re throwing us away.”
Mary Chumbow, GSS representative for the international studies department, said to Lama that the discussion arose from graduate students not feeling like they’re being represented.
“If we’re discussing about that, I feel like you should respect that, and you should ask yourself why we’re having this discussion,” Chumbow said.
At the beginning of the meeting, Chief Marketing Officer Renea Morris from University Communications and Marketing gave a presentation to the body. Modayil said the presentation would be about the university’s rebranding efforts, according to a previous Post report.
Reporters were asked to leave the meeting in order for UCM to form a “focus group” for graduate students.
