Graduate Student Senate, or GSS, members heard from executive member candidates Tuesday night as part of their campaigns for the next election.
Kaelyn Ferris, current GSS president, is running for reelection. Remington Burwell, current commissioner for LGBT affairs, is running for vice president. There are three individuals running for treasurer: Nicholas Whitticar, department representative for translational biomedical sciences, Charlotte Yang, current senator for the Graduate College, and Joseph Elikem Kofi Ziorklui.
“My goal is to make an impact in the entire graduate students' life by working with my team to formulate policy that will enhance the quality of life and education of the graduates and professional students,” Ziorklui said.
Whitticar’s goals are to support research and creative activity for graduate students. He also wants to help new members get involved and feel more comfortable in GSS.
There is a joint ticket consisting of Ferris, Burwell and Yang, who are running as the Coalition for Student Advancement. Their goals are to focus on graduate students’ stipends and give back to their constituents.
GSS also passed a resolution to establish awards at the Student Expo, which has been co-sponsored by the Ohio University Research Division and University Libraries since 2001. There is a high level of participation from graduate and professional students at the Expo, Whitticar said.
“It’s our duty to support these students, especially in their research, so I’m proposing that GSS will fund student Expo Awards in the total amount of $675,” Whitticar said, “One of which will be in the form of three gift cards to local restaurants. The idea behind this is to support local food businesses a little bit, too, while we’re doing this, (also) for social media posts, and then the remaining money will be for the video submissions.”
The awards will be broken down into five categories: life and biomedical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, arts and humanities, physical sciences and engineering and the social media lottery, Whitticar said.
GSS will also help judge the event. The virtual Student Expo will take place April 8, when the social media winners will be chosen, and video submission awards will be announced.
A resolution to endorse the OU Sustainability and Climate Action Plan was approved.
“It’s basically a roadmap that outlines specific activities that the university will undertake to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase sustainability efforts across campus,” Courtney Silver-Peavey, department representative for biological sciences, said.
The Office of Sustainability requests that GSS makes comments before it is submitted as a final draft to the Board of Trustees. The final draft will be presented to the OU Sustainability Committee on March 31, and then it will be taken to the Board of Trustees on April 8 and 9.
In another business, one new member was appointed. Travis Serson will be a senator for the College of Business.
