Ohio University Graduate Student Senate is considering separating itself from Student Senate to become the sole voice for graduate students.
The body first discussed the possibility of separation from senate at its Dec. 5 meeting. Members discussed the “confusing overlap” between the duties of GSS and senate and how it affects graduate students at OU, according to a previous Post report.
Ellenore Holbrook, senate’s Graduate College senator, said GSS separating itself from senate would change senate's constitution. Currently, the Senate Appropriations Commission, or SAC, which provides funding for student organizations, is run by Student Senate.
“Something that potentially could have happened was SAC would only allocate resources to undergraduate students because we are part of what would then be ‘the undergraduate student senate,’” Holbrook said. “I’m not saying that would have happened, but that’s a possibility the way the constitutions would’ve been rewritten.”
Holbrook said of SAC’s $492,092 budget last year, graduate student organizations received about 40 percent of it.
“When you think of that, you know, grad students don’t make up 40 percent of our campus,” Holbrook said. “But they’re receiving 40 percent of our funding. That says they’re really engaged. … The idea of taking that money away from them, that’s terrifying.”
Christopher Glick, GSS’ former vice president for legislative affairs, said the lack of clear separation within the shared governances is problematic considering the age difference between the bodies.
“I have to worry about where’s my health insurance going to come from. I don’t care about who’s paying for port-a-potties at fest season,” Glick said. “I think that’s a big part of the problem. Graduate Student Senate just has this space it exists in, but it can’t fully do what it needs to do because every step of the way, there’s this other body that says ‘We represent you, too.’”
When the resolution was brought up at GSS' April 3 meeting, body members discussed the differences within each governance’s budget. GSS receives $3,354 annually through the Graduate College, while Student Senate receives about $30,000 per year through the Division of Student Affairs, according to a previous Post report.
GSS President Maria Modayil said when talking to university administrators, they have recognized a need for graduate student representation on university committees.
“I think administration has ... seen the need for a separate, unique voice for graduate students,” Modayil said. “So I think we have a real chance here.”
Daniel Williams, GSS’ senator for the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, said he would be willing to sponsor a new version of that resolution to be introduced at the body’s April 24 meeting.
If passed, the resolution would have to go through OU’s Board of Trustees, Modayil said. It would alter GSS’ constitution to declare it the sole voice for graduate students at OU.
