Graduate Student Senate will hear from Ohio University President Duane Nellis during the general body meeting Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.
GSS President Maria Modayil said they waited a few weeks to invite Nellis until the senate was sure the general body was acclimated to the style of GSS. GSS will also appoint new members and discuss the senate budget.
“It is an opportunity for grad students to interact with administrators or people they have interest in hearing from,” Modayil said.
At the last GSS meeting two executive members stepped down from their positions. They were the vice president for finance and the vice president for legislative affairs.
This week, the general body will have the opportunity to vote on a candidate for the vice president for finance. The body will vote on Michael Senteney, the former commissioner for academic affairs of research, for the position.
In regard to the vice president for legislative affairs position, Modayil said she met with the governance committee and it is an ongoing conversation about what to do with that position,
“It just seems like this is the nebulous position,” Modayil said.
Modayil said tGSS, unlike most governing bodies, have four executive members instead of three. They are talking about redefining the executive positions so that all of the executive members feel like they are doing their fair share.
“They are all juggling between 20 work hours with their department, or a TA position with their department, and then a full course load and on top of that, they are doing this very high level leadership position,” Modayil said.
GSS also will hear a resolution to appoint new members into the body.
“That is something that will keep happening throughout the semester,” Modayil said. “Where we will have new members who are wanting to join or our senators get the word out about GSS in their colleges and they continue to recruit for those positions.”
During the last GSS meeting, the body was informed of financial troubles they are having, according to a previous Post report. They also heard several grievances from GSS members in the College of Fine Arts.
Modayil said they are continuing to have conversations about the grievances brought up at the last meeting. She finds her role to be about facilitating conversations and having those conversations with different departments or colleges, she said.
After hearing Sam Smith’s grievances, Modayil said she aims to advocate for issues affecting graduate students.
“It is also about facilitating those cross campus conversations,” Modayil said.
Cross campus conversations means helping graduate students understand people in different departments and schools are struggling.
“A lot of times if you are in a department and if you are in a college you don’t know, especially for graduate students, you don’t know what it is like for someone else in a different college or different department,” Modayil said.
