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Syracuse University’s Graduate Student Organization discussed potential payment options for graduate student university senators and approved funding allocations during its Wednesday meeting. GSO also filled one vacant University Senate position.

GSO President Daniel Kimmel opened the meeting by explaining different avenues the organization can take to pay their university senators, such as earning back 90% of their graduate student fees, providing benefits packages and offering direct deposits to their bursar accounts.

USen serves as the academic governing body at SU and includes senators representing administrators and faculty members as well as graduate and undergraduate students, according to USen’s website.

In order to earn back their graduate student fees, Kimmel said senators would be compensated as long as they fulfilled their senatorial duties.

Benefit packages would provide monetary credits to senators in “good standing,” Kimmel said. These credits would be usable at campus eateries and function similarly to Dining Dollars.

Afterward, senators proposed repayment through the Syracuse University Bursar system, which would allow GSO senators to have their compensation deposited directly into their accounts.

“My biggest hope, whatever form it comes in, is that we balance incentivizing the position and showing genuine appreciation with the true sense of duty that comes with these positions,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel said meetings have begun with other on-campus student governments including the SUNY ESF’s Graduate Student Assembly and Mighty Oak Student Assembly to create a “student government coalition.” He also said the coalition will allow the three governing organizations to share advocacy resources, coordinate initiatives and better advocate for students as a united student body.

The organization then approved over $1,000 in funding for the School of Education Graduate Council. ParKer Bryant, a fourth-year PhD student in the School of Education, spoke on behalf of the council and said this funding was a “necessity” for the school’s approximately 400 full-time graduate students. Bryant told the assembly his peers would use the funds to help build systems for “sustainable, data-driven programming” within SOE.

Last year, the council received $5,000 from GSO, but this year, it was allocated $2,000 for its academic budget, Bryant said.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to work with the Council of Education students so that we can make sure they have a sustainable financial structure for the future,” Kimmel said.

GSO also approved a $1,500 request for the Biology Graduate Student Organization’s annual speaker seminar. Amisha Agarwala, the BGSO’s president, said the requested amount is lower than years prior and that the funds will cover meal costs for graduate students who meet with the guest speaker. The organization has not yet announced this year’s speaker.

After the funding approvals, the organization filled one of its five vacant USen seats, electing Byers Byers, a master’s student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, to the position.

GSO didn’t fill any of its at-large senator vacancies in the meeting. At-large senators represent graduate students from all programs at SU regardless of their area of study, according to GSO’s website.

Published on December 5, 2024 at 2:58 am

Contact Henry: hdaley@syr.edu