Landing Page
Special Projects
This story is part of a series of specially designed stories that represents some of the best journalism The Post has to offer. Check out the rest of the special projects here.
MEAGAN HALL
MEAGAN HALL
08.24.17
After a big academic year, Ohio University’s Graduate Student Senate plans to make the 2017-18 academic year even bigger.
The 2017-18 GSS elections brought in 232 votes, the largest voter turnout since the 2014-15 elections. GSS brought 67 resolutions to the floor during the 2016-17 academic year, more than double the number in recent years. Additionally, the body is beginning the semester with a nearly full roster, something that hasn’t happened in recent years.
Laila Riaz | FILE
Left to right, graduate student senate executives Becky Salami, Alec Koondel, Christopher Glick and Maria Modayil pose for a picture after their win for the 2017-2018 school year.
“We are starting off with a nearly complete set of Senators and we will be opening up applications for Commissioners and Representatives at the beginning of fall semester,” GSS Vice Presidents Christopher Glick, Becky Salami and Alec Koondel said in an email. “As indicated by the election turnout, interest in GSS is growing and we look forward to working with as many graduate students as possible this coming academic year.”
Since the summer began, the group has been brainstorming and “laying the groundwork” for the coming academic year. The vice presidents said the first thing the new body has to take on is helping out during summer orientations, something they felt went successfully this summer.
“We don't want to throw away our shot in making GSS more beneficial to graduate students at Ohio University,” the vice presidents said in an email.
GSS members think Fall Semester will be big and busy. With changes in the campus and political environments, the body is hoping to get their ideas heard more than they did in the past.
“Last year's body established relationships with other entities at the university, and we intend to uphold these relationships while building relationships with incoming university administration,” the vice presidents said in an email. “We have a unique opportunity to develop these new relationships, something no other body has had in the last decade.”
Making a bigger impact on campus was something GSS President Maria Modayil and the other members of the GLocals ticket planned to do while they were campaigning for their elected positions.
“I don’t want to say we’re the saviors of the world, but there are people from different cultures, and there are people from different backgrounds,” Modayil said in a previous Post report. “How we can (make an) impact in a larger or bigger sense?”
Some of the body’s main goals for the coming academic year include getting more graduate students involved and engaged, facilitating a relationship between various groups on campus and graduate students, and developing graduate students professional.
“We are going to talk less and smile more,” the vice presidents said in an email. “We will do whatever it takes to get our plan on Nellis' door.”
BackLanding Page
This story is part of a series of specially designed stories that represents some of the best journalism The Post has to offer. Check out the rest of the special projects here.