The Syracuse University Graduate Student Organization’s new executive board this year has plans to maintain graduate student health care, aid international students and ensure the future of graduate career services.

Jack Wilson, Sweta Roy and Joshua Fenton were elected to the GSO’s executive board in April and Rikki Sargent was appointed during the summer. Wilson and Fenton ran unopposed.

Wilson — who hopes to finish his Ph.D. in experimental psychology this spring — ran on the promise of improving housing for international students. He said international students have more difficulty finding off-campus housing because of the time and monetary commitments it takes to travel internationally and tour houses.

International students also need visas, which usually don’t go effective until just weeks before the students are supposed to start classes, Wilson noted.

His solution would involve the university having international graduate students stay in on-campus housing in the months before they start classes so they have ample time to find apartments.

Wilson explained there is no university rule that doesn’t allow international graduate students to stay on campus during the summer, but there is no official system that allows them to do so.

He said he hopes to have a pilot program ready by the end of this school year so the university can advertise it and students can use it by the summer.

Sargent, GSO’s vice president of internal affairs, will run GSO senate meetings, keep track of registered student organizations and ensure the organization’s communities are working properly.

Sargent was appointed to the GSO executive board after internal vice president Shivali Naik vacated her position to pursue an internship in California last summer, Wilson said. A vote to confirm Sargent’s appointment will happen at GSO’s first regular business meeting on Sept. 13.

She said she would attend all GSO meetings and voted on resolutions as a senator. It was when Sargent began to attend GSO meetings outside of senate meetings that she wanted to get more involved.

“That’s what intrigues me the most about GSO,” Sargent said. “Not so much the specific issues that we deal with, but the fact that we allow each academic program to have a voice in their education and in their lives here at Syracuse.”

Sargent noted her greatest challenge as internal vice president is to get people involved with the organization. But she already had a number of people signed up to serve on committees and to be academic program senators.

“If it stays this way, I shouldn’t have to worry about that. I’ve been very impressed with the incoming graduate students reaching out and wanting to get involved before they’re on campus,” Sargent said.

Sargent isn’t the only person in charge of recruitment and graduate student involvement at GSO. Sweta Roy, the vice president of external affairs, plans events and represents the organization.

Roy joined GSO by accident. Her career in GSO started when she became involved with the outreach committee under last year’s external vice president, Peta Long. While she thought the outreach committee would be in charge of recruiting science, technology, mathematics and engineering students, the position actually required organizing social events for graduate students.

Roy was never an academic program senator, unlike her colleagues. She ran for and won the external vice president position when she thought she should “try it out.”

“My job is getting everyone the information, making sure they get the right information and join us,” Roy said.

Though she’s only had the job for a few months, Roy has already planned two large events. She recently finished planning the GSO picnic, her largest event to date.

GSO isn’t only concerned with international students and recruitment. The organization has been working for years to keep graduate student employees on the employee health care plan, Wilson said.

SU’s employee health care plan is less expensive than the student plan and includes benefits such as dental and vision services, Wilson said. The battle to keep employee health care for graduate employees inspired Wilson to join GSO around late 2014, the same time THE General Body began protesting at the university.

“It was actually around that point that I realized I actually had a say in what’s going on,” he said.

The health care issue affects a large portion of the graduate program because many of the students are teaching assistants or have some form of employment with the university, Wilson said.

He said it would be his greatest challenge as GSO president this year.

“We aren’t entirely sold on the issue, so this is going to be very intense negotiations between ourselves and the administration,” Wilson said.

In the meantime, graduate students are essentially in “limbo” in terms of long-term healthcare, said GSO Comptroller Joshua Fenton.

As comptroller, Fenton meets with the university task force, attends meetings and advocates on behalf of grad students. He also handles the organization’s finances and drafts the budget.

Fenton is pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics after finishing his master’s degree at the University of Kansas. He joined GSO after an academic program senator in the mathematics department had to leave because of a conflict.

“The summer has been kind of quiet for comptroller business, but that’s going to ramp up,” he said.

Other GSO initiatives include expanding career services for graduate students. There is only one graduate career advisor for about 5,000 students, Roy said.

The new Invest Syracuse plan aims to strengthen career advising, according to its website, so GSO wants to ensure the expansion of graduate career services is implemented correctly, Wilson said.

In addition, a new Office of the Ombuds — an office where students can go to arbitrate hostile interactions with faculty or employers — will be established.

Wilson explained there will be a search committee for an ombudsperson.

To make sure the office is set up correctly, the university will need to be transparent in its decisions and allow graduate students and faculty to have a say in the decision-making, he said.

Published on August 28, 2017 at 10:42 pm

Contact Kennedy: krose100@syr.edu | @KennedyRose001