As the Graduate Student Organization’s next president, Mirjavad Hashemi is looking to accomplish projects within and outside of the organization, including promoting mental health services and increasing representation within GSO Senate. 

Hashemi, an electrical engineering doctoral student, was elected in April to replace Jack Wilson as GSO’s leader. Wilson served as president for two terms, the most a student can under the organization’s constitution.

“We expect that GSO will be an active arm of grad students for making changes and solving problems for grad students,” Hashemi said. “We are trying to make full use of our senate.”

Hashemi served in GSO Senate for two years before becoming president. During the 2018-19 academic year, he worked in the Employment Issues committee and contributed to research on graduate employee wages. 

Mental health is a priority for Hashemi as GSO president, he said. Many students are not aware of the tools available to them, so Hashemi is collaborating with health and wellness offices at Syracuse University to advertise those services more. 

Also important to Hashemi is the relationship between graduate students and their research advisers, he said. Research advisers direct students who are writing and defending their dissertations and working toward graduation. The relationship between the two parties has been strained in the past, Hashemi said. 

“A lot of situations (graduate) students face that lead to mental health breakdowns or breakdowns come from miscommunication with advisers, being put in a tough situation and not knowing your rights as a student,” Hashemi said.

Hashemi wants to ensure students and advisers know their rights and responsibilities in their relationship with each other, he said. 

Within GSO, Hashemi is looking to increase the overall representation of graduate students in the organization’s Senate. GSO can have up to 200 senators, and it has only 30 currently.

“We still have 170 people who could come talk and represent their department and work with the different issues we can solve,” Hashemi said.

Hashemi said the purpose of GSO is to gather input from students that the organization can then use to create reforms at the university. He plans to reach out to graduate program departments and let them know if they are not represented in the Senate.

“You feel a lot of pressure because you are representing a large group of students,” Hashemi said. “You feel you have to convey their messages to the (university) administration.  But also, it’s a lot of learning. You learn to interact with people, to negotiate and to lead.”

Published on August 28, 2019 at 10:15 pm

Contact Richard: rjchang@syr.edu | @RichardJChang1