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The Graduate Student Organization Senate confirmed a new space dedicated for graduate-student use in Lyman Hall during their senate meeting Wednesday.

In her report, President Yousr Dhaouadi said room 303 in Lyman Hall, which will include three office rooms, a meeting room and a lounge area for weekly coffee hours, will help create an interconnected graduate community.

The space will be open to all graduate students, including those from SUNY-ESF, Dhaouadi said.

The GSO Senate also elected four new university senators and three at-large senators during the meeting.

The new university senators are Michael Ammoury, a third-year civil engineering Ph.D. student; Yash Shimpi, a first-year graduate student in the School of Information Studies; Hrishikesh Telang, another first-year graduate student in the iSchool; and Kellin Tasber, a first-year graduate student studying biotechnology.

While five at-large senate seats were available, only three were nominated and voted in via a confidence vote. The three new at-large senators are Sam Azghandi, a third-year film graduate student; CJ Arnell, a second-year Ph.D. student in biology; and Sira Fan, a first-year graduate student studying management. Arnell and Fan were also nominated to be university senators. 

Neal Powless, university ombuds, was a special guest at the meeting and talked to attendees about his role as an “ear to the people.” As ombuds, Powless works with conflict resolution and management and emphasized his confidentiality, independence, informality and neutrality.

“Even within a facilitated discussion, I’m not going to share your information. But I want to ask open-ended questions that will help you give an opportunity to share context to that individual so (that person) can know where your issues and concerns are,” Powless said in explanation of his role.

The GSO Senate also invited Christopher Burke, director of student legal services, to introduce himself as an independent and free legal counsel.

The senate approved special programs funding, which use additional money set aside to supplement existing funds, to the biology graduate student organization for their annual symposium.

The symposium, which has been running for 12 consecutive years, required $2,930 in special funding to host a researcher and hold speaking events, Comptroller Joy Burton said in her report.

The GSO Senate approved startup funding requests from the human development and family science graduate student organization, which has a total of 50 graduate students this year. They also approved the Supporting Women in Geography group, which works to foster an inclusive space for women in the field to network and research.

The senate has about $250,000 in rollover funds held by the university, but they will need to exhaust their allotted budget of about $338,000 in order to use them, Burton said.

The senate also approved a resolution to create an interim president pro tempore, who would fill in for the internal vice president as chair of the senate should they need to recuse themselves. The internal vice president, Daniel Kimmel, will nominate a member of the senate to fill the role and announce the appointment at the next meeting on Nov. 10.

Vito Iaia, a physics graduate student, said the Graduate Pandemic Committee is working to update their website with new vaccine and testing information and communicate with the Syracuse University administration.
The committee will also host a talk with Nini Munoz, a Ph.D. recipient from Cornell University and a creator of COVID-19 infographics, on Nov. 5.

Published on October 14, 2021 at 1:24 am

Contact Richard: rcperrin@syr.edu | @richardperrins2