About a week before the deadline for Student Government election nominations, it was announced that graduate school Student Government representation would be cut to reflect the amount of student interest shown. Those Senate seats taken from graduate schools were then allocated to other colleges with more active participation.
“There wasn’t much involvement seen in the graduate school students, so there really isn’t a problem,” said Venkateshhwarran Ashok, a graduate student in industrial engineering and member of the graduate school’s Student Senate.
One of the primary goals of Student Government is to proportionately represent the populations of each individual college to adequately manifest a majority opinion. Furthermore, Student Government works to promote the specific needs of each of the 13 sects involved.
Ashok said that during nominations, only two graduate students stood out in terms of commitment and desire to serve the student body.
Stephanie Lam, a graduate student studying chemical engineering and Senate member for the graduate school, agreed with Ashok.
“I joined only after the reduction in seats; that was when UGSA found out that there were not enough grad students to fill the seats in Senate,” she said.
“The decision to reduce [graduate student] seats was made after seeing really no involvement from other students.” Ashok, who was nominated and elected alongside Lam, said.
“I’ve seen two Senate presidents, Ms. Kelly Rodgers and Mr. Stephen Kouba, taking pains to fill the vacant seats. This was done to provide more opportunities to students from other colleges who are really interested in serving the student community,” Nithyanantha Poosamani, a graduate student in computer engineering, said.
Ashok said there is a definite distinction between the concerns of the graduate and undergraduate senates.
“The problems we encounter come from two different spectrums; graduate students and undergraduate students are concerned with different issues,” Ashok said.
Possamani said graduate schools’ concerns are unique and separate from undergraduate colleges. These issues facing graduate students will spike interest in Student Government through a common consensus of improvement in certain University policies, Possamani said.
“The tuition fee hike issue and the student health insurance bills have made [graduate students] stop and take a look at Student Government. I am confident the present void in graduate school representation in Student Government can be removed incrementally,” Possamani said.
Poosamani recommended a student community be developed on Centennial Campus to increase motivation for graduate students to interact with and fully utilize their campus. He also said there should be stronger unification of Centennial and main campus.
“We need to work towards making the graduate student community feel that they are not alone or secluded on Centennial Campus, make them feel they are right in middle of a bustling student community where their opinions, comments, and feedbacks are highly valued,” Poosamani said.
The graduate school members of Student Government, although small in number, are not absent from their duties, Poosamani said.
“Student Government sets up information desks at Centennial Campus every week and tries to make the graduate community know what is going on in Student Government. College Cup is a very good initiative in this respect,” he said.
The graduate school is not void of passion and hope for progression in their influence on the University.
“Due to our efforts, people in graduate school are getting to understand what Student Government actually does. I think the future is looking good,” Poosamani said.
