On Friday, March 29, the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) will hold a candidate forum for the selection of president, vice president, and treasurer in Campus Center Room 165, where graduate students will discuss the candidates' experience and plans for the role. gathered for.
GSS is comprised of students from each graduate department who serve as the official representatives of the graduate student body at the University of Massachusetts. GSS is funded by an $80 “Senate Tax” paid by graduate students.This tax comes from child care programs. graduate student group (GSO).
Mr Peter Ngobidi, a Master of Business Administration student, led the discussion and members of the electoral committee kept the time. The candidate was given two minutes to answer each question from the moderator and one minute to answer questions from the audience.
Chemical Engineering PhD student and presidential candidate John Aligbede, who was the first to speak, highlighted his previous experience at GSS as a member of the Executive Committee and Election Committee.
“As a truly effective leader, you must first stop and excel as a follower,” Aligbede said.
Mr. Aligbede was joined by vice presidential candidate Dhruv Vinod Tiwari, a master's student in engineering management.
“We share the same vision and dreams,” Tiwari said, stressing that he had time to learn from the past.
Both Aligbede and Tiwari aim to address the cost-of-living crisis for graduate students and “assure them that they can close their eyes and sleep and that their bills won't kill them.” He also hopes to expand opportunities to international students and create a formal GSS training program that will help maintain institutional knowledge and relationships with administrators.
To be accountable, they want to have an open door policy that involves all students in the process. “The most important thing is to hold yourself accountable and responsible,” Tiwari said. “I'll tell you how it happened and how it's progressing.”
Alina Durrani, a communications doctoral student who has been a senator for three years, emphasized the need to “work within the framework given to the GSS.”
“Any decisions in the GSS should be determined by the constitution,” she said. “Good and evil should be determined by the Constitution.”
According to Durrani, the GSS should exercise all available opportunities, including attending advisory meetings and council meetings with the administration.
Working alongside Durrani is Hanmin Kim, also a communication doctoral student. He used their shared experience in the communications sector as evidence of why they worked together.
The pair want to expand awareness of GSS to correct the “shocking” lack of knowledge about it. Kim, vice president of the Korean Graduate Student Association, wants to “welcome new East Asians to the Senate” to make it a more representative body.
Durrani wants to include graduate organizations that receive funding from faculty in decision-making, and to “get senators to talk to all the faculty that don't have a senator representing them.”
Sravani Gona, a master's student in computer science who is running for president, sees the position as “one of communication and collaboration.”
“I don't see it as a decision-making authority. I see it as an opportunity to collaborate,” Gona added.
Gona, a newcomer to GSS, highlighted his experience building the ISTE club “from the ground up.” The ticket was completed by Noshitha Juttu, who is also a master's student in computer science.
According to Jutu, the two “met as strangers” and have “come a long way.” Juttu said their close personal relationships help unite them, even though they are “two different individuals with two different points of view,” giving them an advantage over those who always agree. Stated.
“She's my biggest critic,” Gona said of Jutu.
The two operate a platform that expands on existing GSS programs while working to create more opportunities for graduate students. Part of this process, they say, is to respond to graduate students' concerns.
“We can only make our voices heard if we know that every voice has a chance to be represented,” Gona said. “They should know that GSS is for them.”
Puja Kadam, an engineering management master's student, cited six years of industry experience as a way to overcome the obstacles she would face as a company president. “When you work with people within a company, you run into people who don't cooperate,” Kadam said.
Kadam wants to focus on completing the long-conceived project. “We not only have a vision driven by ideas, but we have concrete solutions to it,” she said.
Melissa Fernandez, a master's student in food science, is Kadam's roommate and vice presidential candidate. They met as roommates, and as international students, they got to know each other through “a situation where we were all alone, one from our families, and one from home.”
They both want to make it easier for new graduates to navigate student life so they can expand their horizons and start enjoying their time at UMass. Although neither has her GSS experience, they believe their strategies will greatly benefit the student body.
“Having everyone on board, whether they're new or in their second or third semester, helps students get acclimated,” Kadam said.
They hope GSS will be a conduit for connections between graduate students who don't necessarily have the same interests. It can be something as simple as “enjoying coffee or tea time together.''
The candidates were friendly throughout the forum and shared several laughs, especially during a quiz that asked vice presidential candidates to name the committees they serve on.
“I'm sure whoever wins will ultimately do the same thing,” Gona said.
Mr Ngobidi thanked the candidates for their “time and clear answers” and the Treasurer candidates lined up outside the venue.
Ujjwal Gupta, an engineering management master's student running for treasurer, described his experience leading the launch of a Google crowdsourced community in India for financial leadership. According to Mr. Gupta, he has “built a very large community in a small town,” and this experience has taught him what can be done with resources and how they diminish if they are not used properly. I was able to find out what to do.
Mr. Gupta intends to refocus the budget on GSS. “Proper planning needs to be done to analyze the impact of the funding…As treasurers, we have to ensure that whatever funding we allocate to the GSO, it delivers value,” said Gupta. said. “You can set clear parameters.” For Gupta, those parameters should be the number of participants and the size of the event.
Siri Parameshwar, a master's student in engineering management, said personal budget management is a top priority for her as an international student. Alongside his experience as an education coordinator for India's National Service Scheme, Parameshwar learned how to prioritize GSS funding projects.
“I don't think it's possible to work on every project, so it's very important to prioritize the right projects and work on the right projects,” Parameshwar said. “I think you should be very transparent and very clear about the funding and the budget that exists and not give assurances or tell the president that (the project) is possible without clear information about it. I don’t think you should.”
Pervaiz from Denmark, a master's student in engineering management, wants to be properly funded and liaised with the GSO to properly address the needs of students. Parvaiz also believes that “not enough graduate students are getting jobs” and would like to allocate more funding to her career events.
Parviz emphasized his communication skills, drawing on his experience as a fundraising volunteer and CFO of a startup project.
“We need to communicate properly with our senators and allow them to work with their departments…get all departments to ask questions and ask questions about what we are doing in the Graduate Student Senate. “We have to let them know,” he said. “Getting feedback really helps you collaborate with different people.”
Ian Tincknell, a master's business administration student who plans to go on to study a master's degree in computer science next year, said his seven years as an administrative social worker at Mathheath had given him the opportunity to work with “important people who, if not at the top, can mess things up.” “I'm in a terrible position,” he said. of things. ” He also serves as treasurer of the Graduate Business Association and has experience with “the fundraising process and the hoops you have to jump through” in fundraising.
Both Parameshwar and Parvaiz support increasing the GSS tax to allocate more funds to projects. While Mr. Gupta brought it up as an option to increase GSS's reserves, Mr. Tincknell focused primarily on making efficient use of the funds that GSS currently has.
Ahmed Karnain, a mechanical engineering doctoral student who is running for treasurer, did not attend the debate.
Detailed information about all candidates is available on the GSS website. Voting will take place from April 3rd to 5th.
Daniel Frank can be contacted at: [email protected]
