Senators for the Graduate Student Organization held elections at its last meeting of the semester on Wednesday and discussed what it might do with a $100,000 surplus.

GSO currently has about $100,000 leftover to designate to various projects. With a large volume of proposals to comb through, time for discussion was limited to one minute per topic.

Proposals were submitted to fund internship programs for doctoral students to gain experience in academic positions, as well as a team-teaching internship for Future Professoriate Program participants.

The GSO also heard proposals to increase the number and size of travel grants for graduate students — all of which were recommended by the Senate’s executive board and will be officially voted upon at a later date.

Other proposals were rejected outright by the Senate, such as a proposal to fund the publishing of a graduate school press book on academia and a proposal to fund the opening of department-wide career services for graduate students, which the Senate saw as  exceeding its budgetary capabilities.

The executive board reminded GSO that certain funding projects were already underway, such as a motion to fund on-campus childcare services so that single-parent students could more flexibly attend classes and a motion to update GSO websites, forms and grant policies.

Led by President Can Aslan and Vice President of Internal Affairs Samuel Leitermann, GSO also discussed the status of health insurance for graduate student workers.

Aslan also showed the senators a letter from Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, senior vice president and dean of Student Affairs at SU, that said graduate students are allowed to stay on the university-sponsored employee health insurance plan until GSO and the university administration come to an agreement about transitioning to the student health insurance plan.

Some senators, feeling that the letter was not specific enough about the parameters of the agreement, voted to invite relevant administrators to a meeting in the spring semester to further discuss the issue.

Aslan also updated the Senate on the current statuses of the university travel team’s desire to alter the on-campus transit system to more effectively save funding. Aslan also discussed the upcoming policy recommendations regarding SU’s free speech ordinances, which will be announced in the spring.

After the discussions, the meeting shifted gears to hold elections for University Senate. The University Senate, a body that advises the chancellor, has 12 seats — two of which have been vacated.

Alexis Drickel, a Master’s of Business Administration candidate in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, and Ryan Falkenstein-Smith, a third-year graduate student studying mechanical and aerospace engineering, were elected to the two positions.

Published on December 9, 2015 at 10:08 pm

Contact Bridget: blmcalli@syr.edu