A series of reports were introduced and several officers were elected at the first Graduate Student Organization Senate meeting for the semester on Wednesday evening.

During the meeting, GSO President Rajesh Kumar, Vice President of External Affairs Peta Long and Vice President of Internal Affairs Can Aslan introduced respective reports.

In addition, a financial secretary, a recording secretary, five university senators and four at-large senators were elected.

Aslan said the turnout to the GSO Senate meeting was more than usual this time, and that he hoped the turnout for the upcoming meetings would be that way too. Kumar, a Ph.D candidate in the computer and information science and engineering program, also commented on the turnout to the senate meeting.

“We worked so hard for the last two months and now so many people showed up,” Kumar said.

Kumar opened the meeting with his report. He said the GSO has been working to improve career services offered to the graduate students and requested that they be established for each department. The organization has contacted the chancellor on the matter, he said.

Kumar added that the GSO has worked on some off campus safety issues as well.

“This has been an issue since the last two years,” Kumar said.

He added that the GSO has recommended establishing security cameras at off-campus places like Euclid Avenue.

Kumar also mentioned they are working on amendments to the GSO constitution, and the GSO would inform the student body about these changes soon.

Long, a graduate student in the public communications program and the vice president of external affairs for the GSO, presented the GSO outreach report. She summarized events that the GSO hosted over the summer, welcome back events and upcoming events.

Long then led the vote on the new logo of The Inn Complete, a Syracuse University-affiliated bar on South Campus where students can get discounts by presenting their SUID. The results of the vote were not released.

Aslan then gave his own report to the committee. He went on to explain the rules of the senate meetings, the responsibilities of GSO senators and how voting at senate meetings worked. He also went over which committees graduate students could join.

Aslan then led the election of the financial secretary, the recording secretary, five university senators and four at-large senators. Gaven Ehrlich was elected to be the financial secretary. Sakshi Sinha was elected to be the recording secretary. Derrick Taylor, Garrett Bryant, Pooja Shah, James Bort and Kevin Hundelt were elected as university senators. For at-senators, Walter Donner, Dillon Banis, Aakriti Sharma and Veronica Hu were also elected.

Published on September 7, 2016 at 10:23 pm

Contact Deniz: dsahintu@syr.edu