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The Graduate Senate Organization spoke about its representation on a community review board that will oversee Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety at its senate meeting Wednesday.

In a 97-page report about DPS, former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch proposed that the department establish a community review board to review and comment on standard operating procedures and review all community-facing functions of the department.

The report, which is the product of a year-long investigation into how the department interacts with members of the SU community and how officers interacted with students during protests on campus this past year, outlines 23 recommendations for improving the department.

GSO will appoint one student representative to the board, and the Student Bar Association will appoint a second graduate student.

GSO President Mir Hashemi will serve as chair of the temporary selection committee, which will review applications for the representative position.

“This community review board has specifically selected the GSO to fill this position,” Hashemi said. “It is my preference to have the board with me and have a shared decision-making process in which I can hear from other senators and collaborate in making this decision.”

Typically, the selection committee would be composed of the GSO president and the executive board, though the organization has decided to take a different approach to filling this position.

Other business

Comptroller Yousr Dhouadi said that GSO has partnered with an organization that supports graduate students studying public health.

GSO will help fund the organization, which is open to graduate students enrolled in SU’s master’s of public health program and provides health resources for students on campus.

There are currently 25 graduate students selected for memberships, said Mackenzie Ess, GSO’s internal vice president.

“(The organization) wanted to have speakers this semester and present those speakers with gifts of gratitude for taking the time to speak with them,” Dhouadi said. “They also wanted to buy promotional items for graduate students as well as provide professional headshots.”

GSO will also help fund the George Fisk Comfort Society, the graduate student cohort in the Art and Music Histories department at SU, which produces a catalogue about art and culture.

GSO approved funding for the distribution of the catalogue, Ess said.

Kelli Fisher, a representative from the society, said the funds will help print and ship its second catalogue, which will be produced later in the semester and also feature an digital version.

Published on March 31, 2021 at 11:28 pm

Contact Dominick: dpfister@syr.edu