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Syracuse University’s Graduate Student Organization senators addressed concerns regarding former GSO President Yousr Dhaouadi’s resignation last weekend at the University Senate’s Wednesday night forum.

Dhaouadi, who served two years as GSO president, announced her resignation in an email to GSO on Saturday after at least ten senators filed articles of impeachment against her. The articles cited GSO members’ doubt in her “willingness and ability” to carry out her responsibility to advocate for graduate students.

At the meeting, Dhaouadi pointed to GSO taking a stance as an organization on the Syracuse Graduate Employees United unionization campaign as the source of disagreement between her and the rest of the members.

“There has been kind of internal back and forth conflict around the topic of unionization,” Dhaouadi said. “To take a stance as an organization, this is kind of where the tension is coming from just because there’s a lot of students on campus with many perspectives.”

Benjamin Tetteh, a senator and PhD student in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, advocated at Wednesday’s meeting for more legal support for graduate students and alleged violations of GSO’s constitution. Shiilā Seok Wun Au Yong, a senator and PhD fellow in Cultural Foundations of Education, said they felt excluded from the impeachment process.

Cassidy Thomas, a senator on the executive board and a graduate assistant at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, referred to GSO’s procedural guidelines in her response to Tetteh and Yong, including Robert’s Rule of Orders, saying GSO members followed proper procedure throughout the impeachment process.

“What was going on in the GSO was not a court of law,” Thomas said. “It was concerned about effectively, again, the role of the presidency and the terms or the job responsibilities of the presidency, and how the senate felt about how those job responsibilities were being performed.”

Daniel Kimmel, GSO’s internal vice president, wrote in the meeting’s virtual chat that decisions to settle disputes in meetings were mediated by multiple GSO members.

“An entire parliamentary team of hard-working graduate students worked on understanding and enforcing the process; it was not unilaterally decided,” Kimmel wrote.

Other business

The senate also addressed accessibility to online classes when students are absent due to personal emergencies.

Several graduate students discussed issues with being unable to attend mandatory classes when they have personal emergencies, and proposed a Zoom option as a way for students to virtually participate when unable to physically attend. Faculty at the meeting countered that Zoom alternatives would lead to in-person attendance drops and a lack of hands-on learning opportunities.

Published on February 23, 2023 at 2:05 am