UPDATED: April 11, 2019 at 12:25 p.m.

Syracuse University’s Graduate Student Organization discussed how to properly represent graduate students who take online classes and are not on SU’s Main Campus during its Wednesday night meeting. Currently, no online student can be a GSO Senator, according to the GSO’s constitution.

Senators said they want to amend the constitution to include a resolution allowing online graduate student to participate in the Senate through online video chat and for online students to elect senators.

If online students are allowed representation in the Senate, they will be required to pay an additional student fee ranging from $15 to $50 per student, GSO President Jack Wilson said.

Senators said they wanted to survey the online graduate students to give them a say in the debate. Wilson said he cannot contact online graduate students to offer them a chance to decide if they want representation in the Senate. Senators asked why Wilson was unable to reach out to online students, but he did not clarify.

Several senators were concerned about a body of on-campus senators deciding a student fee for graduate students who do not yet have representation. The discussion on the constitutional amendment was moved to the GSO meeting on April 28, when it could be finalized and voted on.

Wilson said online students make up one-third of all graduate students at SU, and that number is quickly increasing. He expects SU’s online students population to eventually be larger than the on-campus population.

Many online graduate students interested in online representation are from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Wilson said. He added that, in a previous meeting with online Newhouse graduate students, the main issue they hoped to change is the lack of externship locations outside of New York.

Chancellor Kent Syverud spoke at the Senate meeting to hear the concerns of graduate students. Syverud said the new facilities SU plans to open, like the Barnes Center at The Arch, will benefit graduate students.

Multiple senators said that, with the current health insurance for graduate students, prescription medication and mental health are not covered by a co-pay. One senator said this discourages students from seeing professionals for mental health care.

Senator Anthony Walker of the Employment Issues Committee asked Syverud for an explanation on the separation of teaching assistants into two different groups in certain schools at SU. Graduate School Dean Peter Vanable said those colleges, namely the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Information Studies, have teaching assistants that help with the function of classes, but are not given a teaching role.

Walker also asked Syverud about the wage and benefits that graduate employees receive as compensation.  Syverud said he will work this year with a group of graduate students to come up with a plan for wage and benefits of employees. The chancellor added that he doesn’t want to create anything too quickly and make a poor decision.

Senator Obi Afriyie told Syverud that newly-enrolled international graduate students are not placed in an orientation event in which they are informed on student living topics such as local amenities and finding housing.

Syverud said there is no unified structure for all graduate students to inform them e student living. The orientations for graduate students are handled by the department they study in if they are not a graduate employee. But graduate employees do attend an orientation event after they arrive on campus, Afriye said.

Vanable said SU is working on providing virtual sessions on student needs such as class enrollment and health services to make sure graduate students are informed.

Other business

• The Employment Issues Committee is seeking feedback from other GSO committees on a proposed survey draft about SU’s ombuds office. The survey will be sent to all graduate students to gather opinions on student life, including graduate employee wages and health care.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the student fee online students would have to pay was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on April 11, 2019 at 12:05 am

Contact Richard: rjchang@syr.edu | @RichardJChang1