For the first time in two years, graduate students will be given more than one choice as to who will represent them.
With the Graduate Student Senate campaign season kicking off Thursday, three presidential candidates have emerged — two of whom are running with parties.
Team Renew is a partially full ticket with a full executive board and six senators, while the other ticket, VISION, is an executive-only ticket.
Joel Newby, current GSS graduate life commissioner, is heading Team Renew’s campaign as its presidential candidate. Robert Storm, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences and a newcomer to student government, is running for vice president for Committees and Legislative Affairs.
Rounding up the ticket’s executive candidates are Ed Gaither, current vice president for Administration and Finance, and Jessica Furgerson, current senator for the Scripps College of Communication, who are running for vice president for Administration and Finance and vice president of Communication, respectively.
VISION’s candidates are all first-year master’s students in the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs who believe their leadership-focused education and real-world experience will enable them to serve the graduate students at Ohio University.
W. Alex Wesaw, who has served as commissioner of minority affairs since March, is the VISION party’s presidential hopeful. Liz Volpe, running for vice president for Committees and Legislative Affairs, Jennifer Smolowitz, running for vice president for Administration and Finance, and Andrea Harless, running for vice president of Communication, wrap up the party’s ticket.
An independent candidate, Mohamad Al-Issa, said he hopes his previous experience as president of the International Student Union will help him lead GSS in the right direction.
“I don’t want to come in with my own agenda and force it on the graduate students,” he said. “I want to get information from them to hear how GSS can make their learning experience here on campus a fruitful and joyful one.”
Running on an eight-point platform, which focuses on increasing representation and building a stronger graduate community, Team Renew hopes its relationships with administrators will strengthen the body.
“We want to work together as a team, (but) that team also represents how we want to work with the undergraduates … and the administration,” Newby said.
VISION is focusing on increasing the visibility of GSS by expanding its public relations activities, proposing weekly meetings and an electronic newsletter.
“We collectively believe in the same issues, but I … want to hone in on the approachability of Graduate Student Senate,” Wesaw said.
Elections will be held April 18. Graduate students will be able to vote through the OU website.
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