For the first time in three years, there are multiple candidates running for Graduate Student Senate president.
All three candidates have strong ideas and would certainly lead GSS in the right direction, but one stands out as the right choice.
The Post endorses independent candidate Mohamad Al-Issa for Graduate Student Senate president.
Al-Issa plans to branch out with GSS, hoping to make the group appeal to more graduate students, especially those from other countries.
His work as president of OU’s International Student Union to advocate for international students recently drew the attention of OU’s Board of Trustees; he plans to use this attitude to improve GSS.
International students make up a large portion of Ohio University’s graduate students, but GSS doesn’t relate to them as well.
Joel Newby, who is running on the Renew ticket, has focused on his experience with Student Senate and his desire to give back to the university and GSS as a selling point.
The candidate on the VISION ticket, W. Alex Wesaw, also has good ideas about expanding the senate’s visibility, but we don’t feel that more meetings and a newsletter would help GSS succeed.
Either candidate would surely do well in office, but we feel that Al-Issa has the best idea of what GSS needs to do now. There are about 4,200 graduate students on campus, but only about 10 showed up to Monday’s debate. It’s a shame that GSS is being so ignored, but we think Al-Issa is the best shot at solving that.
Endorsements represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
