Advocacy chair Jeffrey Fuller collects ballots from Lin Li, the representative from the Chinese Students and Scholar Association, and Bill Franko, political science graduate student. Erin Hancock was re-elected as the executive chair, who represents the g

Credit: Carl Schierhorn

The Graduate Student Senate Executive Board for the 2006-2007 school year was elected yesterday at the GSS general meeting in the Student Center.

Biomedical sciences student Erin Hancock, running unopposed, was re-elected as the executive chair. Current Colloquium Chair Edward Moreira was elected by one vote to a new position: vice executive chair. Likewise, current finance chair Deborah Hoffman was elected to information services chair.

The new members of the GSS Executive Board are higher education and student personnel graduate student Mike Stumpf, finance chair; communication studies graduate student Amber Ferris, Colloquium chair; and English graduate student Kathryn Byrne, advocacy chair.

Hancock said she is excited about the upcoming year and is looking forward to accomplishing goals that she started this year.

“I really want to encourage the humanities,” Hancock said.

“Even though I’m a science girl, I really want to keep the diversity,” Hancock said. “The arts (students) feel threatened, and I don’t want them to turn to another grad school. They need to feel welcomed here.”

The executive chair, Hancock said, represents all graduate students to Kent State as well as the community, oversees committees, such as the Presidential Search Committee, and acts on behalf of GSS in relevant issues.

The vice executive chair serves on various committees, including the GSS awards committee, and fills the executive position in the case that it is vacant. The advocacy chair is involved in the political issues of the GSS and serves on the Research Grant Committee, while the Colloquium chair organizes the Colloquium and acts as the GSS’s public relations personnel. The finance chair prepares the budget and reimbursements, and the information services chair updates the Web site and takes minutes of meetings.

Before nominations began, the Executive Board described their experience as a lot of fun but a lot of work. Moreira, while explaining the responsibilities of his position, said a lot of duties are unwritten.

“Expect the unexpected,” Moreira said. “It’s fun; it’s not a bad thing. Expect to do things that you weren’t planning on.”

The only two members of the current Executive Board who did not run for another term are the students graduating this May: history graduate student and advocacy chair Jeffrey Fuller and information services chair Ben Dunkel, graduate student in translation.

Contact graduate studies reporter Michele Roehrig at [email protected].