The Grand Valley State University Student Senate met to discuss the next steps in an on-going effort to have a more inclusive student voice, including a resolution that’s purpose is to augment the university’s graduate student voice, a collaborative problem that has been worked on between Student Senate and the Graduate Student Association for seven years now.

Executive Vice President of Student Senate Tendo Lukwago and President of GSA Austin Dean have been working this academic year to try to develop a solution to the problem of graduate student underrepresentation, and their best is to add more allocated seats to Student Senate on university committees so that some of those seats can be given to graduate students recommended by GSA, Dean said.

Currently, the university committee seats are for any student who applies, and senate acts as a recruiter and appoints students to those committees, Lukwago said.

“Administration at Grand Valley is for this going through,” Dean said at the meeting. “We’ve been working together to try and come up with a solution.”

The resolution states that it is meant to “express that the Student Senate of Grand Valley State University supports an addition of allocated positions appointed by the Student Senate to specific University Committees in an effort to promote and increase graduate student perspective and voice.”

Anthony Clemons from the Diversity Affairs Committee had several questions for Dean, first asking why he felt graduate students were not being represented.

“I don’t just speak for myself on senate,” Clemons said. “This isn’t just the undergraduate Student Senate.”

Dean replied that the graduate curriculum and policies are different, there is a big older-age demographic and many graduate students have to deal with issues that most undergraduates haven’t had to face yet. “If you believe that you can represent all students, I would question you on that,” Dean said to Clemons.

Dean also added that it is an undergraduate-led governance system, and while the resolution is not a fix-all for everything, he wants to do what he can to increase the graduate voice. He also emphasized that neither Student Senate nor GSA should be blamed for how things have progressed.

The recommendations of students to fill the seats would be given to Student Senate by GSA, but if GSA is unable to fill the seats then the responsibility falls back on Student Senate—a cause for concern among many senators.

Lukwago, who also wrote the resolution, said that adding more seats is a good compromise so that they can appoint graduate students to the committees while not taking seats away from other students. Some senators were opposed because they said Student Senate was already having trouble filling those seats and if GSA cannot fill them it puts even more work on senate.

“There is absolutely no way I can support this,” Clemons said. “As a student, I still speak for all students when I speak at meetings, not discriminatory for graduate or undergraduate students. We shouldn’t be asking for more seats when we’re already having trouble filling them.”

Kathleen Carlson, vice president of the Educational Affairs Committee, also thought the resolution was a poor plan of action.

“I am going to be in grad school in a few months, so it’s not like we cannot possibly fathom what their lives are like,” Carlson said. “There is no way that there’s not one grad student here that can sit on senate.”

Not all were opposed to the resolution, though.

“I don’t see why this is such a negative thing; we’re not taking away any seats for undergraduate senators,” said Kathleen Ross from the Senate Resources Committee. “I can’t wrap my head around what they go through, and I think it’s a little arrogant to say you can do that. They can voice their opinion and own experiences that we as undergrads can’t relate to.”

Earlier in the meeting, Carlson said that those on cabinet have been trying to change their mindset, and she urged GSA to do the same, adding that it’s partially a matter of pride and that change wouldn’t happen overnight.

“If this does pass, we are going to have to work together and not have it be senate versus GSA,” she said.

The senators will continue to discuss the resolution and are expected to move to vote at Thursday’s 4:30 meeting on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus.
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