Graduate Student Organization - Stony Brook

Dear Stony Brook Graduate Students,

I'm writing to you on behalf of Stony Brook's Graduate Student Organization, the representative student government of graduate students at Stony Brook University. The GSO provides various services to its members—all part- or full-time graduate students who pay a student activity fee. Services include emergency loans, departmental and club allocations, legal and financial advice, and funding for events and for bringing speakers to campus. Of particular note, the GSO provides travel grant funding to all members by way of the Resource Allocation Program, or RAP. RAP now provides up to $275 for graduate students to travel to present professional work related to their particular academic discipline at a conference or a performance.

In order to best take advantage of the GSO's services and resources, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT EVERY GRADUATE DEPARTMENT HAVE AT LEAST ONE SENATOR SERVING AS A REPRESENTATIVE ON THE GSO SENATE, which meets one Tuesday per month from 6-8 pm. The first GSO senate meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 9th from 6-8 pm in 201 Wang. Future senate meetings are listed at http://www.sbgso.org .

As President of the GSO, I'm writing to you to make sure that the graduate students in your department are represented with at least one GSO Senator for the upcoming academic year. Without an active departmental senator—a senator who has attended, at any given point in the semester, the last two of three GSO senate meetings—no student in the department is eligible to receive RAP funding.

In order for you to receive a voting card, all new and returning Senators must confirm their seats by doing the following:

If you are a new Senator, you can confirm your seat in one of two ways:

1) Hold an election in your department through a meeting or by ballot.
2) Petition to be a senator by collecting signatures of at least thirty percent of the students in your department or 50 students from your department, whichever is less.

Details of these procedures can be found here:
http://sbgso.org/files/u1/documents/Constitution.pdf

The Petition Form for new Senators can be found here:
http://sbgso.org/files/u1/forms/candidates_petition.pdf

If you are a returning Senator, you may follow any of the procedures above, or you may post a Call for Nominations for New Senators in your department. If there are no other interested candidates after making the open call advertising the GSO positions available in your department, please provide the GSO-Secretary with a letter from your department secretary verifying that the open call was made and that no response was received. You will then be appointed as a senator. Realize that being a senator last year DOES NOT automatically make you a senator this year as well.

Responsibilities of a Senator:
1) Attending and representing the department during the monthly senate meetings, which are usually held one Tuesday per month (when classes are in session) from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
2) Serving as a liaison between the graduate students and the GSO relaying information presented in senate meetings and through the senate mailing-list to the departments.
3) Volunteering in the various GSO and University Committees to represent graduate students.

Departments or schools with less than 50 students are allowed to have 1 senator; those with 50-200 students -- 2 senators; and departments with more than 200 students -- 3 Senators. All departments can have one alternate senator who can be present in the senate meetings, but may vote only in the absence of the respective department senator.

The departments of Continuing Education (CED) and the School of Professional Development (GSP) Senator(s) shall demonstrate informed consent through the presentation of a petition signed by at least 5% or fifty (50) of the program's registered number of students, whichever is less.

Once you have completed the above, please submit the materials (petition, copy of the Call for Nominations, copy of the meeting minutes) to the GSO Office, SAC Room 227. Please address it to the Secretary, Jose Colmenares. If no one is at the office, please slide your forms under the door. In order for you to receive your voting card, you must get these materials in by Friday, September 5th at 5 PM. We are looking forward to seeing you at the September meeting.

Best Wishes,

Liliana Naydan, GSO President