[Poscgrad] GSA 2023 Welcome! and Special Election for GSA Rep

[Thomas Kegler]

Hi All,

I want to welcome everyone again (although slightly belated) to the 2023-24
academic school year. I hope everyone has settled in and has a stress-free
quarter. I'm reaching to set articulate the GSA's goals for the year to
hold a special election for our GSA representative position.

 As elected, the current GSA is composed of Tommy Kegler (president), Emre
Cebeci (vice-president), and Deren Onursal (Secretary). Gregory Hutchin's
has volunteered to serve as our GSA Representative. Because he is the only
name on the ballot, we will have an up or down vote for his confirmation.
You can vote here: https://forms.gle/UQ5tqkwcrFmBcd6W9

We are still looking for a Treasurer. If anyone is interested please
contact me!

Reflecting on our goals for the year, I think GSA is in a strange place in
the department. It doesn't serve a formal educative or employment purpose;
yet- as proven by the previous two GSA's focus on department culture- GSA
does serve as an important space for building and maintaining department
culture. To that end, it is important that we center our work around
providing venues and opportunities for graduate students to interact and
co-construct our department's culture. With this in mind, we have four
goals for the academic year:

1. Continue the bi-monthly social events held by last term's GSA;
2. Provide venues for increased interaction between grade sutdents and
faculty;
3. Create a repository for department information that is not
currently shared or available from the department such as comps resources,
conference funding resources, etc. and;
4. Continue to maintain and orgainze shared department spaces such as
Sproul.

In achieving these goals, we will be holding our first coffee social of the
quarter in the next couple weeks. A specific date and time will be released
soon.

Additionally, we will be turning the spare room in Sproul (the one with all
the filing cabinets) into a dedicated waiting area for students with carpet
and chairs. I will be soliciting some grad students to help reposition the
filing cabinets in the near future. Big thanks to Adam Hobbes for donating
a carpet for the space!

Our job is to make the department work for our community. Please always
feel free to reach out if you are having problems in the department or
simply feel like you have an idea to make all our lives better!

Best,
Tommy Kegler
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