GSG President wants to continue work from first term

Returning GSG President Anupama Kothari knows if at first you don't succeed, you must try, try again.

As she enters her second term, Kothari will continue fighting for long-standing graduate student issues, including establishing student-faculty contracts, creating faculty post-tenure review system and expanding graduate student housing options - many of which were raised this year but never finalized. Although Kothari is optimistic about accomplishing her goals, delays in initiatives concern some Graduate Student Government officers.

Garnering hundreds of units of graduate student housing in the planned East Campus development was one of Kothari's unfinished resolutions this year.

GSG Vice President for Academic Affairs Aaron Tobiason, who also serves as a graduate student senator on the University Senate, noted the effort has been somewhat hampered by the recession. But he added he wished it could be finalized before the end of this semester, as the future of the economy and the development seem uncertain.

Tobiason also said establishing a graduate student academic policy - an agreed-upon syllabus-type document that outlines professors' expectations of graduate student assistants - is necessary and pressing.

Last semester, Kothari approached the Graduate Council - a legislative body made up of graduate students and faculty members that is chaired by the dean of the graduate school and sets graduate school policy - concerning "absurd" instances of faculty members allegedly plagiarizing student material and preventing graduate student assistants from graduating to obtain more research grant money. Kothari also worried many departments have not been honoring grievance procedures developed by the GSG to protect student assistants.

Kothari said in order to prevent graduate student abuses in the future, she will be working to require contracts to be established between faculty and students so graduate students will no longer be unaware of their rights.

"It's disappointing," Kothari said. "Graduate students are going into assistantships without rights. If they don't know their rights, they won't know when to file their grievance before the grievance deadline."

Post-tenure review - a proposed review of tenured faculty members that failed in the senate after tenured professors argued the policy would allow administrators to impose salary reductions and could jeopardize their academic freedoms - is also a hot-button issue for Kothari, who says the lack of such a policy only hurts graduate students.

She credits the failure of the bill to the senate's overwhelming faculty-to-student ratio - the 10 graduate students and 25 undergraduates who serve on the senate are vastly outnumbered by the more than 100 faculty and staff senators.

"Post-tenure review is going to be brought up again in the fall, even though it failed in the senate," said Roberto Munster, an incoming university graduate student senator who also serves as the GSG director of operations. "She took on a lot this year, so she can't be expected to get everything approved."

But most graduate student leaders say Kothari's unrelenting desire to get things done will carry her through her upcoming term, which begins July 1, as it did through her last.

Last year, less than 48 hours after becoming GSG president, Kothari was already on the phone with Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement regarding the lack of transportation for international students arriving to the university. By late August, when 70 international students arrived, they were picked up by the university from Dulles International Airport.

Tobiason said Kothari "hit the ground running" and hasn't stopped since.

During her term, Kothari also continued the recently revived Graduate Research Interaction Day, facilitated two campus-wide safety walks and informally secured graduate housing in the future East Campus development.

"She has really demonstrated her leadership this year and showed she can get things done," Munster said. "She was very attentive to the concerns of international students, who are not always represented, and professional students, who are almost never represented, though they make up 25 percent of the graduate population."

Former GSG president Laura Moore, who stepped down as president due to term limits, also applauded Kothari's efforts.

"When I left, I felt good knowing someone very capable was taking over," Moore said. "She really has done a great job of trying to improve graduate student welfare and improve working conditions."

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