Welcome to the Graduate Student Affairs Web Page!

Created and Maintained by Mary Catherine Mukimba

Graduate Student, Get Started! Know your Graduate Senate!

The Graduate Student Senate (GSS) is a voice for all the University of Massachusetts (UMass) graduate students. The GSS Executive is composed of the Legislative branches. The Executive branch consists of four elected officers, and five hired staff and the legislative branch consist of senators elected from academic departments, Graduate Student Organizations (GSOs), and designated housing areas. These branches together set and implement policies on behalf of all graduate students and they represent views/issues to the university administration, faculty, and the extended university community. The GSS is the political voice of the graduate students that tirelessly advocates for their rights and responsibilities. Among others, the GSS is committed to fighting all forms of oppressions or injustices that effect the quality of graduate students' life at the University. Since its inception, the GSS has been centrally involved in the many historical struggles for students' progress at UMass.

Immediate contact with GSS office: An appointed GSS Office Manager is available to coordinate day-to-day activities of the Graduate Student Senate and particularly acts as a liaison between the graduate students and the GSS executive and staff. The Office Manager (OM) provides organizational support services to the GSS office and committees, the senators, GSOs, university departments, boards, and the entire university community. For GSS administrative matters, the OM is the primary contact person at: gss-info@resgs.umass.edu .

GSS Physical Contact address:
Graduate Student Senate
919 Campus Center Building
University of Massachusetts
Amherst , MA 01003
Telephone: (413) 545 2896 /2897

For a more detailed overview of GSS functions, please select a link below:

Executive Branch
Educational Access Advocacy
The Graduate Women's Network
The Voice
Student Affair's Advocacy
Area Governance

How to work for the GSS or Get Involved:

Run for executive office or apply for staff member position.

Access to the executive and staff member positions is respectively through general graduate students' voting/elections, and interview process.

How do I participate in GSS affairs? Become a Senator for your constituency.

• Attend monthly GSS general meetings. Check the semester's schedule on the web.
• Write an article to the Graduate Voice
• Join designated GSS committees for different Students' affairs
• Email or Call the GSS office for more information

The GSS Executive officers: The President, Vice President, Treasurer, and an Executive officer form a core GSS Executive body. This boy is elected or voted in office by graduate students to foresee the overall policy making, and implementation procedures of decisions made in GSS. Their roles range from serving as a liaison with the University administration to GSS financial management in collaboration with the Business Manager in the Graduate School . The GSS executive answers questions on (but not limited to) how to get involved in the GSS matters. The executive is actively concerned with issues such as becoming a graduate student senator, running for elections as a senator, participating in the GSS campaigns, serving on the GSS University or faculty committee as a graduate representative, joining or starting a Graduate Student Organization, and running for the GSS office, or applying for a GSS staff position.

Besides the GSS top executive, there are five hired staff members These include the Office Manager, the GSS Voice Editor, and three coordinators for Education access, Graduate Women Network, and Student Affairs.

Education access advocacy (EAC): The GSS consistently fights for access to higher education especially for low-income individuals and members of the oppressed groups that have been traditionally eliminated from higher education. Concerns regarding under-represented graduate students at UMass such as barriers preventing some students from pursuing graduate education are addressed by the GSS EAC. EAC serves as a resource person and oversees a support network for low-income/underrepresented students, focusing on referrals to and processes of local and State-wide public assistance and financial programs and other helpful support resources. Contact email gss-access@resgs.umass.edu .

Graduate Women's Net Work Advocacy: The GSS Graduate Women's Network (GWN) serves both as a representation of views for female graduate students and as a social network for raising issues and devising ideas to meet the needs of women at UMass. The GWN Coordinator and committee organize (but not limited to) regular gatherings, lectures, workshops, and various social activities for graduate women's empowerment. The coordinator acts as a liaison between the GSS and every woman's Center. All graduate-student matters of concern in this area are addressed through the GSS GWN coordinator at gss-gwn@resgs.umass.edu .

The Voice: The Voice is the GSS monthly newspaper that disseminates timely information to the public and in particular updates students on issues and activities of graduate students as prioritized by the GSS. The Voice publishes articles and notices about UMass, local, national and international issues and is distributed throughout the campus, Amherst and Northampton areas. While priority is given to graduate student authors, articles by undergraduates, faculty and/or administrators, particularly on campus issues are encouraged.   Articles should run between 500-2500 words and need to be submitted electronically as e-mail attachments. For concerns about the Voice contact the Voice Editor, at gss-voice@resgs.umass.edu . The Voice can be viewed on line.

Student Affairs' Advocacy: The GSS overall interest is to see to it that the rights of graduate students at UMass are upheld. In particular, the Student Affairs advocacy is concerned with issues affecting the quality of life of students on the UMass campus. The Student Affairs Coordinator (SAC) advocates for graduate student on issues regarding housing, health care, childcare and academics. The SAC serves as a resource for low-income and/or under represented students at UMass and together with the EAC oversee a support network, focusing on referrals to, and processes of local and State-wide programs for subsidized housing and financial assistance. The SAC Updates the Senate and executive Committee on the latest development such as adjustment of graduate students on campus particularly as concerns housing. For a consistent progressive graduate status, graduate students are highly encouraged to forward issues affecting their quality of life on campus, for discussion through the GSS SAC. Contact email is gss-stuaf@resgs.umass.edu .

Residential senators and leaders for those living on Campus : The GSS constitution and bylaws specifies that specific housing areas are entitled to senate representation. These areas are The Prince Hall dormitory and the Lincoln and North Village Apartments.

Prince Hall Senators:

1. Shelly A. Perdomo

2. Roderick Anderson

3. Laster Sandres

4. Kyngille Martilien

House council:

1. Peter Lewicke

2. Arther Laplanta

3. Antonio Viana

Family Housing/FH ( Lincoln and North Village )

Senators:

1. Sualo Colonza

2. Luis Valdiviezo

3. Fernando Rodrigue

4. Mandy Cheng

5. Daniel Gomez

6. Marky Jean-Pierre

FH Tenants Association:

President: Sualo Colonza

Vice President: Nigel Bassett

Treasurer: Mandy Cheng

Please contact gss-stuaf@resgs.umass.edu for information to or from these officials,