GSAS Student Council Elects New Members

The Graduate Student Council of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences elected Summer A. Shafer as GSC president Wednesday evening. Several other executive board positions were taken in a surprise coup that Shafer called “an impromptu coalition,” as a number of write-in candidacies were declared at last night’s meeting.

The new administration said goals for the upcoming year would include changing the perception of graduate students from that of students to employees and forming graduate student organizations that can apply for funding in each department.

Shafer, a doctoral candidate in American Studies, said the elections were in stark contrast to last year’s controversial and partisan event, where incumbents held onto five out of six seats in a definitive defeat of Shafer and her allies.

“We pretty much lost every position we ran for [last year] despite preparations,” Shafer said. “This year, there was no plan or strategy.”

Shafer said she and several other candidates, including newly-elected Vice President Andrew J. Pope, originally had no intention of running.

Although Shafer ultimately put her name on the ballot, the others were two of four write-in candidates who were elected.

“There was a domino effect of inspiration at the meeting once people saw that Andrew could deliver a speech on the fly that was passionate,” Shafer said.

Shafer and Pope, who served as parliamentarian and treasurer, respectively, last year following their original defeat, were the only two incumbent council members who won.

Shafer was quick to voice complaints against her predecessors, citing what she characterizes as their secrecy and lack of reliability.

“Right now you guys are our only source of record-keeping,” Shafer said about The Crimson. “We do not have our own record—it’s ridiculous.”

Despite this, tensions among most of the over 50 attendees seemed low.

One of the more memorable moments of the night came when Alessandra F. Massameno ran for At-Large Representative for Interdisciplinary Students and revealed in her speech that she is actually a student at the Harvard Extension School and not pursuing a GSAS degree.

When audience members asked how she was permitted to run, members of the election commission said the bylaws of the GSC do not explicitly restrict executive board eligibility to graduate members of the council.

—Staff writer Neha Dalal can be reached at nehadalal@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @theneha.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: April 4, 2013

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the new Graduate Student Council administration said it aims to change the perception of graduate students from that of employees to students. In fact, it hopes to change the perception of graduate students from students to employees.