David Colon-Cabrera will serve as the Graduate Student Government’s president next year.
For the first time in six years, the Graduate Student Government will see a male president: former Chief of Staff David Colon-Cabrera.
Colon-Cabrera, a doctoral anthropology student, said he hopes to see tangible results from the initiatives the GSG pursues each year, including advocating for affordable graduate student housing and students’ right to unionize. He has served as the anthropology department representative for two years and chairs several GSG committees, including governance and the committee of graduate researchers, employees, assistants and teachers.
“He’s very passionate, and we need someone with a lot of energy,” outgoing President Anna Bedford said. “I think he’ll do a great job, and I look forward to working closely with him for the rest of my term.”
Bedford said she has been working hard on GSG’s projects, such as graduate students rights to unionize and taking control of student fees, in order to give the incoming executives “something with a bit more momentum” when she hands over the reins.
Colon-Cabrera wasn’t the only assembly member to take on a new role – new faces filled all seven of the executive board positions and only the legislative affairs vice president-elect, Michael Wiederoder, held a position on this year’s board.
Colon-Cabrera said he plans to follow Bedford’s lead on several issues the GSG has spent years fighting for, including securing affordable graduate student housing, a graduate writing center and parental leave for graduate assistants. He said he will continue working on the multi-year projects Bedford and past assembly members pioneered.
“I want to continue the good work that’s been done so far,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to serve under the past two presidents and … everyone improves and builds on what the others did, and the work of the assembly and their vice presidents.”
Colon-Cabrera said he was most interested in focusing on the controversial meet-and-confer process that was offered to the GSG and USM graduate students in lieu of collective bargaining rights in March and said he wanted to ensure that graduate students are represented.
“We all have ideas and issues we want to tackle,” he said. “We have had a voice in the past, but I want to raise that voice and make sure we continue to be heard.”
In particular, he said he wanted to make sure graduate concerns were adequately represented and that the process is as transparent as possible.
“People who know me know I am very vocal and I want us to be heard,” Colon-Cabrera said. “If that translates to what people think of me, that I was a voice, that I was a reasonable voice, then that’s a fair legacy [to leave].”
Colon-Cabrera also said he wanted to increase the scope of the GSG’s ability to open channels of communication with the administration and get students involved.
Additionally, he is working on increasing participation in Terrapin Pride Day, an annual event in which students travel to Annapolis to lobby state legislators.
Barrett Dillow, governance committee member and outgoing legislative affairs vice president, said Colon-Cabrera has a strong understanding of issues facing graduate students at this university.
“He’s really on top of the issues at hand and organized, and you can tell that when you work with him,” Dillow said.
blasey@umdbk.com
