The University of Maryland’s new GSG executive board plans to focus efforts this academic year on addressing food insecurity, enhancing academic resources and eliminating this university’s international student fee.

Varaa Kukreti, a cybersecurity graduate student, will serve as the 2024-25 Graduate Student Government president. Divon Pender will serve as the organization’s legislative affairs vice president.

Kukreti described her role as a liaison between students, GSG representatives and administrators.

A study conducted by the student affairs division in 2018 found that 20 percent of students at this university report facing food insecurity.

Pender said he is passionate about both solving food insecurity in the graduate student community and forming stronger bonds between graduate students and faculty members.

“How can someone engage in the classroom if they don’t know where the next meal is coming from?” said Pender, a graduate student studying higher education, student affairs and international education policy.

Keegan Clements-Housser, GSG’s operations director, said one of his main goals this year is ensuring that future executive boards have smoother transitions and can accomplish more.

Before the start of the semester, the executive board carried out its annual shuttle program for incoming international graduate students arriving at this university. The program helped transport around 500 international graduate students from Dulles International Airport to campus, according to Clements-Housser.

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Clements-Housser said his experience leading the shuttle program over the summer was one of the reasons why he wants to streamline how future executive boards organize and carry out their events.

“I was kind of building the plane while flying it,” Clements-Housser, a journalism studies doctoral student, said. “I want to make sure that never happens again.”

Clements-Housser, the self-described “old man of the group,” said he is working on a guidebook to make the process for organizing events easier and fasterfor future executive boards.

GSG chief of staff Riya Singh said she is trying to ensure this executive board operates efficiently.

Singh, a finance graduate student, added that she wants to ensure the committees she oversees “run smoothly” and that all of GSG’s committee heads are given the resources that they need to succeed.”

Mikol Bailey, this year’s financial affairs and student fee matters vice president, said one of their goals is to help establish a centralized fund for disabled graduate student accommodations.

Accommodations for disabled graduate students are currently funded through the student’s department’s or advisor’s budget, Bailey said. Creating a fund would remove a barrier to retaining disabled graduate students at this university, they said.

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Another one of Bailey’s goals is to remove the international student fee, a charge of $125 per semester for each international student at this university, they said.

Kukreti said it is important to get rid of the fee not just because of the added charge, but because it makes international students feel as if “they are not part of the graduate student community.”

Kukreti plans to minimize, if not “eradicate,” the fee by the end of her tenure as president, she said.

GSG epidemiology representative Nora Jameson is hopeful that this year’s executive board will work with this university’s Graduate Labor Union on the years-long campaign for graduate student workers to secure collective bargaining rights.

“With Varaa’s approval, that would be beautiful,” the doctoral student, said.

Jameson said they are excited to see what else the new administration will be able to accomplish, and called this year’s executive board “a really good team.”

Kukreti praised the diversity of backgrounds, experiences and knowledge on this year’s board.

“I’m getting along with all of them really well,” Kukreti said. “I really appreciate each and every one of them.”