By Sam Gauntt and Lillian Glaros

Supporting international students, advocating for affordable housing and increasing membership will headline the University of Maryland GSG’s legislative efforts this academic year.

While many of the organization’s goals follow those from past years, international students will take a primary role in its legislative priorities, 2025-26 Graduate Student Government President Keegan Clements-Housser told The Diamondback.

Here’s a look at the new executive board’s primary goals for the upcoming year.

Protecting international students

Given the “turbulent political environment,” Clements-Housser said the organization is working to provide as much support and resources to international graduate students as possible.

“Obviously, we have a lot of people who are worried about, ‘If I go home to see my family over the break, am I going to be let back into the country?’” the journalism doctoral student said. “What happens if my funding is cut and my visas depend on having funding?”

Though there aren’t easy answers to many of those questions, he said, the GSG is still trying to ask them and develop a plan with university administration.

Legislative affairs vice president Ivy Lyons said that the GSG is looking to have more participation from international graduate students in its decision-making process.

“GSG is being very intentional about leaning not on our … predominantly domestic understanding as an executive board,” Lyons said. “We’re putting international students more in that conversation.”

Lyons added, so far, the organization has seen an increase in the amount of international students interested in being nominated to serve in GSG.

While the GSG has historically had a large number of international students, especially on its executive board, Clements-Housser said the body is forming an international student affairs committee.

Seven international students at this university last spring had their visas revoked and later restored, The Diamondback previously reported.

Executive board members said they want to make sure graduates know of the resources available to them, such as getting a free consultation from the Graduate Student Legal Aid office’s immigration lawyer. The GSG also lists information for those who have lost research funding and on students’ legal rights.

Clements-Housser added because this university’s campus is so large and decentralized, most departments handle their own immigration processes.

“One of the things we want to help avoid is people panicking because they can’t find information that’s relevant to them,” he said.

The organization is also trying to collaborate with the graduate school and make a plan in order to provide information to graduate students — especially international ones — who are impacted by recent federal changes, Clements-Housser added.

Increasing membership

The body is also trying to tackle another perennial issue: increasing its membership.

Clements-Housser said that a majority of the GSG’s seats are empty. While membership is an issue for other student government bodies as well, he said the legislature is at any time between 70-80 percent vacant.

“We are very small right now, and we’ve been struggling with numbers since COVID, frankly,” he said. “The goal … is to get more programs, more schools represented, so it’s not just the same faces every time.”

For many graduate students, commitments such as family, their work or research prevent them from joining the GSG.

Some ways the organization is using to try to recruit more students include showing members’ previous successes and promoting its committees, Clements-Housser said.

The GSG is holding a special election for new program representatives which closes on Wednesday.

Collective bargaining 

The GSG will also likely lobby for collective bargaining rights for graduate student workers, which is currently prohibited by Maryland law.

Although Clements-Housser said the legislature hasn’t formally voted on the issue yet, its track record is “pretty much unanimous.”

In past years, GSG members have testified supporting legislation for collective bargaining rights.

Operations director Lizzie Irlbacher said that in 2023, GSG members traveled to Annapolis to meet with members of the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates to lobby them.

“We talked to them, we gave them a packet of information, hopefully established some memories for the future,” she said.