GISA Exit Interview with Sanika Santhosh

By The Graduate Press Editorial Board

On May 15th, the GISA Board officially welcomed its newly elected members, with the positions of President, Vice President of Masters, Events Coordinator, Treasurer, and President of the Professional Development Committee all transitioning into their new roles. The Graduate Press reached out to the five departing board members for an exit interview, giving them a final opportunity to talk about their experiences at GISA. This is our interview with Sanika Santhosh, the former Vice President of Masters Programs.

What are you most proud of achieving during your time on the GISA Board?

In May 2022, we took over a board that was fragmented. In the initial months, we had to work harder to get GISA back on track and improve its role at the Institute by establishing common understanding and kindness between the administration and the student body. I must underscore that it was a collective achievement. 

It is a tough question to answer, given that I had to engage in various projects throughout my mandate, nevertheless, I would say the success of the Master’s Thesis Share (2022) was the most rewarding moment for me. It was my first project as a VP for Master’s and the entire exhausting process of organising this event made me realise my core strengths and potential. Further, in the beginning of the October, I organised an orientation for the Class Representatives (CR) in the beginning of October to discuss their role, budget and further activities, which was not a usual practice. It was an opportunity for them to get to know the board and fellow CRs. 

I wish I got to respond to this question by saying I was proud of having more engagement from students. We have close to 1000 Master’s students, and yet, we didn’t even get an engagement rate of 25 percent at most events. 

What did you enjoy most about your role as VP of Masters Programmes?

It was really dynamic and I enjoyed the position. When I decided to run for this role, I had a long discussion with Lorena [Villavicencio], then VP for Master’s Programmes, and at the end of the conversation I asked her if she thought the role was tedious and rewardless. At the time, we didn’t have a very good impression of GISA, given the then on-going events. 

The role really did meet my expectations, it challenged me and enhanced my professional skills. When I started working as the VP of Masters, it was amazing because I got to organize events and get to know people. I enjoyed brainstorming with student services, the administration, and other GISA board members to solve problems. Not all of our ideas materialized into something, but many are still in the process. Hope to see them implemented in the future. 

What was one of the biggest challenges you faced serving as VP of Masters Programmes?

Since day one I struggled with garnering student participation. In the beginning of the Autumn Semester, I shared unofficial course evaluation form with the students to gather their thoughts on the courses and there was terrible response rate. It is to be noted that the unofficial course evaluation is conducted by the VP of Master’s Programmes is to ensure that the students have a space to exchange their thoughts on the courses, professors, syllabus, and assessments. Additionally, the results of the official course evaluation responded by the students are never shared with the students, hence, the GISA board attempted to continue this tradition of unofficial course evaluation. The disappointing response rate bothered me tremendously and it was my biggest challenge.  

I certainly believe that with better student participation we could have done so much more. We need students to raise their voices on the TA salary issues considering they are directly impacted by it. Additionally, in terms of the Monday.com issue, I learned about this issue a month after the students were registered to this project management platform. We need to improve the quality of information channel between students, GISA, and the administration. In order to do so we need active engagement from the students’ end. 

What advice do you have for the incoming members of the GISA Board?

We are ten people on the board and during my time, we have encountered various overlaps in our projects and some major gaps in our responsibilities. Due to this, I think it is important for the board to organize their roles and tasks on Trello, or another platform, which would improve transparency. This would provide space for collaboration and reduces the chances of fragmentation. It  would bring a lot of unity and solidarity.