GISA 2024 Autumn Elections Debates – Day 1

By María Juliana Rodríguez Urbano, Managing Editor of The Graduate Press

The GISA 2024 Autumn Elections cycle has officially begun, with debates kicking off last week. On Thursday, October 3, debates provided candidates for Vice-President of PhD, Communications Director, and Administrative Director a platform to present their proposals for this new GISA Board and student life at the Institute.

Vice-President of PhD: Advocating for More Integration

Tommaso Fonti, a 1st-year PhD student in International Relations and Political Science (IRPS) is running unopposed for the role of Vice-President of PhD. As a key point of his candidacy, Tommaso pointed out the need to increase the integration of PhD students at the Institute, especially regarding their participation in student initiatives and their interactions with Master’s students. He also addressed the issue of research efforts at the PhD level and how there must be a closer collaboration between the different departments to facilitate PhD students’ definition of more tailored approaches to their research topics. As part of his integration and engagement proposal, Tommaso also advocated for more social events directed at PhD students to foster stronger connections.

Another issue Tommaso addressed was the working conditions of Teaching Assistants (TAs) at the Institute, an issue that has been ongoing for some years now. In this sense, he mentioned that he will continue the outgoing Vice-President of PhD’s efforts in engaging with TAs and their representative organization to better understand their most pressing needs. As a first step, Tommaso said that he reviewed the recent PhD Survey Report and identified some of the key aspects to ensure that negotiations for improving the working conditions of TAs continue and have significant impacts.

During the round of questions, Tommaso was asked how he plans to foster and improve this integration of PhD students at the Institute. On this, he proposed organizing meetings and ‘mini’ seminars where PhD students can share their experiences with conducting research and applying them in their work life. For example, PhD students could host conversations with 2nd-year Master’s students to guide them during their thesis writing. Tommaso also proposed including professors in these meetings, so they can also provide their perspectives and better understand students’ needs. 

Communications Director: Simple and Engaging Communication

As it happens with the Vice-President of PhD, Arkoprabho Hazra, a 1st-year MINT student specializing in Human Rights and Humanitarianism, is running unopposed for the role of Communications Director. Arko – as he is mostly known – grounds his candidacy on establishing branding guidelines for social media management at GISA, trying to make communications with students as simple as possible. To achieve this, he plans on surveying students to better understand their preferred communication channels, and work on strategic plans for student initiatives to share best practices and coordinate efforts. 

On this last aspect, Arko said that one issue he noticed with organizing and communicating student initiatives’ events is that there seems to be a lack of a unified strategy to help initiatives get the word out on their events during the semester, which can result in low attendance or confusion as to where and when these will take place. To tackle this issue, he proposed creating a follow-up system in which the Communications Director can have a clear picture of which initiatives require help to communicate their latest events, calls for applications, or any other related activities. Therefore, Arko thinks it is important to maintain constant communication with the leadership of each student initiative and ask for a tentative calendar of the activities they plan to organize during the semester so that the Communications Director can have a clear picture from the beginning and provide better assistance.

During the round of questions, Arko was asked how he plans to leverage digital tools and platforms, and strategies for improving student engagement and communication. On these aspects, Arko said he plans to keep the existing digital tools and platforms like GISA’s website, which have proven to work well for engaging with students and providing them with useful information. On implementing new digital tools, he said that he would like to explore the existing ones first and check whether there is room – and need – for including new ones. Regarding student engagement, he mentioned his proposal for organizing, in partnership with the Events Coordinator, masterclasses with experts in communications and advocacy to provide students with useful guidance on these topics.

Administrative Director: Searching for Inclusivity and Transparency

The first debate day closed with the four candidates for the role of Administrative Director: Hamna Chohan (1st-year MINT – Migration, Mobilities and Borders), Pilar Alejandra Paradiso, 1st-year MINT – Conflict, Peace and Security), Archit Kandula, (2nd-year MINT – Conflict, Peace and Security), and Pulkeet Mehra (2nd-year MINT – Human Rights and Humanitarianism). This debate proved to be the most engaging of the evening as candidates faced challenging questions from the audience, the outgoing Administrative Director, and amongst themselves.

The debate focused on the candidates’ experience, goals, and approaches to improving transparency, accessibility, and efficiency within GISA. Even though their approaches are different, all candidates agreed that there is a need to establish an adequate system to improve the transparency and visibility of GISA’s activities and initiatives. As a strategy to tackle this issue, the candidates shared the same thoughts on implementing a digital tracking system allowing students to monitor in real-time GISA ‘s efforts when engaging with the Institute, whether it is with the administrative direction, the faculty, or students.  All candidates also agreed to advocate for greater clarity of the Institute’s decision-making process on issues like financial aid and scholarships. 

One of the aspects all candidates emphasize about their platforms is their professional experience and how it can be helpful to improve GISA’s administration. Therefore, one question asked to the four of them inquired why they think this is important for being the Administrative Director. Pilar and Hamna agreed that professional experience provides a unique background for this role as it can give people the tools necessary for adequately facing problem-solving, negotiation, and planning. Pulkeet added that having professional experience also proves people’s commitment to a specific role, especially one that centers around coordination and communication like Administrative Director. In this sense, he commended 1st-year students running in these elections for showing such commitment and interest in student advocacy at the Institute.

Regarding the issue of inclusivity, another question for all candidates asked how they plan to work with student initiatives outside of GISA, especially those representing and advocating for minorities. Hamna, Pulkeet, and Archit emphasized the importance of fostering personal connections with these initiatives and becoming a person that they feel they can come to when seeking advice or clarification on GISA’s inner workings. For Archit, is important to keep constant communication with them to know and assess their needs, so that GISA can better answer them. Pilar added to what the other candidates said a strategy for implementing feedback mechanisms like town halls where initiatives can communicate their specific concerns.

During the time for questions among candidates, Hamna asked her opponents why decided to include words like “inclusivity”, “transparency”, and “effectiveness” in their platforms, considering that she included them in hers in the first place, as her candidacy was the first to be launched. Pulkeet said that transparency and inclusivity are issues he has worked on before with the NGO he started, therefore, these are concepts that are important for him in everything he does. Archit answered that, like all candidates, he inquired about the Administrative Director role’s most pressing issues and found out that greater transparency is one of them, and, with more transparency comes more inclusivity for students. Finally, Pilar pointed out that she did not include those words in her platform but considers them relevant to the role and, on the specific aspect of transparency, she understands it in the sense of providing students access to the Administrative Director’s tasks and goals.

Voting is scheduled to start on October 7 at 10:00 a.m. and will close on October 10 at 10:30 a.m. We encourage all students to participate and cast their votes!