“Swearing is allowed”

Report on the 19th IHEID GISA Master’s Forum

Mariairene Fornari with Jai Mulani

There are snacks in the corner but attendance is not as warm as one would expect in a school of International Studies where many of the people make of advocacy their job.

The first few rows in the Auditorium were  empty and attendance online (recorded at its highest) is just 22 people. 

Maybe it is unsuitable that this Forum is happening on the same day as the ARP deadline for first year students.

It’s honourable, I believe , to see some second year students and a few of my peers who are going on exchange, attend.

“I came here to understand what the GISA board has done in the past year” explains Michela Rossettini, a MINT Student that is going on exchange to Berlin next semester; “If I can make the Institute better with my insight and I can change something to make my programme and the institute better for who is coming after me, that is what matters for me.”

As the sun set and the sky clouded over, we began the 2025 Edition of the Master’s Forum.

In accordance with  GISA by-laws, the Vice-President for Master’s programmes has to organise a forum for discussion at least once a  year. The forum has been created to address any non-programme-specific issues that the MA students might have.

The Master’s forum is a way to reconvene on the yearly GISA Assemblies, the work of the Class Representatives and GISA Leadership.Most importantly the Master’s Forum stands as a way to help the incoming Vice-President for Master’s to set the agenda for their mandate and their following academic year. Agenda items range from the future of student spaces at the institute and how to decolonise the curriculum, to the cafeteria’s lack of vegetarian options. You can have a look at the whole agenda here.

Some agenda points are more dear to the participants than others. As a matter of fact, when the discussion got heated up, we were  reassured by a genial  “swearing is allowed”.

Some of the agenda points were brought up by student-led initiatives.

Linnea Skoglund, Amanda Johansson and Gujan Shree, collected a series of student testimonies on Disability and Accessibility at the Institute. It was disheartening to hear how students’ demands and needs are often underplayed and how the administration is not collaborative.

In particular, they also emphasised the importance of having breaks in the middle of the classes for the benefit of everyone.

Something that emerged during our discussion on Disability and Accessibility was that most of the participants reported issues and unsatisfaction with the support received. Many issues on Accessibility depended primarily on the lack of communication, and the difference of views between the administration and the academic departments. Along with that,the conversation included the experiences of those who sought psychological and medical support, and the problems they faced navigating the UniGe services, that are primarily “reserved” for UniGe students and don’t have the capacity to accommodate IHEID students. Despite our small student body, an additional 1,000 students can significantly strain a system that relies on public funding. The IHEID Administration should consider this point too.

The MENA Initiative and ASA raised an issue pertaining to the Academic Spaces for Student-led Events at the Institute. You can read the full memorandum here.

Following that, agenda points regarding Sustainability on Campus, the Cafeteria and Housing were co-moderated with the Environmental Committee.

Last but not least, after discussing Misconduct at the Institute, Louise Alberti, from ‘The Feminist Collective’, and Hamna Chohan, Administrative Director, announced that a new survey will be circulated, aiming to improve the reporting mechanism at the Institute. The survey will be made public at the beginning of May, so stay alert and remember to fill that in!

Hamna also shared that, after a full semester of advocacy, she was finally able to have the Institute set a multipurpose room. Institute students and staff will be able to use it as a prayer room, breastfeeding space and as a quieter space if in need to de stress. The space is still under construction, and it will be located near The Fab. She profusely apologised for the slowness of the process. But in all honesty, the speed of this achievement is unprecedented! Especially if we consider that student life shuts down completely during the Winter break.

The agenda is long, and as Shreya Singh, a MINT Student in the Sustainable Trade and Finance track, shared with us in an interview, many of the points were not discussed thoroughly.

The issue of graduation is particularly dear to many students. Especially considering that students are granted just two tickets for friends and family to attend the ceremony.

Shreya explains that the discussion didn’t leave any space for creativity and to have meaningful discussion which could actually lead to a compromise.  

At the end of the day, many of the complaints were justified with a “this is where our money goes”, but the topic of the Graduation Ceremony is much more than that. It is a moment of celebration and of getting together.

Currently, the institute doesn’t have a sale for extra tickets. This can be a problem for students with larger or close-knit families, and according to many students, this is something to put in the agenda for next year and prioritise.

Shreya also told us that it would be interesting to have a Master’s Forum for each semester. She thinks that this would allow continuity and give more space to actually brainstorm solutions.

What emerged from this Master’s Forum is that the administration has a much more long term horizon. On the other hand, the student body stays at the institute for less than two full years. Making changes to the graduation ceremony for incoming students, would still mean that many of those who advocated for change would not be able to host their families.

But it doesn’t have to be like this! The speed with which Administrative Director Hamna Chohan managed to have her motion for a multipurpose room approved is chalked up to her steadfast advocacy efforts.

Again, this confirms that participation and engagement are key, not just from the GISA Board (remember that when you are voting this spring!) but also from the whole student body.

Another pressing issue was also discussed – departments that tend to be collaborative overall, are still resistant to the idea of making previous course evaluations public. As I informed the Board and the participants, only assistant professors could be disadvantaged by this. Tenured professors, despite the bad reviews, do not risk their post. A compromise could easily be found.

Other issues and inconsistencies that emerged are: AI detection softwares mostly prove to be a disadvantage for non-native English speaking students; MADIS students being disadvantaged by the curriculum design of the programme and by the unjustified stricter grading practices; and, the inefficiency of the “two-absence policy”. The absences policy was put in place right after the Covid-19 pandemic, but as the student body agreed, there are many incentives to participate in classes already: the cost of tuition, the participation grade, and the opportunity cost of graduate school itself. 

The biggest takeaway I got from this Master’s forum is that we need to care, we need to participate and communicate, as much as possible, with the administration. The initiatives are thriving with members, and it was disappointing to see so many empty seats in the auditorium. The intensity of IHEID Programmes implies that we spend most of our time at Maison de la Paix. Hence, it is important that we try to be as communicative as possible with the administration to make sure we are supported as best as they can. Even the smallest student-led initiative can find a way to voice their platform through GISA. If you are unhappy about anything at the Institute, talk to your friends, talk to your Class Representative and make sure to come to the next Master’s forum and to attend the Weekly GISA assemblies, every Wednesday at 6pm!

Disclaimers

When we say departments, we also mean the MINT, even if the MINT doesn’t have a department in the more definitive  sense like the MADIS.

Jai and Mariairene attended the Master’s Forum as Class Representatives for the First year of International Law and International Relations/Political Science programmes respectively, while being there as reporters for The Graduate Press. While we reckon this doesn’t create any conflict of interest, we would like to specify it for the sake of transparency.

On 25/04/2025 the article was edited to precise that GISA managed to obtain the creation of a multipurpose room that can be used for praying, breastfeeding and unwinding. The earlier version of the article erroneously referred to this space as prayer room only.