STUDENT FORUM OFFICERS SPRING 2010 - FALL 2011
The Student Forum officers are elected by the GSD student body each December. They serve one-year terms starting in the beginning of the Spring Semester and continuing until the end of the Fall Semester. All of the officers meet frequently with the student body, administrators and staff and work closely with the Dean of Students, Laura Snowdon, to communicate and resolve student concerns. The specific officer positions and the current representatives are below:
Academic President - Vice President: Judy Fulton / Bri Patawaran
Treasurer: Tristie Tajima
Academic Chair: Caroline Shannon
Events Chairs: Carl Koepcke, Connie Migliazzo, and Michael "Caco" Peguero
Internal Relations Officers: Melissa Hurcomb and Roger Weber
External Relations Officers: Anne Liu and Parsa Kamali
Alumni Relations: Lauren Kim
Infrastructure Chairs: Lesley McTague and Derek Galey
Media Relations Officer: Wes Thomas
Academic President/Vice President: Judy Fulton / Bri Patawaran
The Academic President acts as the main liaison between the student body, faculty and administration. In addition, the Academic President coordinates the efforts and initiatives of the officers, representatives and committees of Student Forum. The Academic President chairs monthly meetings with the Dean, Student Forum officers, and the general student body, as well as meetings with the Departments, the Student Affairs Committee, the GSD's Visiting Committee and the Alumni Council.
Treasurer: Tristie Tajima
The primary responsibility of the treasurer is to provide the GSD
student body with a fast and easy means of accessing funds for
extracurricular activities.
Each year, every student makes a mandatory contribution of $90 to the
student community through the term bill. The Treasurer leads the other
Student Forum officers in managing this pool of funds - funding student
groups, GSD events, and general initiatives.
Specific responsibilities include:
- balance an annual budget of $60,000
- manage financial accounts
- meet with student
groups to plan out fiscal needs
- work with Harvard University Fiscal Services
- set-up event sales systems
- pay-out reimbursements
In addition, the treasurer has the opportunity to participate in all
student Forum initiatives - meeting regularly with GSD faculty and
administration.
Academic Chair: Caroline Shannon
The Academic Chair serves as the head of the Class
Representatives Committee. Class reps serve as the liaison between the student body
and the administration; they compile and present the concerns and suggestions
of their classmates to all the other reps and to the heads of their
respective departments.
There are two primary tasks for which the Chair is responsible. The
first is to organize at least 2 meetings a semester with the reps. The
second is to set up at least one meeting per department per semester
between the reps and both the program directors and chairmen of each
department.
For all of these meetings an agenda must be prepared, in advance, by
this Chair. In essence, the Chair guides the reps in order that they
may have the maximum possible effect on each of the departments. The
reps and the chair work together towards giving the student body a strong
and focused voice regarding academic affairs.
Events Chairs: Carl Koepcke, Michael "Caco" Peguero, Connie Migliazzo
The Events Chairs assist the Events President in planning and overseeing
all Student Forum events including the Halloween Party, Carnivale, and
the Spring and Fall picnics. Aides Events President in coordinating
events and community service committees.
The Events Chairs are solely responsible for arranging pre-finals massages,
ordering food for student forum meetings, and setting up donut night.
Internal Relations Officers: Melissa Hurcomb, Roger Weber
The internal relations officer is a liaison to the GSD student groups and their officers. This includes, organizing the GSD Student Groups Fall Fair which occurs during one of the first Beer N' Dogs of the semester, holding a meeting once or twice a year with the student group officers and periodically responding to any questions and concerns with these groups. The officer also maintains all minutes and documentation for Student Forum For the monthly all-school student forum meetings, and books rooms with Building Services.
External Relations Officers: Anne Liu, Parsa Kamali
The External Relationship Officers are liaisons between the GSD
student body, the greater Harvard community, and design schools and
professional initiatives of the region. They represent the
student body at the Harvard
Graduate Council biweekly meetings, other graduate school's student
government sessions and university-wide community events.
The External Relations Officers inform the GSD community of events of interest in the larger Harvard and design community. In Fall of 2004, the first contacts were established with other design school’s student governments. Through these new lines of communication, these officers act as “ambassadors” to other universities and articulates and communicates activities of interest.
Since this is a new position initiated Fall 2004, there is flexibility in defining its role.
Alumni Relations Officer: Lauren Kim
The Alumni Relations Officer seeks to improve interaction between the
student body and the alumni. More specifically, the Alumni Relations
Officer interacts with Career
Services, the Development
and Alumni Relations Office, and the Alumni
Council. This officer position represents student forum once per
semester at the Alumni Council meeting at the GSD and meets monthly
with the Alumni and Development Office.
Ongoing projects include the development of a student-accessible Alumni
Directory for purposes of mentoring and career advice. Since this is
a relatively new position that started in Spring 2003, there is flexibility
in defining the role of this position.
Infrastructure Chairs: Lesley McTague, Derek Galey
The liaison between computer
resources, building
services, the library
and the student body who works to improve the physical environment of
Gund Hall. Meets with the Director
of Computer Resources, the Facilities
Manager and the Librarian
of the Frances Loeb Library, at least once at the beginning of the
semester and then as needed. Sends out a survey to gauge student concerns
and address issues with the appropriate person or department each semester.
Also, this officer Initiates relevant campaigns to improve the GSD such
as finding a way to improve the temperature control in the building,
implement the use of recycled paper, etc. Since this is a relatively
new position started in Spring 2003, there is flexibility in defining
the role of this position.
Media Relations Officer: Wes Thomas
The media relations officer maintains all student based web media, including the Student Forum website, and students.gsd. Specifically in the fall semester, this officer sets up the online voting web pages for the Student Forum elections and in both semesters, creates and administers the web pages for GSD and non-GSD students to purchase Student Forum event tickets online. This officer is the student liaison for Computer Resources and the webmaster, and approves bulk Student Forum emails, LCD panel uploads and Events Calendar submissions.