STUDENT FORUM OFFICERS SPRING 2008 - FALL 2008

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 Assistant Dean of Student Services, Laura Snowdon, to communicate and resolve student concerns. The specific officer positions and the current representatives are below:

Academic President: Ashley Hereen
Events President: Aimee Epstein
Treasurer: Michelle Chang
Academic Chair: Peter Ortner
Events Chair: Patricia Ebner, Tanya Paz and Anna Protasevich
Internal Relations Officer: Ryan Bollom
External Relations Officer: Quilian Riano
Alumni Relations: Ben Lehrer
Infrastructure Chair: Derek Chan
Media Relations Officer: Neil Freeman

Academic President: Ashley Hereen

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.

Events President: Aimee Epstein

In charge of overseeing all student events Student Forum holds. In addition to facilitating the planning of the two large GSD social events, the Fall and Spring parties, this officer coordinates the Welcome Back and Spring picnics, community service and outreach activities.

The Events President represents the school in external relations with past vendors, etc. and creates new relationships when possible. In this position, it helps to be able to know how to negotiate, budget and be firm. The role of Events President is multi-faceted but it adds up to one task: making sure the student body gets out of Gund Hall and has a good time!

Treasurer: Michelle Chang

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: Peter Ortner

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 Chair: Patricia Ebner, Tanya Paz and Anna Protasevich

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 Officer: Ryan Bollom

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 Officer: Quilian Riano

The External Relationship Officer is the liaison between the GSD
student body, the greater Harvard community, and design schools and professional initiatives of the region. This officer represents 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 Officer informs the GSD community of events of interest in the larger Harvard and design community. This fall, the first contacts were established with other design school’s student governments. Through these new lines of communication, this officer acts as an “ambassador” 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: Ben Lehrer

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 Chair: Derek Chan

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: Neil Freeman

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.