Graduate Student Association

Call for Candidates

On April 7 – 10, 2025 the following offices will be filled through a general election of graduate students at UB:

 PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

TREASURER

The stipends for each of these positions is $20,000.  Elected officers must be physically present at the University at Buffalo and available to serve in the duties of their office from June 1, 2025 until May 31, 2026.

 Any student enrolled in a department that is currently represented by GSA, who has attended at least two Board of Directors meetings within the past twelve months, is in good academic standing, and who attends the February 5^th, March 5^th, and April 2^nd Board of Directors meetings, shall be eligible to run for office. 

  *Please note that international students holding an assistantship or any other employment will be restricted by federal work regulations and may not be eligible to run for office under United States Law.*

 Petition packets for candidacy are now available by email request to the Election Committee Chair (contact information below) and are due back by Friday, February 21, 2025 at 4:30pm.  Absolutely NO late submissions will be accepted.

 All prospective candidates must attend a mandatory meeting with members of the Election Committee where the Election Rules and Regulations will be handed out and reviewed.  Meetings will be arranged between prospective candidates and the Election Committee to occur between Thursday, February 27, 2025 and Wednesday, March 5, 2025.

 Please contact the Election Committee Chair, Devaleena Kalita (devaleen@buffalo.edu) with any questions, or to inquire about the details of the application procedure and formalities.

Please note that GSA will be closing for Winter Break from Tuesday, December 10th to Thursday, January 2nd.  Because of this, all paperwork for requisitions and payments that your club wishes to be processed before this shut down will be due by Wednesday, December 4^th.  Any requisitions or payment documentation submitted after this date will not be processed until after we re-open, which means that approvals and checks will not be available until mid to late January.

GSA Winter Break Schedule:

• GSA open through Monday, December 9^th
• GSA closed Tuesday, December 10^th until Thursday, January 2^nd
• GSA on Summer Hours Thursday, January 2^nd – Tuesday, January 21^st
  • Open Monday – Thursday 8:30am – 4:00pm, closed on Fridays
• GSA closed Monday, January 20^th for MLK Jr. Day observance (University Closed)
• Regular Business Hours resume Wednesday, January 22^nd with the start of the Spring semester

Check out some of the great events GSA has to offer!

Provided by your mandatory student activity fee.

Teaching Assistants and Graduate Assistants represented by the Graduate Student Employees Union are currently bargaining to replace their collective agreement that expired a year and a half ago. They are asking for community support on their petition calling on SUNY and NY state to stop refusing to bargain in good faith over key provisions like health and safety, discrimination protections, international student support, and much more. Please support union grad workers by signing the petition and sharing with your colleagues:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/gseu-fair-contract-now/

Tell us about your experiences with conference funding! Grad students: GSA’s Services Committee is conducting a report to evaluate our conference funding program. If you want to help us continually improve our services, please fill out the following survey by Friday, November 8th: https://forms.gle/A7goFXz1yPcRtUab6

If you’d like to share your perspective in an in-depth way, we are also conducting a focus group! If you are interested in participating in this group later in November, apply to join here: https://forms.gle/Nfma45HCeHWFtsbW8 We will serve free refreshments.

Check out some of the great events GSA has to offer!

Provided by your mandatory student activity fee.

Each year COAL releases an application for a programming grant that is a joint collaboration between COAL and Faculty Student Association (FSA) that allows any recognized student government club to apply for a programming grant to create a new program, expand a current program or produce a publication. This is an opportunity for clubs to create a large-scale program that impacts a huge portion of the student body, and it can be a great way to express your club’s creativity. Funding is up to $5,000 for a program or publication.

An important note, if you submit a grant and receive funding, you cannot change what items you proposed that you needed and you also cannot ask for a higher amount if the amount you requested and got approved for does not satisfy the amount for which the program would have cost, so be very mindful in what items you mention.

Reminder: Applications are due on September 27th by 11:59pm so please begin speaking to your E-boards on possible event ideas and ensure that you give yourselves enough time to find product costs and make meetings with your student government president and treasurer to discuss your ideas because they will give the final go-ahead and signature prior to submissions and the overall COAL vote in October.

Please see the COAL Programming Grant guidelines that further establish the rules and information that needs to be provided by submitting clubs/organizations and the Programming Grant Presentation.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the GSA President (gsa-president@buffalo.edu)

**COAL Grant submissions must be submitted to this form link: https://forms.office.com/r/bVLDPdhjaL**

UB Athletics is looking for graduate student feedback so that they can come up with promotions and ticket options that graduate students would enjoy.  Please use the link below to complete the survey by September 18th.

https://UBBulls.formstack.com/forms/ub_football_student_survey_copy