Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, an incoming first-year masters student in political economy, is the newly-elected president for the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) for the 2016-17 school year. She ran uncontested in this year’s election.
Currently, she’s a program co-ordinator for the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) Womyn’s Centre and in her final year of undergraduate studies.
As the incoming president, Owusu-Akyeeah said she hopes to increase transparency between the GSA and the graduate student body through implementing an ongoing survey.
“The survey will increase transparency, where students can actually get to have their say be involved in some of the decision-making and definitely see what they want happen,” she said.
She also said she wants to ensure an equal balance between the GSA’s political activities and the organization’s provision of resources to its student body. She hopes the survey will provide more insight into how the students feel about their services.
Another plan she hopes to bring to the GSA is peer-support training for graduate students particularly in regards to helping students of racialized backgrounds.
She said peer-support training would be particularly necessary for graduate students because many of them hold positions of authority as teaching assistants and department representatives.
“I think it’s important for all of them to have this training so that they can help students as much as possible,” she said. “It’s important if a student reaches out to you that you know how to handle [the issue].”
Her team will also be working to bring embedded counselling services to the faculty of graduate studies—separate from undergraduate health and counselling services.
“Grad students are dealing with their own specific type of mental needs considering we are not only students, but we’re workers as well,” she added.
She said her position as the Womyn’s Centre co-ordinator and involvement with CUSA will give her a fresh perspective on student issues. As she interacts with many students of colour and international students, she said she hopes to bring a “lens of cultural diversity” to the GSA.
In regards to the issue of tuition fees, Owusu-Akyeeah said she and her team will “definitely continue the fight.”
“It’s definitely not something where a change will be done overnight,” she said. “It’s definitely an ongoing process. I’m in the interesting position where I’m coming from a student union that doesn’t necessarily have fighting tuition as one of its priorities, so [my experience] gives me a lot of questions to ask.”
Being new to the position and the organization, Owusu-Akyeeah said she definitely has a lot to learn about how the GSA operates and interacts with students and its partners.
“I’m new, but I’m not afraid to say that if I do make a mistake, students will know I made a mistake,” she said.
She also said current GSA president Michael Bueckert will be training her for the job.
“I guarantee you once the training is done, I will be the most equipped and knowledgeable person about the GSA in and out,” she said.
