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Our Policy Platform

Last updated 2019 January 23

Rights and Diversity

The GSO firmly supports:

1. Protecting the First Amendment rights of students to publish scholarly work and to engage in advocacy, lobbying, and debate without fear of reprisal.
2. Protecting the rights of all students regardless of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, employment status, marital status, national or ethnic origin, or immigration status.
3. All efforts that encourage diversity both inside and outside the classroom at institutions of higher learning.
4. Policies that increase the ease of access to public records, including affordable access and increased online availability of public documents.
5. Policies that provide complete privacy protection for student treatment records at postsecondary institutions to prevent disclosure to any party not directly involved in the treatment of the student without the student’s consent, regardless of whether any previous disclosure has occurred.
6. Policies that ensure that personal information about a student or students, held by a postsecondary institution, is always maintained securely and never disclosed unnecessarily or inappropriately.
7. Policies that forbid university faculty and staff from demanding information from students, including account credentials for electronic or online services, that could be used against the students in any university process, including the university disciplinary process.
8. Policies that ensure students are always given appropriate credit for their work.
9. Protecting open and equal access to the internet.

The GSO firmly opposes:

10. Policies that disrupt students’ wellness, work, or studies.

Quality of Life

The GSO firmly supports:

11. Policies that ensure that Syracuse University graduate student income covers the cost of living and remains competitive with graduate student income at peer institutions and that all humans are paid a living wage.
12. Access to affordable and comprehensive healthcare, including mental health care, dental, and vision coverage, for all graduate students and their dependents. Coverage should apply regardless of where students live or work.
13. Medical leave policies for all students that ensure access to all services, rights, and privileges of active students, including medical insurance and stipend support.
14. Policies that effectively prevent sexual/relationship misconduct, abuse, and harassment; reinforce Title IX protections; provide resources and support for survivors; and result in fair and timely investigations with appropriate consequences for perpetrators.
15. Access to gender neutral paid parental leave for all graduate students.
16. Access to affordable, quality childcare both on and off campus for all graduate students.
17. Access to affordable, quality housing, accessible from Syracuse University, for all members of graduate student households.
18. Policies and developments that increase the availability, quality, affordability, and safety of transportation services and infrastructure used by students.
19. Access to affordable, quality options for shopping, dining, and basic services both on and off campus.
20. Extension of benefits and resources to graduate students that are currently exclusively offered to undergraduates to the extent to which those benefits are relevant to the graduate population.
21. Provision of convenient, fair, and safe restrooms for graduate students of all gender identities.
22. Policies, programs, and activities that improve the relationship between Syracuse University and the local community.
23. Policies, programs, and activities that increase community service by the Syracuse University community to the Syracuse area.
24. Efforts to protect the environment both on campus and globally.
25. Measures that enable the Syracuse University community and all individual members to decrease their carbon footprints.
26. Measures that improve relationships between advisor and advisee and enhance the mentoring skills of faculty generally.

Civic Engagement and Voting Rights

The GSO firmly supports:

27. Policies and programs that increase the civic engagement of the Syracuse University community.
28. Policies and programs that protect and promote the voting rights of students.
29. Policies and programs that maximize access to the polls for students eligible to vote.
30. Allowing international students to vote in municipal elections.
31. Adoption of voting methods that more accurately reflect the preferences of voters.

Higher Education Funding

The GSO firmly supports: 

32. Efforts to increase the amount of funding provided for colleges and universities.
33. The expansion of graduate fellowship and need-based scholarship programs, especially those that provide educational opportunities to traditionally underrepresented groups and underfunded disciplines.
34. Policies and programs that ensure higher education is affordable for all.
35. Policies that ensure that tax benefits are fairly applied to graduate students given their unique financial situation.

Research and Development Funding

The GSO firmly supports:

36. Policies that encourage public and private investments in research and development.
37. Policies that promote the use of federal discretionary spending for research and development that supports grants and fellowships at institutions of higher education.

The GSO firmly opposes:

38. Policies that allow institutions to bias, censor, or influence the outcomes of research.

International Student Issues

The GSO firmly supports:

39. All measures that enable international students, research staff, faculty, and their families to obtain; maintain; update; and renew their visas and legal status, and enter and leave the US unimpeded.
40. Student visa policy that allows international students to participate in the same extracurricular, educational, training, and on-campus employment opportunities during their studies that are available to domestic students, and that allows their spouses to pursue employment opportunities in the United States.
41. All measures that make more employment opportunities and more employment-based visas available to international students who obtain their graduate degrees in the US.
42. Policies that encourage entrepreneurship and enable international students and graduates of US universities to found companies in the US.
43. Expanding pathways to citizenship for international students.
44. Pathways to obtaining citizenship for undocumented students.
45. Policies that allow students to complete their degrees overseas in the event of an inability to stay in the US.

The GSO firmly opposes:

46. Any government actions that would result in the deportation of students enrolled at Syracuse University, including undocumented students, or would limit the future admission of undocumented students.

Promoting Research

The GSO firmly supports:

47. Federal initiatives to increase the public dissemination of scholarly research products.
48. Open access to resources resulting from federally funded research, including but not limited to textbooks, publications, data sets, and software.
49. Taking action on issues raised by the scientific and academic communities.
50. Research on issues crucial to society’s well-being.
51. Strengthening ties between policy makers and experts in the academic and scientific communities.
52. Using research findings to inform policy decision making.
53. Efforts to promote the study and monitoring of climate change and its effects.
54. Proactive efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, including but not limited to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
55. Policies that ensure academic work may be completed irrespective of time, place, or circumstance.