SBGradMag Stony Brook's Graduate Student Magazine

Ryan Soule spent May in the striking mountains of the American west, hiking, fishing, and camping in California's Yosemite National Park. Then he returned to Long Island to take on a different set of mountains—those composed of paperwork related to his position as Treasurer of Stony Brook University's Graduate Student Organization.

"I basically spent June and July combing through what seemed like an endless stack of last minute funding applications, mostly for the Resource Access Project," Soule explains. "Students apply for subsidies related to qualifying academic travel expenses and it's the Treasurer's responsibility to go through them and make sure everything's accounted for."

Soule, a second year M.A. student in Stony Brook's Political Science department, was elected as the G.S.O.'s Treasurer in the spring 2006 election. He's a member of the Executive Board, hence he works directly with the students elected to serve as President, Vice President, and Secretary. The Speaker of the Senate, the fifth member of the Executive Board, is elected directly by the full Senate in the fall.

Though Soule is serving on the Executive Board this coming year, he initially became involved with the G.S.O. during the 2005-2006 academic year by serving as a senator from his department. "I just felt it was important for someone from my program to get involved, especially considering the program’s growth each year," Soule says. "When I found out our department could have a second senator, I decided to do it myself." After gathering the requisite number of signatures from students in his department, he began his senatorial tasks, which involved attending G.S.O. Senate meetings, voting on a variety of campus issues, and communicating information to other graduate students in his department.

"It’s a paradox that I ran for Senate uncontested in a political science department," Soule observes. "But I think it's probably because a lot of people in my department are already involved with politics on some level outside of the university. Plus a lot of students in my particular program are around for maybe a year and then they graduate, or they’re part-time and aren’t around campus much in the first place. As a result, they might feel that there isn’t all that much at stake for them in campus affairs."

But according to Soule, the benefits of being involved with the G.S.O. are unique because of the impact the G.S.O. has on the university community. Because the G.S.O. receives money from the student activity fee and R.A.P. grants from other organizations, it's able to finance a variety of programs that benefit graduate students at Stony Brook. For instance, the G.S.O. processes R.A.P. payments, which Soule dedicated time and effort to after returning from his trip to Yosemite. As Soule explains, R.A.P. is important because it helps make Stony Brook research possible not only around the country, but around the world.

The G.S.O. also provides a variety of other programs to its members—programs that could potentially make a real difference in the lives of average Stony Brook graduate students. "The exec. board recently initiated two programs that should be of interest to grad students," Soule explains. "First, there's the Graduate Student Emergency Loan Fund, or G.S.E.L.F., for short. It provides short-term loans to students who have expenses related to family emergencies. The other program is the Legal Clinic, and it'll be available to students every other week starting in September. Its purpose is to provide graduate students who have limited resources with access to free legal advice."

Soule's extensive involvement with the G.S.O. makes his commitment to the organization's mission evident. Indeed, his responsibilities with the G.S.O. come in addition to those he already has working full-time in Intellectual Property Law and as a student. Perhaps the only disappointing aspect of his position is the heightened awareness of how very few Stony Brook students actually become involved with graduate student government affairs, even if involvement simply means voting at the end of the year. "You know, there are thousands of graduate students at Stony Brook, but only about five hundred voted in the last election," Soule explains, perhaps with a hint of frustration in his voice.

Ultimately, Soule hopes more students at the university, particularly M.A. and part-time students, will get involved, if not as senators, then perhaps through committee assignments. As Treasurer, he is a member of both the Budget and Lounge Committees, the latter of which deals with issues pertaining to Stony Brook's University Café, a venue that aims to cater primarily to grad students by providing them with a fun, on-campus place to study, meet friends, or listen to live bands over the weekend. "The reality is that grad students are working to make ends meet and studying to keep a good G.P.A.," Soule observes with clear empathy for the average graduate student's plight. "But we really do want more students to get involved. What the G.S.O. does is important, and I'm involved because I'm proud to go to Stony Brook. Anything I can do to enhance the quality of life for grad students here is an honor for me."

By Liliana M. Naydan

Questions or comments? Ryan Soule, M.A. student in Political Science at Stony Brook University and 2006-2007 G.S.O. Treasurer, can be contacted via email at ryansoule2000@yahoo.com. Liliana Naydan, SBGradMag editor, can be contacted at lnaydan@ic.sunysb.edu. Photograph courtesy of Ryan Soule, who appears on the right in the photo with friend Deepak Dathatri to the left.