Graduate Student Organizations (GSOs)

Graduate Student Organizations are the lifeblood of GSS; they provide a social, political, and cultural context for graduate students. Every student is encouraged to either join an existing GSO or start your own.

Sections:

GSO List
Registering a New GSO
GSO Forms and Policies

GSO List

If your GSO is not listed here, if you have a webpage (not linked here) for your group, or if you want space on this site to create a page for your GSO, please contact us.

• AGASA-- African Graduate Scholars Association
  • AGASA aims to promote interests of African Scholars and Graduate students.
  • Officers
    • President: Daniel Koroma, koroma at educ.umass.edu
    • Vice-president: Augusta S. Mfuko, amfuko at educ.umass.edu
    • Secretary: Ekundayo Shittu, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
      

• Anthropology Graduate Student Caucus
  • The purpose of the group is to discuss and represent the concerns of graduate students in the anthropology department.
  • Officers:
    
    • Chair: Angela Labrador, alabra at anthro.umass.edu
    • Vice Chair: Siobhan Hart, smhart at anthro.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Ann Stewart, astewart at anthro.umass.edu

• Armenian Students Association
  • Armenian Students Association aims to represent the Armenian community at UMass, Amherst.
  • Officers:
    • Co-chair: Davit Khachatryan, khachat at som.umass.edu
    • Co-chair: Viktor Grigoryan, grigoryan at math.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Alec Derian, alecderian at gmail.com
• Art of Living Club
  • Art of Living Club aims to organise self-development, stress elimination and life skills development program & seminars on campus.
  • Officers
    • Co-chair: Ujjwala Dandekar, ujjwala.dandekar at gmail.com
    • Co-chair: Ashish Sahu, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

• Asian Americans For Political Awareness (AAPA)
  
  • The mission of AAPA is to provide a space for students to teach, learn, explore, and address social, political and identity issues pertaining to the Asian/Asian American experience on the local, national and global level. In addition, we also strive to address the concerns of the Asian American experience through educational and political awareness on the UMass campus...
  • Officers:
    • Co-chair: Qingjian Shi, qingjian at student.umass.edu
    • Co-chair: Vi Tran, vhtran at student.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Joongkee Kim, paxmaker at gmail.com
    • GSS rep: Daniel Kim, ddk at comm.umass.edu

• Black Graduate Student Organization
  • The BGSO is an educational organization committed to the identification, development, recruitment, retention, and academic/professional achievement of Black Graduate Students at UMass, Amherst. The goal of BGSO is to promote encourage, and solicit the University's ongoing efforts for students of African descent and other minority students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
  • Officers
    • Co-Chair: Rachel Daniel, rdaniel (at) english.umass.edu
    • Co-Chair: Vanessa Fabien, vfabien (at) afroam.umass.edu
    • Secretary: Patricia Cardoso, pcardoso (at) educ.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Shelly Perdomo, saperdom (at) educ.umass.edu
• Chinese Students & Scholar Association
  • CSSA aims to serve the Chinese community in UMass.
  • Officers
    • President: Gong Zhan, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
• CGSA Communication (DEP)

  • COMM-GRADS is a professional and social community of all communication graduate students. Our objective is to improve the scholarly, collegial, and social atmosphere of the Department of Communication. Our functions are to facilitate the academic, social, and professional well being of graduate students and help to maintain a collaborative, collegial graduate student community.
  • Officers
    • Co-chair: Brent Ingram, bdingram at comm.umass.edu
    • Co-chair: Eve Ng, ecng at comm.umass.edu
    • Secretary: Steph Kent, kentcon at sover.net
    • Treasurer: Kirsten Wisneski, kwisnesk at comm.umass.edu

• Decolonial Research Group
  • The purpose of the Decolonial Research Group is to do research and organize events on various forms of colonial violence occurring through sexism, militarism, racial stratification etc...
  • Officers
    • Co-chair: Katherine Mallory, kemal0 at educ.umass.edu
    • Co-chair: Swati Birla, sbirla at soc.umass.edu
    • Secretary: Erika Marquez, marquez at soc.umass.edu

• Economics Graduate Students Organization (DEP)
  • Egso has been the common voice of Economics graduate students in their struggles to extend the limits of democracy starting with their immediate environments; i.e. their department and UMass community. In this spirit, sub-committees of Egso fulfills important roles from allocation of Teaching Assistanships to socializing (i.e. parties).
  • Officers:
    • Co-chair: Jen Cohen, jencohen at gmail.com
    • Co-chair: Andy Barenberg, andy.barenberg at gmail.com
    • Co-chair: Harry Konstantinidis, ckonstan at econs.umass.edu

• Engineers Without Borders (UMass chapter)

• Engineers Without Borders is a student organization dedicated to helping local and international communities create sustainable solutions to improve their quality of life. We team up with UMass professors and professional engineers to assist in the design process.
• Officers:

• President: Gemma Baro Montes, gemmab at charter.net
• Vice President: Julie Gagen, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
• Treasurer: Cynthia Castellon, ccastell at ecs.umass.edu

• English Graduate Organization (EGO)
  • The purposes of EGO are to advocate for graduate students with and to the faculty; enhance communication within the graduate student community; and outreach and communication.
  • Officers:
    • Coordinator: Aaron Winslow
    • Communications Officer: Lisa Daniels Storey
    • Asst. Coordiantor: Eboni Rafus, erafus at english.umass.edu

• Graduate Art Students Association
  • To provide an organization for art department students to bring visiting artists, curate gallery shows, and organize studio visits. This group also provides a voice of unity that we can take faculty to discuss issues.
  • Officers
    • President: Joetta Mave, joetta_sparks at yahoo.com
    • Vice-president: Megan Randlett, cwhite1707 at earthlink.net
    • Treasurer: Sara Pedigo, spedigo at art.umass.edu

• Graduate History Association (DEP)
  • The purpose of the group is to facilitate academic development of history graduate students and to provide social community.
  • Officers
    • Co-chair: Bill Allen, wallen (at) history.umass.edu
    • Co-chair: Chris Fobare, cfobare (at) history.umass.edu

• IGSCS (Interdepartmental Graduate Student Colloquium Series)
  • The goal of IGSCS is to provide graduate students with an opportunity to learn about research done by graduate students in other disciplines. The series consists of monthly semi-formal lectures given by graduate students about their own research. The lectures are aimed towards people who are not working in the discipline - i.e. no background knowledge of the field is required in order to attend. Nevertheless, the goal is to present current research topics, rather than a general overview of a discipline. Another goal is to generate interdepartmental dialogue - both social and professional.
  • Officers:
    • President: Uri Leibowitz, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
• ISA (Indian Student's Association)
  
  • The purpose of ISA is to support Indian students and provide a forum for cultural diversity at UMass.
  • Officers
    • President: Suraj Jaiswal, sjaiswal at ecs.umass.edu
    • Vice-president: Tejaswini Kale, tkale at chem.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Vishal Gaurav, vgaurav at engin.umass.edu

• ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers), UMass Amherst Chapter
  • The purpose and objectives of this organization shall be to promote the advancement of transportation engineering by fostering the closer association of students with the transportation engineering profession and the Institute of Transportation Engineers, to acquaint student members with topics of interest in transportation engineering, to foster the development of professional spirit, and to promote common interest among the student membership.
  • Officers:
    • President: David S. Hurwitz, dhurwitz (at) student.umass.edu
    • Vice President: Stacy A. Metzger, smetzger (at) student.umass.edu
    • Outreach Coordinator: Arianna M. Mickee, amickee (at) student.umass.edu

• Muslim Student Association
  • Purpose
  • Officers
    • President: Mohamed Hassan, mnsawi at linguist.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Muhammad H. Hamid, mhamid at engin.umass.edu
    • Organizer: Nahla Khalil, nahla at english.umass.edu
• Net Impact
  • Purpose: Net Impact's mission is to improve the world by growing and strengthening a network of new leaders who are using the power of business to make a positive net social, environmental, and economic impact. Net Impact enables and encourages members to use business for social good in their graduate education, communities, and future careers.
  • Officers:
    • President: Kevin Greer, kgreer (at) pubpol.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Will Noto, wnoto (at) som.umass.edu
    • Community Relations Chair: Rohit Mojumder, rmojumde (at) som.umass.edu
    • Curriculum Chair: Mark Thomsen, mthomsen (at) som.umass.edu
    • Events Chair: Danielle Mathras, dmathras (at) som.umass.edu

• Palestine Action Coalition

  • Officers
    • Co-chair: Sofia Checa, scheca at soc.umass.edu

• Postcolonial Studies Reading Group

  • The purpose
  • Officers
    • Co-chair: Kanchuka Dharmasiri, kdharmas at complit.umass.edu
    • Co-chair: Yasser Munif, ymunif at soc.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Elsa Wiehe, ewiehe at educ.umass.edu
• Rumi Club

  • The Purpose of the Rumi Club is to create a platform where people from different cultures, religions and traditions can come together and develop an understanding of each other by emphasizing similarities and common values such as love, compassion high morals and virtues based on Rumi's teachings.
  • Officers
    • President: Serkan Gurbuz, sgurbuz at chem.umass.edu
    • Secretary: Cagatay Capar, ccapar at ecs.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Serdar Haytiyev, haytiyev at mail.pse.umass.edu

• Sociology Graduate Student Association
  • The purpose of the association is to represent graduate students in Sociology department.
  • Officers
    • Co-chair: Kathryn Worley, kworley at soc.umass.edu
    • Co-chair: Sofia Checa, scheca at soc.umass.edu
    • Secretary: Irene Boeckmann, iboeckma at soc.umass.edu
• Student Advisory Group for the Department of Communication Disorders
  • The purpose of this group is to facilitate student-faculty communications.
  • Officers
    • Tariq Ahmed
    • Dimitrios Chamizidis
    • Leah Novotny
    • Bianca LaRose
    • Jacqui Tan

• Turkish Graduate Student Association

  • The purpose of TGSA is to promote and contribute to Turkish culture at UMass, Amherst.
  • Officers
    • President: Gonca Seber, gseber (at) chem.umass.edu
    • Vice-president: Mahmut Varli, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
    • Vice-president: Bugra Toga, ktoga (at) polysci.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Emre Karakurum, ekarakur (at) som.umass.edu

• University of Massachusetts, Amherst Music Theory Society (UMAMTS)
  • UMAMTS is established to promote the professional and social interests of music theory graduate students at UMass.
  • Officers:
    • Peter Fielding, peter.fielding at gmail.com

• UMass Anti-war Coalition
  • We are a group of students, faculty, staff and community members associated with UMass Amherst who are concerned about issues of US foreign policy and its involvement in war. We work with other groups who support these ideas to create awareness about current events, demonstrate direct action and peaceful resistance.
  • Officers:
    • Officer: Steve Zultanski, sszszzzs at gmail.com
    • Treasurer: Sofia Checa, scheca at soc.umass.edu

• UMass Amherst INFORMS Chapter
  • The purpose of the group is to encourage interest in the field of operations research and the management sciences; to provide a means of communication between people with different cultural backgrounds who have interest in the management sciences and operations research; to provide an informal means of exchanging information about operations research and the management sciences educational programs and opportunities and the techniques of these sciences; and to present a forum of visiting or in-house speakers from both academic and non-academic environments.
  • Officers:
    • President: Christian Wernz, cwernz at ecs.umass.edu
    • Vice-president: Qiang (Patrick) Qiang, qqiang at som.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Thomas Lenk, tlenk at engin.umass.edu
    • Secretary: Tara Demeyer, demeyer at math.umass.edu

• UMass Amherst SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Latinos & Native Americans in Science) Chapter

  • The purpose of the group is to increase the number of underrepresented students and K-12 teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Provide a group of support to students and help public schools and other colleges to develop new leaders and help SACNAS mission.
  • Officers:
    • President: Almaris N. Alonso, aalonso at microbio.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Caryl Becerra, cbecerra at microbio.umass.edu
    • Chapter Advisor: Pablo Pomposiello, ppomposi at microbio.umass.edu

• UMass School Psychology Association (UMSPA)
  • UMSPA promotes robust pre-service training through activities that address challenging academic pursuits, engagement in original research, and continued commitment to issues of professional practice.
  • Officers:
    
    • President: Elizabeth Gates, egates at educ.umass.edu
    • Vice-president: Elana Weinberger, elana at educ.umass.edu
    • Treasurer: Lisa Mirabito, lmirabit at educ.umass.edu
    • Secretary: Kira Henninger, klhennin at educ.umass.edu

Registering a New GSO

If none of the above GSOs are for you, then download an application for a new GSO . Minimum requirements for beginning a new GSO are:

GSO Forms and Policies

Ad-Hoc funding application policy : For funding for events, on an individual basis. This money is to be used if a GSO does not have a yearly budget, or has exceeded that budget.

Business expense form : For expenses that are not paid through the University system (i.e. flyers bought off-campus). Expense reimbursements take approximately a month to be processed through the bursar's office (yes, it's really that long!).

Purchase Order

Trust Fund application

A guide for GSO treasurers