Patrick Neary came to Syracuse University to pursue a doctoral degree in mathematics, but ended up focusing less on partial differential equations and more on making sure teaching assistants are paid what they deserve.

As his two-year term as Graduate Student Organization president comes to a close, Neary said the opportunity has equipped him with invaluable skills and experiences that he plans to apply beyond the realm of SU. Can Aslan, a graduate student in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, will be the next president of GSO.

Last week, Neary attended at least four meetings in one day to meet with administrators on the state of the health care plan for graduate students. The university announced in March that it would require all graduate students, international students and incoming students to have an insurance plan compliant with the Affordable Care Act by next year.

Neary said it’s not uncommon for professors in his department to ask, “Are you doing your math, Patrick?”

He’s enjoyed being GSO president so much that he hopes to enter university administration once he graduates. After working with Chancellor Kent Syverud, Senior Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz and other SU administrators to help advocate for students, Neary said he realized that college campuses are “an incredibly unique place.”

“Nowhere else do you have a private institution that has such open democratic processes,” Neary said. “It’s unheard of in pretty much any other aspect of the world, in that sense.”

Neary hinted that he may even ask Kantrowitz or Syverud for a letter of recommendation in the future.

“I’ve always enjoyed the fact that I do get a bit of a special perspective, it’s why I want to do university administration after this,” Neary said. “I do get a perspective that a lot of other people, even a lot of faculty members, don’t get.”

During meetings, he and Student Association President Boris Gresely are often the only people under 30 years old — and yet they provide some of the most invaluable feedback for administrators. This was especially true in the fall, when Neary and Gresely had to deal with THE General Body, a coalition of student organizations, and how to approach their list of grievances and demands.

Neary said the situation presented an interesting challenge because the GSO and SA are charged with advocating for their respective student body’s needs, but they couldn’t completely endorse THE General Body’s platform because it didn’t represent the opinions of the entire campus.

“I think when students are talking about those sorts of things it’s not bad, but you also have to be careful about reallocating those resources,” Gresely said. “Those resources are going to a thing that not necessarily the entire student body would want.”

Gresely and Neary were in constant contact throughout THE General Body’s 18-day sit-in and have worked closely since coming into office — more closely than most SA and GSO presidents in the past, Gresely said.

Though SA represents a constituency more than twice the size of the graduate student population, graduate students are in some ways more diverse than the undergraduate population, Gresely said. They are mostly international students and aren’t following the typical undergraduate track of four years at the university, he said.

“The level of engagement is rough because since you have people who are only here for a certain period of time, it’s hard to engage them in what’s going on, compared to undergraduates where you know they’re here for four years and it’s a reoccurring thing,” Gresely said.

Neary also became GSO president when SU had an interim chancellor. He said the transition into new leadership made it difficult to get his initiatives resolved. Many of his plans were put on hold for a year, he added.

But once Syverud became chancellor, Neary said he wanted to start “hauling ass” in trying to make changes and become a better university — much like Neary’s original goals for GSO when he became president in 2013. Soon after Syverud took office, Neary said the GSO’s efforts to be heard paid off.

“A lot of it really was, you know, if I can just bring this to somebody’s attention, I’m thinking we can get it fixed,” Neary said.

Published on April 26, 2015 at 9:35 pm

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu