Council of Graduate Students

at The Ohio State University

President

Jorge E. Clavo Abbass, MA

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Bio: 

Jorge E. Clavo Abbass (he/him/his) is a PhD student in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the Ohio State University. Clavo Abbass obtained his Bachelor of Arts with honors in Germanic Studies with a minor in Human Rights from the University of Chicago in 2019 and his Master of Arts in Germanic Languages and Literatures from the Ohio State University in 2021. He has also been an exchange student at the Faculty of History at the Universität Wien in Vienna, Austria.

His interests, academically and personally, are significantly shaped by his multicultural identity and upbringing; Clavo Abbass is a Spanish international student of Lebanese descent born in Venezuela and raised in the United States. As a low-income, first-generation minoritized person in German Studies, Clavo Abbass' research foregrounds questions of identity, inclusion, and social justice within the context of German language pedagogy. His current research interests lie in motivations, attitudes, ideologies, and practices regarding usage of English by instructors and students in the introductory and intermediate German language and culture university classroom. Clavo Abbass expects to stand for candidacy in the autumn of 2023.

At Ohio State, Clavo Abbass has been appointed as a Graduate Teaching Associate, serving as instructor of record in teaching the German 1101/1102/1103 introductory language and culture courses in in-person, accelerated, and distance learning modalities. Before becoming President, Clavo Abbass twice served as his department’s delegate in the Council of Graduate Students, and has also served on the International Student Affairs, Ray Travel Award, and Diversity and Inclusion internal committees, and has externally represented CGS in the Graduate Council and the University Conduct Board. He has also served as the treasurer of the Germanic Graduate Student Association and as an executive board member of the 14th Annual GGSA Conference organizing committee.

Before his time at Ohio State, Clavo Abbass worked as a collaborator in the Permanent Mission of Spain to the OSCE in Vienna, Austria, where he represented his country in diplomatic summits and meetings, wrote speeches for the Ambassador-Permanent Representative, and drafted classified diplomatic cables. Clavo Abbass also worked for the University of Chicago’s Office of College Admissions in a community outreach position, where he leveraged institutional knowledge and personal experience to render higher education accessible to students at a high school on the West Side of Chicago in a majority Hispanic, low-income community. He has also held positions in the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

 

Roles & Responsibilities: 

As laid out in the CGS Constitution (Section 8.3) the President's duties are as follows:

  • The President will preside over all meetings of the Council as the Chair.
  • The President will select the time and place of all regular and special meetings of the Council. All meeting locations must be ADA accessible and hybrid capable. The President must inform the graduate student body in writing of the time and place chosen for each regular meeting of a semester by no later than the tenth day of that semester.
  • The President will serve as a liaison between CGS and the Graduate School, the University administration, and The Ohio State University Board of Trustees.
  • The President will be responsible for ensuring the Council’s compliance with all fiscal and personnel policies of the Council, University, state, and federal government.
  • The President will serve as an ex officio member of the University Senate and its Steering Committee.
  • The President will appoint a Parliamentarian and has the power to appoint a Chief of Staff if they so choose. These appointments will be subject to approval by simple majority vote by the Executive Committee.
  • The President will be responsible for implementing and enacting all decisions of the Council and will fulfill other duties as directed by the consensus of the Council and the Executive Committee.
  • *** This officership is a .5 FTE GAship through the Office of Student Life.
  • *** This officership traditionally serves as the Chair of the Universty Senate Graduate Compensation and Benefits Committee, for which the Chair receives a stipend whose amount is determined by the University Senate Steering Committee in the spring semester.
  • *** This officership is eligible to use a CGS-owned A parking pass for CGS business.