Council of Graduate Students
at The Ohio State University

CGS Senator FAQs

CGS Senator Job Duties, Expectations, & FAQs

This page is under construction, we will be updating it with information and additional details as we craft them. 

Job Duties (As Outlined in CGS Governing Documents)

Section 5.6   Attendance

5.6.C   All Senators must strive to attend, or provide a written report for, every Delegate meeting.

Section 6.3   The term of service will be for one year, beginning in Autumn semester and lasting until the end of the following Summer term.

Section 6.4 These Senators will have the following responsibilities:

6.4.A   Senators will strive to attend all meetings of their respective committees, the University Senate, and the Council of Graduate Students.

6.4.B   Senators will report to CGS on their activities within the Senate monthly via a written summary to be included in the Delegate meeting packet.

6.4.C   Senators will consult with the President and the Council to develop and promote graduate student positions on the issues or proposals considered by those bodies.

Running for & Being a CGS Senator (from the perspective of former CGS Senators)

  • What general advice would you give to senator applicants/those running for senator?

    • "You’re a grad student right? Do your research! Look at different senate committees at senate.osu.edu, find you’d like to make a difference. Reach out to current senators and ask about their time on those committees! CGS’s appointees to committees are here. If you aren’t entirely sure and want to get a holistic overview email the current Senate Caucus Chair for CGS."

    • "Submit your materials on time if you plan on running, if you submit late you will have to wait for the next cycle and/or senate opening."

    • "If you do not get elected, stay involved in CGS and run again."

  • What advice would you give for preparing for elections/Q&A?

    • "Be honest and genuine. Explain the difference you want to make."

    • "Do your research on the senate committees, know which ones you would like to join and why. Draw on past work, academic, and other experiences for why you would be better than another senator for a committee."

    • "Some answers to questions may be similar to other candidates but still try to add something else to it even if you acknowledge your answer is similar."

  • What tips do you have for balancing the senator role with your own work as a student (and appointments if you are a GA elsewhere)?

    • "Time management is important. Utilize Outlook/ a calendar if you have not already. Put classes, standing meetings, CGS meetings and anything else in the calendar (dropping off friend to airport) this will help with identifying when you are free for committee meetings or other meetings that may come up. "

    • "It has been my experience that my involvement with CGS as a Senator posed no need for intentional "balancing time"."

    • "Ensure you’re free when your senate committee meets. Have a dependable alternate who can attend meetings on your behalf / take notes / convey what you need conveyed to the group."

  • What's your average weekly/monthly work breakdown (hours-wise, both holistically and broken out for different job duties like CGS/Senate meetings, committee specific meetings, different job duties)?

    • "My commitments strictly related to sitting as a Senator are attending the Committee on Academic Technology and the University Research Committee meetings, which are both once a month and both for 1 hour plus the Senate general body meetings that are also once a month for 90 minutes plus the monthly Grad Caucus briefing meeting, which has routinely run 80-90 minutes so far this academic year. I attend the monthly CGS general body meetings in my roles as Senator and Delegate from my unit, and those tend to run about 90 minutes. All put together, I estimate that the time I contribute to all of this outside of meetings (writing my monthly updates ahead of the CGS general body meeting and reading meeting agendas ahead of time) is not more than 1 hour a month. Those figures come to a grand total of about 7.5 hours a month. As expressed above, I have never felt like this has interfered with my concurrent roles as a 50% FTE GRA and a 25% FTE GTA."

    • "Not sure but probably around 8-10 hours a month (Example: 2 hours for CGS, 2 hours for Senate Meeting, 1 hours for Grad Caucus Meeting, 1.5 hours for committee meeting, 4 hours for other meetings depending on role)"

    • "Part of it is very set, 1 hour a month for grad caucus, 2 hours a month for senate meetings. Then the Senate committee you’re on themselves. This heavily depends. Some meet every week for an hour. Some meet once a month for 2 hours. Some meet every other month."

  • What does your day-to-day work in your role as a CGS senator look like?

    • "It varies; you could have a 4+ meetings in 10 days or could have 0 meetings. Any work to prepare for meetings will also vary depending on requests and needs."

    • "If it were not for notifications from other people talking in the CGS Senators group chat, I would probably forget I am a Senator for days at a time until one of my recurring commitments came up on my Outlook calendar. The role is simply showing up to committee meetings, speaking up when issues impacting grad students are being discussed, and updating everyone on what is happening that impact grad students."

  • What are common myths or misconceptions about your role as a CGS senator?
    • "That you aren’t doing meaningful work. Every senate does extremely important work that meaningfully influences how the university functions."
  • What's the biggest challenge in your role as CGS senator? 

    • "Keeping track of the meetings, Outlook helps."

    • "Ensuring you feel confident to speak up when you’re the only student (or one of them) in a room full of administrators, professors, staff, etc. Working as equals with them."

  • What's your favorite part of this role?

    • "Being able to meet with internal and external stakeholders as well finding out more about professionals and their roles at the University. It is a great experience that certainly has transferrable skills even if one is choosing to not pursue roles in higher education post graduation. "

    • "Learning about how a university functions and meeting some other very dedicated people who care about students / the university at large."

  • What's a piece of advice you would've given when you first started as a senator?


    • "Talk to the last senator who served on your committee. Ask them what the work is like / how the committee functions. Talk to the committee chair when you start serving on the committee, understand the goals for the year, see how you can help. Make sure you talk to graduate students to get their perspectives on things, this of course means talking to CGS delegates, other senators, etc."


    • "Be open to the experience, which ever committee you are assigned to. Be ready to be called upon a lot for input your perspective as a student is valued by faculty and staff members."