Parkville Station

GSA President resigns

The Graduate Student Association (GSA) is the University’s representative body for postgraduate students. GSA funds postgraduate clubs and organises events aiming to improve the university experience for students studying graduate diplomas, postgraduate diplomas, Masters and PhDs. It is governed by a Council of 15 elected students, from whom the President is elected each year in May.

On Thursday 25th February, however, the GSA saw its third President for the 2015/16 term of office, with the resignation of Jim Smith and the election of Sina Khatami. Jim Smith has stepped down after being elected President of CAPA — the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.

In an email to all GSA Councilors last Monday, Smith noted that it was “truly [his] intention to see out the term” but that his “new role at CAPA has made it infeasible to effectively manage both jobs”. He will be staying on as a Councillor until his term expires in 2017, and will be providing “full support to the new President as they settle into the role”. While stepping down from the Presidency, Smith has been elected unopposed as GSA Vice President.

Steve Brown accepted the role in May last year in a transitionary capacity, knowing that he would have to resign within months due to graduating, which he did. Jim Smith was then elected unopposed in a by-election. Sina Khatami is a PhD candidate in Infrastructure Engineering, and has been a long-time GSA Councillor. He was elected unopposed on Thursday.

At its Thursday meeting, the GSA also elected Keyvan Allahyari, Georgia Daly and Lida Rashidi to fill casual vacancies within the GSA Council.

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