UMGSA General Council
The UMGSA General Council is made up of representatives from over 40 departments at the University of Manitoba who vote on issues that affect graduate student life. Take a look at the list below and see if your department is represented. There are great reasons to make sure that your department is represented on council, including the department grant you receive twice a year for participation. If your department isn’t on the list below, follow our step-by-step guide on how to become a councillor. If you want to get to know your councillor, contact us and we will put you in touch with the representative from your department.
What does General Council do? Councillors meet monthly (usually the fourth Wednesday of the month) in the UMGSA Lounge at 221 University Centre (or on Zoom during COVID-19). The UMGSA Executives report to council about what their committees are working on, Executives relay updates about university administration, councillors share news from their departments, and council discusses and votes on issues that affect graduate student life. If you have an issue that you would like to have discussed at General Council contact us, or your departmental representative and they can advocate on your behalf. If you would like to learn more about the UMGSA Executives, you can read their profiles or familiarize yourself with their duties in the Governance and Operations Manual.
If you want to know what goes on at a UMGSA General Council meeting, you can read the minutes of past meetings here. Guests are also welcome, so feel free to join us for a General Council meeting to see what it’s all about.
Departments and Representatives on UMGSA General Council
Faculty of Agricultural & Food Science
Agribusiness and Agri-Economics: Damla Oz
Animal Science: Daphne McKnight
Biosystems Engineering: Olayinka Folorunsho & Mujibur Rahman
Entomology: Joel Gardner
Food Science: Susane Trevisan
Human Nutritional Sciences: Luis Cordero-Monroy
Plant Science: Jacob Kolody & Sampa Sarker
Soil Science: Claudia Quilesfogel-Esparza & Kody Oleson
Faculty of Architecture
Architecture: Alixa Lacerna & Zahra Sharifi Mahrjardi
City Planning: Jakub Marshall & Dom Camps
Interior Design: Symrath Bali
Landscape Architecture: Christopher Speirs
Faculty of Arts
Anthropology: Olajumoke Olalere
English, Film, Theatre, and Media: Amy-Leigh Gray
History: Cara Ginter
Linguistics: Oluwakemi Kolapo
Political Studies & Public Administration: Divya Negi
Psychology: Nicolas Brais & Reegan McCheyne
Sociology & Criminology: Jihad (Rosty) Othman
Asper School of Business
Asper – Master of Finance: (Evelyn) Siyao Zhang
Management – MBA: Abhinandan Khansali
Faculty of Education
Education – PhD: Golnaz Shirzadi
Education – Admin, Foundations & Psychology: Rebecca Balakrishnan
Education – Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Mousume Akhter Flora
Faculty of Engineering
Biomedical Engineering: Debarati Nath
Civil Engineering: Parvin Berenjkar
Electrical & Computer Engineering: Abolfazl Babaei & Amirmasoud Amirkabiri
Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources
Environment & Geography: Agoston (Ago) Fischer & Patricia Montalvo-Rodriguez
Geological Sciences: Aaron Kilmury
Natural Resources Institute: Michael Bagamery & Brendan Middel
Faculty of Graduate Studies
Applied Health Sciences: Kevin Boreskie & Zach Henderson
Faculty of Kinesiology & Recreation Management
Kinesiology & Recreation Management: Ganesh Tailor & Olivia Tefft
Faculty of Nursing
Nursing: Jessica Meilleur & Brittany Silverstein
Faculty of Science
Biological Sciences: Emma Rempel
Chemistry: Scott Legare
Computer Science: Kimia Shadkami
Mathematics: YG Liang
Microbiology: Dustin Maydaniuk
Physics & Astronomy: Kyle Monkman
If you would like contact information for any of the above councillors please e-mail our Governance and Communications Coordinator with your question and request at: gcc@umgsa.org
You may also want to contact your department’s graduate student advisor or graduate chair for more information about getting involved at the department level.