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Last week I had a meeting with the EGSC graduate student organization, at the request of their Chair, to discuss ongoing changes to the Graduate School at this university. Based on this very positive experience, and a recommendation from the Student Caucus, I have put a call out to all the Presidents of all the registered graduate student organizations in an attempt to bring together the leadership of all of these groups to discuss the future of the Graduate School and to see in what ways the GSG can help these organizations accomplish their goals for this year. I expect that this will be a helpful collaboration.
One of my emerging goals is to ensure that as many parts of our constituent-base as possible know about the ongoing discussions about the future of the Grad School, and to garner as much diverse feedback as I can. If you hold membership in a graduate student organization outside of the GSG, please consider helping me to get onto your agenda sometime in the next month to discuss this issue.
For those of your unfamiliar with the issue, the Graduate School and the Division of Research have been fully separated and are now under the leadership of a separate Dean of Graduate Studies and a Vice President for Research. Additionally, the Graduate School has been greatly downsized in regard to function, personnel, and finances. In true bureaucratic fashion, only after this split was made was a Special Presidential Task Force created to examine the future of the Graduate School as an administrative organ of the University. I represent the GSG on this Task Force.
There are a range of possibilities for the future, the most extreme on either side would be to either do away with the Grad School altogether or to reintegrate it back into the Division of Research. Despite the implication of last week’s headlines in the Diamondback, neither of these extremes looks particularly plausible. The central questions for the Task Force seem to be 1) What should the Grad School do in regard to advocacy, academic, and administrative functions? 2) How should it be organized? and 3) How should it’s leadership be constructed?
On Thursday, 4 November, the Task Force is hosting and open, town hall-style meeting to allow graduate students the opportunity to provide feedback into these issues. I would encourage you to let your departments know about this event and as many of you as possible to attend. The meeting will be held in the Maryland Room in the basement of Marie Mount Hall on 4 November from 3:30 to 5:30.
There are things happening in the Graduate Council that we should be sure to let all of our constituents know about. The Council has recently referred to committee rough proposals to 1) redefine what it means to be a full time and part time graduate student; 2) examine variable assistantship conditions including workload requirements (both explicitly stated and implicitly expected), vacation time, and, to a lesser extent, variable compensation; and 3) the institutionalization of a type of formal leave along the lines of Family Medical Leave.
There are several graduate students that serve on the Council and will keep you posted on these developments via the forum. I encourage you to let us know how we can best serve you in these regards.
The important and pressing issue of graduate student housing has been transferred from the Graduate School to Student Affairs, under the watchful eye of Patricia Mielke, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs. I have had a couple of good conversations with Dr. Mielke and she has put the GSG in contact with several private developers who are both interested in developing graduate housing projects and who are willing to work with the GSG to ensure that such would meet the needs of our constituents.
To help facilitate this new collaboration, the GSG will be hosting two focus groups for Otis Warren and Company on what form private developments should take in order to best suit possible graduate student tenants. These focus groups will be held on the 8th and 30th of November. More details will be forthcoming on the GSG list serve and I encourage you to pass this information on to your departments as well.
More information on all of these items is available at the GSG online forum and I would encourage you to post questions there, to engage in the ongoing discussions, and to provide feedback via posts that will help me, and the rest of the Executive Committee, as we continue to navigate these various issues.
I’d like to thank some of the folks I have been working with who have worked so hard thus far to advance the cause of graduate students on this campus. I’d like to thank our VPLA for administering the smooth operation of this Assembly; our VPFA for conscientiously working to improve our financial policies and procedures; our VPCA for successful putting into place for the first time ever a fully functioning GSG committee system; our VPPR for being the best PR man that we’ve ever had, for being the GSG morale booster, for his tireless efforts on recruitment and retention, and for his outstanding handling of Graduate Pub; our Chief-of-Staff for being the get it done man when no one else can get the University system to work; and Jason Pontius for his constant efforts on hour behalf and his continuous advocacy for graduate students.
Posts: 258 | I am: Graduate Student Government President | Registered: Oct 2001
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