As the school year ends, Graduate and Professional Student Council officers reflect on a year in which they say community building has been their main focus.
The group has offered more social options and increased advocacy on major issues as a means to this goal, GPSC President Elayne Heisler said.
"Community building is hard to measure, but I think we've done a lot to get people out of their schools and departments and meetings, and interacting with others," Heisler wrote in an e-mail. "This is an ongoing process--a goal that will never be completed... and we've made great strides in only a year's time working against a culture of several decades."
From its first meeting of the year, GPSC put social events at the center of the agenda. Under GPSC Social Chair Tobin Freid, the group has hosted about 20 events this year, from basketball game viewings to a Valentine's Day semi-formal. More than 200 people--both graduate and professional students from different departments and schools--attended many of the events, Freid said.
"Student feedback has been very positive, showing that there is a real need for these activities," she said. "It is very easy for graduate and professional students to get isolated in their departments, labs and schools. It is important that we provide opportunities for people to meet other students to form friendships and collaborative projects."
Some
"I have no idea what GPSC actually does for us," said Jonathan Gindes, a first-year student in the Fuqua School of Business. "I get the sense that they take care of campout [for men's basketball games] and have hosted one or two events at the Hideaway, but that is pretty much the extent of it."
Besides hosting social events, GPSC has also taken the role of intermediary between graduate and professional students and administrators for multiple causes this year: tuition and fee increases, child care and health insurance.
When Dean of the Graduate School Lewis Siegel announced a proposal to increase tuition and fees for graduate students last November, GPSC solicited student input and communicated their concerns to Siegel. Before presenting the plan to the Board of Trustees, Siegel said he realized a mathematical error and lowered the planned tuition hike for master's students.
GPSC has continued to hear concerns from graduate students--particularly late-year humanity students--about increased fees, but the administration's position has not changed.
Heisler also took a personal role in child-care issues at the University. Although little had been done on the issue before last semester, Vice President for Student Affairs is currently drawing up a proposal to expand the care facilities for graduate and professional students' children.
"The problem isn't getting the upfront money for the project--it's finding a way to subsidize it over the long-term," Heisler said.
GPSC is now working on the health insurance cost increase. Officers, particularly GPSC President-elect Rob Saunders, are collecting student input to create a recommendation for next year's health care plan in the face of Blue Cross and Blue Shield's announcement of a 19 percent rate increase.
Another GPSC goal this year was to create a proposal to present to the Board of Trustees in February on graduate and professional student orientation. Such a plan never materialized, but Heisler said the group still hopes to improve the orientation process.
Although child care and health insurance affect both graduate and professional students, some have criticized the organization for focusing too heavily on graduate-student concerns.
Davison Council President Bill Wood, a fourth-year medical student, said GPSC does not represent graduate and professional student interests equally, noting that the GPSC executive board is composed of nine graduate students and only one professional student, an at-large officer. "If it is an organization that purports to represent professional students, then professional students need to be represented proportionately--it is a simple democratic principle," Wood said.
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