Communication, community building and continuing progress. These were the three goals made last fall by Heather Dean, Graduate and Professional Student Council president and sixth-year student in neurobiology.
GPSC has come a long way in achieving these goals this year. The organization has gained considerable visibility across campus as it has placed graduate and professional students on many major committees, increased programming and doubled membership in graduate student groups.
Dean mentioned GPSC made progress on a number of fronts this year, including community building and communication.
GPSCNews, a weekly e-mail to all graduate and professional students about current events and news on campus, has been a major factor in increasing communication. In two years, it has grown from a bi-weekly publication listing just a few events to a weekly e-mail with news and tips for graduate and professional students, as well as advertising many events from a wide range of student groups.
“When I first arrived here at Duke, many graduate and professional students said they were disconnected from the University, and I hear that a lot less now they know where the resources are,” Dean said.
Rachel Lovingood, GPSC communications coordinator also believes GPSC has improved their campus image.
“One thing Heather did a really good job with is reaching out to administrators,” she said. “It puts contacts in place so that we can use it down the road with the coming administration…the conduit of information flow is open.”
But Rob Saunders, GPSC community affairs coordinator and newly elected GPSC Young Trustee, still believes more work must be done.
“We need to let the graduate and professional student body know what issues are out there and get feedback back from them.”
GPSC’s outreach to graduate and professional students has grown because of increased student group affiliation. Four years ago, GPSC had $10,000 set aside for student-group funding, but only gave out about $6,000 because there was little demand for funding.
This year, almost $30,000 was allocated to student groups and the social budget rose about $8,000 to $20,000, as graduate and professional programming has increased.
“The first thing I did as president was to appoint a Student Group Liaison, which has definitely helped in this issue,” Dean said. “Affiliation has allowed us to keep in contact with leaders of groups and has created demand for funding.”
Sara Becker, GPSC treasurer and graduate student in psychology, also called this year a productive one for GPSC and looks forward to continuing its success next fall. But Becker noted GPSC has room for improvements.
“I think the [representatives] should make more of an educational outreach in their departments, including being more involved in orientation in the fall and making sure GPSC [members are] better educated about certain procedures and guidelines,” she said.
One of Becker’s main goals is to get more representatives involved in decisions and meetings with key administrators. She added the GPSC retreat currently scheduled for August will be essential in educating representatives about how they are expected to interact within their constituent schools and departments. Lovingood agreed with this sentiment.
“Right now, the only thing they do is come to meetings every other week, and I think [representatives] don’t feel as involved as they could be,” Lovingood said.
Dean expressed her support for next year’s president William LeFew, a third-year applied mathematics doctoral student, who she said is looking at restructuring GPSC to take advantage of the members’ skills and interests.
“GPSC needs a robust internal structure for external interaction,” LeFew said during his April 11 presidential candidacy speech.
As LeFew begins to take over the presidency and Dean steps down, she remains pleased with GPSC’s progress this year.
“It’s been incredible and so much fun,” she said. “It’s been really great to see graduate and professional involvement on campus.”
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