ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to detect any skeletons in the closet of the Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC). No recent scandals were identified, but difficulties have dogged GPSC in the past. The current GPSC administration should keep these difficulties in mind as it continues serving the interests of graduate and professional (G&P) students.
INTRODUCTION:
When I was originally selected to be a columnist for The Chronicle, I was instructed to cover GPSC and attend all its meetings. I was to watchdog this governance body for any evidence of mismanagement, lack of effectiveness, embezzlement or other "bad things."
To my disappointment, GPSC seemed to be a competently run entity. I wasn't stumbling upon any scandals or malfeasance that could form the substance for a juicy expose column.
But, we all have skeletons in our closets, don't we? What secrets may lurk in GPSC's past? And, might there be any clues from recent history that would suggest where to look for present-day scandal? To answer these questions, I conducted a study. Yes, a study.
METHODOLOGY:
To look for skeletons in GPSC's closet, I searched the online archives of The Chronicle. Using the search term "GPSC," I generated a list of the last 200 articles (including editorial pieces) that contained the acronym GPSC.
Using the headlines of the articles, I created an Excel spreadsheet that grouped them into categories based on their content. In instances where the headline did not immediately suggest what the article was about, I scanned the text. I hoped that some of the categories into which I could group the articles would include: "scandal," "corruption," "resignation" and "basketball-ticket lottery rigging."
RESULTS:
The 200 articles I examined from the archives dated from Nov. 9, 2005 all the way back to the last millennium-Oct. 20, 1999. Of these articles, the top five topics they covered are listed in Table 1.
Table 1: What the Last 200 GPSC Articles in The Chronicle Are About
Graduate Student Life-20 articles
Young Trustee Position-19 articles
Health Insurance-17 articles
Parking-16 articles
Campout/Athletic Ticket Distribution-15 articles
When it came to any evidence of "bad things," I identified the following categories:
Table 2: GPSC Articles Containing "Bad Things"
Disagreements between GPSC and The Chronicle's editorial board-7 articles
Eric Phifer Scandal-3 articles
I would have done a linear regression analysis and tested for heteroskedasticity, but that would have involved, well-like-, work.
DISCUSSION:
When it comes to the topics covered in the GPSC articles, four noteworthy findings are:
Articles about the need to promote graduate student life dropped precipitously after the 2002-2003 academic year. Could the 2003 launch of GPSCNews, the weekly email sent to G&P students about upcoming events, account for this drop? Participation at GPSC-sponsored events is said to have skyrocketed after the advent of GPSCNews, according to GPSC officials.
Concerns about the cost of health insurance became more salient only during the last academic year. With the recent announcement that health insurance for doctoral students will be subsidized via an increase in stipends, health insurance may decline in importance, although coverage for spouses and children could certainly remain on the table.
In 2001 and 2002, The Chronicle's editorial board and GPSC (via letters to the editor) duked it out over purported underrepresentation of professional students within GPSC and the perception that GPSC does little on behalf of G&P students.
SCANDALOUS FINDING: The juiciest finding was that past GPSC president Eric Phifer suspended meetings from late January to early March of 1999. He was supposedly upset that he wasn't selected to be a Young Trustee finalist. He claimed that the selection process was corrupted by a two-line e-mail calling him a "dork," which was sent to the GPSC executive committee. Then, when he finally permitted a meeting on March 2, he closed it off to all people, including The Chronicle's reporters.
CONCLUSION:
Coverage of GPSC in The Chronicle does not reveal any recent malfeasance. As a governance body, however, GPSC should not become complacent. Scandal and difficulties have dogged it in the past, so it should remain vigilant in not repeating past mistakes. In the event that it does, there is a Chronicle columnist ready to write all about it.
Preeti Aroon is a graduate student in public policy. Her column runs every other Wednesday.
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