Good afternoon graduate students! Hopefully you enjoyed a relaxing spring break, or at least got a lot of work done.
Last year President Jackson commissioned the First-Year Experience Task Force to survey and make recommendations to improve the first-year experience of all students on campus. A broad cross-section of campus community members—containing students, faculty, and staff—was asked to contribute to this project. The end product consisted mostly of three lists of recommendations—one each for freshmen, transfer, and graduate students. Among the items for graduate students were:
Limited, temporary housing for arriving students, particularly international students.
The establishment of an Off-Campus Housing Resource Center. This office may supervise a database of rental locations, lease off-campus houses for student use, or develop campus properties for use by graduate students.
Both of these projects are in serious consideration by the administration. They are also significant, and finding the best way to carry them through may take time. They aren’t flashy projects that will attract large numbers of students; how many of you made your decision to come here based on the quality of the housing database? However they are projects that will have a real, measurable effect on the quality of our lives at the Institute.
This puts the onus on us to make sure that these changes are considered fairly in a timely fashion. Fortunately, there are mechanisms to do so. The FYETF report also called for a First-Year Advisory Board to refine and update the recommendations of the original report. This Board will also have an (advisory) hand in deciding what gets implemented when, and how. This Board will include graduate students. Throughout the FYETF process, the group was in communication with the Graduate Council. Grad Council members made comments on recommendations and supplied new ones. Unfortunately, myself, Kerry, Peter, and Kishore—most of the current Council—are graduating.
So I guess this puts the onus on you. Who’s going to follow up with the housing recommendations?
This brings me to my second item: student government elections! During GM Week, six senators and five graduate representatives will be elected to the Graduate Council. To qualify for these races, all you have to do is sign up and get 75 signatures from other graduate students. In addition, the Grad Council makes appointments to the Executive Board, Student Health Advisory Council, and other bodies. If you have any interest in these positions, please contact the Grad Council at grad-council@rpi.edu; we will point you in the right direction. You are also welcome to attend our meetings, Sundays at 7 pm, upstairs in the Union.
At long last, it is time for my third point. Ah yes. What you have come to expect from the trusty Grad Council … We will be holding our final event of our term, a "Suds ’n’ Flicks," on March 27. See our ad in The Poly for details. Hope to see you there; and as always, if you have any comments or suggestions you can contact the Grad Council at grad-council@rpi.edu, or myself personally at barrea2@rpi.edu.
