Officially, the Graduate Council is the elected representative body of Rensselaer graduate students and the graduate legislative branch of the Union. What this means to graduate students across campus is that graduate students have their own colleagues act as representatives for individuals or groups in dealing anonymously and/or confidentially in specific graduate student concerns, act as liaisons between students and administrators, and keep students informed of important news and events through Poly articles and e-mails.
The 2002-2003 Graduate Council consists of the following elected representatives:
—Ed Behn, Masters student in Mathematical Sciences, representative on the Rules & Elections Committee, behne@rpi.edu
—Mike Borzumate, Masters student in Management, liaison with the Career Development Center, borzum@rpi.edu
—Grant Deffenbaugh, Doctoral student in Computer & Systems Engineering, representative on the Residence Hall Association, deffeg@rpi.edu
—Jill Fisher, Doctoral student in Science & Technology Studies, representative on the Student Health Advisory Committee, fishej5@rpi.edu
—Natasha Lettis, Doctoral student in Science & Technology Studies, lettin@rpi.edu
—Laurel Reilly-Raska, Doctoral student in Mathematical Sciences, Vice-President of Communications, reilll@rpi.edu
—Vishnu Priya Tekumalla, Masters student in Information Technology, President, tekumv@rpi.edu
—Jeanine Thompson, Masters student in Management, representative to the Executive Board, thompsj@rpi.edu
Weekly Graduate Council meetings are open to all students. They are held Tuesdays from 4-5 pm in Student Government Suite in the Union.
The general Graduate Council e-mail address is grad-council@rpi.edu. Please note that Dean Apple is on this e-mail list, and we cannot protect your confidentiality if you send e-mails to this address. If you would like anonymity from the RPI administration, please e-mail the representatives individually.
The current Graduate Council has identified two primary agenda items for the academic year. The first is student health care and insurance issues, particularly an eye care option for graduate students. Please e-mail Jill Fisher at fishej5@rpi.edu with your opinions, suggestions, and concerns about health care at RPI.
The Graduate Council will also sponsor a lecture series with five events during the 2002-2003 academic year. The plan is to have two panel or lecture style events and three professional development sessions or workshops. As it is still in the development phase, we would greatly appreciate any ideas of speakers or topics that you would like to see addressed at RPI. Please e-mail Natasha Lettis at lettin@rpi.edu with your ideas and suggestions.
As can be expected, the Graduate Council is most effective when it is in touch with the concerns of graduate students throughout the Institute. We hope to be more responsive to the varied concerns of different departments and students by creating links with departmental graduate student representatives. We are also interested in hearing from as many graduate students as possible. Please e-mail any one of the representatives listed above or come to any of the Council meetings to make us aware of issues you have that we can try to find institutional solutions for. Finally, if you are interested in serving on the Graduate Council in any capacity, please let us know. There are open Senate and Representative seats as well as committee openings.
