STUDENT Council has a lovely office complex in Newcomb Hall. The president has her own office and phone. The Graduate Council, though, does not. To interview their president, I call him at home.
This comparison shows that organizations which primarily serve undergraduates have gained space over the years, but graduates have not. Now, however, efforts are underway to give graduate students their own space on Grounds. Students and administrators need to support these efforts, which will improve the Academical Village for everyone.
Graduate students have been agitating for years to improve their work conditions and compensation. However, these efforts have sometimes been slowed by the difficulty of organizing the decentralized graduate student population. Richard Warner, chair of the Faculty Senate's Graduate Student Quality of Life subcommittee, believes this has to do with the fact that no good spaces in which to organize exist.
Todd Price, Graduate Student Council president, notes that there is no official space for the graduates to meet, so they usually have to borrow classrooms or auditoriums.
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However, both the Faculty Senate and the administration have begun to address problems graduate students face beyond the financial issues that historically have attracted attention. The Faculty Senate has dedicated themselves this year to better addressing graduate student issues, says Warner. Warner and Price are both looking for ways to fit graduate students into spaces that exist now, such as Newcomb Hall.
However, the planned South Lawn project, to replace Cabell Hall, provides a unique opportunity to involve graduate students in planning future spaces. Warner currently is undertaking a fact-finding effort to ascertain the needs of this population.
Warner has several ideas of his own, but would like graduate students both to critique his ideas and come up with ideas of their own. His main idea is for a graduate study center, modeled on that of the University of Pennsylvania, where students can meet informally to exchange ideas.
Warner is concerned that some might think graduate students don't need the space because they aren't very organized, but argues that "if you have a space, things will happen." He also thinks more space would facilitate interaction between Arts and Sciences students and professional students, which doesn't happen much now.
The main problem, here, however, is that faculty and administrators can't meet student needs if they have to rely on their own conceptions of those needs. Joe Grasso, the Associate Dean of Planning and Operations, also is working on recommendations for both the South Lawn project and possible future expansions to Newcomb Hall. His main goal is for "a place graduate students can call their own," but this effort is still taking shape.
Although administrators and faculty are coming to a realization of the scope of graduates' problems and working to include them in planning for the future, they cannot do this alone.
Space planners will have to make many decisions based on graduate student needs for academic, social and extracurricular space. Both faculty and undergraduate students have been effective at lobbying for their needs in these areas, but this has not always happened with graduate students.
As a result, graduate student needs have often been lumped in with those of undergraduates. For example, Warner cites the survey administered by Student Council about the level of interest in expanding or replacing Newcomb Hall. This survey elicited many undergraduate responses, but not from graduate students, and Warner believes these plans are skewed largely toward undergraduates for that reason.
In the last few weeks, Bill Ashby, the new director of Newcomb Hall, has begun a feasibility study for a new center or its expansion. As a result of faculty comments, he now plans to add a graduate representative to this study. According to Ashby, the study is in its infancy and as a result, this is a perfect time for graduate students to become involved. Although Ashby suspects graduate student needs are very different, he says that he cannot accurately assess the situation without student feedback.
New interest in the problems of graduate students makes this an important time for students to step up and make their voices heard. Doing so would help those not already attuned to graduate student needs understand that better integration of graduate students enhances the University overall. Joe Grasso is planning a meeting for Jan. 29 and would like to hear from interested graduate students. Instead of letting the opportunity to plan a new building go by, graduate students need to become involved before the first foundation is laid.
(Elizabeth Managan's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at emanagan@cavalierdaily.com.)
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