Student Council passed a bill at its Representative Body meeting yesterday evening which created a Graduate Affairs Committee.
The bill will require all graduate students who serve on Council to be members of the new committee, in addition to the other committees of which they are a part.
Council held an hour-long debate regarding the fate of the bill, which was originally introduced Feb. 28.
Darden Rep. Zubin Mehta said he supported the creation of a new committee because graduate students lack a strong connection to both the undergraduate community and the University as a whole.
"If graduate students are not involved in a regular committee, we're basically encouraging isolation," Mehta said. "Each [graduate student] currently lives in their own micro-communities."
The addition of the Graduate Affairs Committee brings the number of Council presidential committees to 12. The bodies aim to implement the Council president's initiatives.
Council President Dan Morrison said the creation of the committee was the best way to get the graduate population involved with Student Council, and by extension, with the entire University community.
"There is no unified front [currently] for which we can represent what is... a hugely underrepresented minority academically," Morrison said. "I think that this is the best way to begin a dialogue with graduate students simply by getting them into Student Council."
Law School Rep. Ryan Woessner said he supported the creation of a committee solely for graduate students but acknowledged poor attendance and low prioritization would likely still be a concern for Council.
"You can never guarantee that anyone's going to participate in that committee," Woessner said. "You can't force anyone to do anything."
Representative Body Chair Siddhartha Pailla said he thought involving graduate students with Council would encourage graduate representatives to establish a more robust dialogue with their constituents.
"Graduate students tend to be more interested in planning and committing their time to plan events that are for graduate students only," Pailla said. "I think that this [committee] will increase the retention rates for the graduate students."
Eric McDaniel, Marketing and Communications Chair and next term's director of University Relations, said increased interaction between graduate and undergraduate students would ultimately benefit Council's initiatives.
"Their participation in a combined way will benefit Council," McDaniel said. "This is going to hugely benefit the graduate community as a whole"
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