Building on its mission to foster a sense of community among graduate students, the Graduate Student Council has dramatically raised its profile in the Graduate School by increasing its budget by $20,000, funding more student groups and boosting participation at social events.
The GSC budget grew this year from $50,000 to $70,000. Mauro Lo Cascio GS, the GSC treasurer, attributed the influx of funds to both a $10 hike in the grad student activities fee, which is now $40 per student, and better management of the council's funds. Previously, "the way the budget was handled was very volatile. This year we have structured the budget, and we have increased our savings," he said.
In 2006, the council spent $5,000 funding student groups - a tenfold jump from student group funding in the past. This year about 20 groups applied for funding, compared to only five in past years, and most of this year's groups received it. "People have picked up pretty quickly that we have become more lenient (with funding)," Lo Cascio said.
In addition to funding grad student groups, GSC leaders have worked to better orient grad students to life at Brown. They developed a wiki, a collaboration-based online guide, that compiles useful and updated information for grad students. The wiki was created last year as a complement to the Brown Book, a guidebook given to new grad students at Orientation. The wiki and Brown Book provide restaurant reviews, guides to living in Providence and information about landlords, Lo Cascio said.
As part of its effort to build a grad student community, the GSC also coordinates parties and other social events.
"We believe that graduate students here are normally isolated within their departments. There are very limited chances for them to socialize beyond the lab or beyond their department. We have been trying to diversify the social scene," said Chung Nguyen GS, the council's president.
Attendance at social events has increased this year, said Nate Schiff GS, the council's vice president of social events. The council hosts a social function every other week, such as a happy hour in the grad student lounge. Each semester, the council also organizes a barbecue and a much larger and more expensive party in Andrews Hall, like this semester's Halloween party, Schiff said.
The GSC has also tried to promote interaction between grad and medical students. "We've reached out in very mild ways to the Medical School and to master's students. Last spring we held a social with the Medical School. That was the first time in a while that's been done," Schiff said.
The GSC also acts as a liaison between grad students and Grad School officials. This semester, the GSC addressed concerns voiced by several grad students about different compensation levels offered to master's and doctoral teaching assistants. The GSC passed a resolution supporting equal pay and enlisted the support of the Undergraduate Council of Students, which did the same last month.
"To be honest, I don't think we have as much weight as we would like to have with the administration, but the deans of the Graduate School have been very supportive of what we're doing," Nguyen said.
Nguyen said he does not plan to run for re-election, but he hopes the University will eventually provide grad students with more housing, health care and support for dependents.
The council meets monthly, and its 60 voting representatives are drawn from almost every department, according to Lo Cascio. Attendance at the monthly meetings is up, and more departments and master's programs are represented than have been in the past, he said.
"This particular administration was trying to make the GSC more representative. We put a lot of pressure on departments to actually send representatives - we really wanted to get people involved," Schiff said.
