In actuality, the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) serves as the primary representation for graduate students to the administration and ASUSU. If graduate students have concerns they want voiced or policies they want changed, the GSS has the capacity to help them.
The GSS is composed of 11 individuals – one senator from each college, an international senator, two vice presidents and myself. Together, we work to better the overall quality of graduate-student life at USU. One of the ways we’ve done this is by establishing the GSS Lunch and Lecture series. The series has speakers lecture on a topic relevant to almost all gradudate students and then we provide lunch for lecture attendees. This may seem like we are attempting to gain people’s adoration with food, and sadly, this accusation is true.
The GSS also administers a Professional Conference Award. A major component of graduate education is often research. Presenting research at conferences across the world allows students to make a contribution to their discipline and meet influential scholars. Recently, students have traveled as far as Argentina to present research. The award may provide up to $300 reimbursement for travel to the conference. The award is competitive, and so not all students qualify. If we had oodles of money then maybe everyone could receive an award. Or maybe the money would accidentally fall into my pocket …
We also provide 12 $1,000 research grants to students working on major projects. The primary purpose of these grants is to enable students to fund research that they otherwise would have had to pay for themselves. For interested graduate students, the application deadline is Nov. 30.
These are only a few of the services we provide. Although many of the things we do are financial in nature, we view our role more broadly. We exist to represent the interests of graduate students. For anyone who would like to learn more about what we do and how we can help, I would encourage them to visit our Web site: www.usu.edu/usugss.
I am privileged to work with our current GSS members – Aaron Davis, vice president of research; Keith Wilson, vice president of campus affairs; Jesse Walker, science senator; Nora Burbank, natural resources senator; Stephanie Malin, HASS senator; Britney Hunter, agriculture senator; Dusti McEwen, engineering senator; Mikayle Kartchner, education senator; Mike Young, business senator; and Prabuddha Ghosh, international senator. These people carve out time from their busy schedules in order to serve their fellow students in exchange for relatively little reward. If you have issues you want addressed, please speak to your senator and let them know how we can help you.
Rick Kelly can be contacted at richard.kelly@aggiemail.usu.edu