Dorm dinners, floor activities, late-night talks in the hallway
and shared dread of general education classes ““ all those
things that promote bonding among freshmen during their first few
weeks at UCLA ““ are not an element of the graduate student
social scene.
While an incoming undergraduate student studying history may
live next to a student majoring in math and take a class with a
philosophy student, graduate students often interact primarily or
only with other students in their own department, said Monica
Sanchez, president of the Graduate Students Association.
“Graduate students tend to be a little isolated by
department, so when they go, for example, to their classes they
stay in one building, (on) one side of campus,” she said.
In order to combat this isolation, GSA has begun holding
orientations for new students from all departments.
Cindy Mosqueda, GSA’s vice president of external affairs,
has experienced this isolation within her department, the School of
Education.
Not only did Mosqueda say she interacts mostly with students in
the School of Education, but also that she primarily knows students
within her own specialized study.
“Undergraduate students are a lot more likely to know
students within a variety of majors … but I know, (for example),
two engineering students,” she said.
“It’s very common because we’re so specialized
within our departments,” she added.
Traditionally, departments in graduate schools hold orientation
for students in that department.
But though department orientations provide students with
valuable information about their department, they do not inform
students of campus-wide services and do promote the sense of
isolation many graduate students experience, Sanchez said.
GSA’s new orientations are geared toward providing
students with more general knowledge about UCLA.
“(The orientation) is intended to give them more
university-wide information,” Sanchez said. “They get
whole campus tours, they get the opportunity to mingle with other
graduates.”
Students are provided with information about services on campus,
how to set up the UCLA e-mail address, and where students can
access computer labs, similar to the information undergraduates
receive during orientation.
The orientation also provides information specific to graduate
students, such as how to obtain funding to get articles
published.
The New Graduate Student Orientation, which was held Friday, is
in its second year. Sanchez said it attracted almost 1,000 students
in its first year and grew by about 300 this year, adding that
there are about 10,000 graduate students total.
The idea of having an orientation for all graduate students,
rather than by department, is relatively new to UCLA, said
Christine Wilson, coordinator of the Graduate Student Resource
Center.
“There’s been the impression for a long time that,
well, graduate students have been to college, they all know how
things work, their departments or schools will take care of
anything they need,” she said.
But many students involved in planning or running the
orientation said they have seen that students have responded well
to the opportunity to meet students from other departments early on
and learn information about the campus as a whole.