A major goal of the GSA this year has been to improve its self-started Sustainability Research Center and to continue the Leaders in Sustainability initiative, an interdisciplinary certificate-granting program that educates graduate students from various fields on issues of sustainability.
“Grad students are basically the leaders in all of their respective fields ““ whether it’s law, medicine, business, or academics,” said GSA President Nurit Katz. “In order for us to successfully address issues of sustainability as a society, we need leaders aware of these issues.”
The program, which is now in its second year and will graduate its first class this May, includes a core course and three elective courses in subjects ranging from geography to urban design.
Katz said she finds the multi-disciplinary approach to the subject exciting.
“Grad school tends to be specialized, and there’s a lot to be gained from collaboration from different departments,” she said.
Though GSA officers said their major goals have been largely successful, Desmond Harmon, a musicology graduate student, said the organization lacks visibility on campus.
“The GSA has been largely invisible for us, at least in my department,” Harmon said. “It’s been sort of troubling because one of the GSA’s jobs is to do things like help negotiate health care, and I have not perceived that they do very much other than social events.”
Harmon added that he would prefer to see funds used by GradBars and speed-dating nights allocated for more meaningful activities.
“I would like to see them use resources they have to help us get through the university bureaucracy, get student loans, (and) find affordable housing options,” Harmon said. “Having some focus on actual issues and concerns of grad students as opposed to just the social end of things would be good. I feel like everybody would win.”
While their hectic schedules rarely leave them time to participate in many activities, graduate students are not apathetic about social events and volunteer work, said Matt Kugizaki, a statistics graduate student.
“I don’t think that grad students are apathetic to doing cultural, social and outreach events,” he said. “(Some may think,) “˜You’re in grad school, you wouldn’t want to do it anyway.’ I don’t necessarily think that’s true.”
Kugizaki said he would be interested in participating more in GSA’s networking and social events, but he rarely hears about them.
To address this concern, Monica Sanchez, the GSA external vice president, said that the GSA has attempted to find new methods of communicating with the students it serves.
“We’ve been trying to use more creative means (to reach out),” Sanchez said, adding that the group’s newly formed Facebook group and redesigned Web site have helped in spreading the word about their programs.
In addition to boosting communication, Sanchez said that she worked this year on raising the graduate student voice within the University of California Students Association by recently joining the board of the Graduate and Professional Student Committee.
“Sometimes grad students felt they really didn’t have a voice on the committee,” Sanchez said. “I’m just helping to make sure that it continues to exist.”
Though it is traditionally more difficult to get graduate students involved in student life, the association staged larger-scale activities this year to raise interest, Katz said.
“Grad students tend to be really overworked, and their time is stretched, (but) we’re working on … getting people engaged,” she said. “I think there’s more interest in getting involved.”
The structure of these social events could stand to change, said Chad Vicenik, a linguistics graduate student and the president of the Graduate Linguistics Circle.
Vicenik said that the first event the GSA throws, on the day before fall classes begin, is typically well-attended because of its friendly and inclusive environment.
“Things at (bars), they’re less appealing because it seems they’re naturally smaller, more exclusive and cramped,” he noted. “I would take that initial event as a model and try to replicate that.”
New event formats and other suggestions could be implemented next year, when a new batch of officers will take their positions.
Only one officer, Sanchez, is running for reelection, and she said new blood could prove beneficial to the GSA.
“I think one of the advantages of having new people is that they’ll have new ideas and ways of doing things,” Sanchez said. “They’re not as busy or worn out in the same structure. It’ll be different, hopefully for the better.”