Grad students debate options

The Graduate Student Organization sponsored an open forum Monday for graduate students, in which they were encouraged to voice their opinions in regard to how the IU Student Association is representing them and if that representation is effective.\nThe forum, which was attended by about 20 graduate students, provided them with the opportunity to talk with the GSO representatives directly. This was one of the main goals of the meeting.\n"The forum was very helpful; there was a wide range of opinions and suggestions," said Sarah Steven, a doctoral student and the GSO moderator. "Although I would have liked to have seen more of a turnout, it was still good."\nThe setup of the forum allowed for the students to actively participate in the discussion, bring up topics and ideas they individually had and then respond accordingly.\nGraduate students discussed everything from setting up a completely separate form of government that would better cater to their needs and concerns, to trying to work more with IUSA to keep one central student government that would represent the needs of all students more equally.\nAlthough no definitive answer was decided at this meeting, Stevens said the important thing to remember is that the GSO is there to listen to what the students want and need.\n"We are a consensus-based organization," Stevens said. "We want to know what (graduate students) feel would be effective methods to address the issues and concerns that they brought up." \nAmong these concerns and issues, students discussed the need for more to be done in providing them with better health care plans, assuring them they would have places in University housing and providing the GSO as a whole with more access to the trustees and those in position to help the GSO accomplish these goals.\nThe meeting allowed students to actively participate in the forum and offer their personal views and situations. \nErin Murphy, a first year School of Library and Information Science masters student, commented that she felt that the forum was beneficial and productive.\n"It was good for a preliminary meeting," Murphy said. "Most of the comments made a good contribution to the meeting by raising issues that had not already been thought of."\nThe meeting ran for about one and a half hours and helped GSO members get a better sense for how graduate students are feeling and what the GSO needs to work on, Stevens said.\n"We'll try to have more meetings like this," said Andrea McDowell, coordinator for the GSO. "They help us gauge the graduate student's voices (on issues and concerns)."\nOne of the main concerns expressed by many students is their lack of IUSA representation. Students expressed that they feel many times their concerns are so different than undergraduate concerns, that IUSA, who they see as being more focused on undergraduate concerns, often fails to meet their needs.\nIUSA representatives who also attended the forum said they feel that for graduate students to have a stronger voice within IUSA, they need to participate more and take the initiative to fill the IUSA seats set aside for them. (The graduate students now occupy four of the 11 seats desginated for their representation.)\nThe only problem with this, several students said, is the large time commitment that being part of IUSA takes. Students said that they do not have much of time as it is and that they feel an organization that would primarily focus on their needs, instead of also dealing with undergraduate needs, would be more effective. But students also said they are willing to work with IUSA on issues that affect both graduate and undergraduate students.\nAs for the overall turnout at the forum, GSO members -- including Stevens -- said they feel having more graduate students attend would have been more helpful.\n"I would have liked to see more (graduate students) turn out," Stevens said. "Next time we'll try to send out more information about the meeting so that everyone knows more of the details ahead of time." \nRonald Glass, a first-year graduate student, said he believes communication between the GSO and graduate students needed to be worked on to get more students to attend meetings.\n"(The GSO) need to advertise and communicate better, and then maybe they'll get a better turnout," Glass said. \nGlass added he thought the meeting was helpful overall because it allowed students to voice their opinions and concerns.\n"I was surprised by how open of a discussion it was," Glass said. "I think that it was a positive step, but there are still issues that need to be addressed."\nAs for future meetings and forums between graduate students and GSO representatives, nothing has yet been scheduled, Stevens said. But she did say the GSO is planning to make more graduate students aware of what the GSO is trying to do and keep them informed about ideas and concerns that have been voiced on the part of other graduate students in meetings like this one.