Greetings from the New Co-Chairs
We are pleased to report many positive developments
this fall. The GSU is once again becoming a visible advocate for
graduate student concerns. The GSU, the governing body for graduate
students, works to improve the quality of life for graduate students
by
- lobbying the administration regarding university policies
- sponsoring social events open to the entire graduate community
- co-sponsoring activities for grad students organized by other campus
organizations
- serving as liasons to various university and community committees
- being a member in the National Association of Graduate and
Professional Students (NAGPS)
- providing benefits to grad students and their families, most notably
through our dental insurance plan
The GSU has been active in all these areas this fall. Current
projects include surveying students about the adequacy of health care
coverage and pressing to improve the precarious status of
post-enrollment (continuing degree) students. At registration, the GSU
distributed welcoming pamphlets packed with useful information for new
Princeton area residents. Copies of the pamphlet are still available
from your departmental representative.
The GSU fall barbecue was a smashing success, attracting over 350 GC
residents. Our next big bash, a holiday wine & cheese party, is
scheduled for mid-December. The GSU has already co-sponsored three
popular events this semester: the Lunar Eclipse Viewing (Astronomy), the
Chinese Moon Festival Party (ACSSPU), and the fall International Film
Series (CIGS).
GSU reps are currently serving as liasons to the University Housing
and Policy and Dining Committees and the Board of the Association of
Princeton Graduate Alumni.
The GSU web page links to the NAGPS and its employment services, and
to the dental plan and its application forms. We plan to continualy
update our web page so that it provides comprehensive information about
all GSU meetings and activities.
In sum, we are optimistic about the future of the GSU. Although
attendance at our monthly meeting has tripled since last winter, we
still have several vacant seats on the GSU Assembly and several projects
delayed due to the insufficient number of involved students. Working on
GSU projects requires only a modest time commitment and provides an
opportunity to interact with grads from all academic disciplines. Please
consider getting involved!
Best wishes,
Peter W. Park and Robert J. Weiner
GSU Co-chairs
| SPEECH BY CHRISTIAN PERRING,
OCTOBER 10, 1998 |
SPEECH GIVEN BY CHRISTIAN PERRING on OCTOBER 10, 1988
Graduate Student Union
Friday October 7, 1988
Notes for McCosh 50 talk to graduate students on Monday October 10,
1988
I. Motivation
II. History
III. Plans
IV. Problems and solutions for the GSU
V. The future
Motivation
In my first weeks at Princeton when I was starting my graduate career, I
was struck by how much time people spent complaining about life here. The
Library, the U-Store, the food prices, the undergraduates, problems with
academic work, the male/female ratio, the social life and the fact the most
of the shops on Nassau Street are geared to people with a great deal of
money (apart from Woolworth). Princeton did not seem designed for graduate
students, even if it was modeled on Oxford. The longer I was here, the
more there was to complain about: separation from undergraduates,
invisibility of graduate students, housing, lack of unity of the graduate
population, treatment of students by their departments and the lack of
means of appeal, the lack of child care facilities, and the huge medical
and dental costs that some people had to pay or came close to having to
pay. The list goes on: the problems are shared by a large portion of the
graduate population, and most of us have experienced most of them.
All these are legitimate complaints. And there are more. But after a year
or so I came believe that if we took the energy we put into complaining
about Princeton, and redirected it into working towards solving the
problems, then a great deal could be achieved. Our lives could be
improved. What we needed was a graduate student group to work for such
changes.
History
So over this summer I initiated moves get get discussion of the idea going.
We had two public meetings to discuss the issues and stategies we should
take up. We formed a Graduate Student Union Steering Committee, and soon
the Survey Subcommittee was formed to write a survey to find out what
graduate student opinion was on a range of important issues. We put a lot
of thought and discussion into how to proceed. We got information from
graduate representative groups at other universities, and we consulted with
many people. There was a lot of enthusiasm and people were very helpful.
Dean Joy Montero deserves special mention.
As a result of our discussion, we concluded that we wanted a group that
would serve several possible functions: it would represent graduate student
opinion and needs to the administration and university services; it would
act as a focus point to which people could bring their problems and find
out if others had similar ones, and then we could work on solving those
problems. We could also fill other functions: if we collected fees from
graduate students, something like $5 or $10 per person per year, then we
could organise social events, and sponsor events of other graduate groups.
We could even speak as the voice of the Princeton graduate community to the
world outside Princeton.
Obviously to play such a role, it is essential for the GSU to be
democratic, and so we put a great deal of thought into how that could best
be achieved. Both Alan and Judith will tell you more about that later.
We were ready for our first meeting with senior administration in August.
We went to Dean of the Graduate School, Theordore Ziolkowski, to tell him
about our aims, and to ask for support, in terms of money and office space.
We emphasised that we wanted to work with the Graduate School to make
graduate life better, and make things run more smoothly on campus.
Although he did agree to let us use Graduate School photocopying
facilities, his response was far from enthusiastic. He questioned the need
for such a group, the extent of graduate support for such a group, the
feasability of such a group lasting longer than our individual involvements
with it, and he also was sceptical about the aims of the group. We argued
that our experience at Princeton Graduate School should be a good and
happy one, and that something was wrong if it was not. His response was
that "paranoia and dissatisfaction are endemic to the state" of being a
graduate student. He even said "without paranoia graduate students won't
get their work done". Maybe he was joking. I found it hard to tell.
In order to demonstrate the extent of graduate support for a GSU, we added
a referendum to the surveys we had written. We decided that we we should
put them out at the beginning of the semester. We did a lot of organising
and messing around with the inefficient beaurocracy of the administration:
we bent over backwards to make sure that everything we did was okay, and
did not contravene any official procedures.
September 17, the day of Registration went well for us. 900 referendum
forms were returned, and 98% said they supported our aims. Over 500
surveys were filled in on the day, and well over 100 more have been
returned to us via campus mail. If you have still not returned your
survey, you can still do so, and we can add your statistics to the others.
However, we now feel very confident that we have a good gauge of Grad
Student opinion. We have surveys back from well over one third of the
graduate population. Graham will tell you more about the results soon.
Soon after the results of the referendum were out we had another meeting
with senior administration. (Monday 26 September). This time we met Carl
Wartenberg, Assistant to the President; Tom Wright, University Legal
Counsel; Dean Ziolkowski; and Joy Montero. There was a definite change in
attitude compared to our previos meeting. Mr. Wright listened to our
statements and thoughts about what what needed doing and what our next step
was, and seemed to accept much of what we said. Dean Ziolkowski said that
they wanted to help us in our effort to get the GSU going, and agreed to
give us $1000 and an office so that we could organise properly. We are
still waiting for the office on campus. That just about brings us up to
the present.
Plans
We currently have a Constitution Committee of 5 grad students working out
what kind of structure would suit our purposes best. We are making links
with other graduate and university groups. We are getting ourselves
publicity. I will list some of what is going on.
* We are setting up GSU representatives in each departement.
* We are have links with the Graduate Women's Alliance and the Black
Graduate Caucus. We are interested in getting links with other graduate
groups such as the Council for International Graduate Students. We are
also interested in setting up links with university groups which have
substantial graduate membership, such as the South-East Asian Students
Association and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Princeton.
* We have an official link-person with the Undergraduate Student
Government, and a representative of the USG should be here tonight.
* We have a joint committee with the GWA to deal with issues to do with the
Counseling Center, to get more information about it and to lobby for
improved service for graduate students.
* Articles about us have appeared in the most recent editions of the
Princeton Weekly Bulletin and the Nassau Weekly. An article about the idea
of a graduate representative body will appear in this weeks edition of the
Princeton Alumni Weekly. The Princeton Packet is interested in writing an
article about us. We have given information about ourselves and some
survey results to other local newspapers and the New York Times.
We have many ideas being put into action at present.
* We are starting a regular newsletter to be sent to all Departments and to
be put up around campus and graduate living areas, telling people what we
are doing and what we have achieved. It might be extended to include other
news and information relevant to graduate students.
* We are trying to set up a Housing Coaltion consisting of people from the
different housing committees and representatives of other graduate housing
constituencies such as those that live in the annexes on Dickinson Street
and those that live off-campus.
* We are investigating the idea that a Graduate Student Life Committee
should be formed by the administration, as a parallel to the Undergraduate
Student Life Committee, which has a strong say in the present
decision-making process.
This list gives you some idea of the scope of our activies so far, and it
will set the tone for the next few months. We are exploring ideas and
doing a lot of outreach at the moment. There is a lot of it to do.
Problems for the GSU and their solution
Despite all the activity and enthusiasm that has surrounded the initial
stages of the GSU, people still percieve that there are problems for it.
This leads them to be sceptical about the amount the GSU can actually
achieve. So I think it is important that I talk briefly about a couple of
problems.
One view is that we have a very conservative administration, geared very
much to undergraduate life, and that we are never going to achieve much
improvement. They will be reluctant to alter the character of campus life,
and they will certainly refuse to spend any more money on us. So while
there might be a few cosmetic concessions, nothing much is going to change.
I think that this ignores the strength of our argument, and lays undue
importance on the role of the administration. My first point is that
making things better for graduate students will improve Princeton as a
whole, and this is certainly the aim of the administration. At present
Princeton graduate life has a bad reputation on the informal level of
rumour and personal opinion. That is bad enough, but now it has been
quantified by our survey. The word will get out to other universities and
propsective graduates that over two thirds of the graduate population here
do not feel valued members of the community. This will mean that many good
students and maybe even junior faculty will decide no to come here, despite
the high academic repuation the university has. So Princeton academic life
will suffer accordingly. There is no question that the administration
would take steps to avoid such an outcome.
Secondly, I do not think that we are so reliant on action by the
administration, and certainly not on major spending by the university. It
is true that our life would be greatly improved by their turning Nassau
Hall into a Graduate Student Center, but less drastic changes could also
help us a lot. Changing the attitudes of some people in administration
would help us, and making sure that graduates were rountinely consulted in
decision making processes would help. Another example is reducing the
barriers between graduates and undergraduates. The survey shows graduates
want this to happen, and it would not take much spending to achieve, but
rather is just a matter of finding ways in which there can be more
interaction between the two groups, and there is less derogatory
stereotyping of each group by the other.
Much will be achieved by simply getting graduates a higher profile on
campus. Getting more involvement of graduates in the campus newspapers
would help. We may get a weekly Graduate Page in the Nassau Weekly.
Another idea we have had is to introduce some kind of peer-to-peer
counseling for grad students. Such a scheme would not involve much expense
for the administration. You may have other ideas. We want to hear them,
so come and tell us about them.
* We have two graduate members of the Council for Princeton University
Community, also known as the U-Council, on the Steering Committee, and we
will be working closely with the CPUC graduate members so make sure our
actions are coordinated.
I would like to make one last comment about pessimism about the possible
success of the GSU. It is that it can be self-fulfilling. In order to
achieve improvement, it is first necessary to believe that change is
possible. If people do not give the GSU their support and their help
because they do not think it will work, then it will not work. So I would
ask those with doubts to suspend them, and give the GSU a chance. We need
positive attitudes.
The future
This brings me to my final points. We want your ideas and involvement.
The Steering Committee is not a fixed group of people. It is open to
anyone. You can get involved and have as much say in how things go from
here as any of us who have been involved up till now. Our next meeting is
at 7pm on Wednesday in the USG Office in the Rotunda, and you are welcome
to come. Or you can give us your name and phone number on the sign up
sheets in the front, and we will get back in touch with you. Or speak to
one of us after the meeting, or call us up. Our names and numbers are on
the pieces of paper down here in the front.
You do not have to want to do a lot of committee work or meeting with
administrators. If you have an idea on how life could be improved, or a
complaint about graduate life that you think should be dealt with, then let
us know, and we will see what can be done. Some people may have ideas for
a social event for all graduates, maybe in the Rotunda. You could get
together with others and organise it.
I think that by working together we can achieve a great deal. We could
make graduate life happier and less of a struggle. So please join usin our
work. and many university organisationslater there are people who
I should emphasise that we want to work in cooperation with the
administration as much as possible, and if they match their recent rhetoric
with similar action, things should go smoothly.Money is not the only issue
by any means. there would have to be significant expenditure to improve
the housing situation, get us subsidised dental insurance and increased
payment for our teaching services It is also true that our lives.We intend
to work for at least some of these objectives. But there are many other
ways in which things could be made better for us.
I have heard many people complain about the way they have been treated by
the Housing Department, being messed around or patronised by staff there.
Christian Perring, at 8.00 pm, for the GSU.
Special thanks are due to Graham Oppy for preserving this document and
making it available for posting.
