Report to the Washington University Board of Trustees by Lorrie Cranor, 1995-96 Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees May 3, 1996 Good afternoon. I am honored to have the opportunity to speak to you today. As the third graduate student representative to the Washington University Board of Trustees I have viewed my role throughout this year mainly as an educator and a coordinator. I believe that there are many graduate student concerns that could be addressed if more people were aware of them, and if there was more coordination and communication between graduate students in the various schools, as well as between graduate students and other members of the university community. Thus I have sought out opportunities to educate administrators, the members of this board, and other members of the community about the concerns of graduate students as well as ways in which graduate students would like to be able to contribute to the community. I have also tried to talk with graduate students from the various schools and help coordinate efforts to work together to meet common goals. I began my representative term by serving as a member of the Inauguration Planning Committee. While planning the chancellor's inauguration proved to be a lot more work than I had ever imagined when I agreed to serve on the committee, it proved to be quite a valuable experience. Besides learning how to plan a party for 3000 and find a bag pipe band in St. Louis that would perform in the middle of a work day, I also had the pleasure of working with Alison and Elsa to come up with activities that would be enjoyable for undergraduates, graduates, and other members of the university community. Unfortunately the cooperation and interaction between graduate and undergraduate students which I witnessed during the inaugural activities seemed to be mostly absent for the remainder of the year. As I spoke with graduate students throughout the year, over and over again I heard complaints that graduate students felt excluded from student activities. Part of the problem is caused by the fact that our student group registration system is administered by Student Union, an organization which only represents undergraduates. The situation is further complicated by the fact that graduate students do not pay a university activity fee. Nonetheless, graduate students are interested in working with undergraduates and participating in many of the same activities. And graduate students can be valuable contributors, having gained insights and ideas from organizations at their undergraduate institutions. I am optimistic that in the years to come the graduate and undergraduate student leaders will find more opportunities to work together for everyone's benefit. As I've talked with people this year, many have expressed surprise at the fact that graduate students are so interested in getting involved in extra-curricular activities. Many people have the misconception that after four years of fun as undergraduates, graduate students want to devote all their time to study and research within their departments. While it's true that graduate students do spend an awful lot of time on their studies, as one engineering graduate student I talked with put it, this "can make grad school a rather dreary state of existence." Graduate students are interested in meeting students outside their home departments, participating in social activities, and contributing towards our community. Many Washington University graduate students participate in intramural sports, musical groups, religious organizations, and a wide variety of volunteer efforts. But many of these students tell me that finding out about how to participate in these activities has been difficult and that they have often gotten the feeling that they aren't supposed to be doing extra-curricular activities. Recently several of the Washington University graduate schools have started working to implement or improve upon existing orientation programs for new students. Hopefully these programs will make graduate students aware of extra-curricular activities and make them feel welcome to participate. Another issue that graduate students are concerned about is health insurance. Students from the Hilltop campus schools have long been complaining that the health plans available to graduate students are inadequate. Hearing that students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences had formed an active committee to explore health concerns, I solicited students from the other graduate schools to work with them. This informal committee recently met with director of health services Laurie Reitman who turned it into an official Graduate Student Health Advisory Committee. Students with academic interests in health administration are now working with students from the various graduate and professional schools to identify options for improving health insurance while keeping costs down. The committee plans to conduct a campus-wide graduate student survey this fall to better understand graduate student health needs. One of the most exciting things that has happened on the graduate student front this year was the recent formation of the Professional and Graduate Student Coordinating Committee, known as PROGRADS. This committee, appointed by the Chancellor and chaired by Dean Thach, has student and faculty or administrative representatives from every graduate school. This is the first university committee to be charged with looking at graduate student affairs that go beyond the department and school level. At the first meeting, held in April, committee members discussed a wide variety of issues that they would like to see addressed. In the months to come the committee will work with the chancellor and the deans of the various schools to prioritize these issues and find solutions to the problems that have been raised. One of the first issues that the committee plans to examine is the possibility of providing university housing for graduate students. We believe that such housing would not only provide a needed service for graduate students, but would also serve to promote interaction between graduate students in different departments and schools. I am very excited about this new committee and quite optimistic that it will be influential in addressing a variety of graduate student concerns. As I conclude my term as the graduate student representative to the board of trustees, I would like to take the opportunity to urge you to consider appointing two graduate student representatives in future years. Given the diverse nature of the graduate student body, the wide variety of graduate and professional programs Washington University offers, and the fact that graduate students are spread out over two campuses, representing all graduate and professional students here has been quite a challenge. I believe the two undergrad representatives have benefited from having a partner to work with throughout the year, and I think graduate students would benefit likewise. With graduate students comprising just over half the student body at Washington University, it seems only fair that they should have the same number of representatives as undergrads. Finally, I would like to thank the members of the Board for giving me the opportunity to observe the Board and its committees in action this year. This experience has proven to be an important part of my education which I'm sure I will remember for years to come.