Although the Graduate and Professional Student Senate won’t meet again until January, the graduate college continues to work.  

Over the course of fall semester, speakers have come to the monthly GPSS meetings to discuss housing, new dining hall plans and amendments to the Professional Advancement Grant bill.

With sights set on next semester, the graduate college and GPSS senators look forward to new topics being presented at the meetings.

After months of debate, resolutions to the PAG bill have been passed by the Senate. Senator Armando Figueroa said although this round of amendments has been passed, the bill will continue to be reviewed.

“This is a new process, and we are continuously discussing ways to improve it,” Figueroa said.

Maria Perez, graduate student in agronomy, looks forward to further discussion about topics beyond the bill presented in this semester’s meetings.

“It would be interesting to discuss what the plans regarding CyRide and housing are,” Perez said. “They’re important to us.”

The growing need for graduate student housing and congestion on CyRide were brought to the senate’s attention, although many solutions are still being considered.

“I think I would also like to discuss the budget and how we would like to distribute money better,” Perez said.

Both Perez and Judy Strand, assistant to the associate dean, spoke about upcoming GPSS events that the graduate college will hold.

“We are trying to better share with our constituents all of the events we have,” Perez said.  

She encouraged graduate students to attend a GPSS-sponsored event on Dec. 4 at Mother’s Pub, where the senate will provide pizza.

Although undergraduate events often receive publicity, graduate college event sometimes go unnoticed.

Strand, who helps organize orientation for new graduate students, spoke about second semester’s orientation program.

“We have a large orientation in the fall,” Strand said.  “Typically there’s a smaller one that we’re going to be planning in the spring semester, which covers a lot of the same topics.”

This will be the third year that graduate student orientation will occur and it’s planned to take place during the second week of January at the Alumni Center.

Strand said that although the orientation events are smaller, they’ve been very successful at introducing new graduate students to the university in a community environment.

Strand admitted that she doesn’t work directly with GPSS, but she applauded the efforts of the Senate and Senate President Arko Provo Mukherjee.

“Since I’ve been here, this is the most active they’ve been,” Strand said. “They come up with ideas they want to implement, and they really make good use of their senators. It’s been quite impressive.”