After the teach-ins, protests, and grade strike, graduate students are moving closer to attaining greater representation within the Graduate School. A Committee on Student Governance was recently formed in the Graduate School to facilitate communication about policy-making between students and administrators. The group consists of six graduate students and five faculty members in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as an administrator, Associate Dean Jonas Zdanys, BR '72.
According to political science professor David Cameron, chair of the committee, "Our task is to invent some kind of mechanism or institution that would provide graduate student representation and allow graduate students to participate in the decisions affecting them."
GESO members claim that the grade strike was a major factor in the institution of the committee. Chris Cobb, GRD '96, a member of both GESO and the committee, said, "The fact that this committee exists is 100 percent due to GESO."
Zdanys disagreed about the grade strike's role in the committee's formation. "I don't believe it was the defining factor," he said.
The committee held a series of open meetings this week to allow graduate students and faculty to express their concerns and offer suggestions. Many students expressed the desire to create an elected assembly of graduate students which would have a say in Graduate School policies.
GESO Chair Robin Brown, GRD '97, said, "The most difficult point will come around how we get some kind of structure of accountability." She stressed that the governing body should have tangible power, not merely "representation in the abstract."
Cameron agreed: "To come up with something with any credibilitywe need a mechanism with real influence and power."
The committee will meet regularly until May, when it will present its recommendations to the Graduate School. "We're trying to work as fast as possible and to accomplish as much as we can," Cobb said. Brown said that she was "cautiously optimistic" about the committee, adding, "I think it has the potential to do some positive stuff."
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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