GSC Coasts Through Meeting

At the first Graduate Student Council meeting of the 2008-2009 academic year yesterday, President Kyle M. Brown addressed a packed crowd—one whose size vastly exceeded its energy.

“So we have a little bit of business,” Brown said. “I love meetings that end early.”

At the brief meeting yesterday, the executive board of the Graduate Council, the student government of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, announced deadlines for fall conference grants and student group funding, provided updates on the Parental Accommodation report for student parents, and held elections for various committee positions.

The meeting also codified into GSC law a number of proposed constitutional changes (“fascinating,” Brown called them) that had already passed in May.

The items included increasing the number of at-large representatives, changing the eligibility of executive council represented departments for summer research and conference grants, and increasing conference grant coverage to $1,000.

The proposed changes also deleted two sections of the constitution that had never been implemented.

“By unanimous consent, we will pass these,” Brown said, asking for any objections. Nobody responded. “And they become law.”

Brown encouraged attendants to take part in the Graduate Student Organization, which acts as an intermediary between departments and students.

“It’s about getting representation for graduate students at the local, departmental level,” Brown said.

The organismic and evolutionary biology student strongly encouraged direct participation.

“Sometimes you feel like the University is an organism for making committees and nothing comes out of it,” Brown said.

To counter this, he held pseudo-elections for positions on the GSC Executive Board, GSC Committees, and University committees, ranging from the Harvard College Safety Committee to the FAS Library Committee.

But the energy in the room was lukewarm, dampened by the thick smell of pineapple pizza.

“You just all elected Sarah,” Brown said after another bout of silence in response to a proposed candidate. “See how easy that worked!”

Harvard Law School student Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06, a former member of the College’s very own Undergraduate Council, spoke briefly to recruit Graduate Student Council members willing to serve as representatives on the Harvard Graduate Council, the “umbrella organization that represents all of the twelve graduate schools.”

“Very competitive process we have here,” Brown said. He turned to the graduate student who now constituted one half of a committee. “We’ll find someone.”

—Staff Writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.