Minority Panel Representation Divides Grad Student Groups

A reorganized graduate student council may face a conflict with an ad hoc minority admissions group over student representation to a new Council on Graduate Education subcommittee, the chairman of the student council said yesterday.

Panayote Dmitros, the chairman of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Student Council, said yesterday Dean Rosovsky should select any graduate student representative to the Graduate Education Council minority admissions review subcommittee from the ranks of the Council rather than from the ad hoc group.

Michael Harris, spokesman for the ad hoc minority committee, declined yesterday to comment on the issue.

Peter S. McKinney, acting dean of GSAS, said yesterday graduate student representation on the new subcommittee should come from the GSAS Student Council because the council, established by the Faculty, is the legitimate representative body for graduate students.

Rosovsky announced the creation of the new subcommittee this April after the ad hoc group protested GSAS minority recruitment, admissions, and financial aid policy. Rosovsky has so far reached no decision on the new subcommittee's membership.

The council, in a meeting last week, debated graduate student representation on the Committee of Rights and Responsibilities (CRR), Panayote said.

The council decided to continue the current graduate student boycott of the CRR until the Faculty adopts the CRR's proposed reforms and until the upperclassmen agree to end their boycott, Panayote said.

Panayote said he hopes to see more student participation in administrative decisions affecting graduate students.

A new committee on student-Faculty relations, minority graduate education, and departmental isolation should stimulate student discussion and action on these problems of graduate student life, Panayote said.