Do right by grad students

In a Feb. 21, 2008 column, Anne Twitty GS, the press secretary-elect for the Graduate Student Government (GSG), lamented that expansion of graduate housing is not included in the University's 10-Year-Plan even though an existing housing crunch will be exacerbated by a 10 percent increase in graduate student enrollment over the same period. Many of the responses to Twitty's column expressed deep displeasure with the University's responsiveness to graduate student concerns. The record number of candidates in this month's GSG elections further suggests that graduate students want change.

The University should be addressing these concerns not only because graduate students make up a significant and important portion of the University community, but also because their quality of life impacts the rest of the University. Graduate students do not just pursue advanced degrees; they often are also preceptors, lab workers, language instructors, research assistants and now resident graduate students in the residential colleges. Simply put, when graduate students are unhappy, everyone suffers.

While Princeton's heavy focus on undergraduates is one of the University's distinguishing features, this focus need not come at the expense of addressing basic concerns about graduate student quality of life. Whitman College is indeed a stark contrast from the Hibben Apartments and contributes to the perception among members of the campus community that graduate students are second-class citizens. Many undergraduates, for example, perceive graduate students as "sketchy" figures who inhabit the fringe of the campus community, both literally and figuratively.

The administration should address these issues better accommodating graduate students with more frequent bus shuttles, a reconsideration of the current housing situation, which this year left a record 200 students - or more than 20 percent of the graduate student draw - without campus housing while also reaching out to the Borough and Township to increase affordable rental options off-campus. The administration should also begin a dialogue with graduate students on the unintended consequences of driving them to finish their dissertations rapidly, which forces many into "post-enrollment status" with its accompanying restrictions on housing, access to the library, healthcare and other University facilities.

Graduate students at Princeton represent a rich and often untapped resource for undergraduates. At a time when many undergraduates seek to study or work abroad during their college careers, graduate students, who often have such experience, can play even greater roles as mentors and friends to undergraduates. But if graduate students feel marginalized and undergraduates perceive them as such, the likelihood for more harmonious relations between these two groups remains remote.