Fouse explores issues confronting grad students

The Graduate Student Government recently held its first student-wide popular election. Matt Fouse GS, who emerged as the victor in the race for GSG Chair, discussed his administration's goals with 'Prince' staff writer George Spencer.

'Prince': What can you say about both student participation in the election and student satisfaction with the new system?

Fouse: I think we were all very pleased with the turnout for our first-ever graduate student body-wide elections for GSG officers. The official figures showed that turnout was roughly 20 percent of the eligible graduate student population. Given that some of the races were uncontested after some candidates withdrew prior to the election, I think it was a great start. We doubled our minimum participation requirement and now have a benchmark to improve upon in future years.

In terms of satisfaction with the new system I can only speak for myself and for those of my peers who've expressed an opinion. But my sense is that most graduate students were pleased with the newly broadened democratic process. One reason many of us pushed for a new system was to raise awareness about the GSG and encourage more involvement in student government, and I think the new system was successful in that regard and that most grad students were happy to learn more about their potential representatives and have a direct say in who those representatives would be.

P: How do you intend to work on the issue of graduate student housing — or lack thereof — during your time as GSG Chair?

F: The housing shortage is a serious problem affecting graduate students and the GSG has been pleased with the administration's aggressive response to our concerns. The University has committed resources to short-term solutions and has made an effort to include grad student voices on the two committees that have been established to come up with solutions to the shortage.

My understanding is that the housing department has gone to some lengths to try to guarantee that all enrolled students will have housing next year. I believe one of our biggest priorities now is to ensure that our opinions are fully taken into account in long-term plans to create more graduate student housing. We also need to remain vigilant in two senses: First, by encouraging the administration to keep future surprise shortages from occurring, and second, by making sure that some of the current short-term solutions — for example, trying to fit more grad students into often overcrowded [Graduate College] living spaces — remain short-term solutions that are phased out once long-term plans for the construction of new housing have gone into effect.

P: In what areas of Princeton life do you see the graduate school gaining more of a presence on campus?

F: I think the graduate school has always been an important member of the Princeton community and had an important presence in campus life. Graduate students make an essential contribution to the intellectual aspects of campus life through our research and precepting, areas in which we are always striving to improve. I also hope that graduate students can continue to expand their presence as fellows in undergraduate colleges.

Finally, I believe we've already witnessed an increase in collaboration between graduate students and undergraduates in the arts, political activism and other areas [of] campus life in recent years, and I expect this trend to continue.

P: The Frist Campus Center seems to be largely used by undergraduates, and Chancellor Green is closing at the end of this year. Has a new location emerged for Princeton graduate students to socialize?

F: Panera. Just kidding — sort of. Not that we won't miss Chancellor Green, but I actually think that many grad students use Frist as a location to socialize and work. We hold meetings there, and as the year goes on I've seen more and more grad students in the eating area and coffee house. The GSG has held social events in Frist already, and we're working with Paul Breitman and the staff at Frist to make sure we will hold many additional successful events. I have a feeling that graduate students will continue to utilize Frist more and more and, of course, we'll always continue to look for good places to get coffee in town.

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P: Has the newly elected GSG specified any single issue or concern as a whole that it hopes to concentrate its efforts on during the coming year?

F: We'd really like to see some changes made in the way post-enrolled students are treated at Princeton. This is probably the issue that I hear the most about when I ask graduate students what they would change if they could. We all feel that the loss of student status as it currently occurs and as frequently happens to most students while they are working on their dissertations is overly harsh and, just as importantly, unnecessary. We recognize in the abstract the need to encourage graduate students to complete their dissertations, but feel that losing fellowship support and not wanting to remain graduate students any longer than necessary presently serve as sufficient incentives to finish. As if losing fellowship support was not enough, however, we also lose our ability to defer students loans, our access to subsidized housing and many campus facilities and even health insurance after a year — all as a biproduct of losing our student status. The GSG presented these concerns along with a number of proposals for addressing this issue to the CPUC a couple of weeks ago, and we will push to get these concerns addressed and our proposals accepted during the coming year.