A hidden voice for grad students

“There are a lot of things we want to do, but we may not have the energy to do them all,” GSG vice president Giri Parameswaran GS, a Ph.D. student in economics, said. During the 2008-09 academic year, Parameswaran created the position to which he was just elected. “That is always going to be a challenge,” he explained.

Though it has been plagued by a lack of graduate student interest and limited visibility on campus, the GSG has taken a leading role in addressing issues such as the relationships between graduate and undergraduate students and addressing graduate students’ concerns about available housing.

Though the GSG was founded in 1989, its first popular election came 12 years later in 2001. Approximately 20 percent of graduate students voted in this election, more than the 13 percent of graduate students that voted this year.

“It was quite low,” newly-elected GSG president Chad Maisel GS said.

Maisel’s office was the only of the six positions in the government that was contested in this year’s election. Maisel, a first-year M.P.A. student in the Wilson School, won by a margin of 20 percent against Timothy Brandt GS, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the astrophysics department.

“I feel fine about that,” Brandt said about his loss. “I had my own doubts about how much time I would be able to commit to the role.”

One of the main hindrances the GSG has faced in the past is not only an internal lack of manpower but also a lack of interest on the part of its voters.

The GSG focuses its efforts more on students living in the Graduate College, according to Mike McCaffrey GS, a Wilson School graduate student and a Resident Graduate Student in Wilson College. McCaffrey said that the GSG has not played a significant role in his University life.

“Since I live on campus, I usually do not go to their events,” McCaffrey said. “I would be surprised if the [GSG] has been very influential for Woodrow Wilson School masters students as we have our own governance system, and have very different priorities than the Ph.D.s."

Despite low turnout and ambivalence from many students, some graduate students have a more positive view of the GSG. Francis Haas GS, also a Wilson RGS and a student in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, noted that the GSG works in the interest of graduate students on issues such as health care, housing and childcare.

“The work GSG does on behalf of Princeton’s graduate students is remarkably comprehensive for an essentially volunteer organization,” Haas said. “I’m glad someone is looking out for our interests.”

Though Haas might have been appreciative, Maisel noted that many other graduate students are unaware of the services offered by the GSG, which he said play a “vital role.”

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Recent GSG initiatives include the addition of graduate students to the campus directory, optional dental plans for students and the extension of housing and enrollment privileges to students who take longer than expected to complete their dissertations.

Maisel noted that, despite its accomplishments, the GSG remains a hidden force in the lives of graduate students.

“A lot can be done to improve our visibility on campus,” Maisel said. “I think that will do more than just improving attendance at GSG meetings, but also get graduate students more engaged with what’s happening on campus.” One of the GSG’s top priorities this year is to strengthen the relationships between undergraduate and graduate students.

“Each of us has something to offer each other,” Maisel said. “The undergraduate community is a brilliant, incredible and diverse group of people, and of course I think the graduate student community would love to be a part of that.”

One way in which Maisel plans to improve undergraduate perceptions of graduate students is through a jointly coordinated effort with the USG to start a mentoring program. Graduate students paired with undergraduate students would, Maisel said, at least, give advice to students thinking of concentrating in their departments.

“We’re trying to make it a lot easier for grads and undergrads to interact,” Parameswaran said, noting that one in three University students is a graduate student. “We’re trying to increase the profile of grad students on campus.”

In addition to facilitating relationships between graduate and undergraduate students and raising awareness of the GSG’s activities, the GSG plans to tackle serious issues presently facing the graduate student community such as the planned demolition of the Hibben and Magie graduate student apartments located near Lake Carnegie.

Sarah Grady GS, a third-year graduate student in the molecular biology department and the newly elected GSG communications director, explained that the renovation to the Hibben and Magie apartments will displace about 200 graduate students who would have otherwise lived in University housing. Grady said that with the movement of so many students off campus, the need for commuter parking increases substantially.

Grady said the new GSG administration is making housing and parking issues its top priorities.

“By making a concerted effort to connect all graduate students, regardless of housing status, we will simultaneously improve social and academic interaction ... and bring a more unified voice to the graduate student body,” Grady said.

Parameswaran explained that the Hibben and Magie demolition has been a major inconvenience for displaced students. He said the high cost of off-campus apartments in Princeton has been a concern for those displaced.

Parameswaran also criticized the University’s on-campus housing availability for graduate students, noting that less than 60 percent of graduate students live on campus.

“Obviously, some choose to live in New York or Philadelphia, but a lot of people are forced off campus,” Parameswaran said. “A lot of people are worried about where they’re going to live and how much it’s going to cost them, and it’s a frustration when every March you really have to start panicking,” he explained.

Haas said that the GSG has been the “eyes, ears and raised hands of the graduate student body” at University meetings to discuss the construction of graduate-school housing.

But Brandt, who is now the GSG facilities chair, noted that, as GSG officials have said about other projects, apathy must be overcome.

“It’s hard to get people engaged in housing until there’s a problem,” he said.

Clarification: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article inadvertently shortened a quote from Mike McCaffrey GS, a Wilson School graduate student. He said in an email, "I would be surprised if the [GSG] has been very influential for Woodrow Wilson School masters students as we have our own governance system, and have very different priorities than the Ph.D.s."