Serving as President of the Graduate and Professional Student Association has been one of the most challenging and rewarding activities of my life. I am proud to say that teaching and research assistants making less than $14,916 this academic year will see an increase to their salary next year. This was accomplished through the tuition reinvestment as part of the athletic fee that will allow free admission for all students to Sun Devil Athletic events next year, among many other things. Part of the fee money will also be used for a $50,000 research grant competition to support students whose research broadly relates to athletics.
Other initiatives I have led this year include establishing graduate writing centers, obtaining a reimbursement for the joint MSW/MPA students who were wrongly charged two program fees, starting a subscription for all students to The New York Times through ASU libraries and reforming how program fees are communicated to students throughout their time at ASU.
At our final assembly meeting on April 11, the assembly will vote on adopting a 10-year strategic plan for GPSA. The strategic plan outlines long-term improvements to GPSA’s advocacy, support and unity mission. I have outlined some of the improvements below.
At the university level, we need to increase collaboration with the faculty senate and staff council. Also, we need to advocate for more alumni tracking to ensure accuracy in reporting program outcomes to potential students. At the state level, GPSA needs to either have graduate student funds not pay into the Arizona Financial Aid Trust or have their funds released as aid to graduate students. Currently, AFAT funds only benefit undergraduates. At the federal level, we need to work to reinstate parity in student loan interest rates for undergraduates and graduates.
Within GPSA, we need to ensure that our research and travel grant competitions are distributed equally by college, as well as funding the same percentage of masters and doctoral students as there are in the student body. An international student fee board to provide oversight to the International Students and Scholars Office should be instituted. We need to work with graduate education to clarify the differences between types of Master's programs. The justification for the program, the advertising, the curriculum and career outcomes should all align.
GPSA needs to increase its presence at West, Downtown and Polytechnic. I suggest creating Campus Councils that have GPSA assembly members, the outreach director and other interested students as members to meet regularly with the student services at these locations. Other roles that increase participation through smaller time commitment volunteer positions within GPSA should be pursued.
Finally, I would like to make a few suggestions about the future of all of ASASU. The Council of Presidents, the executive side, has unequal decision-making power because the legislative branches have not imposed rules for how presidents should make university-wide decisions. It seems that the legislative bodies are unsure what their role is in relation to the executives. However, it is up to the legislative body to hold the presidents accountable. A joint legislative session with all five representative bodies would be the perfect place to work out university-wide decision making practices. Also, more cross-governmental relations should be taking place on the executive side, such as all the Vice Presidents of Services meeting on a regular basis. Finally, the various appropriation procedures need to be revamped to reflect university-wide student organizations.
Reach the outgoing GPSA president at Megan.Fisk@asu.edu
Editor’s note: The opinion presented in this column is the author’s and does not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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