Hello graduate student,
Welcome back to campus, we here at GAPSA hope your summer was restful and/or productive, preferably both (although I know how difficult that is!). Here is the first of many Weekly Digest emails from your elected reps at GAPSA. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments and if you wouldn't mind taking a moment and filling out our VERY quick survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GAPSAFall2012 that would be great.
1. PARTICIPATE IN GAPSA
Okay, to start off, a bit of pandering - if you'd like to participate more directly in GAPSA, let us know. Are you looking for a way to advocate for graduate student concerns like funding, parking, housing, etc.? Do you want a greater voice in administrative decisions that concern graduate students? If so, become a part of your Graduate and Professional Student Association (GAPSA). This year, GAPSA has a multitude of different options for being a part of GAPSA’s governing body – with time commitments of between 3 and 6 hours a month! If you are interested, please reply to this email at [log in to unmask].
Open positions, the job descriptions and approximate time commitment:
**Academic Delegates: (time commitment = 4-5 hours/months)
Academic Delegates are either elected by the students in their respective programs or appointed by the GAPSA Executive Board and shall serve as a representative for the academic program in which they belong. The Delegate holds a voting seat on the campus Assembly where their program is housed. Assembly meetings occur roughly once a month. The Delegate must also serve on a least one committee (see #2 below for info about our committees).
**Committee or Working Group members: (time commitment = 2-3 hours/month)
Committees that we established last year included the Legislative Concerns Committee and the Employment and Funding Concerns Committee. We hope to add a new Social committee, Communications committee and International Student Concerns committee. These committees will meet roughly once a month.
2. UPCOMING BIG EVENT:
Come out for an awesome night as GAPSA will host our first Happy Hour of the semester at the Well inside the Mason Inn on Friday, Sept 21 from 4-615pm, followed by a short walk over to the Johnson Center (Dewberry Hall) for the FREE Capital Steps Comedy Show which starts at 7pm!
For more information on the show, check out masonvotes.gmu.edu and to RSVP for the Happy Hour, visit our Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/222605281200338/
3. LEGISLATIVE ACTION DAYS IN DC/ARLINGTON
The National Association of Graduate-Professional Students has invited us to send student delegates to their bi-annual Legislative Action Days and Advocacy Summit, held in Arlington and Washington D.C. from September 7th to September 11th, 2012.
During the conference and Capitol Hill visits, the focus will be on:
* Your access to graduate education and funding
* Your graduate student loans (interest rates and debt forgiveness)
* Your right to read federally funded published literature without fee
* International student visas and post-graduation immigration
* Educational funding for the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, and other graduate-professional student fields
* Campus safety
If you have no lobbying experience, that’s ok; they’ll train us beforehand and provide materials that we can use or customize. If you’re an expert lobbyer, great! - Please come and share your experiences with others.
Registration is now open. Details on accommodations, meeting schedules, and other information are available at the following link: http://www.nagps.org/events/fall-2012-nagps-legislative-action-days
If you'd like to be involved, our Legislative Concerns Committee is having a pre-LAD meeting to discuss the upcoming LADs and scheduling meetings with Congresspeople this Thursday, Sept 6 at 4pm in the GAPSA office within Student Involvement in the HUB/Sub 2, room 2321. We'd love to have you join us!
4. OTHER EVENTS: TWO GREAT CONFERENCES
**The Cultural Studies Graduate Student Organization will be holding their annual graduate student conference entitled "Critiquing Culture" on Sept 21 and 22. This year they are featuring keynote speaker Doug Henwood and have two full days of graduate presentations. For a detailed schedule and more info about the conference, see their website at http://culturalstudies.gmu.edu/critiquing_culture.html
**Mason's Center for Teaching and Faculty Excellence would like to invite you to their fourth annual Innovations in Teaching and Learning conference, which is being held on Friday, September 21st, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the Johnson Center.
This is an internal conference, with Mason faculty and graduate students from across ranks and disciplines making presentations based on our conference theme, "Amplify Your Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Diverse Classrooms."
All faculty and graduate students at Mason are invited to join us for the day - registration is free for the Mason community and lunch will be provided.
Online registration is now open. For more details and to see a working schedule of events, visit http://ctfe.gmu.edu/professional-development/innovations-in-teaching-learning-conference/.
5. Announcement: New Director, Graduate Student Life for Fairfax Campus.
I am very pleased to inform you that Julie Choe Kim has been hired as University Life's new director for Graduate Student Life at the Fairfax campus, starting October 10, 2012. Julie is a talented, experienced student affairs professional with 14 years of experience, including 6 years as coordinator for graduate student life at the University of Maryland.
Julie's office will be located in 4211 SUB I. I know she is excited to join the Mason staff and will be looking forward to attending many of GAPSA's events after she takes her new position.
6. Other announcements:
**FROM Graduate Christian Fellowship, a recognized student org on campus: "Graduate Christian Fellowship at GMU has regular events for graduate students on the Arlington and Fairfax campuses. For an up-to-date schedule of events, visit our website: http://www.masongfm.blogspot.com/ or contact GCF chaplain, Paula Puckett, at [log in to unmask]."
**If any other recognized Graduate Student Organization would like to get their name and message out through our listserv, we'd love to help you promote yourselves! Give us an email at [log in to unmask] and remember, all RGSOs can have a liaison from their orgs serve on our Campus Assemblies!
All the best,
Exec Board
Graduate and Professional Student Association
George Mason University
4400 University Drive, MS 2D6
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Email: [log in to unmask]
web: gapsa.gmu.edu