Graduate students will have a chance to learn about their student representatives tonight at the Graduate Student Senate's Fall 2004 Open House.
Natalia Matukhno, vice president for communication for Graduate Student Senate, said the open house is designed for graduate students to drop in and express any concerns they may have.
I want to hear what students think and hear concerns about their lives as grad students at Ohio University
Matukhno said.
The open house will be 5 to 10 p.m. in Lindley Hall rooms 217 and 218.
Brooke Dagnan, president of Graduate Student Senate, said she hopes the open house creates more general awareness of the senate.
We feel that a lot of grad students ... don't know what the organization does she said.
The senate has a history of working to improve the quality of life for graduate students and has many issues targeted to be addressed beginning this fall, Matukhno said.
Matukhno said the senate was part of the effort to save the Mill Street Apartments from demolition last year. The apartments were located in a convenient area on campus for graduate students and their demolition would have meant a lost housing opportunity for many, including international students, she said.
Matukhno said the decline of international student enrollment-comprising only 5.5 percent of the OU population last year-is one of the many issues the senate hopes to tackle in the coming year. Also of concern is the newly established printing fee in Alden Library, which, at 5 cents a page per month after an initial 50 free pages, can become an unreasonable cost for graduate students needing to print thousands of pages.
This year, the senate also plans to improve health insurance for graduate students, change the general fee charged to graduate students and raise the amount of outside research grant money, Matukhno said.
All of these things begin with more graduate student participation in the senate, said Michael Mumper, associate provost for Graduate Studies.
Graduate Student Senate is the voice of the grad student on campus. It's important ... so that when the senate speaks for students the administration and the university
they're well-informed
Mumper said.
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