by Anders | Feb 15, 2018 | Uncategorized
Graduate Students,
The Spring 2018 budget has been approved and Conference and External Travel is now open. Graduate students may apply for up to $250.00 of funds towards travel and priority is given to graduate students who have exhausted, been denied, or are ineligible for additional funds.
Spring 2018 Applications
Application Window: February 9, 2018-March 9, 2018
Travel Dates: March 1, 2018- August 31, 2018
Application Decision Date: No later than March 23, 2018
Submissions will be received here and on our funding page on the GSC Website.
Requests for funding must be received within the application window. In the event a request is received outside of the application window (late submission), the GSC cannot guarantee an application will be funded and will be determined on a case by case basis as funds may have been exhausted.
If you have any further questions, we encourage you to read the recently posted criteria on the GSC funding website. Feel free to follow up with an email to gsc_treasurer@brown.edu. Please no personal emails.
by Anders | Feb 8, 2018 | Uncategorized
Dear Fellow Graduate Students,
The Graduate Student Council welcomes you back and hopes the Spring semester is off to a smooth start. As a refresher to our roles on the GSC, the primary aims of the executive board are to foster a sense of community among graduate students across departments, to facilitate collective action on graduate student-related issues, and to be a voice for the graduate community. It is in this spirit that the ten-member Executive Board communicates and seeks to address any concerns and topics of interest with the University administration. We meet regularly with the Deans of the Graduate School, the President, the Provost, and others to advocate for the needs and interests of our community. We also host various events to help build community among all graduate students across disciplines and backgrounds.
Additionally, our monthly general body meetings are held on the first
Wednesday of the month at
7 PM in the Graduate Student Lounge. We will have our first meeting of the semester this Wednesday, February 7th. All students are
welcome and we encourage you to attend. As always, we will have food and beverages available. All departments/programs should have at least one departmental representative who should attend the meetings and relay any relevant information to the rest of the graduates of the program. Some departments have vacancies, so if you are a member of such a department, we encourage you to sign yourself up and come to our meeting. Our meeting agenda for this month can be found
here.
Notably, the topic of unionization has currently been present on campus. As such, we would like to share with you our
FAQ that we put together regarding the issue of unionization, which contains links to some further resources. Because we anticipate the likelihood of an official unionization vote later this year, the GSC is organizing a forum this semester. To reiterate our stance, the GSC is a neutral body, representing the entire spectrum of graduate students, including both doctoral and master’s students. Each group holds different perspectives and concerns with respect to work, research, and the graduate student experience at our institution. Our constituents include those who are in favor of unionization, those who are opposed, those who are not quite sure, and everyone in between. To best represent all our constituents, we will continue to facilitate a fair and unbiased environment for conversation. If you are interested, please read the FAQ, and be on the lookout for more information on our forum in the near future.
Lastly, if you are interested in staying up to date with events and initiatives of the Graduate Student Council, we encourage you to follow us on
Facebook and
Twitter, as well as to check our
website for updates and sign up for one or more of our
mailing lists. Additionally, if you have any concerns, please feel free to raise them at our monthly meetings or to reach out to members of the Executive Board; our roles are to advocate for all graduate students.
The 2018 Executive Board of the Graduate Student Council,
Alastair Tulloch, President
D’Ondre Swails, VP of Advocacy
Eboni Chambers, Treasurer
Alexander Laferriere, Chair of Communications
Sophie Brunau-Zaragoza, Chair of International Advocacy
Alexis Grant, Chair of Master’s Advocacy
Christian Casey, Chair of Nominations
Lauren Watts, Chair of Social Events
Andrew Lynn, Chair of Student Life
Ghous Amjad, Chair of Technology
by Anders | Nov 20, 2017 | Uncategorized
Together the Graduate Student Council (GSC) & Sexual Harassment & Assault Resources & Education (SHARE) are interested in ways we can better serve the graduate student community.
During Reading Period, we will hold a set of focus groups that focus on understanding what graduate students know about SHARE resources and how these SHARE topics are discussed in the graduate community.
If you are interested in participating in the focus group, even if you are not available during Reading Period this semester,
please follow this link to sign-up.
Andrew Lynn, Sc.M
GSC Chair of Student Life
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Brown University
by Anders | Nov 14, 2017 | Uncategorized
As some of you may already know, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act recently drafted by the US House of Representatives includes some
provisions that negatively affect graduate students. Most pressing is a change to the tax code that could allow tuition waivers to be taxed as income; for an average domestic doctoral student at Brown filing singly, this would raise taxes owed from about $2,160 to about $11,650. The impact could be even greater for students in other situations, such as those with families or international students. Obviously, this would have a severely negative impact on graduate education, particularly at private institutions, and would make pursuing a graduate degree financially untenable for many. The bill also proposes changes to student loan deductions and education tax credits.
The bill is not finalized, however, and must go through many more steps before becoming law, which means that we have the opportunity to intervene. Regardless of your political inclinations or how you feel about the tax bill overall, we hope that you will join us in contacting members of Congress and impressing upon them the negative impact that these provisions will have on graduate education in America. The GSC Executive Board is contacting our Rhode Island Senators and Representatives, and we encourage you to do the same – including reaching out to representatives and senators from your home towns and states. We also encourage our many international students to make their voices heard, as residents of Rhode Island and members of the Brown community. We are attaching a
template that we encourage you to use to contact your
Senators and Representatives.
Whatever the outcome, Brown remains committed to graduate education, and the administration is working on
several fronts to combat this legislation and its negative impacts on higher education. In the meantime, we ask that you spread the word about this bill to classmates and relatives, and encourage them to engage in the political process and protect the future of graduate education in America. Please feel free to reach out to us here at the
GSC or to other student advocacy and interest groups that are also working on this issue with questions or concerns in the meantime.
Best wishes,
Aislinn Rowan, Graduate Student Council President
by Anders | Oct 12, 2017 | Uncategorized
The minutes for October’s general body meeting are available here.
by Anders | Aug 26, 2017 | Uncategorized
Grads,
As the Chair of Student Life, I have recently formed an informal committee with the specific mission of improving graduate student health and wellness. The Graduate Student Health & Wellness Committee consists of the GSC Chair of Student Life, the Director of CAPS, the Director of Bwell, and the Dean of Student Affairs, along with other ranking members these divisions.
Together, it is our goal to develop sustainable wellness initiatives and build lasting traditions for Graduate Students. Initiatives will generally promote physical, social, emotional, and/or spiritual wellness by bringing graduate students together in substance-free environments to build meaningful connections.
The GSC would like to call for nominations for members of the Student Life Committee. Committee members would be expected to serve by assisting the Chair of Student Life in the planning and organization of Graduate Health & Wellness Initiatives. Members would also be expected to assist the Chair of Social Events as needed.
Please follow this
link if you are interested in serving on the GSC Student Life Committee.
Best,
Andrew Lynn, Sc.M
GSC Chair of Student Life
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Brown University
