On May 5th, 2020 the Guarini Graduate Student Council (GSC) Executive Board were selected after an online election hosted by the current GSC General Body. Members of the Guarini community were invited to nominate fellow students throughout the month of April or during the election process.
The GSC represents all graduate students on campus, including the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, the Thayer School of Engineering, and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. The goal of the GSC is to ensure that graduate students' concerns and opinions are heard by the Guarini administration and enhance a sense of community for graduate students at Dartmouth.
Each year, the GSC selects key issues as the focus of the Executive Board tenure. Over the past year those included developing a plan for advisor training in power dynamics; forming a Diversity and Inclusivity Chair position on the Executive Board in order to ensure that diverse perspectives of graduate students are heard; working with the administration to develop a plan for new graduate student housing; increasing the presence of the GSC at orientation; and increasing the number of communication channels between the GSC and the graduate student body.
In particular, the GSC has made incredible strides toward addressing power dynamics in primary investigator (PI)/advisor and graduate relationships. They have worked with the Dean of the Guarini School, Jon Kull, to develop mentor training opportunities, and plans are in place to provide advisor committees to all graduate students during their time at Dartmouth. Additional efforts include offering mental health support remotely and the creation of a Resource Guide, which outlines where students can find help on and off campus for a variety of health- and academic-related concerns.
In addition, academic support was provided in the form of inter-departmental mixers and conference expense awards as part of the GSC's ongoing Student Travel Scholarships. These include the Student Professional Development Fund (funding up to $200 for scholarly pursuits or community development) as well as the Conference Travel Grant (one award of $1,000 per term to assist a student with travel expenses for a conference they will be presenting at). The GSC also began an ongoing partnership with both the Hood Museum and the Hopkins Center for the Arts to enhance graduate student participation at events around campus. There were also numerous social events both prior to and through the current quarantine situation. These events were hosted by the GSC as well as a record 27 graduate student organizations.
Outgoing President, Curtis Petersen says "I have been so lucky to have such a wonderful executive board, and a great council to work with over the past year. I've had a lot of fun and learned so much from serving in this position - it has been an honor. I'm very proud of the exec board and the council held so many events, both social and academic, to help the graduate student community, and the Dartmouth community at large. I think that our ability to work with both Kerry Landers and Dean Kull have allowed the graduate student council to be successful. We can always improve, and I know that the incoming executive board and the graduate student council will continue to tackle issues that we face and improve the graduate student experience."
The new Executive Board members are:
President: Eva Childers
Vice President: Rachel Osmundsen
Finance Chair: Jordan Isaacs
Communications Chair: Catherine Pollack
Student Life Chair: Keighley Rockliffe
Academic Chair: Alberto Ruiz
Social Co-Chairs: Henry Gould; Sumy Anand
Service Chair: Kali Smolen
Diversity & Inclusivity Chair: Hector Sanchez
Housing Chair: Rachel Brog
Grad Activities Coordinator: Sidhartha Jandhyala
You can learn more about the Dartmouth GSC by visiting sites.dartmouth.edu/gsc or following them on Facebook (Dartmouth Graduate Student Council), Twitter (@DartGSC), or Instagram (@dartmouthgsc).
