Grad students discussing Walk issue

Graduate students have tried to maximize their input on President Sheldon Hackney's committee to diversify Locust Walk by establishing an independent committee to discuss the issue and consult with the single graduate student representative on Hackney's committee. Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairperson Susan Garfinkel, the representative on Hackney's committee, said earlier this week that the GAPSA committee helps make up for the lack of graduate student representation on Hackney's committee. The graduate student committee, which draws half of its 10 members from GAPSA, is attempting to help make Garfinkel better prepared to represent graduate student opinions at the Locust Walk committee meetings. The GAPSA committee, which has met three time this semester, includes international students, members of the Muslim Student Alliance, Black Student League, Graduate and Professional Women's Organization and a student who was in a fraternity as an undergraduate. "There is a good mix of professional and Ph.D. students with a variety of backgrounds," said Garfinkel. "Hopefully they'll listen to what we have to say," Garfinkel said of the Walk committee members. But if they do not address graduate student concerns, the GAPSA committee might issue its own report, she said. "Whether or not we issue a report depends on what the [Locust Walk] committee decides," Garfinkel said. Although the president has instructed the Walk committee not to consider moving fraternities off Locust Walk, the GAPSA committee has not set the same limits on its disucssions. "We will consider moving fraternities," Garfinkel said of the graduate students. In addition to discussing the issues that are being talked over by the Locust Walk committee, the GAPSA committee is working on independent studies which could later be presented to Hackney's committee.

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