TAs to hold fourth 'Class in the Grass'

Teaching assistants will hold "Class in the Grass" today and Friday as part of a graduate student awareness campaign on College Green. In addition to teaching their classes outside, some TAs will hold outdoor office hours and some research assistants plan to take their research projects outside. "Last year we had about 100 graduate students and 1,000 undergraduate students out," said Graduate Student Associations Council Chairperson Michele Grimm. "All we ask is that graduate students bring out their classes and come to the table and sign up with us." The goal of "Class in the Grass" is to demonstrate the importance of graduate students to the University community, said Jessica Neuwirth, the GSAC board member who organized the event. "I hope that 'Class in the grass' will give [graduate students] more of an opportunity to let people know that they're there," Grimm said. The event is also an opportunity for GSAC to get in touch with a large number of graduate students, she said. "It is a way to get to know them better and find out what's going on on campus," Grimm said. "Last year we used it as a way to let them know about the T.A. compact." Tables with representatives from GSAC, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and the Coalition of Graduate Students will be set up near the button from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to direct classes to outdoor locations, answer questions about graduate affairs and distribute T-shirts and buttons to participants, Neuwirth said. "We'll all have information about various issues graduate students are concened with," Grimm said. Students who are curious about COGS, a new organization attempting to find more effective methods of solving graduate students' problems, will have a chance to get their questions answered today and tomorrow. The organization has not yet defined which issues it will deal with, and plans to use the event to find out what the students would like it to do, said graduate history student Liam Riordan. Students interested in joining the new group can also sign up, Riordan said. The focus this year will be on "what the graduate students want, what are issues facing them," Neuwirth said. Since it is early in the school year, GSAC will have time to work on the students concerns, she said. In the past, "Class in the Grass" took place in the spring. "We had a lot of trouble last spring with cold weather," said Grimm. "Last year because it was rainy and cold we talked about moving it up." "It will be nice to be able to talk with students at the beginning of the year and find out what they want and act on it instead of waiting until final exams," Grimm added.

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