GAPSA to fight for more campus space

In its first meeting of the semester, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly addressed issues of safety, graduate student space on campus and the Biddle Law Library's access restrictions. Approximately 20 students attended the meeting, including a seven-member executive committee, official representatives from most of the graduate and professional schools, members of other graduate student organizations and a few interested first-year graduate students. "I'm happy to see quite a good mix of people," said GAPSA President Alex Welte, a fourth-year Physics graduate student, in opening the meeting. The group, which overflowed a small Houston Hall room, focused on issues of real concern to its constituency -- the University's 10,000 graduate and professional students. An issue of longstanding concern for graduate students involves the lack of a communal space on campus delegated solely for their use. GAPSA has grappled with this issue for years, according to Dan Reynolds, a fourth-year Philosophy graduate student. Only in the last year, Reynolds said, have certain members of the administration begun to show "enthusiasm" for the cause. GAPSA is planning to use a basement lounge in the graduate towers as a temporary solution to this problem. But Reynolds also stressed the importance of finding a long-term "home" on campus for graduate and professional students from all 12 schools. Representatives discussed both the expansion of the present available space and more permanent plans for the future. GAPSA Student Affairs Chairperson Steve Parikh, a Wharton graduate student, said when the GAPSA executive board met with University President Judith Rodin recently, members told her the issue "is not going away." Safety and security on campus became another important topic of discussion after a Medical School representative mentioned two crimes that recently occurred on the South Street Bridge. The group decided to send a letter to administrators, addressing safety concerns. Welte also plans to bring up the issue at the first University Council meeting of the semester next week. Third-year Dental student Amar Kosaraju brought up the restricted access to the Biddle Law Library. Kosaraju said the Law School's library is the only campus library with restrictions, noting that its policies go directly against the "One University" philosophy promoted by University administrators. The group voted to send a letter to Law School Dean Colin Diver presenting GAPSA's opposition to the library's rules, and Welte said he would discuss the issue at Council's meeting.

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