Rene Alvarez | Graduate students deserve their slice of the pie

About 22,000 students attend the University of Pennsylvania, and up to half of them are graduate students.

Graduate students are different from their undergraduate counterparts. Graduate students tend to be older. Many live away from campus, choosing to reside far west of campus or in Center City. Grads are usually focused more intensely on a specific degree of study than undergraduates are. In terms of jobs and careers, graduate students either have worked in the "real word," are working while attending school or have returned to academia to advance their existing careers.

Many graduate students have outgrown the house-party or bar-hopping scene. And most do not travel extensively during fall, winter or spring breaks, choosing instead to devote the time to their class work. But although grads are different from undergrads, they are still students of the University and should receive resources to meet their needs as students in ways not tailored for a traditional undergraduate population.

Unfortunately, parts of the University remain unaware of or otherwise unresponsive to the particular needs of grad students.

The Penn administration has tried to respond to graduate issues in recent years, but these responses have come in punctuated fashion. The Graduate Student Center at 3615 Locust Walk is a case in point. (In the interest of full disclosure, yours truly has worked closely with the students and staff of the Grad Center.)

The Grad Center opened in 2001 to be the central resource for grad students, offering programs, sponsoring events and providing space for study and relaxation. In short, it aimed to be what Houston Hall is for undergrads. The Grad Center expanded its programmatic and study space in 2003, renovating the building's third-floor space. Since its opening, the Grad Center has accomplished a great deal, delivering expansive, on-going programs and services for grads. It offers a nearly comprehensive resource for the totality of one's grad school existence, beginning with grad-student orientation and continuing with programs like Navigating the Classroom, Navigating the Grant and Navigating the Dissertation.

Much of what the Grad Center has accomplished stems from its partnering with student organizations and other student-service departments. GAPSA and GSAC have funded part of the physical improvements to the Center, while GSAC is a co-sponsor of the aforementioned Navigating series. The Grad Center also has partnered in the past with Career Services, Weingarten Learning Resource Center and the Office of International Programs.

But to expect one University department to address the particular needs of the nearly 10,000 students at Penn (yes, there really are that many of us) is unrealistic. The Grad Center can take the lead in organizing programs or providing resources for grads, but eventually other departments will need to step up to address grad and professional students' issues.

Many University resource centers have devoted the lion's share of their attention and efforts to undergraduates in the past. Models of student services based on meeting the needs of traditional 18 to 21 year olds are not applicable to the older, differently motivated adult population. Relying on such models is not only inappropriate, but illogical.

Areas like those mentioned above - and offices like Counseling and Psychological Services and Housing and Conference Services - need to do more to avail themselves of graduates. This means not only raising awareness of their services among the graduate populations but also altering their methods of delivery.

However, students themselves must do some awareness-raising of their own. Visiting-student service offices, meeting with representatives from those offices and asking those student-service agents what their departments offer grads are some of the best ways to elicit substantive responses.

While many differences exist between grads and undergrads, one commonality persists. Graduate and professional students need the assistance of campus resources to be as successful as they can be at Penn. They deserve and should expect University resources that address their professional and personal issues. Campus resources, meanwhile, need to do a better job of acknowledging the existence of those needs and enhancing the ways they address them.

Graduates comprise about half of the student body at Penn. Don't they deserve services and resources comparable to those the other half receive?

Rene Alvarez is a sixth-year History Ph.D. candidate from Chicago, Ill. Rico Suave appears on Tuesdays.

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