Your Voice | Letters to the Editor

A necessary separation

To the Editor:

The recent proposal to reform graduate student government poses serious problems ("Merger in Grad Gov't Sparks Criticism," DP, 12/1/06).

There are two broad classes of graduate students at Penn. Professional students (e.g. MBA, law or medical degree) pay to come here, and graduate after a clearly defined course of study. Networking and social experiences are crucial to the value professional students get out of their degrees. The activities of our professional student government (Graduate And Professional Student Association - GAPSA) appropriately reflect this.

Research students (MS, MA, Ph.D.) generally take longer to graduate, and make their living from university stipends and jobs. Their concerns typically regard health insurance, stipend levels and working conditions, for which the Graduate Student Associations Council (GSAC) is an appropriate forum.

Shaker and Giombetti's proposal eliminates GSAC as the collective voice of research students, replacing it with a single officer who would answer to an appointed group controlled by a majority of professional students. It ignores the differences between research and professional students, and makes student government potentially unaccountable to research students. We invite our presidents to work with us on a model that gives each branch the resources and authority to solve their separate challenges.

Roger Turner, Lucas Champollion & Steven Vose

Authors Turner and Champollion are GSAC Representatives; author Vose is a GAPSA School of Arts and Sciences representative

Representing all

To the Editor:

We would like to commend The Daily Pennsylvanian on its renewed commitment to covering graduate student issues, including a recent article, "Merger in Grad Gov't Sparks Criticism" (DP, 12/1/06).

However, some omissions and errors in this article may mislead readers. The proposal did raise concerns in GAPSA's General Assembly, but no plan will be unilaterally defined or implemented. As explained at that meeting, we had already presented to the GSAC body and to the leaders of each school's government at Penn, some of whom are also GAPSA and GSAC reps; the majority were supportive. As we move forward, we'll be holding public forums and closely involving elected student representatives in shaping a plan for an ideal reorganization. The result will be presented to student governing bodies for approval.

Please also note that GAPSA represents students from each of Penn's twelve schools. The article mistakenly states that four schools lack representation, suggesting one of many common points of confusion surrounding the functions of GAPSA and GSAC. A unified government would make it easier for students to understand what their elected representatives do, and would help those representatives to operate more efficiently.

Lee Shaker & Cassondra Giombetti

The authors are the GAPSA Chairman and the GSAC President, respectively

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.