Semester Report - Fall 2017

Find the full report here

With the start of the new semester, we at the Graduate Student Assembly want to update you on our achievements on your behalf this past semester. We advocate on behalf of all graduate students in all departments. I have attached the detailed summary of ongoing and completed projects for your perusal, but the highlights are listed below. If you have an idea for graduate student advocacy, please let us know!

• New Family Support policy - Now all doctoral student families will be able to receive a subsidy from the graduate school. This new policy expansion is a direct result of a GSA report on graduate student families and a close partnership with the Dean’s Office. See the Yale Daily News coverage for this announcement.

• Quadrupling of Conference Travel Funding for Graduate students - From partnering with the MacMillan Center and the Graduate School, graduate students are eligible for annual conference travel funding of $500 pre-candidacy and $750 post-candidacy. GSA’s CTF budget has doubled so that we can accommodate even more students. If you are presenting on an international topic, you can apply for MacMillan Center funding. For all others, you have access to increased funding through the GSA Conference Travel Fund. You can apply through the Yale Grants and Fellowships page.

• Graduate Student Assembly Dental Report compiled by GSA is being presented to various administrators to improve the dental plan available to graduate students. 

• Orange Line Shuttle becomes all day due to advocacy from GSA with Yale Transit.

• TapRide Transit App - Uber-style app for you to request the door-to-door shuttle without calling anymore! Download the app from Google Play or the App Store.

• Dedicated graduate student space in the new HGS Humanities Center due to advocacy from 2 GSA reps on the advisory committee.

• Service and Outreach Committee was created on GSA due to student interest in partnering with the New Haven community on social projects. Our first event was a fundraiser for Hurricane Maria which raised over $3200!

• GSA’s Yale GradCast released 7 new podcasts about graduate student life and how the university works. We welcome your input for new episodes!

• Bystander Intervention Workshops are being designed by GSA reps specifically for individual departments. GSA is helping host them in various departments. Please contact us if you wish to host on in your department.

• The Student Advisory Committee for the Secretary and Vice President for Student Life was created to give students increased access to university administrators. 30 students will be selected from the applicants for this brain trust to inform university policy.

• Graduate Housing has guaranteed the number of on-campus beds for graduate students that will be lost in HGS. GSA has continued to advocate for the expansion of affordable on-campus housing.

Coming up:
 

• This fall, GSA held six Mental Health and Wellness Focus Groups across all three divisions in the graduate school. We will be publishing a report of the results based on our transcripts in a few months.

• GSA is hosting a Diversity Town Hall on February 27th at 6 PM (location TBA, see future announcements) for all students on campus with panelists including Katie Lofton (Deputy Dean for Diversity and Faculty Development), Rick Bribiescas (Deputy Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity), and Darin Latimore (Deputy Dean for Diversity at the School of Medicine). We have invited representatives from the Graduate and Professional Student Senate and the Yale College Council to participate as co-moderators so that all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students can have their questions answered.

• GSA is partnering with the Graduate Student Alumni Association to put on Where Do I Go From Yale on Saturday April 21 (location TBA). Let us know if you have any Grad Alum suggestions for speakers!

• The 4th Annual Housing Fair will take place on Sunday February 11, 2018 from 1-4 PM at the Yale on York, 150 York Street. Fun fact: the First Ever Yale Housing Fair was created and hosted by GSA in 2014!