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The Rice Thresher
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by JULIE YAU-YEE TAM THRESHER STAFF The Graduate Student Association elected Andrea Frolic as president for 2000-'01. Frolic is currently internal vice president and formerly served as secretary of the GSA. Frolic will work on the executive board with four other graduate student officers, effective April 1. Other GSA officers-elect, announced Feb. 17, include current and new executive board members. The new officers will be Internal Vice President Auleen Ghosh, External Vice President David Streutker, Secretary Ilse Guzman-Jimenez and Treasurer Michael Hunt. Frolic, a third-year anthropology graduate student, said she looks forward to working with a highly motivated group of officers. Moreover, given that 85.5 percent of the graduate student body is comprised of international students, Frolic said she is pleased to have three of the five executive offices filled by international students (Ghosh, Guzman-Jimenez and Frolic). "I want to build the GSA into an effective, vocal and accessible organization that works for the social and academic enrichment of graduate students," Frolic said. She also wants to continue past programs, such as general graduate orientation and teaching assistant orientation as well as the teaching workshop series for graduate students interested in entering academia. This year she helped to organize the first-ever awards ceremony to recognize faculty and staff who have made significant contributions to the GSA. Frolic has also developed ideas for starting a Research Day, during which graduate students will display their research and discuss it with other students. "Graduate student life can be very isolating. There might be someone right next door working on the same research and you won't even know it," Frolic said. "My goal is to increase interdepartmental contact through social and academic events like Research Day." Guzman-Jimenez, a third-year chemistry student and treasurer of Valhalla, said she feels graduate students do not receive enough attention at campus career fairs, which focus more on undergraduate job searches. She also wants to emphasize the need for educators. "I want to continue the teaching workshops held once a month that bring in speakers from Rice and other universities to give their experiences regarding teaching in order to motivate students from diverse backgrounds to enter the field," Guzman-Jimenez said. As next year's internal vice president, Ghosh, a first-year chemical engineering student, will work with the Office of Research and Graduate Studies to provide a voice for graduate students. Ghosh will also sit on the Library Reconstruction Committee to help plan the new graduate student area in Fondren Library. Streutker, a third-year space physics student and GSA representative for his department, facilitated the compilation of the GSA Yellow Pages, which includes such resources as a survival and consumer guide and an introduction to life in Houston. As the liaison between the GSA and the Valhalla and Willy's Pub board, he also helps to enforce the alcohol policy. Guzman-Jimenez also wants to continue Community Action Committee programs, including blood drives and vision screening (in conjunction with the University of Houston School of Optometry). "When graduate students are in an academic environment with so much time spent in research, people forget that they need insurance and health care and have problems just like everyone else," Guzman-Jimenez said. "Many international students who come to this country for the first time don't have doctors here and need guidance, which the GSA hopes to provide." Hunt, a first-year student at the Jones Graduate School of Management, also said he wants to create a sense of community at the graduate level. "It exists at the undergraduate level, but it's missing at the graduate level," Hunt said. As next year's treasurer, he will be involved in planning the budget for renovations in Valhalla, among other economic duties. Outgoing President Julia Smith Wellner, a fourth-year doctoral student in geology and geophysics, said one of her goals is to get a graduate student bill of rights approved in the Graduate Council. Wellner is pleased with the increased GSA involvement she has seen in her past two years on the executive committee and the wide representation the graduate program has on campus committees. She said she plans to stay active with the GSA. "I hope to stay involved with the GSA as a volunteer where the new officers need me and as a member of various committees," Wellner said. Frolic said she looks forward to working with a highly motivated group of officers. She said she has "large shoes to fill," as the officers she has worked with over the past two years have done an outstanding job. "I want to continue the programs they have instituted, expand community outreach and build the GSA to become a force to be reckoned with," Frolic said. There are about 1,500 graduate students at Rice. The GSA Constitution calls for representatives from each department on campus with a graduate program to vote for executive positions. Any graduate student may run for any office, and candidates are elected by a simple majority of representative votes. - back -
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