Graduate School announces Web site and travel funds
The School of Graduate Studies will be the first to meet President Kermit L. Halls challenge to recreate college and department Web sites, in an effort to make Utah State University more accessible and marketable to the outside world.
The new Web site will be ready within a few weeks, A.J. Rounds, graduate studies vice president, said at the Graduate Studies Senate meeting, Thursday night, and the School of Graduate Studies will be leading the way for the new Web sites campus.
Rounds said the School of Graduate Studies is also working on setting up an e-mail system, separate from Webmail, that will assist graduate students in getting accurate information about their programs faster.
“It’ll be a way to contact the grad students constantly without having to contact the entire student body,” Rounds said.
The e-mail system will have the same format as Webmail, but will only be for graduate students.
A separate e-mail system was needed, Rounds said, because information wasn’t getting to graduate students fast enough and approximately 20 percent of graduate students are not currently wired to Webmail.
There are around 2,500 students currently in the school of graduate studies, Rounds said.
The e-mail system should be up and running sometime this year, but “until then, we’re going to need your help to get the word out” concerning activities, Rounds said to senators.
Also discussed at the meeting were services available to graduate students that might not be well known to them.
Cindy Cheal, secretary for Graduate Student Senate, said there are financial resources available to graduate students in need of funds to help them travel to present research and papers.
Cheal said students working on master’s degrees can request up to $300 total for travel expenses. Students working on doctorate degrees can request that money twice if needed.
“We have about $10,000 left at this point,” she said.
Cheal urged senators to let those in their colleges know about the available resources and encourage them to file their requests quickly.
“Those tend to go so quick towards the end of the year,” she said.
Also available to graduate students are discounted library and copy cards for research use.
“Let students know it’s one of those perks of being a grad student,” Cheal said.
Cards can be purchased for $5 through the Graduate Student Office, she said.
Rounds said some important bills will be discussed in graduate this year. Four goals for Graduate Student Senate were presented to senators at the meeting.
Those four goals included acquiring more funding for graduate student needs and aggressively marketing graduate opportunities at USU. Graduate Student Senate also hopes to enhance professional, academic, and social development for graduate students on campus and restructure Gradate Student Senate to be more efficient, impacting and recognized throughout campus.
Rounds said he also hopes proposals will go through that will increase teaching assistant stipends and improve health insurance benefits for graduate students.
-bnelson@cc.usu.edu