Why Be a GSA Rep

This post is for anyone that wants to represent and advocate for graduate students. You do not have to be GSA Rep to advocate on campus, but participation as a Rep or membership in a GSA Committee is a highly effective way to make changes on campus benefitting graduate students. Although most of this post is directed to perspective GSA Reps, I want to encourage you, reader, to think about how to you can represent the interests of graduate students, either through GSA, within your college/department, or office.

GSA’s vision is to create  “A culture of cross-disciplinary community and collaboration that enhances the Carnegie Mellon graduate student experience” (CMU GSA Strategic Plan 2015-2020). It is important to know that every member of the graduate student population is a member of GSA, thus it is our duty as fellow graduate students to work to better our overall experience. This is the vision that all of the GSA members work together to achieve through their individual contributions. A selected group of graduate students may want to increase their commitment to this vision by serving as GSA departmental Reps or by joining a committee and actively participating in GSA events.  Remember that every person has different levels of involvement in the organization and that is okay. Just remember that the small individual actions of every member, when put as a whole, yields a more productive and successful organization.

Let us be clear, GSA  is the sole organization at Carnegie Mellon the represents the voices of all graduate students at CMU regardless of department or college affiliation. GSA exists to improve the graduate student experience, meeting the diverse needs of our very diverse population. As a Rep, your job is to act on behalf of your fellow graduate students at various levels of the university; department, college, and campus offices. Reps build how we achieve our common GSA vision.

While GSA Reps have more responsibilities compared to the average graduate student, they also enjoy numerous perks. Some of these include: (1) free delicious food in every general body meeting, (2) the company and friends of other Reps while volunteering at events, (3) the opportunity to lead and join a committee to improve the graduate student experience, and (4) the chance to using the departmental funds, coming from the graduate student activities fee, to organize smaller scale events at the department level. As a former Rep myself I enjoyed the food, the free admission to Wine-tasting after volunteering, and the connections made at various GSA events and committee meetings. By attending our monthly meetings, participating in a GSA or university committee, and volunteering at a GSA event, you are working to benefit our immediate graduate student peers and the ones to come. You are building GSA’s vision and reason to exist.

If you are interested in engaging as a GSA Rep or to join one of our committees or working groups, please contact the VP of Internal Affairs (gsa-vpia@andrew.cmu.edu).