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The Doctoral Students’ Council Welcomes You

Paul McBreen

The Doctoral Students Council (DSC) extends a hearty welcome to students new to the Graduate Center, and best wishes for a productive academic year to all. All academic programs except five have elected representatives to the DSC and our first plenary took place Friday, September 10.

The DSC is a body of students elected from each department which represents students at the Graduate Center and is responsible for allocating money collected through the student activities fee that you paid along with your tuition. This year is going to be an important one when it comes to political advocacy for CUNY students, so please read on to find out what the DSC can offer you this year.

Continuing Activities

We look forward to serving students at the Graduate Center in many ways this year. Our traditional activities include coffee hours, discounted movie tickets, and parties. The coffee hours are held in the DSC Social Lounge and feature free pastries and coffee all afternoon—as well as a great opportunity to socialize and network with people outside of your department. Discounted movie tickets are $5.50 each, good for admission at Loews theaters only, and must be paid for by check. You can buy them in the DSC Steering Committee Office in Room 5495. The parties are, well . . . parties! . . . complete with a keg of beer, a DJ and all-night booty shaking.

Health Services at the GC Threatened

In addition to these usual services, we have on our plates a major undertaking: determining the future of health services at the Graduate Center. We have created a standing committee of the DSC (Chair: Ceila Braxton) with two subcommittees (Chairs: David Golland and Eric Doviak) who will be enlisting DSC reps to help collect data and research this problem.

Health service at the GC is a thorny issue. Currently the DSC shares the cost of the salary of the nurse practitioner, Mary Clancy, with the administration’s Office of Student Affairs. The DSC also subsidizes the costs of medical tests, thereby offering uninsured and under-insured students a viable option for basic health services. The current nurse is associated with Mt. Sinai, as was the Graduate Center as an institution through a bio-medical program formerly located at that hospital. This association provides many benefits: test results are analyzed at Mt. Sinai and Ms. Clancy’s malpractice insurance is covered by her union. The DSC has been put on notice repeatedly by Student Affairs that this relationship will not be renewed as the bio-medical program is no longer located at Mt. Sinai. In fact, Student Affairs has ruled out contributions to health services after this academic year. Presumably, this budget cut will apply even if the nurse continues to practice here beyond the current academic year. The DSC has to make a difficult choice: pay the remainder of her salary; pay her only for part-time work; or lastly, to pay no nurse at all.

The DSC believes that health services at a public institution are the responsibility of the administration, not the students. Furthermore, we believe the administration should allocate the funds to cover health services, and they should do it now. At the very least, the current contribution by Student Affairs should be allocated in its budget to serve as a safety net while new arrangements are worked out over the next few academic years. Since the future of health services are uncertain, we could be faced with the prospect of no services at all. One year is hardly sufficient time to survey student need and demand and find the means of implementing that plan.

The DSC Website

We invite all students to visit our website, which contains important information regarding campus events, workshops, and DSC activities. We hope to channel students into the many technology workshops offered at no charge by Information Resources, and to keep them posted of other important opportunities they might not otherwise hear about. We suggest that students activate their GC email accounts and take advantage of the server space, newly-created, for students to develop personal websites. Information Resources recently hired a professional whose job is to support and maintain this server.

Have a great semester exploring all that the GC has to offer.

Paul McBreen is a student in the Classics department and Co-chair for Communication for the Doctoral Students' Council.