Student Orgs & Committees

The School of Human Ecology Graduate Student Organization (SoHE GSO) was started in 2019 to “build a platform where the collective voices of graduate students in SoHE can be heard and their specific concerns can be addressed.” The organization serves many roles within the SoHE ecosystem, including delivering student updates to Graduate Program Committees via the student representative, hosting social events, representing student interests on the Dean’s Advisory Board, run a peer mentorship program, and more. See the links below for more about SoHE and individual program GSOs.

SoHE Graduate Student Organization (SoHE GSO)

HDFS Graduate Student Organization (HDFS-GSO)

Graduate students may be involved on various school, department, and/or program committees throughout their time in grad school. For example, the Graduate Program Committee (GPC) has one graduate student representative on it in each department/program/named option. GPC meets during the academic year to discuss items such as admissions, recruitment, funding, and scholarships.

All graduate student committee work is voluntary and the positions are not paid. The graduate student representative is not a voting member of the committee. The graduate student representative will not be part of committee discussions involving student specific information or decisions (e.g., award, fellowship, and scholarship, other budgeting decisions, annual reviews, and other student issues).

The goals of the graduate student representative are three fold: (1) to provide feedback about student experiences and the program and to engage in committee discussions, (2) to communicate about committee activities to the broader body of graduate students and seek their input as requested, and (3) to gain professional experiences by serving on these committees. These experiences may be beneficial for students interested in career paths in the academy as well as any student who will be working in an organization with multiple people.

In some cases, the representative may be asked to perform activities outside of committee meetings that are of minimal time commitment (e.g., helping to promote a faculty job talk as part of Faculty Search Committee).

Terms of service are one year and require that students are in good standing and that the position does not detract from program progress. These positions are not required for successful program completion. Students should consult with their graduate advisors about the timing of their involvement on a committee relative to their stage in the program.