What Spring Break?

If you're like me and most graduate student I've spoken to, Spring Break is a blessing, not because you get to go to cool places and spend time away from school work, but because there's finally a week to catch up on assignments, reading and research.

*sigh* alas, the quote in Ecclesiastes 12:12 is so true, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body."

The good news is that the GSO office will be open all week! Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm!

And there is a spread of Spring Holiday candy all over the office inspired by the artist Felix Gonzalez Torres! Jelly beans, chocolate, and stale Peeps. :9





We had such a great time at the GSO Social on Thursday night! Thanks to the GSO Programming Chair, Miciah Yehudah we had another fantastic event at Noche Lounge near Downtown Albany.

What I love about the event is that UAlbany graduate students from all different disciplines and departments have the opportunity to get together in an informal setting and mingle! It's so fascinating to watch the graduate student dynamics. Walking through the lounge one can listen to the conversations everyone is having, from academics to politics, from American Idol and Lost! Food was provided at Noche on us too! (Your GSO Funds at Work! :D And I must add the food was excellent last night.)

There will be one more GSO Social at Noche Lounge on the very last day after finals this semester. I'm looking forward to it!

GSO Elections are coming! Find out details here...

Do you want to take over this blog? You too can be the next President of the GSO!

The GSO has 4 elected positions on the Executive Board, 1 position for Lead Senator, 1 position for the Graduate Representative on University Council, and 1 position for SUNY Assembly Graduate Representative.

The positions on the Executive Board are the following: The President, Vice President, Treasurer, and MCAA Chair.

The position of the Programming Chair and the Grant Chair are selected by the President but if you're interested you should start thinking about it.

So what are the functions of these positions?

President: acts as the Chief Executive Officer of the GSO and is its chief spokesperson and representative. If you would like more details about this position please feel free to contact me.

Vice President: Chairs the RGSO Funding Committee is the main liaison for RGSO groups. If you would like more details about this position please contact the current Vice President, Don Boyce (donboyce@gmail.com)

Treasurer: Is responsible for the financial health of the GSO, works with the President and the Assembly on the GSO budget and performs the accounting for the Graduate Student Organization. If you would like more details about this position please contact the current Treasurer, Linlin Feng (linlinfeng_ualbany@yahoo.com)

MCAA Chair: (Multi-Cultural Affirmative Action Chair) we are the only campus of the four university system to have a position solely dedicated to addressing the issue of diversity on this campus. The MCAA Chair is responsible for educating sensitivity and diversity issues in the graduate student community. If you would like more details about this position please contact the current MCAA Chair, Amirah Cousins (amirahcousins@gmail.com).

Lead Senator: Coordinates Graduate Senatorial Seats and represents graduate student at the University Senate and the various committees that deal with University Community concerns. If you would like more details about this position please contact the current Lead Senator, Kevin Lahey (lahey_77@yahoo.com)

University Council Graduate Representative: Represents Graduate Students on the University Council which is responsible for the care, management and government of the school. If you would like more details about this position please contact the current graduate representative, Glenn Pichardo (glennpichardo@hotmail.com)

SUNY Assembly Graduate Representative: Represents our campus on the SUNY-wide Student Assembly. If you would like more details about this position please contact the current SUNY Assembly representative, Kevin Lahey (lahey_77@yahoo.com)

Please send your nominations to our Assembly Speaker, Micah Ben Ruben at gso@albany.edu . You may nominate yourself if you plan on running for a position.

Also, during this election we will need to vote on (1) the new constitution. Currently we are operating under the governing GSO constitution from 2000. Revisions were made in 2005 but were not voted on. (2) we need your vote to increase the current graduate student fee up $7 from last year. (I will be writing a bit more on this issue at a later time.)

Campaigning starts now and as soon as nominations are in.
Voting will take place from April 30th to May 2nd on MyUAlbany Portal!

(Please be advised these dates were revised from April 21st - April 27th as of Monday, April 9th due to logistical issues. Thanks for your understanding)

A Detour to St. Ann's

I was warming up my car on my way to university when this woman came up to my window and asked me for a favor. She had been walking down the street when she approached me. She asked, "Could you give me ride to St. Ann's? I'm pregnant and I have to go to St. Ann to visit my sister."

Typically, I'm pretty cautious when strangers approach me, but how often is it that you have a fellow Albanian ask you for help? I introduced myself and shook her hand when she got in the car. She introduced herself as Shamar and told me that she was 19 years old. Originally she came from Charleston South Carolina and her 36 year old boyfriend had her car. Since she was pregnant she spent most of her time sleeping. She was on her way to visit her sister at the St. Ann's Institute and was concerned about her because her sister was on drugs and had gotten in some trouble. She mentioned that she used to live there herself when she was younger and that she used to do drugs and was always getting into arguments. After being at St. Ann's she never wanted to go back to that life.

I dropped her off and sent my regards to her and her sister, but found myself in a contemplative state about our larger community here at Albany.

It's not very often that my daily path crosses someone like Shamar. Here at university our concerns are on learning and focusing on our future. I was having a conversation with our lead senator Kevin Lahey the other day about how we live in a broken world. I was saying to him that even the best systems that we as mankind have built needs maintanence, needs to be updated. A good friend of mine who volunteers at the Capital City Rescue Mission onced said to me, "The problem in Albany is not that people are not donating enough money or goods to the poor in this area. The problem is that they don't know any of them, they don't take the time to know them." I have to agree with him. I may never see Shamar again but she is a good reminder of who else is in my community, my local sphere.

Sunday Morning Rambles

Ahhhhh... Spring is here. I hope you've been enjoying the glorious weather! I've decided to write a haiku in honor of the occasion:

Sunshine on Friday,
rain drops late in the evening,
Snow banks slowly melt.

I know, deep. :D

I was playing racquetball on Friday after an open house event at my department. No one else was there, just me hitting the racquetball against the walls. In this meditative state I thought back to how I got involved with the GSO. I first heard about GSO when I went to the Graduate Student orientation in 2005. Liz Redkey, the president at the time did a great job of informing everyone at orientation of the services offered through the organization. I was pretty impressed with the type of services the GSO offered. What peaked my interest were the trips to NYC, Boston, tickets to see broadway shows and being able to make 100 copies or prints at the office.

In the beginning of the 2005 academic year I visited the GSO Office, I got a departmental copier code (the system changed last year to individual codes), and picked up free tickets for piano recitals at the PAC. From time to time I would stop by the office and serendipitously find that there was a free food event happening, like the one for Latin American Heritage Month or Black History Month.

By Spring, I became the RGSO representative for my graduate student group. I signed up for the GSO listserv and around April they had tickets to see Bill Cosby at the Palace Theatre in downtown Albany.

Josalyn, Amirah and Sophia were the office managers then and were always very kind to me. Sophia, also the 05-06 GSO Assembly Speaker always refered to everyone as "my beautiful people". She was this strong beautiful person in the Africana Studies Department. Josalyn, I think was in the sciences and we'd have great conversations about academics and social issues. Amirah, I always found was a lot of fun, always excited about something.

I didn't really go to the GSO office often. I might have gone a few times in the semester and I've only had a few conversations with the people from the organization, but I felt very welcomed at the GSO. It was just nice to have a space in the Campus Center that belonged to graduate students where one could meet people from all different disciplines. In one of my conversations with Sophia, she said, "we're like family" [all 5,027 of us].

Anyway, about two weeks ago a graduate of our programs sent me an e-mail on a comic strip about graduate student life called PhD Comics. After reading a couple of them I asked our webmaster to include the RSS feed on our webpage. It's pretty relate-able and very amusing. On our front page if you scroll down it'll be on the bottom right.

Okay, enjoy the rest of the weekend! Oh don't forget, this week is the Spring Forum! Campus Conversation on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: Would an "Honor Code" make a Difference? March 27, 2007, 6:00-8:00 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom. Very relevant and important discussion we're considering as part of our University community. And one other thing: Campus Reading Project! We've given away a ton of Elizabeth Kolbert books, Field Notes from a Catastrophe. I hope you were able to pick up a copy at the GSO office. It was a very contemplative read and in light of the conversations on Global Warming it'll be a important discussion for the University to engage in. Check out the GSO calendar for the events that'll take place this Thursday, March 29th. I hope you'll join in!