GAPSA sponsors happy hours

Glad that another stress-filled week had ended, hundreds of graduate students gathered for a biweekly happy hour Friday evening, sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. GAPSA Chairperson Victor Prince said the purpose of the regular get-together is to give the University's more than 10,000 graduate students an opportunity to socialize in an informal setting. Beginning at 5 p.m., the students congregated at the Gold Standard restaurant at 36th Street and Locust Walk. Many of them, like second-year Medical student Jason Taylor, come "mostly for the free beer, but also for the free food." For GAPSA Vice Chairperson of Special Events Kakali Banik, a student in the School of Social Work, the happy hour was also "a good way for 12 different grad schools to get together." Second-year Medical student Nahush Mokadam, who has regularly attended GAPSA happy hours for the past year, said he agreed. "It's cool to meet people from other schools," he said. "The grad schools are pretty segregated otherwise." Prince, a second-year Wharton MBA student, said GAPSA has sponsored happy hours "forever." But this is the first year that GAPSA has held social events every other Friday. Last year, happy hours were held once a month. According to Prince, the more frequent get-togethers have "really paid off." He estimated that the crowd last week totaled 400 to 500 people, because more students are making GAPSA happy hours a regular Friday evening activity. Efficient communication within the GAPSA executive board has added to the success of this year's happy hours and other GAPSA activities, Banik said. With a representative from each school in the assembly and extensive promotion of events over the Internet, Prince said more graduate students are well-informed of GAPSA activities. According to Banik, GAPSA has been working diligently this year to create more inter-school recreational activities. "[Grad school interaction] is not where we'd like it to be, but [we've taken] a step in the right direction," Banik said. She added that she plans to purchase tickets to basketball games in the future so that graduate students can attend together. A GAPSA-sponsored holiday party is also planned for December 7.