Grad students want their space

Negotiations between graduate students and administrators about campus space continued yesterday as the two sides met to discuss the possibility of graduate dining facilities, pub facilities and study, meeting and office space. Although administrators did not commit to creating the space, graduate students will write a proposal to address issues brought up in the discussion. The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly sponsored the meeting with the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life to facilitate discussion about the need for graduate space -- an issue graduate students said they have pursued for over a decade. Student Life Director Fran Walker and Executive Assistant to the Vice Provost for University Life Terry Conn were among those administrators in attendance at the meeting. GAPSA members said they had invited Vice Provost for University Life Valerie Swain-Cade McCoullum and Associate Vice President for Campus Services Larry Moneta, but the two were unable to attend. Moneta said he didn't know the meeting would definitely take place until afterwards. Conn made a Daily Pennsylvanian reporter leave the meeting yesterday, after graduate and professional students began arriving at the VPUL's office. GAPSA Chairperson Victoria Tredinnick criticized Conn for closing the event, stressing that because the graduate space issue is "hardly sensitive," she "was taken aback by the meeting being closed." GAPSA members said after the meeting they were extremely upset with the lack of administrative backing. "We are just going in circles," GAPSA Vice Chairperson for Special Projects Heidi Tarshis said. "Everyone wants to avoid the issue." But administrators voiced their support for helping the graduate students find available space. "Space is an issue on campus for a number of groups," Conn said. "But we are looking to offer the grad students whatever help they need in the future." Moneta said last night that he was also "very supportive" of the graduate students' cause. "We are trying to provide temporary relief," he said. "We are encouraging them to use the Grad Towers and the Sheraton." Administrators told Tarshis and other GAPSA members that they must write a proposal before the issue could be further investigated. Tarshis did have such a proposal on hand, outlining the need for graduate student space and suggesting that the University's decisions seem to favor the 10,000 undergraduates over the 12,000 graduate and professional students. Tarshis noted the differences between undergraduate and graduate alcohol consumption and the success of GAPSA-planned happy hours, which are held off campus because no space on campus has the suitable space required. "When grad students go out to drink, they do it to relax, not to get stone-drunk," she wrote. But administrators said yesterday that GAPSA would "have better luck" by dropping the alcohol issue, because obtaining a liquor license on campus would be problematic. Graduate students said they did not see licensing as an issue because the Faculty Club serves alcohol, but agreed to leave it out of their proposal. GAPSA is also a circulating a petition among students asking for space, which Tarshis hopes will be signed by 50 percent of the graduate population.