The two main graduate student groups on campus recently announced a plan to radically restructure their organizations - and incensed many of their own constituents in the process.
This week, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and Graduate Student Associations Council heads announced a proposal that calls for the dissolution of GSAC, the placement of all graduate students under a new overarching organization and the creation of a new representative body for the School of Arts and Sciences.
Some of the groups' members say their leaders unfairly kept the changes a secret.
"There was a deliberate effort to conceal something," Law student and GAPSA member Larry Friscia said. "They acted like the Russian Politburo."
Currently, GAPSA serves eight of the 12 grad schools, excluding law, vet and dental. Also under the GAPSA umbrella is GSAC, which concerns itself with Ph.D. students and also represents SAS.
The GAPSA and GSAC heads - Communication graduate student Lee Shaker and Education graduate student Cassondra Giombetti, respectively - announced the plan after working on it for several months with a small group.
A new system is needed, they believe, because the current one has proved both redundant and confusing to navigate.
Shake said that he and Giombetti kept their discussions under wraps because they did not wish to submit a "half-baked" proposal before the group. Rather, Giombetti added, they wanted to make sure the proposal was thoroughly researched before it was presented.
But to Friscia and some others, keeping the plan away from the GAPSA general assembly is tantamount to behind-the-back planning.
"The important issue is what the graduate student body thinks," Friscia said. "And if you wait half a year you invariably cut people out of the process, deliberately or otherwise."
Yet, some members of the board didn't seem too upset by the proposition.
"At this stage nothing is set in stone," Engineering graduate student and GAPSA vice chair of finance Hana Oh said. "The idea is still malleable, we want feedback."
The proposal will circulate several times through GAPSA, Shaker said. After several months of open discussion, it will officially be written and submitted to the GAPSA and GSAC constituents for a vote.
The proposal was not received extremely warmly at this week's GAPSA meeting, with several members dubious about the need to restructure.
Shaker and Giometti, however, say this system needs to be improved because it's not always clear how to differentiate between the two organizations' functions.
And some, like Math graduate student and GSAC member Alina Badus, are eager for the change.
Others, however, are warier about a new structure that will have problems of its own, particularly financial ones.
Still, Giombetti is optimistic that the plan will prove beneficial for all, regardless of initial hesitation.
"People don't understand the current system," she said. "The new one can only be better."
