Graduate Student Life Grants

Q: What do you mean by community?
A: Well, it’s hard to define.

Q. Then how do we know how to enhance community?
A. You know it when you see it!
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In 2002, when the dean for graduate students received funds from the student life fee, he set up a grants process encouraging individuals and groups to submit project ideas for enhancing graduate community. Since then, the ODGE has managed seven unique proposal cycles. The selection panel appointed by the dean (five students and five staff) has reviewed nearly 200 proposals and funded more than half of them. Please see the grant roll call for brief descriptions of these projects.

The request-for-proposal process has tapped into a wellspring of creative ideas for enriching the graduate experience. Over time, the grant proposals have reflected some consistent themes in setting the context for socializing; integrating academic and social aspects of graduate life; appreciation of the arts; and communications and outreach. Even some ‘definitions’ have emerged; community can mean:

• a sense of belonging, a sense of mattering
• shared experiences
• bringing together people outside the lab
• getting together people who rarely congregate
• building connections, relationships
• interdisciplinarity

Although the grant proposals are submitted as “experiments” that run for a period of time no longer than two years, some initiatives have stood the test of time. In these few instances, the dean has decided to “institutionalize” the projects by setting aside an annual budget for ongoing work.