Were you a member of a chemistry student group as an undergraduate? Do you wish there were something similar in graduate school? Are you looking for a way to connect more with other graduate students in your department? Would you like a means to voice your concerns in the chemistry department or at the university level? If you answered, “Yes,” to any of these questions, then a chemistry graduate student organization might be what your department needs!
Let me tell you how a group of us started the Chemistry Graduate Student Organization (CGSO) at Clemson University. After my first year of graduate school, I noticed that I was mainly socializing with members of my research group and a few other graduate students who began the program with me. The department had a yearly picnic to welcome new graduate students and a holiday party, but other than that, my friends and I did not often see the rest of the graduate students.
After several of my classmates and I talked, we decided it would be beneficial to start a chemistry graduate student organization. The organization would have two goals.
First, it would be a means for graduate students to come together more frequently in a social setting. This would be helpful in two ways. One, it would provide a means to relax and celebrate the hard work we were doing. Two, it would let us build relationships with our peers, both personally and professionally. These relationships could help facilitate more collaboration within the department and thus make our research program stronger.
Second, the organization would give us a means to voice graduate student concerns at both the departmental and university level.
Our group presented the idea of forming an organization to our department chair and he was very receptive. The initial meeting was a question-and-answer session with just the department chair and graduate students. The chair shared news about the department and his goals for it and allowed us to ask questions. After the questions, my classmates and I presented plans for establishing a chemistry graduate student organization to the others. They were in favor, and thus we started our CGSO.
Our new CGSO elected four officers (president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer) and had a faculty adviser, per university policy. All chemistry graduate students were invited to become members. We planned activities for the year to meet our social objectives.
A mechanism for meeting the second goal, to gain a voice at the departmental and university levels, was also built in. The CGSO had direct contact with the department chair to discuss issues, and our president and vice president also became graduate student senators, thus providing us with a university-wide voice.
Clemson’s CGSO had meetings once a month and always provided food. (When food wasn’t offered, attendance dropped—just reality). The officers met about every two weeks to discuss scheduling and activities. Our goal was to organize activities every one to two months and schedule a forum each semester with the department chair to discuss news and any concerns.
Although many of our CGSO activities were successful, there were some challenges. It is not always easy to keep everyone motivated to plan and execute activities. We had to work hard and be careful not to spend too much time planning, and we had to make sure not to interfere with students’ research.
The organization also had to determine how to raise funds for our events. The department assisted with some get-togethers, but money-making strategies were needed. Working at the concession stand for all the home basketball games was a big money maker for us. We also collaborated with the ACS undergraduate student chapter, selling goggles and lab coats to undergraduates.
This brings up another challenge. If you are in a university that has an undergraduate student chapter or club, you have to try to work cohesively and not compete with each other. You definitely do not want to create tension between the undergraduate and graduate students.
Our CGSO met its social goal by offering a wide variety of activities in order to interest the most students. Postdocs and faculty were often invited to our events. Our get-togethers included a welcoming happy hour for new graduate students in the fall, bowling nights, a trip to Six Flags, Thanksgiving dinner, a holiday party, spring barbecues, and a yearly banquet. The banquet started as a celebration of the year, and it was very successful. It included a nice dinner with an open bar and awards voted on by the graduate students. The distribution of gag awards to professors and graduate students was a favorite part of the event.
Our second goal was to increase our voice in the department and university. One of the ways we accomplished this was to meet and discuss issues that concerned us as graduate students. We ranked the items in order of importance. Several members then crafted a document detailing our concerns and offering some suggestions. Once the document was completed, the CGSO reviewed it and presented it to the department chair. After the discussion among our officers and the department chair, several issues were addressed. This approach was extremely effective, allowing issues to be resolved instead of continuing to frustrate graduate students.
Our CGSO also presented the department chair with data about stipends at neighboring schools and in similar programs. This eventually led to an increase in the graduate student stipend.
Based on my experiences, I definitely recommend establishing and participating in graduate student organizations. They create camaraderie among the graduate students and faculty. They also give graduate students a means to express their concerns. If your school does not have a CGSO currently, think about starting one. To get an idea of what you can do, you can go to Clemson’s CGSO web page at http://people.clemson.edu/~cgso/.
Good luck!
Dr. Michael T. Mury currently works in the High School Office of the Education Division of the American Chemical Society. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2004 from Clemson University, where he was the founder and president of the Clemson Chemistry Graduate Student Organization.
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