Last Year's Accomplishments

GSSA Participation

This past year, Lauren Cardon (former Vice President / Secretary) and Paige Bailey (former Treasurer / Forum Officer) were the active and voting members of GSSA.   During a meeting with the Dean of the Graduate School, Paige inquired about changing the payment distributions for the English Ph.D. students to extend them to April - a change which was instated the next week.   In addition, the majority of GSSA voted to increase travel awards for students presenting at conferences and to allow up to $150 for students attending (but not presenting at) conferences.

Conference Presentation Forum

Dr. Ben Reiss and Dr. Tom Albrecht met with a group of students from the English Department to talk about presenting papers at conferences.   The discussion included information on writing and submitting abstracts, different types of conferences (graduate, professional, etc.), when a Ph.D. candidate should begin attending and presenting at conferences, advice on time management in presenting a paper, and information on how to handle the question and answer session after a paper presentation.

Grant Writing Forum

Drs. Molly Travis, Gaurav Desai, and Rebecca Mark from the English Department met with students of various disciplines to discuss approaches to grant writing, as well as resources and options.   They discussed the various types of grants, how they have been successful in the past (e.g. Dr. Travis and Dr. Rothenberg collaborated on a grant to fund the Media Lab in Norman Mayer), and their positive and negative experiences in requesting funding.

For a list of grant resources, click here.

Orals Forum

This forum was held as a kind of graduate student party; Ph.D. candidates Faye Felterman, Michael Griffith, and Gabby Fontanez discussed their recent experiences in preparing for and taking the qualifying exam.   They shared sample questions, advice on how to prepare (including various resources and note-taking advice), and responded to questions.

Parties and Funding

One of the biggest perks of EGO participation is the partying.   Last year, we have several parties: a pot luck barbecue to welcome the new students, a Halloween party, a holiday party, and the end-of-the-year party.   In addition, we were a part of the annual GSSA crawfish boil, and we had a party for the orals forum.

EGOists are constantly looking for a way to increase our funding and find ways to supplement the money we get from dues (5$ per student per semester) and GSSA (about $250 allotted for the entertainment budget per semester).   Thanks to Barbara Ryan, Tina Taylor, and several graduate students, we obtained additional funding through selling used books.