Student Organization

The Graduate Student Council plays a vital role in the physics graduate students’ community. It serves as a liaison with the Director of Graduate Studies, the Chairman, and the Graduate School. Members of the council represent the larger physics graduate student population by identifying academic and social concerns.

Academically, it serves as a bridge between students and faculty members, providing feedback regarding courses and advising practices. Socially, the council identified the need, arranged for, and currently maintain a Graduate Student Lounge, which offers grad students space for informal science talks and socializing.

The council organizes a monthly Ice Cream Social for grad students and faculty to mingle outside of the academic setting. In addition, it organizes a lunch talk with the colloquium speaker each week, focusing on career development and scientific outreach. This broadens the view of the PhD students and is widely appreciated by the attendees.

Finally, the council helps with the annual graduate student recruitment; in March the graduate student council members offered to talk individually to each of the students who visited during the open house. They took the prospective graduate students to lunch and answered questions about the general guidelines and requirements of the Physics PhD program, as well as sharing their own experiences. The result was a larger incoming class than in recent years.

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