As the first (and currently only) college-wide graduate student organization, EGSA has the responsibility to address the concerns of its constituents and to act upon those concerns whenever possible. For this reason, EGSA will occasionally issue position statements on various topics that affect graduate students. These will undoubtedly run the gamut from quality-of-life issues to academic issues. These position statements are sent to the Directors of Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering, the Associate Dean for Professional Development, and others as appropriate. They will also all be posted here, on the EGSA website.

If you have a specific issue that you think would be appropriate for EGSA to consider and address, please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mailing egsa@cornell.edu or contacting an EGSA representative. This is intended to be a forum for graduate students to express their concerns, and student input is the driving force behind these statements.

For those who are interested, we have also written up a description of the process by which our position statements are created.

Note to Grads: For EGSA position statements to have an effect, it is important that you let your department know that you'd like to see these changes take place. Feel free to forward pointers to any EGSA position statement to the appropriate people in your department and let them know how you think your department could implement these suggestions.

EGSA Position Statements:

• Resource Distribution to Graduate Students (April 2000)
  Poll: over 200 graduate students responded to our opinion poll on this issue [HTML] [postscript]

• Semesterly Appointment Letters for Graduate Students (October 1999)
  Attachment: Report on the Development of More Uniform Policies For Teaching and Research Assistants (Spring 1999)
  Follow-up: we are notified by GPSA that their GPSA TA/RA Report has been adopted as official university policy (December 1999)

• Graduate Student Mail Delivery (April 1999)
  Results: So far, we know of at least two departments who have implemented some of our suggestions in the above position statement.

• EGSA's Introductory Letter to the Directors of Graduate Studies (April 1999)

If your department has made some changes you think are due to EGSA position statements, please let us know!

Possible Future Topics:

• Insufficient consideration for the privacy of prospective and incoming graduate students
• Inequitable distribution of news within individual departments (e.g. Who are the new faculty and researchers? Which students have recently received their PhDs?)
• Unsafe lighting conditions behind Bard Hall - potential changes in progress
• The new FCI and its implications for graduate students and the EGSA