Ellington

The Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) created a Strategic Planning Ad Hoc Committee as the first step toward a potential restructuring of the GPSS — the official student government for graduate and professional students at the UW — as a whole.

Melanie Mayock, GPSS secretary, said in an email that the committee, which had nine senators appointed to it by GPSS President Charles Plummer, is meant to evaluate the work the GPSS is doing and to make recommendations for improvements. She also said that the taskforce, which met for the first time last week, will spend this month gathering input from stakeholders around the university about GPSS.

“[We are] taking an internal look to see if we are serving students well,” Mayock said.

At its Feb. 1 meeting, the committee began this introspection by breaking the entire senate into groups and gathering feedback from senators about how the GPSS can better achieve its goals, increase visibility, and maximize effectiveness.

“I think there was some good discussion, and the lines of communication were opened, and we got a lot of good input,” said Sara Celms, one of the new Strategic Planning Committee members.

While this senate-wide discussion is not scheduled to take place at every GPSS meeting, the committee is hoping for more brainstorming in the future, Celms said.

“I think it was really helpful to hear from our senators to hear what GPSS does well and what could be better,” Mayock said.

Members of senate seemed to agree with this.

“[It’s important to check back in and ask students,] ‘Are we still doing the things that you guys want us to, or have student needs changed because the environment has changed?’” said Adam Sherman, GPSS vice president.

Even newer members of senate recognized that the committee is a positive step for the GPSS.

“[Despite] being new to the process, it seems like things are headed in the right direction,” said Chris Graesser, new GPSS senator and a graduate student in the UW’s architecture department.

While the restructuring may be in its infant stages, the Strategic Planning Ad-Hoc Committee will enable the GPSS to reflect on what it does well and identify areas in need of changing.

“Our mission and our services, I don’t foresee those changing radically,” Mayock said. “But I think how our committees work, and our staff, and our officers could be changed.”

Reach reporter Katie Pine at news@dailyuw.com.