Unable to convince the Board of Trustees to add a graduate school representative to the presidential search committee, Samuel Bakhoum, a fourth-year M.D./Ph.D candidate, and Bradley Demay, who will complete his Ph.D in biology in 2010, decided to create an advocacy body for graduate students. The two founded the Dartmouth Graduate Senate in Fall 2008 to serve the needs of all graduate students at the College.
Each graduate school has its own student council, but DGS is the first body to represent all graduate students.
"A stronger, more unified voice within the graduate schools would have given us more say [in the presidential search process]," said Bakhoum, one of the Graduate Arts and Sciences Program's representatives to the DGS.
The DGS consists of representatives from the Graduate Arts and Sciences Program, along with the Thayer School of Engineering, the Tuck School of Business and Dartmouth Medical School. Each school has two representatives, selected by the president and vice president of its student council. All representatives have equal voting rights.
The DGS hopes to address graduate students' concerns regarding housing, childcare and employment for spouses, Senate member Brittany Kaplan Th '10 said.
The Senate also plans to work with College officials to get Dartmouth to offer vision and dental care as insurance options, Bakhoum said, explaining that many graduate students are dissatisfied with the health insurance programs currently provided by the College.
The DGS is currently organizing a career day at which graduate students will serve as a resource for undergraduates interested in pursuing advanced degrees.
"We would like to help the undergraduate community benefit from the presence of the graduate students," Bakhoum said. "One of the goals of the Senate is to make graduate students feel like a part of the institution and to have a symbiotic relationship with undergraduates."
DGS members said they are also planning several graduate student social events.
In founding the DGS, Bakhoum and DeMay said they worked with administrators at each graduate school. They then drafted the body's guiding principles, which were approved by the schools' class councils before being officially adopted.
The DGS currently requests funding on a per-event basis from the Office of the Provost, but members said they eventually hope to receive an annual budget.
The DGS held its first event, a fundraiser that collected more than $1,650 for Women's Information Services in West Lebanon, N.H., on April 4. The organization provides services to victims of domestic and sexual violence. The DGS raised the money with an auction that included movie and dinner dates, as well as a dinner, beer tasting and private brewery tour at the Norwich Inn.
The founders said they are impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment of the Senate members.
"It's been really amazing," Bakhoum said. "Initially we thought we would meet once or twice a term, but we've ended up meeting once a month."
