Enhancing the quality of graduate student life in the department is the mission of the Communication Graduate Student Association. CGSA has strived to foster, maintain, and expand a thriving social network and at the same time, has worked toward several professional and educational goals.

The latest in our social calendar was the Hallorific costume party that included award winning performances by:

• Joshua Munz (Best Overall, a tall but realistic Oompa Loompa)
• Mark and Elizabeth Williams (Best Couple, The Flintstones)
• Kristine Clancy and Induk Kim (Scariest, Mad Surgeon and Gothic Raver, respectively)
• Matt and Wendy Zeitz-Anderson (Scariest Food – Human Brains)
• Alda Norris (Yummiest Food)

The first International Friday Afternoon Club, or FAC, of the year gave us lots of reasons to celebrate, too. On offer were food and music from across the globe, not to forget cross-cultural communication!

On the professional and educational front, our colloquia series has been a continued success, with students, staff, faculty, and alumni joining in to discuss a range of issues from the ins and outs of getting a non-academic job, to applying to Ph.D. programs, to obtaining internal and external grant monies for conducting research. Most recently, several undergraduate students pitched in during our first CHHAOS (Classroom Heaven and Hell and Other Stuff) session of the year. All in attendance were treated to a diverse set of perceptions about what undergraduates think about and expect from their TAs. As always, these sessions are taped and available for your viewing.

Our final colloquium in November was titled “Everything You Wanted to Know About Presenting at NCA … and More.” Panel members Josh Boyd, Mohan Dutta-Bergman, and Melanie Morgan offered their insights into and experiences with presenting at our largest conference. The panel also provided graduate students an opportunity to practice their presentations and graduate students and faculty an opportunity to listen to the research currently being conducted in our department.

Finally, our Web site will have a new look soon. Several people have been involved in improving the utility of our Web site over the past semester, and we hope to roll out these improvements in the spring. If you have any information you’d like to see available on the site, please let our webmaster, Jen Bernat, know.

Mandi Holmstrom and Graham Bodie, Ph.D. students, participated in the New Scholars Workshop that was part of this year's International Communication Association of Relationship Research conference.

Lorraine G. Kisselburgh, Ph.D. student, had her paper on "Data Mining and its Implications for Privacy" selected as a Top 4 paper in the Freedom of Expression Division of the 2005 National Communication Association conference.

Wendy Morgan, Ph.D. candidate, had her paper "Finding 'safe-ground': A theory of the interactive development of self-esteem and behavorial competence within parent-child relationships" selected as a Top 4 paper in NCA's Family Communication Division.

Damion Waymer, Ph.D. student, earned "Top Student Paper" in the Public Relation's Division of the 2005 NCA conference for "Revisiting the Rhetoric of Atonement." He also was selected for the 2005 H.H. Remmers Award, presented annually by the African American Studies & Research Center.

Mahuya Pal, Ph.D. student, had her paper on "Internet as a Communication Tool for Strengthening Health and Activist Communities: The Narmada Dam Movement in India," selected as Top Student Paper in the Human Communiation and Technology Division at NCA.

Vinita Agarwal, Ph.D. student, had her paper on "Unambiguous Consent: Proposal for a Communicative Framework" selected as Top Student Paper in the Human Communication and Technology Division at NCA.

Marisa Ellsworth, M.A. student, received $500 for her stand alone public relations project for the Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation.

Graham Bodie and co-authors' paper "Chunking, priming, and active learning: Toward an innovative and blended approach to teaching basic speaking and listening skills" has been selected for the "Top Paper" panel of the Experiential Learning in Communication Division at NCA.