News from the Communication Graduate Student Association

From CGSA President Mihaela Vorvoreanu:

CGSA Fall Events Graduate students ride the Boilermaker Special Professor Bill Rawlins and graduate student Dei Dei Morton at performance hour _____ For more information:  _____ CGSA Web site Graduate School Information

Community and scholarship are CGSA’s two main goals, and this semester, we have worked toward them by maintaining existing traditions and trying to create new ones. One important component of a happy community is for everyone to be included and feel a sense of belonging. At the beginning of the semester, we focused on including incoming students and helping them feel at home in our community. We had a brand new, extensive welcoming program for new students. CGSA planned activities – including a ride in the Boilermaker Express! – for almost every evening of orientation week. The program was well received by incoming students, who said they felt welcomed and were happy to know we were available to answer their questions and show them around campus.

We kicked off the semester with an old tradition, the Fall Reception, at the Lafayette Depot. The reception was well attended, and we are grateful to all our members who attended and helped host the party.

We have maintained the old tradition of Friday Afternoon Clubs, although this semester we have been thinking of varying the format so that the event will appeal to a wider range of interests. We have opened up the opportunity to host a FAC to everyone in the department, in the hopes of achieving more inclusion and introducing more variation. We had one non-traditional FAC this semester, which celebrated the department’s flag football team. We are very proud of Team 2Cool for playing well and winning the intramural flag football championship!

Another old CGSA tradition is the Performance Hour. This semester’s was held around Halloween and was combined with a potluck. We enjoy the international flavor of potlucks held in the department and encourage people to bring a dish from their home country or region. The Performance Hour was very well attended, and the quality of performances was impressive.

The CGSA Web site is not only up and running but has gone through yet another round of redesign. Apart from adding detailed information about CGSA, the way it is organized, and the events it sponsors, the Web site contains updated information and announcements about current events. CGSA board meetings, information about conferences and fellowships, as well as current events, are featured on the home page, which I have been trying to update weekly.

CGSA has also continued to contribute to graduate students’ professional and scholarly development. For this semester’s brown bag discussion on teaching topics (CHHAOS), we invited guest speakers Sally Coffman and Tom Turpin from the Center for Instructional Excellence, who offered guidance for dealing with challenging student behavior.

Another event related to professional and scholarly development was the tour of the Digital Learning Collaboratory (DLC) that we organized for both graduate students and faculty, in an effort to help them stay informed about the latest information technology resources available on campus.

We are planning to continue working toward our goals of inclusion and scholarly development next semester, by planning various social events that will appeal to many students, and by organizing roundtable discussions on professional and scholarly topics. We are always open to input and suggestions from our members and are looking forward to hearing what kinds of events our members would like to participate in.