The University of Pennsylvania’s
Graduate Student Center
2003-04 Annual Report

Table of Contents

Introduction
Highlights
Programs
New Student Orientation
Web Site
Publicity
Facilities
Partnerships
Appendix

Introduction

I n 2003-04, our third year, we expanded on the mission of the Graduate Student Center at the University of Pennsylvania. As always, we strive to increase student usage of the Center and to offer excellent programming for graduate and professional students. During this past year, we added much-needed services for students as well. The outcomes of those service efforts are detailed throughout this report.

The full impact of the renovated third floor was realized in 2003-04 with a doubling of reservations for student activities and meeting space. GSC Fellows created programs of greater depth which attracted more students through more efficient publicity vehicles and internal systems. Our second New Student Orientation was expanded to include more programs and involvement in student recruitment. We also surveyed new students and incorporated their input into the planning of the 2004 NSO. Finally, we began the long process of overhauling our web site and internal systems; this project will be completed next year.

W e are now looking forward to an equally great fourth year. In 2004-05, we will re-write our mission statement to reflect our new service component. Another focus will be to implement the new web site and internal systems, which offer user-friendly applications and the ability to store and sort data. These improved capabilities will provide more accurate assessment. One goal of this project is to give our Fellows the data and efficiency to create the best programs possible for graduate and professional students. Another goal is to help us accurately evaluate the overall effectiveness of the Center on building graduate community at Penn.

In addition, we will provide greater resources for T.A.s and Ph.D.s by adding the “Navigating the Grant” series to our portfolio. We will improve the look and readability of the Graduate and Professional Resource Guide. The Center building will improve with the installation of an elevator, the addition of low-cost printing in our computer lab and hopefully, an increase in the number of computers in the lab itself.

All of these efforts – in our first, second, third, and now fourth years – advance the Graduate Student Center’s main goal: to foster a vibrant graduate community at Penn.

2003-04 Highlights

The GSC Gnome
Where do you go when you don't know where to go? Who do you ask when you don't know who to ask about Penn or Philadelphia? Your new advisor, the GSC Gnome! As part of our goal to increase services, we introduced the GSC Gnome in spring 2004. The Gnome was designed to be a friendly, easy way for graduate and professional students to pose questions online. To ask the Gnome a question, students just click on a link from our web page, or go directly to http://www.gsc.upenn.edu/services/gnome. Questions are automatically forwarded to GSC staff for a speedy and knowledgeable reply.

Since his debut, the Gnome has received over 50 queries from students, ranging from how to get to the Morris Arboretum, where to go for computer training on campus, admissions information, recycling in Philadelphia, and where to go mountain biking. The Gnome also proactively provides useful information, such as Things To Do in Philly During Spring Break, Tax Help, etc. The Gnome has proven to be a useful resource for students.

Other Services
In addition to introducing the Gnome, the GSC added other services in 2003-04. We began to announce important information and deadlines for graduate and professional students on our web site. Information about health insurance requirements, changes to Penn Transit, and tax treaty information for foreign nationals was shared from our front page and the Penn Portal grad tab. We encouraged incoming students to contact us with their questions, and handled countless calls and emails from students needing help registering for classes, signing up for health insurance, and finding apartments. We also began providing notary services at the Center, which clearly met a need among our constituency: over 20 students requested notary services in the first month. All of these efforts were organized to achieve our goal of increasing services to students, and to position the GSC as a full-service center and not just an activity center for graduate and professional students at Penn.

Fundraising & Stewardship
The Graduate Student Center was added as an online giving option on Penn’s web site at the end of 2002-03. In this subsequent year, we received a few online donations from graduate alumni. All donors receive a letter of thanks from the Center’s director and an annual report. We also promote the opportunity to make contributions to our graduating students, in order to increase our donor base in future years.

National Conference on Graduate Student Leadership
In October 2003, Graduate Student Center Director Anita Mastroieni and three graduate Penn students attended Washington University’s National Conference on Graduate Student Leadership. Over 120 graduate students, faculty, and administrators representing 14 universities and four professional associations met to discuss the key issues in graduate education from the student perspective. Bonnie Lee, GAPSA Secretary and Nursing student; served as reporter for the diversity panel. Dierdra Reber, GSAC President and SAS Romance Languages student, presented during the governance panel. Simi Wilhelm, GAPSA Vice Chair for Policy and GSE/Wharton student, presented during the graduate student community panel, in which Penn’s Graduate Student Center was prominently featured. The conference provided us with a great opportunity for exchanging ideas, sharing resources, and making contacts at other schools, and led to the renewal of the Ivy Grad Summit (see below).

Ivy Grad Summit at Penn
Armed with encouragement from the Washington University conference, GAPSA and GSAC organized the Ivy Grad Summit at Penn in February 2004. Student leaders from all of the Ivies attended, as well as several administrators. In addition to discussing issues such as academic life and support, facilities, and international students, attendees toured the Graduate Student Center and learned more about how a space dedicated to graduate students enhances the student experience. Several attendees from both the Ivy Summit and the National Conference on Graduate Student Leadership have since been in touch with us to learn more about establishing graduate student centers on their campuses.

Models of Excellence Awards
In May 2004, GSC Director Anita Mastroieni and Assistant Director DeAnna Cheung – along with 16 other staff members – received the University’s Models of Excellence Award for developing the Penn Portal. We created and maintain the “grad tab” on the Penn Portal, which bundles together important links for graduate and professional students. The grad tab received approximately 14,375 hits during the 2003-04 year, testifying to its usefulness among students.

Programs

In 2003-04, we shifted many program areas to a series-based structure, which proved to increase interest and attendance. Students respond more readily to programs when they are presented in groupings. This shift allows GSC Fellows to plan programs in advance, resulting in better coordination of our many activities.

During 2003-04, the Graduate Student Center offered more than 365 programs designed to enhance the graduate community at Penn. Increased travel restrictions in 2003 resulted in more students staying on campus during the summer; the GSC responded by offering more summer outings. In addition, new programs such as Navigating the Classroom and Theory & Practice Dinners were created. The result was another dynamic year of GSC activities.

Almost all of our programs are planned exclusively by the GSC Fellows, with input from the GSC Advisory Board and students at large. The result is a programming mix that is truly by and for graduate students. Program highlights are listed below; a full archive of our 2003-04 programs can be found at http://www.gsc.upenn.edu/archives/programs.

Arts & Culture Programs
This past year, the Graduate Student Center partnered with PennPresents to offer discounted tickets to graduate students for performances such as “Rick Miller’s MacHomer” and Wynton Marsalis in concert. GSC Fellows also provided discounted tickets to Arden Theatre’s “Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead” and “Proof.” We introduced the series “Arts for Amateurs” in which a Penn graduate student with a particular expertise holds a seminar for other students; topics included jazz, modern art, the fundamentals of improvisation, and art history. Trips to Winterthur, the Barnes Foundation, and Longwood Gardens rounded off this year’s Arts & Culture portfolio. A total of 25 Arts & Culture programs were held throughout the year.

Art Exhibitions
The Graduate Student Center showcases the broad range of work by Fine Arts students in the School of Design to the rest of the graduate community through our art exhibitions. During 2003-04, the GSC displayed the work of nearly 60 PennDesign students during six exhibitions. Each exhibition begins with a reception and artist talk, which is open to the entire Penn community.

Career/Life Skills
The GSC Career Fellow created two separate series – the Career Series and the Life & Self-Development Series – in 2003-04 to provide more specific and appealing programs in this area. Under the “career” umbrella, workshops on PowerPoint, business writing, and presentation skills were offered. Under “life and self-development,” workshops on massage, first-aid, nutrition, and make-up and perfume were held. Several of the programs were co-sponsored with local organizations, thus expanding our resources. In total, 12 events took place under the Career/Life Skills program area.

Films
The GSC shows films two nights each week -- 84 films throughout the year. Films at the GSC range from small hard-to-find independents to unusual foreign selections to major blockbusters. Notable film series in 2003-04 included Salma Hayek Films during Latino Heritage Month, Charles Fuller Films during Black History Month, Real Women on Film during Women’s History Month, Arnold Schwarzenegger Films during the California gubernatorial elections, Turkish Films, Films about Teachers, French New Wave 101, Immigrant Experiences on Film, Jim Jarmusch Films, and Westerns.

In addition, the Graduate Student Center partnered with GAPSA on two successful film events. We sold discounted tickets to the premiers of much-anticipated sequels: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Spider-man 2. In addition, we showed the earlier installments of those films at the Center prior to each premier. Over 200 students participated in these special events.

Language Chats
The continued growth of our Language Chats program, in which students meet weekly to converse in various languages, prompted us to institute assessment structures. We can now effectively determine when to begin a new chat in which enough students have expressed interest and when to remove a chat that is no longer self-supporting. During 2003-04, students gathered at the Graduate Student Center to chat in:

• Japanese
• German
• French
• Chinese
• Italian
• Korean
• Polish
• Scandinavian tongues
• Greek
• Spanish
• American Sign Language

In total, there were 150 gatherings of language chats.

Lecture Series
This year, the GSC Lecture Series continued to enhance the intellectual stimulation of the graduate and professional student community by fostering interactions, academic exchanges, and social engagements among Penn students, faculty and staff in a variety of forums. Seven Lecture Series programs were organized this past year.

“Theory & Practice” Dinners, a new series, offered graduate and professional students the opportunity to discuss the intricacies of practicing academic theory in real world applications. Dinner topics were Law, featuring Law Dean Michael Fitts and University General Counsel Wendy White; Education with GSE Dean Susan Fuhrman and Sheila Sydnor, Principal of the Penn Partnership School; Psychology with SAS Professor Paul Rozin and President Judith Rodin; and Public Health with Nursing Dean Afaf Meleis, Public Health Program Director Shiriki Kumanyika, and Dental School Community Health Director Joan Gluch.

The 2003 Faculty Spotlight lecture featured Sociology Professor Tukufu Zuberi speaking on the topic “From the Classroom to the Living Room: Bringing Academics to a Public Audience.”

In addition, there were opportunities for students to present. A “Show & Tell” lecture featured Uri Horesh, a doctoral student in the Department of Linguistics, presenting on “Palestinian Arabic as a Minority Language in Israel: Variation, Bilingualism, and Language Contact.” In addition, the 2004 Student Symposium, which was co-sponsored with the Fontaine Society, looked at “Exploring Meanings of Diversity and Social Justice.” Nine students -- from Education, Social Work, Arts & Sciences, and Medicine -- presented at the conference.

Mentoring
In fall 2003, the Graduate Student Center launched its mentoring program to connect current Penn undergraduate students with members of Penn’s graduate and professional student community. Two hundred graduate and professional students volunteered. Sixty undergraduates applied, and of those, over 40 were paired with graduate or professional students sharing academic, co-curricular, and professional interests. To complement the Mentoring program, a panel discussion for undergraduates on “Graduate Study in the Life Sciences” was held in collaboration with the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Recreational Outings/Community Service
GSC Fellows took graduate students ice skating at the Class of 1923 Ice Rink, bike riding in Center City, and skiing in the Pocono Mountains. Fellows also organized outings to New Hope, PA; Cape May, NJ; Penn’s Morris Arboretum; and the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC. Community Service activities included organizing teams of graduate students to participate in Philadelphia Cares Day, the University City Fall Clean-Up Day, the University City Tree Planting, and the Martin Luther King Day of Service. In addition, the students donated coats, toys, and food during the holidays. GSC Fellows also maintain a web page of local community service opportunities for graduate students who are interested in participating in ongoing community service projects. In total, 18 Recreational Outings/Community Service events were held in 2003-04.

T.A./Ph.D. Support Programs
In 2003-04, we increased our number of T.A./Ph.D. support programs by more than a third for a total of 26 events. The Center continued the highly successful Navigating the Dissertation workshop series for doctoral students. While several of the year’s workshops were replicated from past successes, a few new workshops were implemented, including proposal writing and Endnote workshops. Advanced graduate students served as panelists during several workshops, and student attendees found the personal experiences and advice of their senior colleagues most helpful to their own work.

Working in conjunction with the Center for Teaching and Learning, GSAC, and other University resources, the Graduate Student Center introduced the new Navigating the Classroom series in fall 2003 to support teaching assistants. Workshop topics included “Teaching at a Liberal Arts College, Teaching at a Research University,” “Diversity in the Classroom,” “Dealing With Problems in the Classroom,” and “The Teaching Portfolio.”

We also increased assessment efforts for our T.A./Ph.D. support programs during the year. We surveyed students immediately after completing workshops, as well as students who completed workshops one year ago, to determine effectiveness and gaps in the topics. The survey results are being utilized as we plan future workshops.

General Events
The Center’s staff also organized 18 general events throughout the year. We repeated regular events such as the Alumni Weekend Open House, Graduation Brunch, and flu shots. In addition, new programs such as showing highlights from the Euro 2004 Tournament and the Rugby World Cup 2003, a Valentine’s social, “Meet and Eat for Thanksgiving,” and discounted ticket sales for the “International Children’s Festival” were added to address the interests of our diverse student body.

2003 New Graduate & Professional
Student Orientation

Through New Student Orientation, the Graduate Student Center becomes an incoming student’s hub for learning about graduate and professional life at Penn. In 2003-04 we also positioned the Center as a tool for recruiting potential new students.

The 2003 New Student Orientation (NSO) program was planned in conjunction with representatives from all 12 schools and from resource centers across campus. The Graduate Student Center also continued to use a student intern from the Graduate School of Education’s higher education division to run NSO. This opportunity provides a valuable learning experience for the student and a terrific addition to the GSC’s student staff.

New Student Communications
In early summer, incoming graduate and professional students received a welcome letter from the Graduate Student Center, along with a refrigerator magnet that lists important URLs. Providing web-based information allows us to continually update, giving students the latest information about Penn and NSO, while at the same time reducing printing costs. We also published the 2003-2004 Graduate & Professional Student Resource Guide, which was made more user-friendly by adding information such as school contacts and an index. When students arrived on campus, they were given a welcome packet from the GSC at their school orientations. This packet included the new Resource Guide, an invitation to the President’s Reception, the Pennbook of academic policies, a Safety & Security CD, and the NSO calendar.

New Student Programs
Several successful NSO programs were repeated from the previous year. We offered “Doing the SEPTA Shuffle” and “Living Safely at Penn” seminars again. In addition, we replicated the popular “Get to ‘Gnome’ Penn Scavenger Hunt,” in which new students are sent to useful and important sites on campus looking for the GSC’s lost garden gnomes. More than 80 students participated in the 2003 scavenger hunt, which was featured in the Pennsylvania Gazette alumni magazine.

We also added several new programs in 2003. Philadelphia walking tours, led by current students, proved to be a great success, serving almost 100 of our new students. We also cosponsored a seminar on “Getting to Know University City” with the University City District. Finally, we cosponsored with BGAPSA a welcome reception for new graduate students of color. Over 100 students attended this exciting new event.

In total, the GSC sponsored or cosponsored 18 NSO events in 2003, and helped to promote another 40 events that were organized by other Penn entities for new and professional students. Graduate Student Center staff also attended seven school and center orientations, in order to introduce more students to the GSC and our programs.

Student Recruitment
In 2003-04, the Graduate Student Center also expanded the NSO program to reach prospective students as well. The NSO student intern worked with several schools to provide campus tours and other information during student recruitment days. Showcasing the larger graduate community at Penn helped these schools in recruiting and matriculating new students. In 2004-05, we hope to increase the number of schools we assist with recruitment.

Web Site

Web Site Content
The Graduate Student Center web site (http://www.upenn.edu/gsc) functions as an informational resource about the GSC and Penn. The GSC web site is updated multiple times each day to reflect new programs and information. Because of this, students go to our web site knowing they will find timely and accurate information.

The web site contains not only information about the Graduate Student Center, but also serves as a larger graduate community resource, providing an online Graduate & Professional Student Resource Guide, funding information, and community service opportunities. In addition, the web site facilitates transactions with the Center through online room reservation requests, event sign-ups, feedback forms, employee applications, and questions for the GSC Gnome.

The web site is also used to publicize GSC programs, providing comprehensive information about our events and housing our online calendar. The GSC calendar is integrated into the main Penn web calendar, which is integrated with the PennPortal calendar, so GSC events are reflected on multiple calendars.

Finally the GSC web site serves as an intranet for the GSC staff, with links to internal documents, forms, and sign up logs. Through the intranet, staff can access GSC information from any location. Because of increasing intranet needs, such as databasing information for assessment purposes, we have chosen to move off of the Penn server and onto a private server. The GSC Web Fellow has spent much of the year creating a more dynamic GSC web site, which will be beta-tested during the summer 2004 and introduced in fall 2004. The positive aspects of this new web site include increased intranet functionality, databasing, and better user interface. The new web site address will be http://www.gsc.upenn.edu.

Web Site Usage
As shown in the graph below, usage of the Graduate Student Center web site has increased dramatically from our second year. There were 191,008 page requests for our web site in 2003-04. Of special significance is the greater number of requests during the summer, which reflects both the Center’s increased summer programming as well as our function as a resource for incoming graduate and professional students.

Publicity

During 2003-2004, the Graduate Student Center’s publicity simultaneously charted a new course while maintaining the successful publicity channels established during our first two years.

The most powerful publicity channel is the weekly email listserv, which details Graduate Student Center-sponsored programs and announcements of interest to the graduate student community. Nearly 2,500 individuals are subscribed to the listserv, and several hundred more are forwarded the listserv by student affairs staff at individual schools. Students can subscribe to the listserv through a link on the Graduate Student Center’s front web page; we also added that link in the weekly listserv to solicit individual subscriptions for those who receive a forwarded copy. In 2003-04, the listserv content was reorganized in response to student feedback, from a strictly chronological order to topical groupings of events and announcements. The resulting organization is easier to navigate.

Additionally, we have continued to promote the Graduate Student Center and its programs and services on our web site with links to detailed descriptions and creative enticements such as drawings for prizes.

Graduate Student Center Fellows continue to use the tried-and-true method of displaying flyers in the Center and on bulletin boards across campus to publicize their programs. PowerPoint has also been utilized as a “billboard” publicity mechanism, with creative and well-crafted graphics and information projected on the large screen at the Graduate Student Center. These advertisements inform and motivate our constituency to attend programs and utilize services.

Additionally, in 2003-04, the Graduate Student Center was featured many times in campus publications such as the Daily Pennsylvanian, Pennsylvania Gazette, Penn Current, and the Almanac. Articles highlighted our programs, staff, and services.

A quote from retail guru John Wannamaker describes one major new effort by Graduate Student Fellows to improve the publicity: “I know that 50% of my advertising is wasted. I just don't know which half.” Fellows have begun to query students registering for an event where they first discovered the event, so we can eliminate those efforts that reap the least benefit, and concentrate on those that are most efficient. Beginning in fall 2004, a more formal collection strategy will be employed, using a “check box” question on web site registration forms and brief feedback forms distributed and collected at Graduate Student Center events.

Peter Drucker’s words sum up another enhancement in the Graduate Student Center’s publicity efforts, “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” With two informative staff trainings conducted by the Publicity Fellow, the Program Fellows were guided through a program called, “You are the Marketer!” which provided tips about how to create a successful program, which often has little to do with the promotion of the event, but more with the creation, cost, and administration of the event.

Lastly, the Graduate Student Center Fellows engage a technique sometimes referred to as “Exploiting the Channel,” which is a fancy way of simply telling students who come for one event about upcoming, related events in which they might be interested. This allows Fellows a fiscally responsible way to target the students who may be most interested in the programs they are creating.

All of these techniques, as well as the reoccurrence of past successes, have amounted to many “sold out” programs and well-utilized services offered by the Graduate Student Center.

Facilities

Building Improvements
During 2003-04, we made several improvements to the Graduate Student Center building. In November, with funding from GSAC, we activated a cardswipe on the front door to provide an additional level of security. Only PennCard holders can swipe to enter the building; others must call to get access. The cardswipe helps to ensure that only members of the Penn community are using our space.

In addition, funding from GAPSA provided window blackout blinds for the first floor and artwork for the third floor. With the new blinds, we can now show films and presentations during the day without glare. The third floor artwork, purchased at the School of Design’s annual benefit auction, showcases student work while providing a more attractive environment in the Center. Finally, the Graduate Student Center’s first floor space was painted during the spring semester, giving our main area a fresh clean look.

Building Usage
Graduate and professional students at Penn use the Center’s facilities in two main ways: informal hanging out and for formal student group activities.

Hanging Out
Informal student usage of the GSC continues to increase. Students come to the GSC to study, relax, eat, sleep, meet, get coffee, watch films, work on the computers, and find out what’s happening on campus. They bring their children, spouses/significant others, parents, and pets. Students even use the space during blackouts and blizzards.

The Center is busiest from 12 noon to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, and less so in the morning, evening, and weekends. However, the precise number of students spending time at the Center is difficult to ascertain. We are taking steps to finding a low cost, low energy solution to this question; however, the GSC staff does keep a population survey in which heads are counted every hour on the hour. This system has its flaws: There has been a constant use of the third floor since it opened, but since we do not staff the area, we cannot accurately count students there (with the exception of reservations and events held in the spaces). However, some inferences can be made based upon this data. The graph below reflects monthly totals of students using the Center’s first floor.

In October of 2003, we experienced a high of roughly 8,000 total occurrences of student use as counted each hour. As previously indicated, these numbers are significantly underestimated because they do not count the third floor; therefore, the error of margin is estimated at +10%/-5%.

To give a different view of the GSC population, we isolated one hour of time at the Center, giving a snapshot view of the average number of students utilizing the Center at 2:00 pm each day per month.

This graph shows the average number of people in the Center’s first floor at 2:00 p.m. each day per month. The overall trend reflects a decreased population in the summer months, increased population during the academic semesters, and dips during “break” months (December and March). The 2:00 p.m. population of this year shows a steadier trend, and at times, smaller numbers than last year. This is most likely due to the third floor’s capability of keeping the first floor population at a more comfortable level.

Using these two graphs, as well as other data points such as coffee consumption, we can see that student use of the Center has increased again this year.

Student Group Activities
The Center’s space can be reserved at no charge by graduate students and University offices holding events for graduate students. This service encourages graduate students to create and participate in group activities, thus helping to build community. The GSC is also considered “neutral” territory and is centrally-located, making us a convenient location for students from different schools to come together.

In April 2003, the GSC opened the third floor, providing considerably more space for student activities. In 2003-04, we also offered to provide space for Teaching Assistant office hours because construction in a few academic departments displaced some T.A.s. Usually T.A. office hours occur early in the day, when student groups are not holding activities, making good use of our resources. The result of having significantly more space and offering it to T.A.s increased our reservations dramatically in 2003-04: the Graduate Student Center was reserved by 87 graduate student groups and University offices for 945 activities, almost double the amount of reservations from our second year. This increase indicates that we are serving more student groups and providing more opportunities to build community.

Partnerships

Graduate Student Center Advisory Board
The 21-member GSC Advisory Board represents a broad range of graduate and professional students from schools across the University. See the full list of Board members below.

Board members advise the GSC staff and Fellows on a variety of issues ranging from programmatic choices and evaluations, policies about building use, and establishing goals of the GSC. Board members are also tapped when volunteers are needed for large projects such as New Student Orientation. In 2003-04, the Board formalized the process of providing feedback on GSC programs, prioritized funding requests to GAPSA and GSAC, assisted in selecting student artwork for the third floor, and was instrumental in formulating plans for the student symposium on “Exploring Meanings of Diversity and Social Justice.”

Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA)
The Graduate Student Center works closely with GAPSA to serve the needs of graduate and professional students. The Center and GAPSA cosponsored events such as the Welcome Reception for new students and two blockbuster film events. GSC staff sell tickets for large-scale GAPSA events such as Oktoberfest, Japan Night, Valentine’s Day Chocolate Buffet, and the annual Boat Cruise. GAPSA’s Nominations Chair identifies volunteers for the GSC Advisory Board, and GAPSA’s Communications Chair forwards the GSC listserv to increase our publicity outreach. GAPSA representatives sit on the GSC Advisory Board and contribute ideas to our programs and policies. In 2003-04, GAPSA generously contributed over $62,000 to the GSC, including unrestricted funds as well as specific gifts for window blinds and artwork.

Graduate Student Associations Council (GSAC)
Likewise, the Graduate Student Center partners with GSAC in many areas. GSAC representatives sit on the GSC Advisory Board and contribute ideas to our programs and policies. GSAC cosponsored our Navigating the Dissertation series and Navigating the Classroom series by graciously providing funding, hands-on volunteer support, and publicity. In addition, GSAC piloted a successful new series called Navigating the Grant in spring 2004, and has asked the GSC to administer the program in 2004-05. In 2003-04 GSAC generously provided over $14,000 to the Graduate Student Center in unrestricted funds as well as for doctoral student programming.

Other Partnerships
In 2003-04, the GSC cosponsored programs and services with several other student groups, University offices, and outside organizations:

Other Student Groups: Association for India’s Development, BGAPSA, the Fontaine Society, Rangoli: Indian Student Association, and the Turkish Students Association.

University Offices: Career Services, Center for Teaching and Learning, Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF), Communication within the Curriculum (CWiC), Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Graduate School of Education, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Learning Resources Center, Office of the Deputy Provost, Office of the President, Office of International Programs, Office of Off-Campus Living, School of Arts & Sciences, Student Health Service, PennPresents, Penn Transportation, Penn Volunteers In Public Service, Public Safety, School of Design, University Library, University Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, and the Wharton School.

Outside Organizations: Jeffrey Benjamin, Cardiovascular Institute of Philadelphia, DiBruno Brothers, Douglas Parfumerie, Equal Justice Foundation, Massage Arts Center of Philadelphia, PhillyCarShare, ResearchTalk Inc., SEPTA, University City District, and the White Dog Restaurant.

Appendix

2003-04 Graduate Student Center Staff

Director:
Anita Mastroieni

Assistant Director:
DeAnna Cheung

Arts & Culture Fellow:
Melanie Watson (SAS Germanic Languages)

Career/Life Skills Fellow:
Annapurna Valluri (Wharton)

Lecture Fellow:
René Luis Alvarez (SAS History)

Mentoring Fellows:
Hilal Nakiboglu (GSE)
Kimberly Sambol-Tosco (SAS History)

Ph.D./T.A. Support Fellows:
Elisabeth Herschbach (SAS Philosophy)
Nicole Maurantonio (SAS History)

Recreational Outings/Community Service Fellow:
Stephanie Saunders (SSW)

New Student Orientation Coordinator:
Suzette Escobar (GSE)

Web Fellow:
Joshua Capitanio (SAS Asian & Middle Eastern Studies)

Publicity Fellows:
Michelle Icenogle (SSW)
Gregory Buckingham (SAS Organizational Dynamics)

2003-04 Graduate Student Center Advisory Board
The Graduate Student Center’s volunteer Advisory Board is made up of graduate and professional students from across the University. Board members advise GSC staff on issues such as the Center’s programming and policies.

Danielle Abrahams (Vet)
Bhagwan Aggarwal (Med)
Robert Alvarez (Wharton)
Cay Bradley (SSW)
Rachel Buurma (SAS)
Jamaine Saydu Davis (BMG)
Kyle Farley (SAS)
Fred Harrison (MED)
Ajuah Helton (GSE)
Scott Hsu (Law)
Emily Hyle (Med)
Stephanie Ives (GSE)
Lela Jacobsohn (ASC)
Claire Jansen (GSE)
Patricia Louison (GSE)
Lisa Pilnik (Law)
Elizabeth Rode (Dental)
Ann Tiao (GSE)
Sean Vereen (GSE)
Simeon Wallis (Wharton)
Micki Young (Vet)

Committee Service
In 2003-04, Graduate Student Center staff members served on the following University Committees:
• Affirmative Action Council
• Facilities Committee
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Symposium Executive Committee
• Middle States Accreditation Committee
• Penn Portal Development Task Force
• Penn Transit Committee
• University Council