Graduate Student Senate proposes policies for lifestyle improvement in a new year
This academic year, the senate plans to focus on food insecurity, Yale-subsidized transportation and access to period products.
Courtesy of Alex Rich
In the upcoming year, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate plans to keep working to improve the lives of graduate students, focusing on food insecurity, Yale-subsidized transportation and access to period products.
According to Sara Siwiecki GRD ’25, the senate’s public relations chair, the daily life of graduate students heavily revolves around academics, work and professional development. Siwiecki said that because of this, the senate plans to improve the lifestyle of graduate students beyond the classroom during this term.
“We have experienced that resolutions have not historically been our best outlet for making change for issues, so we don’t put as much time into resolutions and instead go forth with projects in our committees,” Siwiecki told the News. “Because of this, our official resolutions tend to be very focused on specific issues where we think having an official stance is critical for movement.”
According to a joint statement to the News from Siwiecki and Alex Rich GRD ’27, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, compared to the roughly $1 million annual budget of the Yale College Council, the senate operates on around $100,000.
Twenty percent of the budget directly goes to student groups and to fund social and extracurricular activities. Fifteen percent of the senate’s budget is allocated to its social committee, with frequent collaborations with Gryphon’s Pub, Yale’s graduate student hotspot.
Rich said that one major issue that the senate is focused on tackling is food insecurity among graduate students. She cited surveys that indicate that approximately 30 percent of Yale graduate and professional students are food insecure.
Yale is the only Ivy League institution without a university-wide ombuds office, according to Rich.
An ombuds office is a designated impartial conflict resolution space, which would provide a resource to resolve frictions between students, faculty and administrators. In 2023, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate passed a resolution in support of the establishment of this office and discussed the matter with the President’s Office and the Board of Trustees every year since.
Additionally, Rich said that the senate will work on student public transportation passes, similar to the UPASS program offered by Connecticut public universities, where students can access public transit at an affordable price.
According to Rich, private universities are not currently eligible for the UPASS program and GPSS established a new External Affairs Committee last year, to advocate for improved public transportation access for all private universities in Connecticut.
Another senate policy focus for the upcoming year is providing free access to hygiene products. For the past several years, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate has purchased and distributed period products in bathrooms across campus, including the Yale Science Building, Bass Library, the Humanities Quadrangle and the Hope Memorial Building.
This year, one of the senate’s goals is to advocate that Yale undertake these efforts, removing the burden on their already tight budget.
“The period project has a long history, before I joined the senate, and has benefited from significant advocacy by YaleBleeds,” said Ruben Warkentin GRD ’28, the senate’s advocacy chair. “Thanks to [these], Yale has installed period product dispensers in bathrooms across campus. However, maintaining consistent stock levels remains a challenge.”
Senate leaders told the News they will have their first meeting with University President Maurie McInnis this week to discuss their proposed policies. With McInnis being a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumna, senate members have expressed excitement about working with her on policy issues.
Each September, the graduate and professional student body elects a new cohort of senators. Each graduate school has a designated number of senators according to the senate bylaws, adjusted based on the number of students enrolled in each school. Each school has control over how to elect their senators. The executive committee is elected by senators each April.
The newest cohort of senators will join GPSS on Sept. 19.