From answering frantic undergradute e-mails to conducting
research with award-winning professors, graduate students make up a dedicated
and integral part of the campus community.
The specialization and professionalism of studies creates an
individual and unique experience for every graduate student. According to Jenwa
Hsung, a graduate student in modern Chinese history, these students must have a
passion for academic growth and exploration, turning an interest into a
lifestyle.
“If you’re a graduate student, you better love what you’re
doing because it’s a lot of work,” Hsung said. “When it comes to interacting
with other graduate students, departments once again become a key issue.”
According to Hsung, departmental isolation doesn’t symbolize
the graduate-student experience.
“The main reason I was an undergrad wasn’t just for
academics,” Hsung said. “Part of the reason to go to a school is to try to
connect with the people around you. As a graduate student, academics are by far
the most important thing that I am doing, and they always will be.”
Rather than feeling isolated because of departmental
limitations, independent and department-specific bonds created in graduate
school serve not only as social outlets, but as connections within academic
fields and possible career boosters.
“The people are the most important part,” Hsung said.
“You’re stuck in classes with them for hours every week … and they’re the
people you are going to know in the field.”
While working with fellow students ensures life-long
colleagues, working with faculty members is probably the most crucial aspect of
a graduate student’s academic life. According to Hsung, forming respectable
relationships with professors is a must. However, working with a professor to
obtain a teaching assistant or lab position can sometimes take away from
individual research.
“You’re always torn between how much time and energy and
emotional effort you want to put into your teaching and how much to put into
your own work,” said Amanda Brovold, a graduate student in the philosophy
department and Graduate Student Association outreach coordinator. “Generally
you want to put more than you have in to both of those things.”
With little time to spare as a result of demanding academic
work, most graduate students become TAs due to financial needs or department
requirements. However, the standard professional relationship with
undergraduates seems to make somewhat of a social barrier between the two
academic populations.
“[Grads] talk about how undergrads hate us and how we can
change that, but I don’t think it’s all the undergrads — grad students [feel a
sense of separation] also,” Brovold said. “It is a sticky situation. It can
make things uncomfortable when you have to grade someone that you want to hang
out with.”
Undergraduate students such as
Marshall
sophomore Jenni Lundergan also feel a definite rift between graduate and
undergraduate students because of the social division between the two
communities.
“It’s harder to relate on a personal level to a grad
student,” Lundergan said. “They’re in a different stage of life and a more
specific environment. I don’t talk to [graduate students] unless they’re my TA.
Graduate students definitely have a culture and a community all their own.”
According to Brovold, with the exception of late nights at
Porter’s Pub, graduate students tend to view campus as a place to work, while
the Gaslamp Quarter and
are the places to play.
In order to encourage social interaction between the campus’
departments of graduate studies, GSA hosts various events in which graduate students from all fields of
study can meet and mingle. As a fall-2007 admit to the graduate structural
engineering department, Kate LaZansky found the GSA’s beginning-of-the-year
beach party (complete with barbeque, burgers and beer kegs), a good way to
acclimate herself with other graduate students and the social scene at UCSD.
Nick Saenz, GSA vice president of academics, said events like these allow
graduate students to view UCSD as more than just an academic institution.
“The departments here can be very isolating,” Saenz said,
“so [graduate students] are looking for those avenues to broaden their social
circles and certainly that’s one of the roles of GSA: to break down some of the
very fierce barriers that exist between [departments].”
GSA also aided the growth of the graduate student community
by partnering with UCSD Housing and Dining Services to incorporate Cafe Vita
into its new graduate housing,
Additionally, HDS is currently working on a 400-bed housing
project in the Health Sciences neighborhood to provide housing for 50 percent
of all graduate students. According to HDS Director Mark Cunningham, the
opening of
and Cafe Vita has allowed graduate students to enjoy individual experiences
while being part of a larger community.
“The graduate residents choose to form their own communities
within our housing facilities and are almost completely self-sufficient,”
Cunningham said in an e-mail. “[Graduate] housing tends to be more like a
neighborhood with neighbors being friends and colleagues.”
Ultimately, the graduate experience is an individual one.
While an unbridled passion for anything from philosophy to structural
engineering keeps graduate students dedicated, a more relaxed and intimate
social atmosphere allows them to choose their level and intensity of social
activities.
