Graduate Community Initiative Working Group

I think this is an often under appreciated, yet very important issue. Grad students needs a place to meet other students, make connections (personal and professional) and relax. Also, a student center is a fundamental corner-stone of a community and would serve as a excellent spot to bring prospective graduate students to observe their future peers, as well as “woo” them with amenities and comfort… leading to recruitment of the very best future graduate students. Lack of such a center, or having a sub-par center, or worse of all, a center that is not free-standing in and of it self… shows a lack of broad sight and understanding of the full set of needs for a strong graduate student body. I know I would personally be willing to increase my student activity fee and pay to support a graduate student center. I am curious if others would also be willing to pay $10–20 per semester to support and move along having an impressive graduate student center?

With the sudden demise of the BRB, it is imperative that we push tthe issue of a Grad and Professional Student Center!

SAVE THE BIG RED BARN!!! Or for goodness sake, demonstrate that you care about your grad students by building us a larger one where all grads can meet and socialize!

I feel that the lack of a decent graduate student center is a blatant disregard for graduate students. Everytime, I go up to North Campus and see Appel, RPU and the countless beautiful spaces that are reserved for undergrads, and then I come back to the barn, I feel almost like I have been slapped in the face.

And even now the barn is being taken away. It’s almost embarassing that a great university such as Cornell, has no space for grad students.

As an older student with children, the Big Red Barn has been very important to make me and my children feel included. My children enjoyed attending activities, including pumpkin carving and the end of the year barbecue. Recent structural problems have made the center unusable. In addition, compared to the facilities for undergraduates, the lack of a proper student center for graduate students is a disgrace. When I have visited some of the undergraduate dormitory spaces and student centers, I was amazed at the inequitable distribution of resources.

Save the barn! It is a great social asset for graduate students.

As an alternative to building a new facility, could we better use the space on campus that is being vacated? I don’t mean that with all the new construction going on, that we should allocate a room here and a room there for graduate student life, because I think that offers even less of a sense of community that we are after.

What about CCC? I know that CIT plans to build two new buildings out on East Hill, one to finally house all of the CIT staff collectively and one that will serve as a server farm. Could we make this happen sooner than later? And what will be done with CCC when it does? Could we gut the inside of the building and rebuild it to better serve graduate and professional students? After all - it is right next to the graduate school offices.