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Students Committee
Report of the Students’ Committee
The work of the Students’ Committee over the past year has flowed around the following three themes: networking, service, and being pro-active. With a full complement of dedicated and energetic members, the Students’ Committee has been able to develop an exciting conference presence this year in Seattle, which both reflects and furthers these three themes.
In the realm of networking, ex-officio member, Estevan Rael y Galvez worked with Carol Miller and the Minority Scholars Committee on our co-sponsored roundtable this year, “Where We Stand: Coloring American Studies, a Roundtable Discussion Facilitated by Faculty and Graduate Students of Color.“ This roundtable will explore the tensions involved in exploring the politics, histories, and practices of imperialism within the academy. The Students’ Committee hopes with other committees to co-sponsor sessions of mutual interest at future meetings.
Committee member Sara Romeyn has worked closely with Dr. Stephens’ office and ASA staff member Christopher Just over the past year in the continuing refinement of the ASA’s survey of individuals who have received the Ph.D. degree and granting departments and programs. In addition to providing feedback on questions, Sara has developed a cover letter from the Students’ Committee, which will accompany future surveys. Information gathered from these surveys regarding the financing of the degree and employment prospects, among other things, could prove to be invaluable to students deciding where to attend graduate school.
The Committee’s ties to the American Studies Crossroads Project at Georgetown have also continued to grow through the work of committee members Debra DeRuyver and David Silver. Earlier this year, the Students’ Committee Web site took up permanent residence at Crossroads and in April, the Students’ Committee was the first committee to mount a Web Pavilion during Crossroads’ Electronic Expo. The Students’ Committee looks forward to continuing our work with Crossroads in the future. The committee has already discussed with Dr. Bass the possibilities of establishing virtual conference satellites where graduate students unable to attend the annual meetings could participate electronically in key sessions.
Prior to the end of her term, committee co-chair Carolyn de la Pena made some initial contacts with Student Representatives in the Regional ASAs. In the coming year the committee hopes to build upon her work and strengthen our ties with these regionally active graduate students.
In the realm of service, the Students’ Committee, under the direction of member Maureen Reed, will inaugurate a new event at the 1998 Annual Meeting: Mock Interview Sessions. The intention of these sessions is to provide students with a chance to practice their academic interviewing skills and to receive feedback on this practice from professors who have participated in such interviews. This session should prove to be a great service to the students that the committee represents.
In response to a student inquiry regarding accommodations at the conference, the new committee co-chair, Lynn Sacco, started the Roommate Connection Service in which the Students’ Committee acted as a clearinghouse for students looking to share space at the annual meeting. As the committee’s work becomes better known, the members hope their interactions with fellow graduate students will increase, producing new and fruitful ideas like this one.
As in past years, the Students’ Committee has received financial support from the ASA, and numerous American Studies departments and programs in order to provide complimentary coffee, bagels, muffins, etc. to students on the Friday and Saturday mornings of the conference. In addition to providing some relief from the expense of the conference on graduate students, these breakfasts demonstrate a great deal of symbolic support and recognition of the economic hardships many students take on in order to attend an otherwise extremely costly national meeting. These breakfasts have traditionally been coupled with both formal and informal activities; this year the Committee is running the breakfasts through its Student Hospitality Lounge, a central location and meeting place where graduate students will be able to interact with the Students’ Committee and each other, a relaxed environment conducive to the exchange of information and ideas. The Student Hospitality Lounge will act as a clearinghouse for information relevant to student needs and concerns. The Students’ Committee has put together packets of information on the academic job search, alternative careers, and campus organizing which dovetail with the various events and activities taking place at the conference.
Finally, over the past several years, the Students’ Committee has become increasingly pro-active. This year, with a tremendous amount of work by committee member Matt Basso, its sponsored session at the conference will be a roundtable on Graduate Student Labor Organizing featuring students who have been actively involved in various forms of graduate student labor organizations around the country.
The Students’ Committee recommended that the ASA Council institutionalize the following procedures regarding the negotiation and recommendation of accommodations at the annual meetings. These recommendations were developed in consultation with the Executive Director during discussions regarding concerns over the expense of the annual meeting for graduate students. While they are frequently already a part of negotiations, the Students’ Committee would like to see them made a strict matter of policy.
- The ASA will negotiate with the conference hotel for a block of rooms to be offered at a lower student rate. The ASA will include in the student room block triples, preferably with optional rollaway cots.
- Both the Local Arrangements Committee and the ASA’s professional Convention Planners should provide Association members with a list of differentially priced alternative accommodations (e.g. less expensive hotels, the YMCA/YWCA, etc.) that are clean and convenient to the conference headquarters.
The Students’ Committee will continue its pro-active efforts in the coming year by drawing the Associations’ attention to the important issues of labor organizing, financing a graduate degree, the academic job market, and hiring practices within our own departments. Secondly the members would like to help empower students to act on their own behalf in these politically fraught waters, forming coalitions with other students, adjuncts, and faculty, and taking action.
The Students’ Committee thanked Dr. John Stephens, the ASA’s staff of graduate students, the Executive Committee, and the ASA Council for their continuing support of its work.
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