The Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, held its monthly meeting Wednesday night to discuss its new five-year strategic plan.

The plan, which was proposed in spring 2013, is a five-year plan set to accommodate graduate and professional students on campus through a number of different avenues in which COGS will facilitate.

“The strategic plan is a goal and an outline for the future,” said COGS President Emily Bank . “It describes what we’ve done in the past, but it also describes our future goals and where we hope the council will go.”

With the plan, five areas will be outlined to help the students, with more specific goals under each.

“Our plan is to make the strategic plan relevant so it’s not just a document that sits on the table and wastes away,” said Stefan Fletcher, former COGS president.

The five focal points of the plan include graduate student and research report, supporting an interdisciplinary, graduate and professional student community, career and professional development, graduate student life and welfare, and building for the future.

COGS President Emily Bank said making the experience the best it can be for the COGS members is the student government’s main goal.

“One of the main goals of the board is to create a better sense of community among graduate and professional students,” Bank said.

The council will meet annually to provide a progress report as to the goals and objectives that were outlined in the strategic plan. The meeting is focused upon seeing objects that were approved by the council and to discuss what still needs to be met.

“This is both to keep the strategic plan in focus and to make sure that we’re accountable to both the COGS council and our constituents,” Fletcher said. “The report will be published on the COGS website after it’s accepted tonight at the council meeting.”

One of the major projects that will come from the strategic plan is the renovation of Chittenden Hall, which will be completed for the fall of 2014 and will be exclusive for graduate and professional students.

“Chittenden Hall will be a major hub for graduate students,” Fletcher said. “That building is set to be their central focus point for services.”

With all the features of the plan, members of the COGS board think it will be very beneficial to graduate students, like former Parliamentarian Shannon Demlow.

“I think the strategic plan is a really great tool for transmitting what previous executive boards have learned about the needs and the goals of the graduate student community on to the next generation of student leaders on the graduate level,” Demlow said.

The meeting today was the last meeting that will be held for the 2013–2014 school year. They will resume during the fall semester.