The Council for Graduate Students announced at its meeting on Wednesday that they are partnering with Michigan State University Federal Credit Union, or MSUFCU, and MSU Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies, or VPRGS, Stephen Hsu to award more graduate and professional students with the COGS conference grant program.
MSUFCU and VPRGS will equally split an extra $10,000 per year over a three-year period to the previous amount of $33,551, helping send graduate and professional students to conferences that they want to attend or presenting at.
The Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, passed a strategic plan in the spring to increase the funds that would send graduate students to conferences, COGS President Stefan Fletcher said.
Fletcher said COGS could only accept between 60 and 65 percent of the applicants for the conference grant program, which is one of the most popular programs offered by COGS.
“I think the increase in funding is a great opportunity to involve more graduate students in the research process, but it also gives graduate students the opportunity to expand their knowledge in cross-disciplinary ways,” graduate student Emily Bank said.
“It’s a great program and there’s always more applications than we will be able to fund more in the future because it’s a program that works really well for graduate students,” COGS Parliamentarian Shannon Demlow said.
Demlow said COGS could not review all of the applications that came in because of their large number. The grant awards students with a maximum of $300.
At the start of the meeting, Karen Klomparens, dean of The Graduate School gave an update of the renovation progress of Chittenden Hall, stating the hall, which is aimed at being a graduate student-centric space, should be ready after in a year.
Klomparens said Chittenden Hall will include a terrace for social gatherings, conference rooms and resource rooms for graduate students, saying she hopes the hall becomes a “neighborhood for graduate students.”
Klomparens said the university is keen on maintaining the exterior of the building, adding that at the moment the building is going through a process of selective demolition. She is anticipating the approval of the final budget for the renovation process at the October MSU Board of Trustees meeting.
“I think it’s a great accomplishment not only for COGS, but for the graduate student body as a whole, as well as the administrators that work in the graduate school, to have one central location where all students can come together instead of having to spread out and go to various locations,” Banks said.
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Discussion
Share and discuss “COGS hosts first meeting of year, discuss updates on Chittenden Hall renovations” on social media.
