GSS President

     Formerly Liz Olson, I am recently married and use my new name Liz Linares. Four years ago I was new to Cleveland, new to Case, and new to GSS. With respect to the latter, I started just "showing up" and – soon enough – I was hooked. I have always been amazed at the power of human groups. When we get together for a purpose we can really make things happen. So, I saw GSS doing some of this. Right now we are working on finishing up the Critical Self-Review and Strategic Plan document for GSS. Throughout this process I have learned so much. I am excited to see the variety of faces that become involved and the people who move through – some becoming highly involved and others who just stop by and hang out for a while. I see GSS really taking flight and bringing in new blood and new ideas.
     The support we have from the School of Graduate Studies is absolutely incredible. I think that Case is growing, and GSS is in-line to grow along with it. The students from all different programs – the hard sciences, engineering, art history, English, mathematics, psychology, just to name a few – are all so diverse and interesting. I have found it more and more accessible to leave the confines of Mather Memorial and get to know students in other (very different) programs. I am so proud to be among these intelligent, thoughtful and dedicated members of humanity every day. It is these other graduates that inspire me to try harder in my own work and to really contribute the best that I can.
     My research is currently focused in a small community in central Mexico (Cuauhtinchan, Puebla) although in the past I have also carried out research in the Bolivian Amazon, northern Utah, and even a little bit in Cleveland. I have an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Utah (2002) where I graduated Summa Cum Laude, and a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Case (2004). I anticipate completing my doctorate of philosophy in the Anthropology of Global Health by 2008. My research interests include: global health systems, health care economics, ethnopharmacueticals, Latin America, political economy, development and globalization, and the anthropology of reproduction. I am currently serving as the President elect of the Graduate Student Senate at Case and am also a member of other important organizations: Graduate Discourse, American Anthropological Association, and the Society for Medical Anthropology. I have co-taught two SAGES First Seminars and teach exam preparation for the Princeton Review. I hail from Minneapolis, Minnesota, though I have lived throughout Utah, California, Nebraska, and now Ohio. The (second) most important person in my life is my miniature schnauzer Mila, who is five years old now.
     I am proud to be a representative of the Case graduate student population. Being involved with the GSS has been a highlight of my four years here at Case – and I plan to remain involved in the years leading up to graduation.

By CHERYL J. CAMPO (cheryl.campo@case.edu)
Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering

     With strategic planning taking place at the university, departmental, and even organizational levels, members of the Graduate Student Senate at Case have likewise begun a similar process in the hopes of seeing implementation take place over a 5-year time period beginning in 2006. A strategic plan has been defined elsewhere as: “A document used by an organization to align its organization and budget structure with organizational priorities, missions, and objectives…[it] should include a mission statement, a description of the agency's long-term goals and objectives, and strategies or means the agency plans to use to achieve these general goals and objectives…[it] may also identify external factors that could affect achievement of long-term goals.” (www.gao.gov/policy/itguide/glossary.htm)
     An ad-hoc committee consisting of GSS Executive Board Members Liz Olson Linares (Anthropology), Matt Schiefer (BME), Mike Rueschman (Anthropology), and Tim Peshek (Physics) along with Maureen Garnett (Operations Research), Jeremy Heilman (Physics), and Cheryl Campo (Macromolecular Science and Engineering) gathered for the first time over winter break to begin putting together the framework for the GSS Strategic Plan based on previous research carried out by Meg Grow (TiME), Kim Hyde (Art History), Saad Alkazemi (Accounting), and John Angelis (Operations Research), among others. In order to facilitate the strategic planning process, a WIKI was established on the Case server in order to track immediate changes made to the working document at any time of the day, any day of the week.
     Within the last couple of months, information gathered from a number of different sources including the School of Graduate Studies and the Ohio Regents was collated and a five-year implementation plan was drawn up in which communication, diversification, and partnering were the main focal points. Generally, between 2006 and 2011, the GSS plans to increase awareness of the GSS and its offerings primarily within the university and regional contexts; expand and diversify the groups to which the GSS lends its support; and partner with local, national, and even international businesses in order to strengthen the Case grad student’s position in today’s ever-increasingly global job market. By way of each of these approaches, the GSS endeavors to not only empower the entire grad student population at Case but, concurrently, extend the missions of the School of Graduate Studies and the University as a whole.

Have ideas on what you’d like to see the GSS do for you? Attend the monthly meetings, speak up, and make your voice heard. A Strategic Plan is just that…a plan. New ideas can always be accommodated but at the very least our direction is clear—empowerment of the Case graduate student.

By JOHN ANGELIS (john.angelis@case.edu)
Department of Operations

      When I first came to Case, I realized very quickly that getting involved in school life is not as easy as it was as an undergrad. Graduate school doesn’t really have equivalents to suitemates or Greek life, and many students are busy with families. Often, campus events do not even include graduate students among the invited. Finally, planning off-campus outings becomes more challenging because of the sporadic nature of free time. (A block of free time just opened up from noon until four for the first time in a week…now what do I do?!)
     At Case, one activity I have found rewarding is searching out a community of grad students of similar faith. In pursuing one’s graduate degree, it is easy to become single-minded so as to suffer from selfishness or burn-out. Furthermore, it can be difficult explaining to non-graduate students the conflicts between pursuing one’s graduate degree while keeping up some measure of spirituality. If your faith is not represented by a graduate group on campus, there may be a suitable undergraduate group (check out the online listing of student organizations). For me, that group is InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship. Being around other graduate students with whom I can not only vent about work but pray and share encouraging words has been refreshing. Belonging to such a group is a much needed reminder that we are not alone in our struggle to learn new material or meet impending deadlines.

Next time: An examination of the athletic options that exist at Case. (Feel free to e-mail any suggestions you might have regarding future topics.)

By TIM PESHEK (tjp3@case.edu)
Physics Department

     I was recently asked to write an editorial for the first installment of the GSS newsletter. However, if you’ve ever been asked to do this type of work before, you, my dear reader, may know that it is not an easy charge. Sure I’ve got a lot of opinions, but most are not all that well thought out, devoid of angst or envy, and deal mainly with local issues that only my diminishing circle of friends would really care about. The seemingly elusive topic, however, was staring me right in the face: the GSS newsletter.
     Why do we find it so important to furnish yet another newsletter that would add to the clutter already in Case graduate students’ email inboxes, inevitably putting us on people’s “spam lists”? I’ll tell you. It seems as if the graduate student community is tribal—isolated from one another upon the formation of small factions or “nations”. This behavior is in some ways expected however since the students are products of a culture of discipline, working diligently toward a certain end. What seems to be unknown to most people is the fact that the end they seek is of mutual importance to the student and the teacher and, by extension, the school overall. What is good for the graduate students is good for the university and it would behoove the university to keep us fat and happy.
     Why is it then that the community that makes up the bulk of the student body receives the least publicity? Perhaps this is because the collective voice of the graduate student body is weaker than that of the undergraduates. Enter the GSS newsletter. GradNews, among other things, gets the GSS into the minds of the students. It is a reminder that the organization exists and that it provides the infrastructure that makes it possible for you, the student, to air grievances, get extra money to travel to a conference, inform you of career fairs, and maybe even further the progress you are making toward your ultimate goal as a graduate student: to find a job. My hope for the GSS as it works to redefine itself is that it continues to find new ways to provide services to its constituents which, by the way, includes the entire graduate student body. Interestingly, most of the graduate nations know little about this group that exists to serve them or about the many other similarly isolated nations here on campus. The beauty of GradNews, however, is that even if you, the reader, decide to trash this newsletter, you have unwittingly fallen into the trap: you’ve now heard about the GSS at least once, maybe more (and there’s no such thing as bad publicity). Hopefully the GSS can stop being its own faction and provide a forum through which all of the nations of graduate students can come together in order to communicate what, in actuality, is their shared vision of self-improvement.
     The Iroquois did it*, why can’t we?

*The Iroquois is a term for northeastern indigenous Americans including the Mohawks, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Seneca, the Cayuga, and the Tuscarora nations which created a confederacy (the Iroquois League) to battle against common enemies.

Kara Buehrer, BME graduate student, at the 2004 World University Championship

Case Woodball Association

     The game of Woodball is a funky hybrid of golf and croquette developed in Taiwan in the early 1990’s. The sport has grown to significant popularity in East Asia and has recently begun to make an inroad into the United States. Woodball is an outdoor game played individually or in teams in which players hit a wooden ball with a mallet through gates. A standard course (which can be set up by the players) consists of 12 ‘gates’ (equivalent to a hole in golf), each of which is approximately 100 meters from a tee box. The objective is to complete the course in the fewest number of strokes.
     The Case Western Woodball Association is a proud group of players on campus. The club (not formally recognized until Fall of 2005) sent three players to Taiwan in 2004 to represent the United States in the World University Championship as members of the national team. The club will be holding an open practice on April 11 at 6:00 PM in the main quad for all interested parties. For more information about woodball, please visit www.uswoodball.com and www.woodball.org. For more information about the club, please contact Michael Ackermann at dma18@case.edu.

Chinese Students and Scholars Association
home.case.edu/cssa

     Feb 4th was a festive day for all Chinese students and scholars on campus. The CSSA (Chinese Students and Scholars Association) held its biggest event celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in China.
     Over 300 CSSA members showed up at the party; students brought families and friends making this event more fun! Lots of Chinese food was served from the start. In addition to more traditional Chinese food, dessert, beverages, and fruits were also sampled by all the guests; everyone shared in the happiness of the coming New Year. A big raffle followed the dinner – over 40 members won small presents from the CSSA. A four-hour party movie show (much like a variety show) commencing at 8pm continued the festivities.
     The CSSA greatly appreciates GSS for sponsoring us and encourages people to visit our website for more information about CSSA and its upcoming events.

The Division of Health Policy and CASE
None reported

Graduate Discourse - Anthropology Graduate Student Group

Coming up…
             Spring/Summer discussion series on Narrative
             Anthropology Department faculty/student end of the year picnic (May 6th at the Squire Farm Pink Pig)

Macro Student Organization
http://polymers.case.edu/mso

     The student governing body in the Department of Macromolecular Science Engineering, the MSO is committed to providing quality programming to further both the professional and personal development of the EMAC graduate student population. Aside from regularly scheduled social activities such as daily cookie time, an occasional departmental happy hour (complete with pizza, snacks, and student brewed beer) and monthly movie screenings (MacroTalkies), the 2005-2006 academic year has seen not only rejuvenation of the group itself but the birth of a professional development seminar series, a student newsletter, organized IM teams, a student mentoring program, and a group website, the latter of which you can visit to find out more about us.

Coming up…
             Professional Development Seminar Series
             Wednesdays, 5:30-7 pm, KHS 146
             Food and beverage will be served
March 8 – Woodrow Whitlow (NASA)
See ad below for more details
March 22 – Robert Graf (Lubrizol)
Career Management
April 12 – Rachel Thurston (Battelle)
Government Contract Research Labs
May 3 – Michael Covitch (Lubrizol)
Industrial Chemistry

Minority Graduate Student Organization
None reported

UTURK - Union of Turkish Students at Case
http://www.uturk.org

     Last semester, UTURK participated in the Case Culture and Diversity Fair at which samples of Turkish music, posters, and various cultural artifacts like hand woven carpets, vases, and traditional clothes were on display and spread out over two booths. Turkish food and desserts were also prepared and served by Turkish students from Case. To view pictures from this event, visit our website.
     A major event to be held this semester is our Spring Picnic. We are planning to have it at the end of May. It will be open to all Case students as well as other people not affiliated with the university but interested in attending.
     From time to time, we organize trips to NBA games provided enough people are interested. So far we have been to two NBA games. This semester we are planning two or three more such outings. Dates are yet to be determined.

Case students are welcome to all of our events. For the latest updates and event details, be sure to check our group’s web site.

Vedic Wisdom Society
None reported

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Is your group not on the above list? You may not be officially recognized by the GSS. Is there an organization you’ve been itching to start up for some time now but just didn’t know how? Let us help you do it! Any questions? Write to gssenate@case.edu.

     Thursday, March 16th, is free preview night for the musical adaptation of the hit Brit film “The Full Monty” at the Beck Center on Detroit Avenue in Lakewood (10 minutes from downtown Cleveland). Curtain is at 8pm. Interested? Email Interested? Email cheryl.campo@case.edu for more info.

     As you may have guessed after receiving this issue, the GSS is in the process of resuscitating GradNews, hoping to put the publication out quarterly in 2006. To do this, we could use a little help. Although I am currently filling in as GN Editor, my tenure will be a short one as my projected finish date is fast approaching. With that said, we are in search of a new Editor as well as anyone willing to help out in whatever capacity he/she can—ideally, editing copy and/or contributing to the newsletter on a regular basis (frequency and length of contribution with regard to the latter are flexible). Topics might include, but are not limited to, sports, politics, movie reviews, and editorials.
     As both John and Tim pointed out, student-run programming in areas not related to our research helps to remind us that we are not islands unto ourselves but part of a larger community. Contribute to and/or stay abreast of grad student affairs through the GSS newsletter.
     If you think you might be interested in getting involved, feel free to contact me at cheryl.campo@case.edu.

Thanks in advance for your time and consideration,
C.J. Campo
GN Editor