Mission Statement:The University of Montana Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) is a representative student group that advocates on behalf of graduate and professional students. We aim to advance the interests of the graduate and professional student body, working collaboratively with undergraduate and graduate student groups, state and local community members and leadership, and UM faculty, staff, & administration.

Current Organization:We are currently operating within the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM) as a student group. As an ASUM student organization we have temporary and limited funding, and must reapply every year for recognition and funding. ASUM provides important and substantial support for the University student body as a whole as well as focused representation of undergraduate students. Graduate and professional student needs, however, differ from those of undergraduates, and graduate and professional students deservespecializedrepresentation and support that ASUM is not providing.

Current Objectives:

Representation:We have been working to build a Graduate and Professional Student Senate with representatives from each program or department, allowing decisions to be made based on input from all graduate students and information to be quickly and effectively disseminated back to graduate students. The Graduate and Professional Student Association Executive and Senate bodies will represent the real opinions and needs of graduate students in campus governance and will operate with full transparency. Expected activities for senators include: representation on University committees and to administration, coordinating lobbying efforts to Board of Regents and state legislature, and providing resources and venues for mediation of concerns arising between graduate students and faculty or staff.

Opportunity:We will bring professional development opportunities into the graduate student portfolio including distribution of travel grants and implementation of professional and teaching workshops targeted at specific programs and departments(e.g.,research and teaching techniques, and grant writing seminars).We will work to increase collaboration between departments and programs to provide these opportunities, particularly in conjunction with the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Network.

Why?We envision the UM-GPSA as providing fundamental services to graduate students as well as important educational opportunities that will benefit the entire campus. To reiterate, our primary objectives are to create direct and transparent representation of graduate students at the university, state, and federal levels, and to substantially increase graduate student academic and professional development opportunities. We aim to become a permanent and autonomous organization that can grow to meet current and future graduate student needs. Organizations like UM-GPSA are common among our sister campuses, and they have seen marked success toward similar goals.

How?We want to become a recognized body of the shared governance model of UM working in cooperation with ASUM.We can do this through broad graduate student support and administrative and faculty recognition.

We need YOUR support in creating a successful petition to grow into a substantial component of the University of Montana’s shared governance model.