The Graduate Representation Committee (GRC) is the official vehicle for graduate student involvement in department administrative and service activities. The GRC oversees multiple committees that enrich the graduate student training program and provide opportunity for department service. In addition, the GRC includes class representatives that represent the interests of the students in their cohort. These representatives are available as resources for other students in the program.
The GRC has two co-chairs, Lacy Krueger (lkrueger@virginia.edu) and Rachel Farr (farr@virginia.edu). The co-chairs coordinate and oversee the GRC committees, and they also act as a liaison to the administration. One co-chair is elected at the end of each Spring Semester for a 2-year term; therefore, there is always one co-chair who has been in the position for a year before the other starts. The GRC committees are described below. If you have any questions about the GRC, please feel free to email Lacy or Rachel.
The colloquium committee consists of 2-3 faculty members and 1-2 graduate students. The committee is in charge of organizing a series of colloquiums. The student committee members participate in the committee's selection of speakers from those nominated by the department. The students will also help in recruit other graduate students to participate in various aspects of the visits (i.e., picking speakers up from the airport, organizing lunch, etc.).
Committee faculty: Judy Deloache (chair), Brian Nosek, & Bobbie Spellman
Committee student(s): Jesse Graham & Ashley Pinkham
The teaching evaluations committee is in charge of collecting and summarizing teaching evaluations of faculty who are up for tenure or promotion. This includes reading recommendations of other faculty members and indicating agreement (or disagreement) with their appraisals. This position provides an opportunity to be involved in the faculty evaluation process, and it provides insight into what is involved in having a successful faculty career.
Committee faculty: Jim Freeman (Chair), Joe Allen, & Dick Reppucci
Committee student(s): Mandy Steiner
The human subjects committee is in charge of evaluating whether experimenters (studies) that wish to use participants from the Psychology Department Participant Pool meet the educational mission of the pool. Primarily, members read each study’s debriefing form and approve or disapprove whether it is educationally informative. The time commitment per week may vary from as little as few minutes to up to an hour.
Committee faculty: Shige Oishi (Chair), Michael Kubovy, & Bethany Teachman
Committee student(s): Carlee Hawkins
The committee is a resource for anyone that has an issue they want to talk about without, or before, going straight to the administration. Examples of issues are beliefs of preferential or detrimental treatment due to gender, or inappropriate behavior of a faculty member. If an individual has a complaint and is not sure what to do or what should be done, they can meet with the committee, which can act as an arbitrator or bring the issue to the faculty/administration. The committee functions primarily as a buffer between the individual and the faculty/administration. One benefit is that the individual with the issue can remain anonymous. The time commitment is minimal as the committee only meets after a complaint has been made.
Committee faculty: Charlotte Patterson (Chair), Alev Erisir, & Karen Schmidt
Committee student(s): Cristina Reitz & Liz Tenney
The teaching committee chair (or co-chairs) and committee members will organize events related to teaching issues. The goal is to organize one meeting per month that includes workshops such as how to deal with student issues, how to prepare a syllabus, etc.
Committee chair(s): Monica Erbacher & Mandy Steiner
Committee student(s): Amanda Hare & Carrie Palmquist
The professional issues committee chair (or co-chairs) and committee members usually will organize relevant workshops (e.g. grant writing, jobs outside of academia, preparing for interviews, etc.) The goal is organize one workshop per month.
Committee chair(s): Tim Brick & Robyn Kondrad
Committee student(s): Meghan Cody & Mandy Steiner
The diversity representation chair and committee mission is to highlight diversity research that is being conducted in the department and also to recruit more minority applicants. Regarding the latter, in the past the committee has attended graduate school fairs to recruit applicants. In addition, the committee also maintains a website that features diversity research that is conducted within the department.
Committee chair(s): Jennifer O'Neil & Samantha Tornello
Committee student(s): Cristina Reitz
Members of the social committee are in charge of organizing social events (at least one larger event in the Spring) to bring graduate students together. The committee also tries to organize and coordinate events with graduate students in other departments. The social committee may also be asked to help coordinate the welcoming party for the incoming first years.
Committee chair(s): Barbara Oudekerk
Committee student(s): Holly Jones & Jeff Pink
Class representatives, once chosen, let the members of their class know that they are available to listen to questions, complaints, issues, etc., that graduate students might have within the department. The class reps then bring those concerns (confidentially) to the appropriate people, including (but not limited to) the GRC co-chairs. The class reps are also expected to email their classmates during the spring semester to make a special request for issues that concern their class. The class reps will meet at the end of the year to discuss these requests, and then GRC co-chairs will meet with the DGS, Department Chair, and other relevant people to address the concerns of the graduate students.
1st year class rep: Samantha Tornello
2nd year class rep: Matt Lerner
3rd year class rep: Jeff Pink & Meg Scalia
4th year class rep: Sally Linkenauger & Liz Tenney
5th year+ class rep: Jon Bakdash
Area reps/welcome committee people are primarily in charge of taking new students under their wings. This includes things like (beginning in the fall): making sure that new students feel comfortable and welcome in the first week(s) of the semester (maybe planning a grad night out to welcome them before the semester starts, or stopping by their office to introduce yourself; but the area reps should also make sure that they're available to answer area-specific questions, including classes, norms, etc.); helping to plan the "welcome party" that takes place in October (for faculty and students); helping to arrange prospective student weekends/visits in the Spring; setting up accepted/new students with a "buddy" to help them find housing, answer questions, etc. after they accept and as they get ready to move to C'ville.
Clinical Rep: Shari Steinman
Cognitive Rep: Jennifer Joy-Gaba & Elyssa Twedt
Community Rep: Rachel Riskind
Developmental Rep: Robyn Kondrad & Carrie Palmquist
Quantitative Rep: Mike Hunter
Sensory and Systems Neuorscience Rep: Rachel Kay
Social Rep: Felicity Miao
The graduate council is a university-level institution. The main responsibilities of the grad council rep is attending council meetings once a month, which typically last about 2 hours and are held in the early evening, and occasionally forwarding along e-mails to the department. All reps are now also required to serve on one of the GSAS Council sub-committees (time commitment for these committees varies, but usually entails attending just one additional meeting each month).
Psychology Rep(s): Jesse Pappas & Meg Scalia
Homepage: www.student.virginia.edu/~gsasc/
