Welcome Message
November 12, 2007 by bcgsl
Welcome to the Office of Graduate Student Life blog!
Our goal with this new blog is to share interesting and relevant information with graduate students at Boston College in a fun, timely, and informal way. This blog is designed to support and complement our mission, and to this end we will feature our graduate student life staff and graduate student leaders as guest bloggers.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WHO WE ARE!
The Murray Graduate Student Center, an essential part of the Office of Graduate Student Life, is 10 years old this year! Named after John Courtney Murray, S.J. (a twentieth-century American Jesuit priest and theologian whose outspoken commitment to religious freedom earned him first critique and then honor by his ecclesiastical superiors), the Center was created to give graduate students at Boston College a space to call their own. Prior to the new MGC, the house was used by undergraduate commuter students. Three years ago, the office which we now call Graduate Student Life (GSL) was born. Formerly known as “Murray House”, GSL’s switch to a broader and more campus-focused mission and name opened up a lot of opportunities to expand our support and advocacy for grad students. We are lucky to have a great graduate student staff, which includes two Graduate Assistants and six graduate MGC Center Assistants.
The Graduate Student Association has been our primary partner in our work with graduate students. In the past few years the GSA has really expanded the scope of its work and ability to engage the BC administration on behalf of graduate students. It is an excellent organization and every BC graduate student is a member. Together we have created a new orientation program, provided new social and cultural activities, and advocated on issues such as health insurance and parking.
We want our services and support to be transparent, and to this end want to share our eight GSL Strategic Priorities for the 2007-2008 academic year. These were developed in consultation with faculty, staff, and graduate students.
- Assessment: 2008 Graduate Student Life Survey
- Academic support programs and initiatives
- Building graduate student community
- Spiritual outreach
- Health and wellness
- International graduate student support
- Supporting and advising graduate student organizations
- Strengthening partnerships both at BC and in national organizations
We welcome your feedback about these initiatives and anything else that’s on your mind as a graduate student at BC.
Here’s to a great year!
Katie O’Dair
Associate Dean, Graduate Student Life
Joy Galarneau Briggs
Program Assistant, Graduate Student Life
