Many of you probably received an email notification about this today, but if you didn't or otherwise missed it (mine went into my spam folder!), the APA has approved the creation of a new Grad Student Council. Here is the short description of the council's aims:
The GSC will serve as a liaison between the graduate students in the discipline of philosophy and the APA, reporting to the board of officers on issues of interest, concern, and relevance to philosophy graduate students. The GSC will advise the board on how to best serve and support graduate students and may take up projects of its own as well.
The GSC will be made up of 12 philosophy graduate students. In an effort to balance both the need for diversity (professional, demographic, geographic, institutional) of the GSC membership, and the desire for democratic selection, the GSC will include both elected and appointed members. Eight of the members will be appointed by a selection committee including members of the GSC and members of the board of officers. Four members will be elected by the student associate members of the APA.
Given that grad students are among the most vulnerable members the profession, and the kinds of concerns that grad students often voice (many of which, as a former grad student, I identify with!), I for one applaud the APA's decision to create such a council, and hope it affords grad students a greater voice in the profession, as well as a representative one. On that note, let me just express my strong personal hope that–as a matter of fairness/fair representation–the APA will put together a council comprised by grad students from a representative array of programs, not primarily "highly ranked" programs but also "lower ranked" and "unranked programs" as well.
In any case, here are the links where one can nominate oneself and nominate others. If you care about grad student issues and interests, please do nominate someone you think would be a good advocate!
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