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GAPSA
Three-year Strategic Plan
At
the final 2001-2002 University Council Meeting, outgoing Graduate
and Professional Student Assembly ("GAPSA") Chair Christopher
Leahy (Law JD 2002) and Vice Chair for Special Projects Mike Stevens
(Wharton MBA 2002) presented the recently approved GAPSA three-year
Strategic Plan. The plan, with the stated mission of "Growing
Twelve Graduate & Professional Schools into One Penn Community,"
was the process of several months of work by the GAPSA Executive
Committee and General Assembly. The following is an executive summary
of the plan:
GAPSA,
the formally recognized representative of all Penn graduate and
professional students, serves to enhance the quality of academic,
cultural, and community life of the graduate and professional students
at the University of Pennsylvania by:
- Providing
centralized representation and implementation of student needs
and interests through active leadership and participation in identified
campus committees; direct advocacy to the University administration;
policy recommendations by the General Assembly; and support of
constituent student groups;
- Sponsoring
and coordinating university-wide academic, social, community service,
athletic and arts events in conjunction with the Graduate Student
Center and GSAC; and
- Funding
and communicating cross-school, cross-cultural extracurricular
activities initiated by recognized organizations to strengthen
bonds between schools and students and broaden individual students'
academic and personal horizons.
The
plan provides an overview of GAPSA's organizational alignment
between its Executive Board, internal committees and General Assembly
(made up of representative from the 12 schools) and each body's
complementary functions.
The
Plan identifies eight primary goals and objectives for GAPSA:
- Student
Leadership, Advocacy and Representation;
- Graduate
Student Center partnership;
- Committee
Representation;
- Policy
Management;
- Student
Affairs;
- Finance
and Treasury;
- Communications
and Logistics; and
- Special
Projects (Social, Academic, Cultural, Athletic, etc.)
An
appendix to the Plan elaborates on the steps and processes necessary
to accomplish these goals.
The
Plan also identifies four primary steps to implement the plan:
- Define
Vision & Mission (Completed);
- Create
Awareness & Educate (Initiated);
- Obtain
Feedback; and
- Implement
Objectives
Incoming
GAPSA Chair Jeremy Korst (Wharton MBA 2003), closed the presentation
by noting that the Plan is a work-in-progress and is meant to be
flexible enough to adapt to changing student needs. He noted that
the Plan and other information about GAPSA can be found at the organization's
website at www.gapsa.upenn.edu.
Almanac, Vol. 49, No. 6, October 1, 2002
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