All in the Family

Wow! You're a grad student? You seem so . . . normal!"

So begins yet another introductory conversation between grad and undergrad, whether it be in one of the residential dining halls, at an ethnic study break, during a night at the 'Street' or in the new Frist Campus Center. This is not something that just happens to me. It happens to the scores of graduate students on this campus who, for some strange reason, look and act like many of the undergraduates on this campus. While the "Wow!" statement may not be explicit every time, it is nevertheless there — a look of pleasant surprise on the unsuspecting undergrad, a dawning realization that grad students aren't so scary after all.

Such a reaction would be deemed absurd or downright racist if the "Wow!" statement were not applied to graduate students, but used instead in interactions with athletes, musicians or Latinos. And yet, this reaction of pleasant surprise is understandable, given the prior history of residential and social segregation on this campus. Only recently have such patterns of segregation begun to change, with the creation of the Frist center and the participation of graduate students in non-scholarly activities. Indeed, we can expect the "Wow!" reaction to increase as undergraduate and graduate students begin to have more and more social interactions outside the classroom setting.

While Frist and campus-wide activities may help restore a modicum of normalcy to graduate and undergraduate interactions, they are not enough to break this socially accepted wall of segregation. All of us — undergraduates, administrators and graduate students — need to work actively on this issue. The USG has already taken a lead role in this matter by including graduate and undergraduate relations in its upcoming Student Life Initiative. It would be wise to expand on this initiative by starting another series of "sustained dialogues," this time focusing not on race but on the other major form of social segregation on this campus.

The administration has also taken some steps to improve graduate and undergraduate relations. These have included, not only the creation of large campus-wide spaces such as the Frist center, but also the creation of positions such as the Vice President for Campus Life, who has oversight in institutions that serve both undergrads and grad students. Also, for the first time this year, the administration allowed graduate students and graduate student groups to participate in the activities fair during orientation. It is also significant that the search committee for the next president includes the chair of the Graduate Student Government.

There are still some issues that the University needs to tackle. For instance, its irrational prox-card policy prevents graduate students from entering undergraduate dorms, even if we need to attend play rehearsals in Forbes or student group meetings in Spelman. Overall, however, the administration has taken several important steps during this year of the graduate school centennial to ensure a closer integration of grad students into the rest of the campus community.

In the spirit of a "sustained dialogue," we cannot expect the solution to come only from administrators or undergraduates. Graduate students also need to take significant steps to normalize relations with the rest of the campus community. As individuals, we should participate more in campus activities and show more respect for our undergraduate peers.

Finally, we also need to reform our student government. Assembly members never face contested elections, and officers are not directly elected. Direct elections with candidate platforms would increase the prominence of graduate student issues, not only for graduate students but also in the eyes of undergraduates and administrators. Elections would also add some badly needed democratic legitimacy to an organization that seems oligarchic and out-of-touch with the daily needs of graduate students.

The centennial of the graduate school and the opening of the Frist Campus Center signal the beginning of a process of interaction between groups that have heretofore been systematically segregated. It is up to all of us to make sure that we capitalize on this opportunity to truly integrate our campus communities. S. Karthick Ramakrishnan is a politics and Office of Population Research graduate student from Holden, Mass. He can be reached at karthick@princeton.edu.