In Fall 2024, the Graduate Student Senate merged with the Graduate Professional Council to form the new Graduate Professional Student Council, which represents all graduate and professional students at WashU.
This website contains archived information about the Graduate Student Senate.
The Graduate Student Senate (GSS) represents graduate students in programs granting Ph.D. degrees at Washington University in St. Louis. Our Senators are drawn from programs and departments across Arts & Sciences, Olin Business School, the McKelvey School of Engineering, DBSS, the School of Medicine, and the Brown School.
Constituted in 1993, our mission is to represent and advocate for the interests of graduate students. We provide forums for graduate student concerns, foster connections between graduate students, and facilitate communication with the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and International Affairs.
Each year, the GSS holds several signature events, organized by graduate students to benefit graduate students. The GSS co-hosts an annual event with the Graduate Professional Council and the Association of Graduate Engineering Students to welcome graduate and professional students to campus. We also offer opportunities for graduate students to highlight their research with our annual Graduate Research Symposium and through our biannual Travel Awards for conference travel. Each spring we celebrate the faculty and staff members who make significant contributions to the graduate student experience with our Outstanding Faculty & Staff Awards. Our standing committees organize other programming around issues of diversity, graduate student health concerns, housing, professional development, and the prevention of interpersonal and sexual violence.
Through the advocacy and innovation of our Senators, the GSS has achieved many important advancements for graduate students. Recently, in 2014, the GSS developed the Preliminary Report on Campus Climate, which has led to the development of TA training on facilitating inclusive classrooms, a new admissions platform for the College of Arts and Sciences, and initiated conversations on revitalizing graduate student housing.
We typically meet the first Tuesday of every month in the Graduate Center Commons (lowest level in the Women’s Building) at 7:00 p.m (with dinner served). All graduate students are welcome to join the conversation! Please check out our calendar and e-mail gss@wustl.edu with any questions. If you have any events you would like GSS to advertise and include in our newsletter, please fill out this form.
To get involved, check out our various committees and contact a committee chair, Senator, or Executive Board member.
