The pressures of graduate school can be overwhelming at times. Graduate students must balance class work, assistantship responsibilities, professional development activities and manage some form of social life. Unfortunately, the demands on graduate students require them to prioritize academic responsibilities over personal and social needs. Students tend to have a difficult time developing social networks, especially those who did not earn their undergraduate degree at Ball State University.
Robert Putnam, in his book "Bowling Alone," provided persuasive reasons as to why social capital is necessary for a healthy, productive functioning society. He defined social capital as "the collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from those networks to do things for each other." Putnam has provided empirical data that suggests communities that contribute to social capital are healthier (mentally and physically), have less crime and are more economically and socially productive.
To be successful, both professionally and personally, graduate students need supportive communication. Michael Cunningham, professor of communication at the University of Louisville, and Anita Barbee, director of National Resource Center on Child Welfare Training and Evaluation at UL, studied interpersonal behavior and concluded that people need supportive communication in stressful times. Humans especially need to relate their personal narratives with those who share similar experiences. Having the ability to share experiences provides comfort, decreases stress and contributes to the overall health of the individual.
Graduate students tend to rely on other students within their department for supportive communication. This tends to cause problems because the students get so close to each other. Conflicts generate within the support network. Plus, graduate students, at some level, are competing with each other. At times, problems tend to arise when competition gets in the way of friendship. These situations suggest that graduate students need social networks that reach outside their department.
Ball State graduate students lack social capital. I am a graduate student in the communication studies department, and although the graduate students in our department are close, we have little contact with graduate students outside our department. Even within the College of Communication, Information and Media, I know a dozen graduate students outside communication studies.
My example, and for what I hear is rather representative of the university, suggests that graduate student social networks are fragmented. There is no mechanism that exists to help graduate students from across disciplines to get to know each other. Many graduate students are too busy, lack the social contacts or simply do not know how to reach out to graduate students in other departments.
Ball State needs a Graduate Student Alliance. We need an organization dedicated to the emotional and social well being of our graduate students. Ball State's Graduate School does an excellent job providing support for graduate student professional development. We need an organization to assist in helping graduate students develop what they then to ignore, their social lives.
Other universities have some form of graduate student alliance. Bowling Green University, Wayne State University, Ohio State University and West Virginia University to name a few. These organizations allow for graduate students organize social activities across disciplines, and even have mentor programs for doctorate students.
A graduate school alliance would provide the necessary social capital for graduate students to excel beyond their current capabilities. Graduate students would contribute more scholarship, they would be easier people to get along with, and most importantly, they would provide a more positive contribution to the Ball State campus. With an ever increasing population of graduate student at BSU, I hope the Graduate School, along with academic departments that have graduate programs, and graduate students themselves will come together to organize a graduate student alliance.
Write to Donny at djpeters@bsu.edu
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