Shelley Clagg says if she can earn graduate students the University’s respect after becoming president of Graduate Student Senate this summer, other problems will be easier to solve.
Clagg, elected on Apr. 5, said the issue of respect includes several smaller issues that she will tackle during her term.
One of her goals is to get the University to help graduate assistants find work that meets their interests.
“For some TAs, all they do is research when they’re really interested in teaching and vice-versa,” she said.
Another problem is that when graduates work with professors to publish articles, there is a lack of clarity as to whose names should be attached to the work. This can lead to graduate students’ names being struck from publications.
A third part of the respect issue involves the time teaching assistants are given to prepare before beginning to lead their classes. Often they get their syllabi only days before classes start. “Sometimes they don’t get a syllabus till Friday when they start on Monday,” Clagg said.
Getting recognition from the University should give graduates students more ability to solve problems in the future, according to Clagg. “If you get respect and recognition, everything else should fall into place.”
Clagg’s determination makes her a prime candidate to solve these problems, according to Staci Gilmer, a GSS member who nominated her for the presidency.
Gilmer described Clagg’s past work on an ongoing issue: Getting graduate students some on-campus housing. “That was like her baby this past year,” Gilmer said. “She really put her heart and soul into that. She’s very determined.”
With a laugh, Clagg admitted to her persistence: “I’m tenacious – I don’t give up easy.”
Another strength of hers is her approach to solving problems, Gilmer added. “She always has an opinion, and a good one – and she backs it up with research.”
Clagg has had a few years to form those opinions – she spent seven years working her way up from stocking shelves at Revco to a corporate position in the pharmacy chain teaching about computers before enrolling at BGSU Firelands for her undergraduate degree.
After earning her bachelor’s in environmental science, she spent two more years working for the Census Bureau before working toward her master’s in public administration at the main campus. She should have the degree by next week, she said.
Her GSS colleagues probably elected her because of this experience, Clagg added. “People told me to run because I could come at the position with a different perspective.”
