Graduate students showcase talents, scholarly works

With the leadership of the Graduate Student Association, the Student Commons Capital Ballroom recently became transformed into an art gallery showcasing the research and scholarly works of more than a dozen graduate students.

“It was the opportunity for our graduate students to showcase their research or scholarly works and some of their artwork,” said Douglas Boudinot, dean of the School of Graduate Studies. “It was an opportunity for our faculty and undergraduate students as well as staff to come and see what graduate students have done.”

The event featured the annual Graduate School Symposium and Exhibit that provided graduate students an outlet to share their work with the VCU community. Part of the symposium offered visitors a panel discussion on “Leadership Perspectives: Issues in Virginia Higher Education.”

Charles Sydnor, chief executive officer of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting and a former president of Emory and Henry College, moderated the panel discussion that included Eugene P. Trani, VCU’s president; Don Finley, executive director of the Virginia Business and Higher Education Council; Phyllis Palmiero, executive director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; and Amy Sebring, the higher-education fiscal analyst for the Virginia Senate Finance Committee.

Jonathan McCloud, the association’s treasurer who chaired this year’s symposium committee, said the panel grew out of his documentary titled “Leadership Perspectives on the Future of Virginia Higher Education.”

Calling graduate research part of the backbone of public higher education in Virginia, McCloud said graduate education provides much needed medical, educational, technological, societal and several other types of research that are vital to Virginia. He further identified these disciplines as bringing good health, civic responsibility, new businesses, and community builders to Virginia.

“Virginia’s leadership has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to its citizenry and economic establishment by ignoring the needs of the Virginia higher education,” McCloud said. “The panel provided a chance for these issues to be expressed in an open public forum (and) to be expressed by individuals who have real influence on the policy-makers of Virginia.”

Although one graduate student, Scott D. McDonald, said he didn’t quite see how the panel fit in with the symposium, McCloud suggested that it helped inform some of the state’s policy-makers about the problems facing Virginia higher-education institutions..

Several students attending the symposium said they participated so they could share their work with the rest of the campus community as well as with their fellow graduate students.

“I wanted to gain experience and interest from students in other disciplines and gain a global perspective from other students,” said Antoinette M. Rogers, a graduate student in the School of Education who exhibited her poster titled a “Literature Review.”

Next year, Rogers said she hopes to return to see the research portion of her dissertation displayed at the spring graduate symposium.

On the other hand, Jason Ong, a graduate student seeking a doctoral degree in clinical psychology, saw the event not only as an opportunity to display his work, but he said he also attended simply to support the graduate school and graduate education at VCU.