Annual Report

REPORT TO THE NAGPS MEMBERSHIP
NAGPS National Conference, October 30, 1997

Dear NAGPS Members and Friends:
Today, we stand at the dawn of a new day for our Association. After two years of rapid growth in fiscal resources and development of internal infrastructure, NAGPS stands well-positioned to meet the challenges faced by graduate and professional students in the 21st Century. We are firmly in pursuit of the ideals of our founders: "to provide a mechanism for exchange of information among graduate/professional students, foster the development of graduate/professional student organizations, and to improve the quality of graduate/professional education and student life in general
am pleased to have been involved in this effort as your President this year, and am thankful for the opportunity given me to serve you in helping to define the future direction of this Association over the next few years. This report will outline the steps we have taken towards this "vision for the future" this year, and the steps I feel necessary to continue along this road towards a future NAGPS.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Volunteers
First, let me say that the rapid growth in services, fiscal resources, and scope of issues that we now address require a new way of thinking about NAGPS, its role in the higher education community, and our way of doing things. We cannot, I believe, continue to grow and expand the kinds of things we do without more assistance from you, the membership. NAGPS traditionally has operated through the devoted dedication of a handful of volunteers and paid NAGPS staff, all of which are now strained to the maximum. We need to incorporate the efforts of more volunteers into our way of decision-making, through the development of a supportive Standing Committee structure and strong regional and state networks. By doing so, we ensure NAGPS a steady stream of volunteers through a "pipeline" from the campus level through the regional and state levels, up to the national level.
There is, however, a limit to what we can do as an organization. We can create all of the volunteer opportunities we want, but if no one seizes upon them, our organization will not grow and will not act on the issues members are concerned with, simply because no one is there to raise them, or because NAGPS has too few resources (money, people, etc.) to address the issue. If NAGPS is to continue growing and expanding, we will need to bring more volunteers into the organization, train them in a way that allows them to contribute immediately, and make their contributions part of the Association in such a way that volunteer activities and accomplishments are appreciated with all that they deserve. This is, quite simply, a critical need.
Committees
During my year as your President, I have worked to revise our Bylaw language that provides charges and membership provisions to each of our NAGPS Committees. We have defined standing Committees and tied them specifically to members of the Board of Directors who serve as Chair, and as conduits of Committee deliberations directly to the Board level. We must recognize NAGPS Committees as the sources for information on issues that arise over the course of each year, and as sources for expert advice on policy options and programs we can use to address these issues. We will need to identify student leaders on each of our campuses that want to serve our Association as members of these standing Committees, members who are willing to provide input as experts who really understand the issues that we face as an Association.
Our attempts at these Committees in the past have been plagued by a lack of participation and a lack of direction. The direction is now there.... we need the volunteers! Providing for a complete and active Committee structure helps us address the key issues you want us to, and without active Committees and your participation, NAGPS may well do nothing to address the issues you care about. This Conference will provide us with an opportunity to jump-start these new Committees, and I hope that you will pledge yourself to one Committee for the coming year in support of NAGPS.
Regions
Regions hold a similar place in the NAGPS structure as a primary means for communicating regional issues to the NAGPS Board of Directors. Regions provide an opportunity for state and regional networking among NAGPS members, recruitment and retention of existing and new NAGPS members, and action on a regional scale to respond to regional issues. Through regular communication with a regional newsletter, web site, and use of the regional discussion lists, regions can address a host of issues not addressed by NAGPS, or in a way specific to the region's needs. Regional Coordinators serve as advocates for regional issues during Board meetings, and, like Committee Chairs, originate action and policies on issues facing NAGPS.
Over the past few years, our regions have been growing stronger and developing a sense of identity as entities within NAGPS, and we need to continue this trend. We need to decide, as a group, what function regional conferences play in the development of leadership and the transmission of NAGPS services to members in a direct manner, and we need to focus on the development of state networks to create a larger number of NAGPS volunteers who can serve as liaisons between the national organization and the campus-based organizational member. Most importantly, organizational members should be able to recognize and call upon their Regional Coordinator as their primary point of contact within NAGPS, particularly for minor inquires of information, advice, and other items. RCs can see themselves as field representatives, and should be more willing than ever to travel to campuses, meet with organizational leaders, and demonstrate to them the value of NAGPS.
Regions and regional coordinators are, in my opinion, the foundation of all that NAGPS represents, and the strengthening of these relationships between member schools regionally can only help make NAGPS stronger.

COMMUNICATION

The NAGPS Web Site and mailing lists have been, and will continue to be, a cornerstone of our existence and strength. During the last year, we have used both to communicate to members about legislative updates, collective actions on other campuses, media alerts, information on programs and issues, and other forms of information exchange. We have set up the Web Site to handle credit card inquries, and have expanded the site's information content to include topical information on NAGPS Board activities, background, and other organizational tools.
As your President, I pledged to open up the channels of communication within our Association and provide more information on our internal processes to our members. I'm proud to say that this effort has met with some limited success. Current Board members know more about NAGPS decisions than ever before, and decisions are no longer made without first seeking Board input where possible and appropriate. NAGPS members have received notices of on-line Board meetings, have had a chance to browse internal policy documents during the meeting and participate through the submission of comments to the Board during debate. As mentioned above, we still need to make better use of our Committee lists, and new technologies, such as a recently-added Chat Room on the NAGPS Web Site can allow for interactive exchange between NAGPS leaders and NAGPS members. We still do not showcase Regional and Committee efforts on our web site as we should, but this is largely due to the issues identified before with regards to regions and committees.
Like anything we do, however, development and maintenance of a Web Site and information network will require constant care and feeding from a full-time support staff person, and NAGPS should identify this as a priority for expansion of staff hiring. This will allow the Information Exchange Coordinator position to once again be open to those students who do not necessarily have a keen sense of technology, and allow this position to focus more on the kinds of information-gathering and management that can update and extend our Information Exchange, survey NAGPS members' needs, and provide some demographic understanding of who we represent.
ISSUES

Legislative
As you well know by now, in this past year, NAGPS was able to fend off an effort by the House to phase-out the Section 117(d) tax exemption on tuition waivers provided to graduate and professional students working as teaching and research assistants. Through the combined efforts of NAGPS leadership, campus contacts around the country, and letters and phone calls from thousands of individual students, not only did we defend Section 117(d), but we won significant improvements in the tax code that provide incentives for savings and spending towards advanced degree programs. By working for the reinstatement of the Student Loan Interest Deduction and the establishment of a "Life-Long Learning" tax credit, NAGPS has provided access to graduate and professional education to more potential students than ever before, and we have helped thousands of students reduce their debts and need for student loans, saving billions of dollars.
In the area of appropriations, NAGPS has worked to maintain current funding levels for Title IX Graduate Fellowships, and worked to seek amendments to restore full funding to the State Student Incentive Grant program, a grant program benefitting graduate and professional students. We have also alerted members to the potential elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts, and monitored funding for graduate fellowships in the Sciences. Each year, NAGPS works for you to preserve and extend Federal Appropriations for graduate student fellowships, traineeships, and research grants, and next year will be no different. As your President, I have worked as part of the NAGPS Legislative Team to keep you updated on developments in Washington, DC, and to pursue advocacy consistent with our Legislative Platform.
In the coming year, NAGPS will need to continue our efforts working towards improvements in the nature of programs provided by the Federal Government under the Higher Education Act. We have offered suggestions this year for the kinds of grant, fellowship, and loan program changes we'd like to see, and I have been intensely involved in NAGPS' research and policy drafting process, through continuing discussions with higher education and Congressional staff, testimony before the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee on student loan issues, and other work. The actual drafting of legislation and final passage of program changes is yet to occur, expected after January 1998. It's an exciting and innovative time for federal student aid programs, and our involvement in the process at this high level is something that will need to continue.
To this end, I have suggested, and the Board has approved, a part-time stipended Legislative Director position in Washington, DC, to help take us to this next level. The new LD, to be selected in the coming months, will provide regular updates on legislative issues, coordinate volunteer activity, provide for the further strengthening of relationships between NAGPS and other higher education associations, the White House, and Congress, and identify research needs to support our positions. We hope to expand the scope of this position over the coming year if funding becomes available based on continued organizational growth.
International Student Concerns
Just as the world begins to recognize and understand the global nature of environmental problems, military conflict, and economic cooperation, so too must we begin to understand that our collective future lies in the education of all the worlds' peoples. In the last year, we have witnessed the rise of a number of national graduate, post-graduate or other advanced degree student groups in countries other than our own, and we as an organization have begun to understand and appreciate the value of international education, and international cooperation with our fellow organizations around the world. Although we were not able to send a delegate, NAGPS participated in the planning and development of the 1st International Workshop of Postgraduate Associations, recently concluded in Budapest, Hungary this last month. On my suggestion with the support of our International Student Concerns Committee, NAGPS has offered to host the second such workshop here in the United States in the coming year and are already working to secure conference sites, schedule it in conjunction with other NAGPS events, and invite attendees.
Recognizing that students born in countries other than the United States represent more than 15% of our national enrollment in advanced-degree programs, it is clear that NAGPS does not yet represent and consider issues pertaining to international students as one should expect based on membership considerations. It is incumbent upon us all in the next year to understand and learn about the unique problems that face our international student colleagues, and as student leaders, ask ourselves how we can assist in removing barriers to overseas study that currently existing on our campus and nationwi
Employment Concerns
NAGPS has always had a strong tradition of supporting fair and appropriate employment conditions for graduate and professional student employees. We have continued to engage in discussions regarding Post-Graduate Employment (which you can benefit from during our Mini-Conference), working conditions and benefits for teaching and research assistants, and the proper role of our Association with regards to the growing pro-union sentiment on our nation's graduate school campuses. We continue to support the right of students to unionize if they so choose a union as their collective voice, as evidenced by our support for campaigns at Yale University and across the nine campuses of the University of California during the past year. NAGPS disseminated information on strike efforts at these and other locations throughout the past year, provided assistance to inquiring institutions through our relationship with the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions, and our own Union Advisors serving as Assistants to the Board of Directors. Our NAGPS Job Bank has become one of the more highly-sought benefits among employers and employees alike, and in the effort to shine the light of publicity on the critical role we graduate and professional students play, our Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week was bigger than ever in 1997!
As with other areas of activity within our Association, there remains a great deal that can be done in the year to come. We are long overdue for a comprehensive survey of working conditions among our member schools (something that you can help fix this weekend!), and we can and should be defining a baseline expectation for stipend levels, health insurance, and other benefits from this data that we can hold up as the minimum demanded by students on individual campuses.
We can and should be thinking beyond graduate or professional school, thinking about services and benefits we can provide to students who are seeking employment, how we can measure possibilities in the job market to allow us to provide data on job placement, and how we can create a culture on our campuses that assists graduate and professional students in starting their careers in the same manner as any undergraduate student. One of the critical conversations higher education as a whole will need to have involves the growing recognition that our graduate programs are not responsive to the changing economics of the employment marketplace, and how graduate and professional programs are being restructured to provide for this "market force" in determining admissions, curricula, and research. As the vanguard of the coming generation of academia, NAGPS is the only group that can raise these concerns in a way that may get this important conversation rolling.
Human Diversity
The Association has done comparatively little on issues related to human diversity, but there is plenty that can be done in the coming year. One of the more important issues that will need to be discussed and acted upon in the coming year is that of affirmative action. Congressional leaders have indicated that action on affirmative action bills will wait until January 1998, to allow for discussions on race and gender to be a centerpiece of the 1998 election. NAGPS must respond to calls to develop a position on the use of affirmative action in admissions and faculty hiring, consistent with existing NAGPS policy on human diversity. To establish such a policy, NAGPS will have to work to provide members with balanced information on affirmative action initiatives, and work to educate members and non-members alike on the value of human diversity in higher education.
We can also move forward in forming coalitions with other groups working in diversity, and work to bring them into our organization as members, affiliates and participants at conferences. We must continue to foster an environment which provides for the exchange of a diversity of viewpoints, something that I've worked really hard this year to establish. A diversity of views and ideologies is essential to complete discussion of issues and sound development of policy, and is, in my opinion, tied closely to the diversity of individuals participating in NAGPS.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

NAGPS continues to provide high-quality products and services that members want and use on their campus. Our Conferences, both national and regional, have seen their highest attendance this year, and our Job Bank is one of our most sought-after benefits, as is our Scholarship and Fellowship search. We continue to offer a comprehensive Health Insurance and Dental Discount Plan, and many campus members have taken advantage of bulk deals on Student Advantage cards as a benefit for their students. These programs not only provide NAGPS members with good benefits they can use, but these partnerships with sponsors also provide needed revenue for NAGPS activities.
In the coming year, we will need to continue to expand the kinds of services we provide, based on regular surveys of the members' needs (including the one at this conference). Some of the more desired services that NAGPS can add include legal services, tax advice, increased publications to support GSA development and activities, and investment and financial advice. We cannot do this with existing staff, but can partner with other entities to provide low-cost, high-quality serves to NAGPS members.
In doing this, we will have to reconsider the tax ramifications of offering a considerable number of services which also generate revenue. As a educational non-profit organization, there may be limits on the kinds of things NAGPS can offer directly. It may be in our interest to spin off the fundraising and service-providing functions to an affiliated organization which would be partially controlled by NAGPS under existing tax law.
CHANGING THE NAGPS CULTURE

All of the above ideas for the future require a new NAGPS paradigm, a new way of thinking about who we are and what we do. We cannot be bound by the experiences of the past, where resources of all kinds were non-existent. We cannot think larger than we are, either, recognizing that our volunteer pool is limited, our fiscal resources difficult to come by, and our allies transient and issue-specific. We must make the most out of what we have, and once we have done that, only then should we seek to grow and expand.
Regardless of who you elect to postions on the NAGPS Board, you should be sure to elect representatives who will continue the development of NAGPS along the guidelines suggested here. It's clearly working to create a better organization, in all aspects, and to maintain the excellent progress that we've sustained for two years, we will need to continue down this path.
NAGPS is an organization with a lot of potential... there are many things we can do and many ways in which we can help our members. The ideas are certainly not lacking, but the resources are, and without the help of each individual NAGPS member to obtain these resources, we will forever be limited to our current size and scope. I think this would be a real missed opportunity for America's graduate and professional students.
I hope that once you read this report, you see that I have served you well during my year in office. Serving as your President has not been easy, and it hasn't been conducive to making progress in my degree program. It has, at times, been fun, and I've met and worked with some really great people. Thanks to the past and present NAGPS Board for their hard work, and I wish the Association the best of luck in the coming year.
Bryan Hannegan
NAGPS Executive Coordinator/President
October 30, 1997