GSC Representative 101 – FAQs

As GSC representatives, you serve as liaisons between the graduate students in your departments and the GSC. You are highly encouraged to bring up issues and concerns of the grad students you represent, vote on issues/policies presented at meetings, serve on committees, and help implement anything that would improve the lives of UIC grad students.

The three main roles of a GSC Rep/Alt are:

1) To represent the grad students of your department at GSC meetings,
2) To convey information gained from GSC meetings to your department’s grad students and provide feedback to the GSC and its officers, and
3) To actively participate in making UIC a great place for grad students to live and learn by serving on GSC committees, encouraging and helping students apply for Travel and Project Awards, and a lot more!

Can we have more than two grad students be Reps/Alts for the GSC?

The GSC currently recognizes a maximum of one Primary Representative (“Rep”) and one Alternate Representative (“Alt”) from each department.

What if our department has classes during GSC general meeting times? Can we have more than two grad students be Reps/Alts for the GSC?
While we encourage the same Rep/Alt to attend the meetings each time as much as possible for the sake of continuity, face recognition, and coherence, we understand that our meeting times will not be optimal for each department. We apologize that we aren't able to accommodate everyone, and appreciate your department for being responsible in ensuring attendance by wanting more than two students represent the department. So yes, we are glad to have any graduate student from your department attend the meeting. But the GSC currently recognizes a maximum of one official Primary Representative and one official Alternate Representative from each department. If neither the Rep nor Alt can attend a meeting, an "unofficial" alternate may attend in their place - just make sure they sign in and let the officers know they’re there!

What is the attendance policy?

Attendance by at least one departmental representative at all meetings is mandatory for department eligibility for Travel Awards. Currently, the same does not hold true for Project Awards (i.e. you can be ineligible for Travel Awards while retaining eligibility for Project Awards). Due to the number of graduate students who apply for Travel Awards each semester, and the limited funds available, we have established specific policies on attendance while allowing flexibility for making up missed meetings as to not unfairly penalize otherwise eligible grad students for the extenuating circumstances of their GSC Reps/Alts.

As a representative, missing two general meetings will declare your seat inactive, and missing a third will declare it vacant. You are allowed to make up for a monthly meeting absence by participating in the GSC activities for the equivalent amount of hours. However, this cannot occur for more than three absences in a year. As consequence, NO new Travel Award submissions from your department will be accepted, nor will any pending Travel Award submissions be processed. The department’s graduate students will not be eligible to submit Travel Award Applications until next corresponding quarter. Because eligible applications must be received within the quarter in which the last day of the conference occurs, students will essentially be ineligible for travel awards for any conferences that occur during that semester. The department DGS will also be notified of the missed meetings and the Travel Award ineligibility for the semester. PLEASE MAKE SURE THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN TO YOU AND YOUR DEPARTMENT!!!