With the ongoing construction of the Munger dorm, physical changes to graduate student life are readily apparent around campus. But important changes may be in store for graduate students on a less superficial level as well.

Last Wednesday, a committee of faculty, staff and graduate students met with the Graduate Student Council (GSC) to discuss two important, and currently vacant, administrative positions in graduate student education.

The vice provost and dean of research (VP-DOR) will represent Stanford’s research interests both within the University and to outside institutions, coordinate Stanford’s independent labs and oversee Stanford’s research policies. The vice provost for graduate education (VPGE) will work to improve graduate education at Stanford and to recruit a diverse graduate student population.

Applied Physics Prof. Malcolm Beasley, a member of the search committee, consulted council members about their vision for the VP-DOR role.

“Stanford is a research institution and the [dean of research] is responsible for helping maintain Stanford’s excellence,” said Cullen Buie, a graduate student in mechanical engineering. “This includes managing internal issues and interacting with Washington on a policy level.”

GSC members said they hoped the VP-DOR would help protect students in cases of scientific misconduct, raise research funding, help students get better lab hours and facilitate interdisciplinary research.

Beasley said that Applied Physics Prof. Arthur Bienenstock, who currently holds the VP-DOR position, will retain the role for two more years. Bienenstock’s role will focus primarily on developing Stanford’s communication on research with the federal government.

The search committee also asked the GSC to name qualities to look for in VPGE candidates and to list issues students hope the new VPGE will address. Council members expressed concern about the rising costs of housing, as well as the quality of student-advisor mentoring relationships. Most of the concerns reflected broad-based issues in graduate life.

“I don’t think we want a VPGE who is happy with Stanford graduate life,” said Alex Ene, a graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics. “We want someone who is deeply unsatisfied.”

Some GSC members expressed concern that the VPGE’s role as a diversity overseer might be overlooked.

“I don’t think you need someone lying awake at night worrying about developing interdisciplinary work at Stanford. This is going to happen,” said Mechanical Engineering Prof. Tom Kenny. “But I think someone needs to be lying awake at night worrying about diversity at Stanford.”

All parties agreed that organizing so many concerns under one office would be difficult as well as rewarding.

“The VPGE needs to be so interested in the grad student educational experience that they know what issues exist, so that when the strings do become available, they can take advantage of it,” said Maria Spletter, a graduate student in biological sciences. “There are many different aspects of grad life, and the VPGE needs to keep track of them all and their impact on the students.”

“The VPGE is going to get very different opinions from each grad student,” said Josh Lippman, a student in the Graduate School of Business. “There is almost a misnomer of ‘a graduate student experience.’ There is not a lot of cross-communication, and breaking the communication barrier down is the first thing that needs to occur.”

Overall, students were appreciative of the committee’s effort to solicit their concerns.

“I thought it was great that the search committee came to consult the GSC about what graduate students’ priorities are for these jobs,” said Paul Gurney, a graduate student in electrical engineering and one of next year’s GSC co-chairs. “It’s very important that the new VPGE have a passion for all aspects of graduate student life, especially diversity, housing, quality advising and health care. We also made it clear that we want the new position to have the power to make changes, and should have a significant budget to make those changes.”

Graduate students are hoping the VPGE position will be as well-funded as that of the vice provost for undergraduate education, and hope it will confront numerous aspects of graduate life.

“The creation of the VPGE symbolizes the University’s desire to improve the graduate student experience,” Buie said. “Typically the issues of graduate students are addressed on an as-needed basis, but this position will allow Stanford to take a more proactive approach to improving graduate life.”

The committee’s recommendations, which will be sent to President John Hennessy and Provost John Etchemendy after additional meetings, will include a list of names, a list of qualities and a description of the scope of each post.

“We need people with proven experience at making things happen at Stanford,” Kenny said. “We’re looking for awareness that not all programs or students have the same balance of issues. One of the students suggested that good candidates for the VPGE should be unhappy with the current state of affairs for graduate students. We take this to mean that the VPGE should be eager to make small and large changes to improve graduate education and graduate life at Stanford, and I think we agree.”