The Graduate Resource Center (GRC), located at the north end of the first floor of Mesa Vista Hall, has opened its doors for all graduate and professional students across campus. Offering a wide array of academic and professional development support services, the GRC sports a computer lab for research and writing, a commons area for workshops and presentations, a seminar room, and space for the team of graduate consultants and staff who offer individual appointments, workshops and seminars. A grand opening will be held Friday, Aug. 26 from 1-3 p.m. at the new Graduate Resource Center in the Courtyard of Mesa Vista Hall Suite 1057.
At the GRC graduate and professional students may meet with consultants or work in groups on a variety of topics aimed at promoting the timely completion of graduate degrees. Consultants meet with participants to discuss and give feedback on writing and research projects and to help students with research design and statistical analysis. There is also an Online Writing Lab through which students from off campus can receive support.
Interim Dean of Graduate Studies Gary Harrison says a $2.8 million Title V Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans grant made the center possible with the specific goal of increasing the number of Hispanic students who complete masters and doctoral degrees, yet with the overarching goal of providing support to all UNM graduate and professional students.
GRC Executive Director Lawrence Roybal reports that the GRC is working collaboratively with a variety of UNM and community organizations, including the Graduate Student Funding Initiative sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, in order to benefit the entire UNM graduate and professional community.
"This is something we have wanted to offer graduate students for a long time," Harrison says. "This grant gives us an opportunity to get a strong, supportive graduate resource program off the ground and a chance to provide a valuable resource for graduate student success."
Last summer, the GRC held 16 workshops and five thesis/dissertation writing boot camps that were all well attended. Workshop schedules for the fall semester will be available at the grand opening. Roybal says that this first series of boot camps brought students who are writing theses or dissertations together in weekly writing groups. He adds that students who participated in the boot camps say the environment of mutual collaboration has helped them to focus on the complex process of scholarly writing and has encouraged them to devote themselves to their projects.
This fall the center is offering nearly 30 workshops on topics ranging from proposal development to quantitative and qualitative analysis. The workshops can help students build a bibliography, write a literature review, develop a teaching philosophy, enhance their data analysis or sharpen their presentation skills.
See a slideshow from the GRC's recent opening.
Media contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu