Getting Involved with COGS

Here are the top 10 ways a graduate student can get involved with COGS.

1. Visit the COGS website often
   Many current opportunities and information on issues and projects that COGS is addressing are posted to the website.
2. Read the minutes from the last General Assembly meetings
   Minutes are available from the website.
3. Read the COGS newsletter and the COGS Extra! e-newsletter
   They clog your email inbox and your mailbox. Read them cover-to-cover before recycling them.
4. Stay in contact with your Department Representative
5. Go to General Assembly meetings
   
   
   For General Assembly schedule see:
   www.cogs.umn.edu/meetings.html
   Food is severed at 5:00
   Meetings run from 5:15 - 6:45 pm
6. Become a Program Representative
   Ask other members of your department, your DGS, or the COGS office if your department has an active Department Representative. Any graduate student is welcome to serve as a Program Representative, regardless of status or seniority within his/her program. If you need assistance in establishing a process to elect/nominate a Program Representative, the COGS office would be glad to assist you. Representatives should attend and are allowed to vote at all General Assembly meetings. They are responsible for maintaining a link between COGS and the members of their programs-- passing information obtained through COGS onto other graduate students, as well as voicing concerns of individuals within their departments to COGS.
   
7. Become a Committee Member
   Any graduate student is welcome to serve on a committee, regardless of whether or not s/he is a Program Representative. Committees range from Student Health Advisory Committee to One Stop Student Services Committee, from Council on Liberation to Student Legal Services Board, from Information Technology Consultative Committee to College of Liberal Arts Assembly. To find out which committees have vacancies, contact your Program Representative or the COGS office.
8. Serve on a Policy and Review Council
   Each degree program is assigned to one of the six P&R Councils. Each P&R Council includes graduate student members in the ratio of one student to three faculty members. P&R Councils meet once a semester, and one of the committee members is expected to report back to the General Assembly as to what occurred at that meeting. P&R Council chairs and members are selected at the first General Assembly meeting of the semester.
9. Serve as a Student Senator for COGS
   COGS has seven seats on the University Senate (which governs all of the University of Minnesota campuses). Meetings are held approximately once a month on Thursdays. Senate members are expected to seek guidance on issues from graduate students via COGS and the General Assembly, as well as report back to the General Assembly after senate meetings. COGS senators are elected at the first General Assembly meeting of the academic year.
10. Serve on the COGS Executive Committee
    COGS elects five members of the Executive Committee at the end of the spring semester, including: President, Executive Vice President, Vice President for Internal Relations, Vice President for External Relations, and Vice President for Communications. The Vice President for Finance is elected at the end of fall semester. Each position receives a stipend and meets monthly throughout the school year. For information on each position, contact the COGS office or the current executive committee.

Always feel free to contact the COGS office for information or to raise any concerns or issues you might have.