GRAD REBEL MENTOR November 2019

A Message from Dean Kate Korgan Dear colleagues, “A good city is like a good party – people stay longer than really necessary because they are enjoying themselves.” — Jan Gehl, architect and urban design consultant The new Professional Development Academy Commons and the Postdoctoral Scholar & Graduate Faculty Commons aren’t cities, of course, but they are new communal spaces that will foster conversations and relationships beyond academic silos, and strengthen the fabric of our graduate community. Our goal is for these new Gateway Commons to become places that nurture great ideas and serve as the backdrop for professional and personal interactions that create bonds through shared space. Now that the Professional Development Academy Commons are open to all graduate and professional students, and the Postdoc & Grad Faculty Commons are open, it’s exciting to see users gather there to enjoy these hubs. We hope you’ll wander over, try them out, and enjoy yourself, too! Both Commons are now open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Postdocs and faculty/staff have workstations, but our student space is even more robust and includes computer stations, open workspaces, mobile whiteboards, a kitchen, games so students can de-stress, convenient parking, and more. We hope that students see it as an inviting space to work, collaborate, and decompress. And please let me know what you’d like to see in these new spaces as we continue to develop them into the common grounds that students, postdocs, faculty and staff want and need. Our Graduate Student Commons at Lied Library remains open, and we are so grateful to the Graduate & Professional Student Association for managing that highly utilized space. It’s wonderful that our students now have multiple options of campus workspaces exclusively for graduate and professional students to gather, work and meet. Please encourage your students to make use of these two amazing workspaces. As you can tell, we love and are full of gratitude for our new Gateway Graduate College spaces. We hope that you will join us in utilizing the space and making it a hub for the graduate community. And, if you’re not convinced just yet, remember that Peet’s Coffee and Crumbl Cookies are just downstairs, with several other delicious new restaurants opening soon. I hope to see you on the eastside soon! In the meantime, I wish you and yours a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving! With gratitude, Kate Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D. Dean, Graduate College