SEDRD Graduate Student Society - Information/Volunteer Session

Your Graduate Student Society would like to welcome you to the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (or SEDRD for short)! And for those who are returning, welcome back!

What is the SEDRD GSS?

The SEDRD Graduate Student Society is the social group of all SEDRD grad students: Rural Planning, Capacity Development, Landscape Architecture, and PhD’s. We organize social events, workshops, contests, get togethers, and anything else that comes to mind.

When we were in person, we had free hot drinks twice a week, Muggy Monday’s and Thirsty Thursdays, we hosted movie nights in the LA building with popcorn, pizza and snacks, we would buy appetizers from the campus bar for Trivia Nights, and have seasonal events (pumpkin carving, gingerbread house decorating, succulent planting).

Online, we tried a bunch of events to see what people enjoyed. We had the most success last year with Instagram contests, weekly Quarantunes playlists from the profs, a Reading Week Challenge Fundraiser, a workshop series, and our end of year event, the coveted silly SEDRDie Awards. Some of our not-so-successful events included trivia nights, other online get togethers. 

New GSS members needed!

Every year GSS members graduate and new members are needed to carry on the council. If you are interested in getting involved, there is a meeting on September 17^th at 12:00 noon where everyone interested in being involved introduces themselves and says what duties they want. No elections, no speeches. There’s room for everyone on the GSS!

Some of the duties that need to be fulfilled on the GSS include:

Administrative: setting meeting agendas, leading meetings, taking meeting minutes, budget and account keeping, scheduling meetings

Communications: social media, emails (sending and replying), posters and advertising

Events: brainstorming, planning, and leading events (online or in-person – to be determined)

Wait, I’ve gotten emails from other graduate student groups. I’m confused…where do they all fit?

Each student group covers a different subsection of the University of Guelph. The GSS is only for SEDRD grad students. SEDRD is one school within the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC). The OAC has a grad society, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) that includes the grad students from all of the OAC programs (enviro sci, vet college, SEDRD, etc.). The OAC is one college in University of Guelph, which has the Graduate Student Association (GSA), a campus-wide student society. You’ll get event invitations from all three groups, like the OAC GSC’s Rural Romp (always a hoot!).

If you want to make friends within SEDRD, the GSS events are the place to be. If you want to mingle with all of the OAC grads, keep an eye on your inbox for events from the GSC. If you’d rather interact with people from the whole University, GSA events are where you will want to be.

You will be added to a Teams group for the GSS. Message your fellow grad students there, and be sure to follow us on social media. Contact us if you have any questions about the GSS or grad school in general.

See you around!

SEDRD GSS

Email: sedrdgss@uoguelph.ca

Instagram: @sedrd_gss

Facebook: SEDRD GSS