Each Spring, the GRA elects a group of officers who will serve in the following academic year as the organizational leadership and representational body for the graduate students in Romance Languages.

This year our officers are:
 
 

Co-Presidents: Amy McNichols, Spanish, & Nancy Wilson, French
Secretary: Paul Rogers, French
Treasurer: Bernard Luscans, French
Conference Coordinators:             Sarah Glasco, French, Gilles Chosson, French,
                                                    & Garrett Christian, Romance Philology
Faculty Liaisons: Carlos Valencia, Spanish, & Elizabeth Kissling, Spanish
Scheduling/Language Committee: Betsy Sandlin, Spanish
Academic Chair: Linda Saborio, Spanish
Social Chairs: Anna Igou, French; Alicia Raiche, French
 
The GRA offices consist primarily of the following functions: Co-Presidents: The presidents are the organizational leaders of the GRA. They plan, announce and preside over all meetings, schedule events, and generally work to guide the activities and discussion of the GRA toward productivity.

Secretary: The main job of the secretary is to take the minutes of GRA minutes and send these to the GRA mailing list. The secretary may have other recording-keeping duties and be responsible of distribution of announcements.

Treasurer: The treasurer seeks funding opportunities for the GRA and interacts with student funding organizations. S/he also manages the yearly budget and the GRA's participation in the Student Government's Budget Process.

Conference Coordinators: This is perhaps the most challenging and rewarding of all offices in the GRA. The two conference coordinators are solely in charge of the planning and operations of the Carolina Conference on Romance Literatures. This office is so important that there are two two-year positions and one one-year position. Two chairs are filled on staggered years so that one person works as apprentice to the one who has been in office for a year already.

Faculty Liaisons: Another rewarding role is that of faculty liaison. The two liaisons attend the faculty's monthly Graduate Studies Committee meetings and report the highlights of the meetings to the GRA. It is worth coming to the GRA meetings just to hear what the liaisons have to report!

Academic Chair: In the past there has been some question as to what the role of Academic Chair should be. Nevertheless, our recent officers in that position have done an excellent job of defining for themselves what that role should be. Jana Gutiérrez was instrumental in implementing a works-in-progress series of talks through which our own faculty presented synopses of their current research.

Social Chair: It takes a certain visceral fortitude to manage the role of Social Chair. In addition to planning the occasional suarez, the chair must plan and announce our patented weekly Happy Hour, which never sees the same venue on two consecutive weeks.  The chair is also in charge of our GRA bulletin board where you can find photos and information about recent events sponsored by the Association.

If their has been any omission or misstatement in this document, please notify Garrett_Christian@unc.edu.

Back to the GRA home page