May 15:
The possibility of a Happy Hour, Casual Dinner Gathering, End-of-Semester De-Stressing Session, whatever you want to call it, has been brought up. Times are still up in the air, but most likely it will be some time around 5:00–7:30pm that day. We're still trying to guage interest, so feel free to speak up if another time would work better for you.
Date TBD
There has been talk of a picnic around late August, as a way to kick off the semester and welcome new people to the program. The date, time, and location are still as yet TBD. Please speak up if you have any thoughts on any of these things. It will likely be a potluck of some kind in the Fairfax area, although possible locations in Burke and Arlington have been discussed.
This is by necessity a placeholder page, as it is meant to represent an organization that has yet to choose a name, finalize a constitution, or recieve funding. However, the people who are putting together the PhD student web pages are also involved in the organization, planning, etc. for the organization, and feel that the mission of the organization is important enough to merit inclusion on the page.
The idea behind the organization is to promote collegiality and professional development within the History PhD community here at Mason. By putting together roundtables, promoting social events, and other functions, we hope to take away some of the commuter-university stigma from the program, and to create a greater sense of community. We feel that the building of a strong graduate community is integral to the department’s mission of increasing the profile and prestige of our still-very-new program.