Dear Mitch:

I want to commend you and your colleagues on the excellent report “Graduate and Professional Community Initiative 2013: A Strategic Plan for the Graduate and Professional Student Community.” I am pleased that this report was adopted by the GPSA in Resolution 14 as it creates an important and clear framework for strategic discussions to take place over the next several years. I am particularly impressed with the amount of community involvement that is reflected in this report. The GPSA reached out across the campus to develop a thoughtful, engaging, professional report that will serve the community well and stimulate constructive discussion.

Please express my thanks to your colleagues for the tremendous effort that was involved in drafting such a comprehensive document. Working together, I am hopeful that over the next five years we will be able to address many of the issues raised in the report and develop timelines and plans for others, subject to budget, staffing, and other resource constraints. As the GPCI 2013 notes, the GCI 2007 provided a useful framework that resulted in a number of realized changes and improvements to graduate education at Cornell, under the leadership of the GPSA, the Graduate School, Student and Academic Services, and other offices across campus. I look forward to the same productive partnerships in considering the new GPCI 2013.

Sincerely,

David Skorton