FROM ADVOCACY TO ACTION: Making Graduate School Family Friendly

This chapter discusses the efforts of one small group of graduate students at the University of Southern California who came together as the Women’s Concerns Committee to establish family-friendly policies that are traditionally applied only to faculty and staff. All money for programming, education, and advocacy comes from student programming fee that graduate students pay while attending USC. Therefore, the Women’s Concerns Committee focuses primarily on advocacy, whereas other GPSS committees focus on providing programming and social events. After acquiring an understanding of national practices, the committee shifted its focus to the institution to understand the degree to which graduate students at USC perceived a need for a family and medical leave policy. After collecting data via the campuswide survey, the Women’s Concerns Committee began to draft graduate student family and medical leave policy. The committee’s advocacy led to institutional efforts to provide assistance to new mothers, through both Childbirth and Adoption Accommodation Program and the dedication of lactation rooms.