By JORDAN MARSHALL

Staff Writer

Graduate students in the Institute for Micromanufacturing now have a graduate student council to act as a mediator between faculty, staff and students.

Dr. Sandra Selmic, faculty adviser for the council and an assistant professor of electrical engineering and the Institute for Micromanufacturing, said the council benefits both students and faculty in the IfM.

"The council will help students and faculty, because it will present any problems they are having to the faculty," Selmic said.

Quincy Brown, a graduate student of biomedical engineering, said the council is involved with organizing social events for the students at the IfM "in an effort to foster a greater sense of the community between those working at the IfM."

The student-run organization has four students, a faculty member and a staff member.

Members of the council are Brown; Jackie Ching-Lung Chen, a graduate student of biomedical engineering; and Nikhil Pargaonkar, student coordinator of the council and a graduate student of biomedical engineering.

Also in the council are Sonsy Zachariah, a graduate student of biomedical engineering and Scott Williams, assistant facilities engineer and staff representative.

The IfM leadership team suggested the need of a graduate student council for the IfM department, Selmic said.

Pargaonkar said the faculty and staff commit themselves to making the facility one of the world's leading institutes for cutting-edge research in nanotechnology and micromanufacturing.

"Management here realized that there was a need to have more open lines of communication between the faculty, staff and students," Pargaonkar said.

"The students at IfM make a large part of the work force here at IfM, and the management wanted to listen and act on suggestions and recommendations given by the council on behalf of the students."

Pargaonkar said the mission of the graduate student council has five parts to it, including to represent the concerns of the students working in IfM, to propose a set of rules and guidelines to work in IfM and to implement the proposed guidelines.

Also part of the mission is to promote the social and cultural diversity among the students, faculty and staff and to ensure the safety and well-being of the students working in IfM.

Pargaonkar said the council will make lab regulations to ensure safety for the students while using the IfM labs.

"It has various instruments as well as chemicals stored and used on a daily basis that could not only cause bodily harm, but could also be at times fatal," Pargaonkar said.

While safety meetings and training programs for students are carried out on a regular basis, Pargaonkar said the council is trying to analyze the inadequacies in these programs and make recommendations for improving these programs.