Lauren Sprague, president of the Graduate Student Government (GSG), has been in office for two terms. When asked what the president does for GSG, Sprague said, “I consider myself both the cat herder and the information highway of GSG. I sit on most committees across campus. My job is to sort of go out and get information that pertains to graduate students, because there’s a lot of bodies across campus that all do different things, but that all, at the end of the day, will affect graduate students. And so I take information from those groups, and– when I’m present there, advocate for graduate students. And then, when I am with the graduate students, I inform them of the goings-on of campus.”
When asked about goals for this year, Sprague explained, “Every year, as a body, we vote on three pillars or initiatives, things that we feel graduate students should be focusing on for this year, and those help us guide our directions and our goals that we make… The affordability of housing, the accessibility of housing, and quality of housing are three big issues that are here. As well as access to better career enrichment services… There have been many new events, like our “Hello to Hired” series, which has been a real big push. We’ve collaborated with on- and off-campus people to try to get a wide breadth of knowledge, information, and resources for graduate students once they leave Tech and enter the professional realm.”
Sprague was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but came to Michigan to enjoy the cold weather. Currently, she runs a community garden in Hancock and loves to play video games, which ties into her research. Sprague expanded further on this, stating, “My current research topic is seeing how video game play experience affects some people’s cognitive abilities, like the ability to dual-task and response times, and then sort of the cognitive faculties that go into some of those more complex mental tasks… So, one of the things that I focused on was how long someone has spent playing their most-played game. And I found that those people who have invested, you know, thousands of hours into their most-played games have a notably faster response time than those who don’t.” Sprague linked this fast response time to the speed accuracy tradeoff, which is a negative relationship between accuracy and speed, claiming “people who play video games a lot don’t necessarily suffer from that as much. They can do things faster with the same accuracy.”
As for current events, GSG is hosting a Halloween Costume Party on Friday, Oct. 31, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Grad Commons House. There will be a costume contest, free snacks, and a campfire to warm up by. GSG social events are open to everyone, so undergraduates may also attend.
For more information or questions for the president, contact gsg-president@mtu.edu
