Graduate students at the University of Waterloo are members of the Graduate Student Association, or GSA. They are a student-run not-for-profit organization. Some of their activities include holding events for graduate students, running services such as the Graduate House, and representing the graduate student body to the University of Waterloo administration when consulted about decisions that may affect graduate students. The GSA also provides services for graduate students including legal aid, health and dental plans, and bus passes.
The Physics Graduate Student Association is a Departmental Graduate Student Association that is recognized by the GSA. The GSA recognizes such "unit associations" under GSA-UW Policy #22. Our current privileges of recognition include being able to appoint a graduate student representative to the council from the Department of Physics and applying to the GSA for funding to support social and academic initiatives.
As a unit association, we can hold our own elections and maintain our own constitution. All graduate students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo are members of PhyGSA. This includes graduate students at the Perimeter Institute (PI) and those at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) who are registered in the Department of Physics and Astronomy (though we also welcome non-physics IQC graduate students at our events!).
