NAGPS is the only entirely student-run, volunteer organization representing graduate and professional students at private and public universities throughout the United States. Since 1986, NAGPS has advocated on behalf of graduate and professional students to federal law-makers. NAGPS also provides leadership and organizational development resources, services, and information that empowers its members to be better advocates at the campus, local, and state levels. Our members also have to a range of resources from our corporate and organizational partners at drastically reduced rates.
The following are some of the many benefits our members enjoy.
Advocacy
NAGPS advocates on behalf of graduate-professional students in a number of ways. We hosts a biannual Advocacy Summit and Legislative Action Days (LAD) in Washington DC in the spring and fall. We also regularly hold national advocacy campaigns to address specific issues. Here are some examples:
Advocacy Summit & Legislative Action Days (LAD)
Twice a year, in March and September, NAGPS hosts LAD in Washington DC. The event hosts graduate-professional student leaders from across the country to two days of advocacy training and two days of Congressional office visits on Capitol Hill. LAD provides a great opportunity for graduate-professional students to learn about legislative and policy issues that are affecting them, get face time with legislators, and also network with other student leaders from their regions and across the country. You can find pictures from the most recent LAD below. To learn more about LAD go here.
View LAD leave behinds: Support Research Funding | Support Graduate Education | Support International Student Education | Support Open Access & Open Ed Resources
Congressional Correspondence
NAGPS regularly issues press statements to comment on federal activity that affects graduate-professional students and their education. View our press releases View our member benefits page here Press Releases
National Committee Involvement
NAGPS recently joined National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine Action Collaborative on Sexual Harassment and is the only organization representing graduate-professional students in the collaborative. The purpose of the collaborative is to investigate ways to address and prevent sexual harassment in the academe. NAGPS is proud to be the sole voice for graduate-professional students addressing this most serious issue.
Targeted Campaigns
NAGPS also conducts targeted campaigns and calls-to-action to raise awareness and catalyze action on pressing and important matters that are affecting graduate-professional students. Below are a few examples
- Rework The Reform: NAGPS’s action in this campaign saved graduate-professional students and all student loan borrowers millions of dollars annually. Rework The Reform was a campaign to oppose harmful provisions in the Tax Cut & Jobs Act legislation in November/December of 2017. This legislation would have
- Taxed Graduate Tuition Waivers as personal income, costing individual students thousands of dollars annually.
- Eliminated the Student Loan Interest deduction. Costing student loan borrowers millions, collectively
- Eliminated tax credits graduate-professional students depend on
- Rewrite Prosper: NAGPS’s action in this campaign helped prevent the passage of the PROSPER Act. Rewrite PROSPER addressed the PROSPER Act, proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would have reauthorized the Higher Education Act (HEA) and redefined higher ed in the U.S. for the next decade. There were a number of provisions in PROSPER that would have been detrimental to graduate-professional students and higher ed.
- GradsHaveDebt2: NAGPS created this campaign to inform and educate Members of Congress, and increase public awareness about graduate-professional student loan issues and the importance of addressing them.
Leadership & Organizational Development
NAGPS offers many leadership development and organizational development opportunities for its members and other graduate-professional students. The following are some of the opportunities we offer.
- National Conference: This conference is held in the fall semester, typically between late October and early November, and is hosted at an NAGPS member campus. Conference attendees come in from all around the country and have the opportunity to attend workshops and concurrent sessions covering a wide range of topics in advocacy, leadership, professional development, organizational development, and current topics. The national board of directors are also elected at this conference, along with ratifying our legislative and advocacy platforms
- Leadership Academy: This event, formerly called the leadership summit, is typically held in the summer, late July to early August, and provides newly elected, and more senior, graduate-professional student leaders from around the country with training and education specifically focused on making them better leaders and growing their respective organizations. The Academy will also have an online presence and a continuing education component, providing our members with constant access to resources, online and at our events, to continually grow and develop them as leaders.
- Regional Conferences: NAGPS is organized into five regions and each region has a conference in the spring semester in March or April. The regional conferences have attendees from the region and the programming includes workshops and concurrent sessions covering a wide range of topics in advocacy, leadership, professional development, organizational development, and current topics in the respective region.
Benefits
NAGPS members enjoy access to a wide array of useful and needed products and services at reduced rates from the corporate and organizational partnerships we have developed over time. Products and services include:
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Auto Insurance
- Car rentals
- Life Insurance
- International Student Health Insurance
View our member benefits page here Member Benefits