VP Academic

Name: Sebastien Despres
Position: VP Academic
Email Address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone Number: (709) 764-1915

Hi Grad Students!  Welcome to MUN!

As VP Academic, I am there to REPRESENT your interests.  Your concerns.  Thoughts.  Ideas.  I will use the means available (and invent new ones, as applicable) to make sure graduate students' voices are heard and listened to.

Another of my responsibilities is to RECRUIT fellow graduate students, undergraduates, post-graduates, professors, administrative staff, and community members so that, as a stronger team, these individuals can better serve the needs, wants, and aspirations of our graduate student population.  I also work to ensure that graduate students are well represented on university committees and other boards.  So come see me if you want to participate more fully in graduate student life!

My job as VP Academic also entails FIGHTING for you.  I work to ensure that your academic needs are met, and that the existing support network for graduate students is strengthened.  In academic disputes, I am your advocate.  My job is to know the system and work towards defending your interests.

I have been a student at Memorial since 2004, when I came to St. John's to do my MA in Folklore.  Upon convocation, I applied to do a second MA here, in Religious Studies.  I am now in my second year of my third graduate at MUN - a Ph.D. in Anthropology, studying pilgrimage.  In this time, I have become very familiar with the university, its workings, its rules and regulations, and it's many problems.  I am also perfectly acquainted with the university's staff and its leadership, and on good terms with both.  I am a creative problem-solver with the best interests of MUN's graduate students in mind and, as your VP Academic, I will do my best to produce real, tangible, concrete, genuine RESULTS so that you can thrive while in graduate school, and, most importantly, complete your degree!  In short, I know this campus and it's people, and I'm there to help!

The VP Academic is the person with whom students most productively share their concerns, problems, anxieties, ideas, and visions about graduate school.  So please come talk to me about anything impeding the progress of your degree (ANYthing!), or anything that you think could help better the lives of other graduate students!  I am open-minded, easy to talk to, and, most of all easy to contact:

• Spot me around campus! (Anywhere)
• Email me! ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
• Call me at the GSU office! (737-4395)
• Call me at home! (738-6027)
• Talk to me at Bitters! (Field Hall)
• Leave notes at the GSU office! (2nd floor, Field Hall)
• Visit me at the Anthropology Department!  (3rd floor, Queens College)
• OR FIND ME ON FACEBOOK
• Become a member of the Facebook group: "CURRENT MUN GRAD STUDENT EVENTS"
• Or become a member of the Facebook group: "YOUR GSU'S VP ACADEMIC"

I am looking forward to working with/for you!

Sebastien Despres