Student Organizations

The Humphrey School and the wider University of Minnesota offer many ways for students to get involved with a broad array of issues, projects, and activities:

Humphrey International Students Association (HISA)

HISA represents international students at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs via advocacy of rights and interests in the Humphrey School and beyond. It seeks to enhance awareness of issues and interests relevant to the School's international students by encouraging and facilitating conversations, ideas, and experience sharing between the international students and the Humphrey School community. It also aims to help the School's international students become familiar with opportunities available at the University of Minnesota and in the Twin Cities.

Humphrey Students of Color Association (HSOCA)

HSOCA serves as a collective voice for students of color at the Humphrey School. We advocate for positive change for underrepresented and marginalized communities of color, and provide a venue to share ideas and work on issues that most directly affect students of color at the School. 

Public Affairs Student Association (PASA)

PASA is an organization made up of all graduate students in public affairs at the University of Minnesota. PASA is the official vehicle for the expression of student concerns and desires as they pertain to the Humphrey School, its, mission, its environment, its faculty, its administrators, and its students.

Humphrey Public Affairs Review (HPAR)

HPAR is the student-run academic journal of the Humphrey School. HPAR provides students the opportunity to build academic and professional skills through writing and editing high-quality work in a variety of mediums. HPAR also facilitates collaboration across the School's programs and builds connections among students, staff, the broader university, and the local Twin Cities community.

Planning Student Organization (PSO)

PSO seeks to:

  • Foster a supportive and inclusive planning student community
  • Advocate on behalf of planning students to the Humphrey School and beyond
  • Provide opportunities for planning students to network and advance their careers

Common Grounds

Common Grounds is an interdisciplinary student-led graduate student organization that applies the concept of integrative leadership to community challenges. Guided by the principle that complex problems require cross-sector collaboration, Common Grounds brings together graduate students from across the University of Minnesota to explore community issues; provide professional research and consultation services to community organizations; and practice and promote integrative leadership. This group is supported by the Center for Integrative Leadership.

Council of Graduate Schools (COGS)

COGS represents all non-professional graduate students at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Its work is focused in these areas:

  • Social programming: COGS hosts between 2,000 and 4,000 students every year at events ranging from Grad Student Welcome Week to Appreciation Week, as well as interdisciplinary academic programming, happy hours, bowling nights, and movie screenings.
  • Grant funding: COGS offers up to $1,200 for conference travel for researchers, up to $250 for professionalization workshops, and up to $600 for academic and social programming for graduate students.
  • Advocacy. 

Gender, Sexuality, and Policy Event Committee (GSPEC)

GSPEC is a student organization at the Humphrey School within the Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy, dedicated to supporting women, genderqueer, and LGBTQIA+ students. We work to foster conversations about the intersection of gender, sex, sexuality, and policy through biweekly meetings and monthly schoolwide events.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on International Development (IPID)

IPID promotes and studies interdisciplinary approaches to international development including the fields of social entrepreneurship, environmental sciences, health, economics, public affairs, and much more. Founded as a result of discussions among medical, law, education, and policy students, IPID dedicates itself to interdisciplinary events to help approach wicked problems around the world. Many of our events  include networking and professional development, and we host a diverse range of speakers. Each spring IPID hosts the International Development & Equity and Inclusion Research Symposium at the Humphrey School. 

For more information on student groups at the University of Minnesota, visit GopherLink.