Psychology Graduate Student Association - PGSA

Starkville Pride 2023 was amazing!! We loved seeing all of the beautiful humans there today 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Our first annual Out of the Darkness walk was a HUGE success!!
We surpassed our fundraising goal and raised $5,325, had 170 participants with 10 teams!

Thank you for everyone who showed up🎉

Due to the inclement weather tonight, the representatives from the American Foundation for Su***de Prevention will be arriving later than initially planned. As such, on-site registration will begin at 10am, with the Walk itself going from 10-11am still.

If you have any questions, reach out to Rachel Scott ([email protected]) or Ashley Pate ([email protected]).

MSU’s FIRST Out of the Darkness walk is in 2 days!!!

There is still time to register at www.afsp.org/msstate

The Psychology Graduate Student Association (PGSA) and the Psychology Department Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Committee are co-sponsoring an initiative to collect money to donation for water to the psychology program at Jackson State University and for Water Crisis Assistance to Millsaps College. Funds will be collected by psychology Business Manager, Brittany Oliver.

If you would like to contribute to these donations, please bring your donation to Ms. Oliver in the Psychology Department office in Magruder Hall no later than 12:00 pm on Friday, September 9th.

If you are unable to donate in-person, please consider donating to the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition - Water Fund. You can donate to them and the various organizations they have partnered with at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mississippirapidresponsecoalition.

We had a great time with our Welcome Back Potluck! Clinical and Cognitive students across the cohorts came together to eat and chat. A great start to the semester!

The June general student body GPDA meeting is tomorrow (6/3/22) from 6-8 in McCool 202. Join us for board games (after some business is taken care of)!

*EDIT: A portion of the statement was accidentally cut from the original post. The added portion includes the views of the American Psychological Association on this issue.

An opinion draft written by US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was leaked last week indicating the Court is likely to overturn Roe vs. Wade in the near future. This would return the issue of abortion to the individual states, ending an individual’s Constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy.

The students of the MSU Graduate Psychology Department Association would condemn, in the strongest possible terms, a decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and It is not lost on us that Mississippi is at the center of the Court’s review. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case challenging Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban sometime this summer.

We agree with the statement issued by the American Psychological Association (APA) on May 3, 2022 which asserts that denying abortion care is likely to result in negative mental health outcomes, including increased anxiety, depression, and stress, and decreased life satisfaction, and that abortion rights are particularly important for individuals who are or have been involved in abusive relationships. We also agree with the APA’s opinion that the decision to have a child is often linked to socioeconomic status, and that restricting abortion rights will have the greatest negative impact on those living in poverty, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people who live in rural areas with little access to healthcare. Approximately 20% of the population of our state lives in poverty, and any decision to restrict abortion care—in a state where access is already extremely limited—will have disastrous consequences for individuals and families across Mississippi.

Our November meeting tonight included a team building exercise: split two pizzas between 10 people! We killed it and had fun! 🤪