GPSA passed two resolutions at Saturday’s meeting recommending economic decisions that do not sacrifice academic success.
GPSA Council Chair Megan McRobert said the recommended changes have students’ best interests at heart.
“The resolution that was passed urges GPSA representatives on that board and the SFRB (Student Fee Review Board) in general to ensure … that recruitment and retention and the well-being of students are at the forefront of their priorities,” she said.
One resolution called for student fees to not be raised during the next fiscal year and asked to allocate student fees to programs related to education.
As it stands, 30 percent of the fees go to Athletics, 25 percent to the Student Health Center, 20 percent to the SUB, and the remaining 25 percent is divvied up among other programs, according to GPSA President Lissa Knudsen The second resolution addressed recent budget cuts that will decrease graduate student positions. GPSA suggested the administration find alternate solutions to financial crises so as not to jeopardize graduate students’ employment opportunities.
Knudsen said cuts should be made in extraneous areas rather than to academics.
“Quite frankly, teaching assistants, research assistants, and project assistants are doing the labor of the institution,” she said. “We’re doing the nuts and bolts labor of the institution. I think that we should focus on education before entertainment. So as much as we appreciate Popejoy and Athletics and programs such as those, they need to take a back seat, and they need to become self-sufficient.”
In her report to the council, Knudsen discussed an amendment to policy 1310 that she intends to propose to the Board of Regents’ Finance and Facilities Committee in January. The policy makes a distinction between recurring programs, which appear on the budget each year, and non-recurring programs, which must re-apply annually, that determines how much their funding can be cut each year.
Non-recurring programs, including El Centro de la Raza and the African American Studies, can be cut entirely each year, while recurring programs can only be slapped with a probationary 5 percent cut.
Knudsen said financial difficulties make flexibility necessary when making cuts to programs.
“That doesn’t allow for … us to cut some programs that, though we love them and know that they are great programs, they may be slightly lower on the priority list,” she said.
Other items from the GPSA meeting:
GPSA also appropriations requests that would benefit the recently chartered Out Queer Grads and the GPSA computer lab.
OQG requested $1,000 for administrative and outreach purposes, but the council granted the organization $130 for administrative purposes and was reluctant to fund events that hadn’t been planned.
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The computer lab has seen printing increases that require $2,360 for additional paper and ink supplies. The council agreed to the request but brought the allocation down to $1,920.
Nick Engquist, the GPSA project assistant who submitted the request, said that the cost per student would be about $.30 to $.40 per semester but isn’t interested in monitoring the number of pages graduate students print.
“As to implementing a system that would track for honesty and integrity in students, I think that would be woefully inappropriate,” he said. “We want to trust the integrity of the people that come in and use our resources. I think it would be extremely costly as well.”
