Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Council of Representatives
Notes
Big Red Barn
October 20, 2003
5:30–7:00 p.m.

Attendance:

Present: Larry Boyd, Gavin Hurley, Curtis Jirsa, Dan Marques, Kurt Massey, Anne McNeill, Joan Moriarty, David Schmale III, Susannah Schmid, Cate Taylor

Excused:

Unexcused: Sam Flaxman, Timothy McConnochie, Mark McGuire, Ariana Vigil, Robb Willer, Farbod Raiszadeh

I. Call to Order

D. Schmale called the meeting to order at 5:40p.m.

II. Open Forum

Alex Tse from the Johnson School spoke about the Iron Chef competition email that was sent out. They are going to open the competition to all graduates this year. 13 teams of 4 can enter. He will send out another email. His email is AGT2.

III. Announcements & Updates

A) COR Update
G. Hurley said they amended the charter for electing officers in regards to a resignation. They elected Susannah to be Secretary. They also talked about the money situation which will be discussed later on in the meeting. No decisions were made. The executives also had a meeting with the dean of the grad schools and they are working on putting in place a family leave policy. They also discussed the trustee seat issue. A survey was made but an executive report is still being compiled.

D. Schmale said that they will be meeting with Sunny every month to update her on what the GPSA is doing.

B) Other Assembly Updates
D. Schmale said that the UA will be meeting on Wednesday so he currently has no update.

G. Hurley said that they need liaisons for the other assemblies.

D. Dadoyan asked if they got any feedback on the Kinko’s issue?

G. Hurley said no. He explained how the pool room in Willard Straight is being considered by the Dean of Students to be changed into a Kinko’s.

C) Funding Policy Committee & Student Activity Fee
L. Boyd said that they need to give their decision to President Lehman by December. There will be an updated recommendation at the next COR meeting and at the November 24 GPSA meeting it will be voted on. He discussed the trend that has been taking place, where they have been undercolllecting for the past few years and overbudgeting. The Welcome Weekend and Readership programs were approved by the SA but are not eligible for by-line funding right now. He went over the amount that different groups requested.

J. Moriarty asked if he could go over the process of how voting goes?

L. Boyd said voting needs to be 2/3 majority of the GPSA for the entire student activity fee by November 24th. Every line of the student activity

G. Hurley said that the Readership program is sponsored by USA Today. The SA met with him to explain to him their request and offered the grad students a chance to participate in the program as well.

L. Boyd said the GPSA and FC’s numbers are high for many reasons. They have been overdue for an increase in the student activity fee for a while. The club fund is running out of money. The paradox is that they are running out of nonallocated money in January, but a surplus will exist because clubs only spend about 75% of what is allocated to them. However, they can’t budget more than they physically have in the bank. A surplus was put into an endowment account 2 years ago. Half of the GPSA budget comes from that account (investment income). Expenses would be $2 per grad student. Income from the student activity fee would be 50 cents, and income from the account would be $1. The grad students are eating into the surplus each year for the past couple of years and now they are down to around $8,000.

S. Flaxman asked what are their operating costs?

L. Boyd said pizza, mail, copies, events budget. It totals to about $2,000.

G. Hurley said the GPSA also donates $1,000 each year to the National GPSA.

L. Boyd said that of the $5, $3 is for the investment account. If the investment account is liquidated, then they will need $2 from the GPSA. He is against liquidating the investment account because he believes that it is there to make money and to replace the student activity fee. The SA is doing the same thing right now. He suggested that the endowment can be further funded through alumni donations (make the endowment donateable), have current students pay into the account because past students are paying, hence the $3 from the student activity fee, and have rolling surpluses go into the account up to a certain threshold.

B. Holmes said the GPSAFC has oversight over by-line funded groups every 2 years (i.e. Athletics).

Victor (?) said that tracking of money is poor and that needs to be addressed.

L. Boyd said that they have people tracking money right now so it is not going untracked. In the spring, the FC is not allowed to budget surplus. They can only budget projected income and the savings in the bank.

Victor suggested making a review during the year so they can keep track.

B. Holmes said the problem is that there are too many groups to track. They have Loreen Geiger keeping track for them. They don’t have time to do what Victor is suggesting. The money is earmarked once it is allocated but the FC can’t take the unused money back until the end of the school year.

L. Boyd said that they need to have rollover surplus.

D. Dadoyan asked why can’t we budget it into the red? Is it an actual rule?

B. Holmes said that they can only spend money that they know they have because the school is not modeled after a corporation. They can’t use the investment account as a savings account.

D. Dadoyan asked would they consider switching to a more flexible interest account?

L. Boyd said that clubs are asking for more money than they used to. The amount of rollover changes and the trend is up so they don’t want to be in a position where they run out of money. They don’t know if they can change the policy but he doesn’t really want to change it.

B. Holmes said in the 1990s they were taking in more money than they were spending. Then the GPSA reduced the student activity fee from $17 to $15 and put the surplus into a mutual fund. The problem is they were reducing costs in 2 different ways at the same time and increasing in group spending at the same time as well.

D. Dadoyan asked if this problem will be resolved?

L. Boyd said the real question right now is what to do with the investment account.

B. Holmes said that leaving the account as is would impact the quality of life for graduate students. They have $129,000 left to allocate and they want to allocate at least $30,000 more than that.

S. Flaxman asked would we keep the student activity fee amount at $17 or would it need to be increased?

B. Holmes said he is not sure because it is hard to project but they would have to increase it gradually anyway.

A student asked are there any university rules to this?

G. Hurley said no, but they shouldn’t be taking money out of the account often.

A student asked can there be partial withdrawal?

G. Hurley said yes.

S. Flaxman asked what are we debating? Liquidating the account or the $56 student activity fee?

L. Boyd said those numbers aren’t necessarily true.

K. Massey asked what are the student activity fees at our peer institutions? Is $64 reasonable?

L. Boyd said the undergrad student activity is 3 times as much. The trend line shows that it is reasonable. The question is, do we want to spend $8 and have money in the bank to go forward?

J. Moriarty said that she feels we should liquidate the endowment completely and burn through it, $50,000 for the GPSA and $50,000 for the GPSAFC. She is opposed to the account because it has incorporation implications. It is a practicality issue — are we allowed to do this? She doesn’t like taking money to build for a future because it isn’t the charge of the GPSA.

L. Boyd said the endowment can act as a source of income and it will continue to grow. The SA is doing it right now. He doesn’t feel like it’s incorporated, it is a legitimate source of income. Taking the savings and spending it on the next 2 years is irresponsible.

C. Taylor said that people on campus will be uncomfortable because they may feel like their money should be going to clubs now.

A student said that the student activity fee is a misnomer and they need to be honest about how the money is being divided up. They need to figure out what to do with the surplus because grad students who only stay 1 or 2 years shouldn’t have to think about the future. The money should be there for immediate use.

S. Flaxman said he is worried about stewardship because how can we guarantee stewardship towards a long term goal if new faces will be coming in?

A student suggested that we should partially liquidate, raise the student activity fee a little, then preserve the account to feed itself for security.

B. Holmes said groups are not expecting a shortfall. They can’t cut guidelines for this year and can only cut for next year. If partial liquidation occurs, they will lose the interest increase. Maintaining the account will save about $1 a year.

A student said we shouldn’t look at the $100,000 as our money. We should look at the shortfall and in the meantime take in as much money as we’re spending.

A student said they don’t appreciate paying a compulsory charge for future generations. It should be on a volunteer basis.

C. Taylor said we need to give Brian what he needs this year because our decision impacts others right now and it makes things difficult for them.

K. Massey said they need to bring the student activity fee back to trend and need to cover the short fall.

A student said if the student activity fee elimination is the goal, then they need to address that as a separate issue.

S. Flaxman said he is concerned with justifying taking away from current students this year and then asking them to put in so much more next year.

D. Schmale said they will be voting on the student activity fee next week and everybody is welcome to come to the meeting.

IV. Adjournment

D. Schmale adjourned the meeting at 7:00.

Respectfully submitted,
Tyng Tsuei
Office of the Assemblies