GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION (GPSA)
Fourth Senate Meeting Location: 435 CSC Date: 12-6-07 Time: 1:30 PM
ATTENDEES:
E-board Members and Advisors:
President- Chris Chanyasulkit
Vice President for Finance- Kristen Hudak
Vice President for Academic Affairs- Tammy Hartke
Vice President for Administration- Manasa Madasu
Advisor, Gail Olyha
Advisor, Steve Gibson
Senators College
Lauren Nicoll
Allison Uzdella
Jing Li Arts and Sciences
Thomas Arruda
Hiba Tannoury
Adriano Ciccomancini College of Business Administration,
Accounting and Taxation
Haripriya Addepalli
Ninad Satam
Keyur Gada
Aparna Chavali Bouve College of Health Sciences
Rajiv Panwar
Brijesh Garg
Tina Penman
Madeeha Basharat
Prakash Potukucchi
Ehsan Kianirad College of Engineering
Ignacio Marin Garcia
Arpita Kothari
Tasneem Jodhpurwala
Christopher Miller College of Criminal Justice
Josh Zakim School of Law
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
Issues
To vote for an increase in the student activity fee for graduate students by $1.
President Chris Chanyasulkit called the meeting to order.
Vice President of Finance, Kristen Hudak explained the details of the issue.
• The student activity fee is set to $12 for graduate students and the meeting was called to vote on an increase
in the student activity fee by $1 to a total of $13.
• Proposed $1 increase will increase the fee revenue to $96,200 from the current $88,000.
• This amount is intended to be used to increase annual cap for students attending conferences.
• This motion if passed will take effect from 2009.
• The GPSA’s budget is derived from the reserve account of $321,849.
• The student activity fee contributes to the reserve fund.
• There has been an increase in the number of applicants for conference funding. In 2006-2007, there were a
total of 142 applicants. This year, the number of applicants has been 134 in the first semester.
• The first quarter had an increase of 14% and the second quarter had an increase of 87% in the number of
applicants for conference funding.
There were a few questions raised by the Senators present at the meeting and the responses were given by Kristen Hudak,
Gail Olyha and members of the Finance committee.
Questions:
1. Will the extra revenue be specifically allotted to fund students attending conferences?
No, the revenue is intended to increase the budget as a whole including operating expenses.
The goal is to increase the cap from $300 to $350.
2. Can the graduate student body be referred about the increase in the fee?
The graduate student body will be referred only if there is a proposal to increase the student
activity fee for more than $1.
3. Do we need to increase the student activity fee when we have a reserve fund that gains
interest?
No, we can use the reserve account. The interest gain would be $19,000 every year on the
reserve fund of $321,849. Action to use the reserve fund in the middle of the year is not
approved as there is a fixed set of guidelines to follow. But if we double the conference
funding in the annual budget, we can use the reserve fund. Everything depends on our annual
budget to be set in March 2008.
4. What is the basis of providing funding for applicants?
Order of preference is to provide 100% funding to graduate students attending a conference
and presenting their paper/work. Partial funding is given to students who are attending a
conference but not presenting their work.
5. Has there been a increase in the student activity fee over the past few years?
The last increase was in 2005-2006. The fee was increased from $6 to $12.But, that was when
the University system changed from a quarter to a semester bases academic system. So there
has not been an actual increase.
6. Why is the finance committee leaning towards an increase?
• The finance committee sees a need to increase the student activity fee as there is no control
• over the interest rate on the reserve fund.Also,the number of applicants is increasing and
• keeping in view the increase in prices over the next few years, the finance committee
• recommends an increase.
• It also serves as a reliable source of income.
• We are not tapping into reserve funding.
• Funding may be exhausted over the next few years as prices will increase.
• $1 increase will have a minimal impact on students but will benefit many students who are keen on attending conferences.
A motion was called for to approve the increase in the student activity fee from $12 to $13.
The motion failed. We could not approve a $1 increase in the student activity fee.
Suggestions:
The reserve fund should be utilized as a test for the next academic year.
Annual budget should be raised in March 2008.
The meeting was adjourned by President Chris Chanyasulkit.
