Graduate Student Senate

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Then-faculty advisor Barry D. Friedman delivered this message to a Student Government Association hearing on April 8, 2003, on the issue of whether student-activity fees should be used for students' travel to academic events.

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Subject: Use of Student-Activity Fees

In response to the inquiry about the proper uses of student-activity fees, the Graduate Student Senate wishes to offer its perspective. The GSS believes that it should receive a budget amounting to one-half of the total of student-activity fees paid by graduate students. The GSS also believes that its budget should be utilized in ways that are relevant to the needs and interests of graduate students, that help to create a unified community of graduate students, and that advance the interests of NGCSU.

In so far as travel by students to conferences is one of the topics to be discussed at the hearing on April 8, let us address that matter specifically. The GSS believes that it is desirable and even essential that part of its budget should be used to facilitate the travel of graduate students to attend conferences, and especially to present research papers at conferences. The GSS along with the graduate faculty have agreed on the five benefits of graduate students' travel to conferences to present research papers. This kind of activity:

- Provides graduate students experience in making public presentations on scholarly topics.

- Enhances NGCSU's reputation as a center of scholarship.

- Provides an opportunity for NGCSU's graduate programs to receive feedback from professors at other universities; i.e., it is a way for our programs to receive a form of peer review.

- Helps to develop a permanent connection between the student and the university because the student has a tangible indication of the university's support of his/her professional development.

- Guards against the problem of in-breeding of ideas because students listen to research papers presented by professors and graduate students at other institutions, and interact with them in the course of panel discussions.

In closing, let us provide a reminder that the GSS wishes to have an adequate budget to fund this and other kinds of activities, and that the GSS believes that it should not have to obtain approval from the Student Government Association to receive a sufficient budget and to allocate that budget in a manner that serves the interests of graduate students.

Thank you for your consideration.

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Faculty advisor Barry D. Friedman announces that the Graduate Council adopted the resolution shown below at its meeting of February 19, 2003.

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GRADUATE COUNCIL

WHEREAS, graduate students at North Georgia College & State University pay a total of nearly $40,000 in student-activity fees annually, and

WHEREAS, the needs and interests of graduate students for “student activity” are emphatically distinct from those of undergraduate students, and

WHEREAS, those needs and interests are more likely to involve travel to present papers at conferences and to involve assemblies at which visiting speakers will speak, and

WHEREAS, current university procedures place the decision about how student-activity funds will be distributed almost entirely in the hands of undergraduates, who are generally insensitive to the needs and rights of graduate students, and

WHEREAS, the Graduate Student Senate is under funded in so far as it currently receives only $6000 out of the $40,000 paid by graduate students, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Graduate Council requests that the administration ensure that the Graduate Student Senate will receive a budget in the amount of $20,000 for the 2003‑2004 academic year, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the council requests that the Senate’s budget for subsequent years will change in accordance with the proportion by which the amount of graduate students’ student-activity fee payments change, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the council requests that this decision be removed from the discretionary budgeting process operated by the Student Government Association hereinafter.

Adopted at a meeting of the Graduate Council on the 19th day of February 2003.