Graduate Student Senate chose to approve four requests for funding out of eight requests submitted.
During its first meeting of the Spring Semester, Ohio University's Graduate Student Senate voted to fund four budget requests from student organizations, following a slew of requests totaling more than $11,700.
Eight different requests were submitted to the GSS for examination. Of them, only four were granted, with the resolution citing that “the [GSS] Budget is limited and does not have the financial capacity to provide full funding for every received request.”
GSS voted to allocate a total of $737 to the organizations, which include a sustainability essay competition, the History Graduate Student Conference, a “Multicultural Extravaganza” and a program put in place by OU Medical Mentoring, which sought funding to create and distribute Valentine’s Day cards to residents at a local nursing home.
“Another thing that we kept in mind … was that (the organizations were) included in their budget requests whether or not they have sought funding from additional outside agencies other than Graduate Student Senate,” GSS member Derek Sturgill said.
A subsequent resolution, which also passed, seeks to request the remaining funds, which totals about $2,400, from the Student Activities Commission.
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“We were working with money that we had,” GSS member Rob James said. “We also determined that we would seek additional funding from the (Student Activities Commission) for a lot of the different things … so we’re also saying that we’re going to try and get more money from other people.”
Among the programs that did not receive funding was a graduate student ball, which was denied funding on the premise that it was not open to all graduate students.
GSS also announced that the first steps have been taken to finance the Graduate Workers Party Chair position as part of the GSS public awareness campaign. The chair will now include a $2,000 fellowship payment, as well as a social media budget, which was recently increased.
“The downside is, we have lost the chair of the Graduate Workers Party,” GSS President Eddie Smith said, referring to the absence of Shehzad Ahmed at the meeting, who had recently been named chair. “This is an issue that happens every year in Graduate Student Senate … grad students have to end up finding a balance between their involvement in extracurriculars, academics and in the classroom.”
Smith also announced the impending vacancy of his own position in the fall, as well as that of the vice president of communications position, which is currently held by Sarah Kaplan.
“With elections coming up, we’re going to need a lot of new leadership. I’m not going to be here next year to serve as president,” Smith said. “When we inherited this a few years ago, folks didn’t really know what GSS was … they weren’t aware of what other schools were getting in terms of stipends or healthcare. Our goal over the last couple years has been raising awareness. Whoever inherits this, whoever takes it on, can take it in a new direction now that there’s an institution in place here … we need people to step up and be leaders.”
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