11-5-09: Stanford: GSC reexamines budget to prevent future problems

The graduate students’ reserves are dropping fast — maybe too fast.

That was the message last night from Graduate Student Council Financial Officer Ryan Peacock, who told the council that if it continues to transfer $50,000 a year from its reserves like it did last year, big budget problems could be on the doorstep by 2012.

In his budget update to the council, Peacock, a fourth-year graduate student, reviewed the GSC’s expenses and sources of income. He stopped short of any formal actions on the reserve issue, but did suggest that the group schedule a targeted reduction in reserves spending until 2016.

Co-Chair Eric Osborne, a third-year law student, asked at one point whether the council should “try to convince” graduate students to raise their activity fee, which is now $35 per quarter.

Amid murmurs of disapproval, Peacock responded that “even if you want to do that, I think you need to start phasing back like this.”

Despite seeming unwilling to raise student fees, the council did not reach a consensus on how they would curb spending. Special fees reform and stricter funding rules for volunteer student organizations (VSOs) remain on the table, also suggested during talks this week on the Undergraduate Senate side.

The Peacock Talk

The financial officer tried to give council members an up-to-date overview of the GSC budget.

Income comes from three sources, he explained. The ASSU endowment, which pays out about $46,000 annually, funds the GSC political budget and suffered in the economic downturn last year, but “we were much less aggressively invested” than the University, Peacock said.

Student fees, called “general fees” once in the coffers, are collected by the University to the tune of some $237,000 and go to the funding committee, special fees groups and GSC programming. Graduate students pay $35 a quarter and undergraduates pay about $120 a quarter, said ASSU Vice President Jay de la Torre.

All students can request refunds, and do so much more for special fees VSOs than for general fees, Peacock said.

Then there are the reserves, which lie at $481,000 and are projected to drop $50,000 this year.

Expenses are distributed widely, Peacock explained.

The GSC political budget, funded by the $46,000 endowment payout, covers $16,000 in officer stipends, $19,000 in operational expenses like meeting food and $10,000 for a discretionary advocacy fund. About $9,500 has been allocated for meeting food so far this year.

In programming, Winter Formal is one of the largest expenses, with $23,000 allocated, while the discretionary fund has been allocated for town halls and other events.

Student Group Funding

The funding committee chair gave an overview similar to Peacock’s, giving some indication of the tightening restrictions student groups may face when asking the GSC for money.

Ping Li, a third-year business student, said the committee is attempting to focus the GSC’s financial resources on “core programs.”

Among the criteria for funding, she said, will be whether attendees to events are 35 percent graduate students and whether there are three distinct VSOs co-sponsoring “big events.”

Li also said the committee likely will not fund student groups for gas expenses, encouraging them to keep their events on campus.

Special Fees Reform

Peacock said he met recently with Undergraduate Senators Alex Katz ‘12 and Anton Zietsman ‘12 to discuss an “out of control” special fees process.

“The undergraduates are really concerned because they don’t vote down any special fees groups, so they’re all spending $120 a quarter, and it’s getting out of control,” Peacock said. “If we’re going to do reform,” he said, there are several options, including raising the required number of petition signatures or changing the percent vote needed to pass special fees.

“Getting a way for ASSU to manage reimbursement requests” is another option, Peacock said.

Graduate student and former GSC parliamentarian Adam Beberg cautioned against changing the elections process, however.

“Tinkering with the rules is a very dangerous thing,” Beberg said. “It sounds like the problem with the undergraduates is they all vote yes on everything on the ballot. They have a voter education problem.”

Before adjourning, the council approved upping this week’s Grad Night budget from $300 to $350.

The next council meeting is Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Graduate Community Center.

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