Graduate Students Association fee increase proposed to decrease reliance on surplus funds
By Stephen Stewart
Feb. 23, 2012 8:19 a.m.
The Graduate Students Association is finalizing a fee increase proposal intended to decrease reliance on surplus funds and aid the struggling Graduate Writing Center, graduate student officials say.
The measure will increase the amount graduate students pay to the GSA by $5 per quarter. Graduate students currently pay the graduate student government $15.75 in fees per quarter.
The proposal, which was passed at the GSA forum last week, will be sent to Chancellor Gene Block for approval. Block will suggest recommendations to the proposal.
If approved by the chancellor, the proposal will return to the GSA at its next meeting to be voted on again by forum members. The GSA will then vote whether to put the proposal on the ballot for the GSA election in the spring, President Michael Weismeyer said.
The last time GSA increased fees was in 2006, a $3 increase following the establishment of the Graduate Writing Center.
Of the tentative $5 increase per person, $1.75 would go directly to fund GSA events.
Currently, GSA’s budget draws most of its event money from its surplus fund, Weismeyer said.
“Surplus can fluctuate from year to year,” Weismeyer said. “We need to make sure that our event funding comes from a sustainable source.”
In addition to the increase, the fee will be adjusted for inflation every three years.
The move to tie fees to inflation is not unprecedented ““ Associated Students UCLA fees became tied to inflation several years ago, Weismeyer said.
In addition, $1.50 out of the $5 per student will go toward the Graduate Writing Center to expand services and provide specialist consultants, Weismeyer said.
While the fee increase is currently set at $5, this amount might change in the near future depending on recommendations from the chancellor. Further changes by the GSA forum members after review may also alter the proposal.
Adjustments to the fee amount, however, would not surpass the suggested $5, Weismeyer said.
Sam Griffel, a GSA forum representative from the UCLA School of Law’s Student Bar Association, said he and other Student Bar Association members were concerned that GSA was turning to the fee increase before exploring other possibilities.
“Before we ask for a (fee) raise, we want to make sure that all other options have been exhausted,” said Griffel, who is also a law student.
Weismeyer said that other alternatives would not generate the necessary revenue to sustain programming. GSA’s funding for larger programs, such as the Melnitz Movies and its publications, comes from ASUCLA and the Student Fee Advisory Committee, and this funding cannot be touched, he added.
If the fee increase does appear on the spring election ballot, it will require a minimum of 10 percent of the graduate student population to approve it.
But in the recent past, GSA elections’ voter turnout has been less than 10 percent. The low voter turnout is compounded by graduate students not being physically present on campus every day, which makes it more likely that a student will miss an election taking place, Weismeyer said.
The chancellor, however, has the authority to change the percent requirement needed to approve the fee increase, Weismeyer said.
Sangin Tuan, a graduate student in the School of Theater, Film and Television, said that even with a fee increase on the ballot, people probably would still end up not voting. While she said she’s against rising tuition levels, she is not opposed to the fee increase itself.
“We should all be fighting against the state budget,” Tuan said.
Rather than complaining about the GSA fee increase, students should instead make use of the services the fees are paying for, Tuan said.
