What can $7 do for you? - Reasons to vote to increase the Graduate Student Activity Fee.

When you think about your last meal out at a restaurant, the last time you went to a coffee shop for a fancy beverage and biscotti, or the last time you went to see a movie, more than likely you spent close to or over $7.

This coming GSO Election we will put on the ballot to increase the Graduate Student Activity Fee by $7. At the moment our student activity fee is $20. This will raise it to $27.

Why specifically would we want to do this? Well, there are a number of reason why we feel this increase would benefit the services we provide to you and the graduate student community. The following are some of the main reasons:

1. RGSO Funding
2. Grant Funding
3. Legal Services
4. Director of Operations (Office Manager)
5. Services for the Downtown and East Campus
6. Programming and additional Buses for Trips to NYC and Boston
7. Lowest Graduate Student Fee of the four major Universities in NYS

1. RGSO Funding - This past Fall Semester, RGSO groups had requested over $47,000 in funding for activities and events they wanted to have with their group. Many of these groups are graduate student groups with professional and departmental focuses. We allocated $26,000 in the GSO budget since we used the projections from the last academic year. RGSO groups were able to request funds from the MCAA and Programming chairs, but we would like to increase RGSO funding to benefit the departmental, cultural and activities groups to support events, professional development and the building of their student organization as well. Part of the $7 would be used to increase the over all budget for RGSO funding.

2. Grant Funding - This has been a tremendous service for graduate students presenting at conference or conducting research. We give up to $650 for travel and research grants per individual three times a year. The total allocation is $30,000 this year for this service, which was an increase from $27,000 last year. We would like to increase the funding for this as well since it is so well used and as UAlbany is one of the four University Research Center in New York State we would like to support students research. (There is never roll over funds from this budget allocation!)

3. Legal Services - We are looking into sending out an RFP to lawyers in the area to provide legal services for graduate students on campus. The undergraduates fund their own legal clinic, but these services are not extended to graduate students since undergraduates pay $125 for their student activity fee and we only pay $20. With $7 increase we can start a legal clinic for students in need seeking that service.

4. Director of Operations (Office Manager) - We are in the process of hiring a Director of Operations for the GSO. This person will be a part-time non-graduate student staff who would be able to bridge year to year between GSO Administration and help bring a greater sense of continuity and stability for our organization. One chief complaint I gotten in the beginning of this administration's year is that Office Managers (who are graduate students) graduate or find other positions and we lose their institutional knowledge in the GSO office. Gaps are created that complicate the daily transactions of the services we provide to graduate students. We would like to better service graduate students by hiring a more permanent person for the organization who would be in charge of operations. In order to do this we need to be competitive in our benefit's and salary offering. All this said, we still plan to have two graduate student Office Manager positions available but having one permanent non-graduate student staff would help the organzation greatly. (By the way, this year we were very fortunate to find a very dedicated group of office managers who enjoy serving our community. They have been amazingly wonderful and have made this a very smooth year for our organization. I encourage all graduate students to express your appreciation this month on Adminstrative Assistant's Day on Wednesday, April 25th)

5. Services for the Downtown and East Campus - The GSO Comprehensive Plan will include a section to provide services for the East and Downtown campus. If any RGSO group would like to collaborate with the GSO in hosting a satellite GSO Office at either campus we can make funding available to provide printer or copier services there as well. An increase of the graduate student fee would insure the ability for start up and maintenance of these sites and services.

6. Programming and additional Buses for Trips to NYC and Boston - This year our Programming has been so popular that we have exhausted the budget for the rest of the fiscal year. With an increase in the Graduate Student Activity fee we could add a few more buses to NYC and Boston, gotten tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Palace Theatre, a few more GSO Socials at Noche, Skyline, Pearl Lounge, etc...!

Also, we would like to increase the budget for the Graduate Student Orientation Picnic. It was a very well attended event where incoming and returning graduate students are invited. We budgeted $4000 for the event. Even though Amirah ordered a substantial amount of food there still wasn't enough food for everyone. Ofcourse there was well over 400 graduate students who attended the 2006 GSO Picnic. This year we project that even more students will attend!

7. Lowest Graduate Student Fee of the four major Universities in NYS - For years now our GSO has done more with less. I did a fee comparison between the four major University center in New York State and where our fee per semester is only $20, Buffalo has the highest fee per semester at $49, Binghamton is $40, Stony Brook is $22 and will increase their fee to $27 this coming year. Outside of legal services we offer more services than the other Graduate Student Organizations. We are the only GSO that offers copier and printing services. Our office is opened longer than any of the other GSO offices (45 hours per week). Plus we provide many of the services they offer as well!

I hope this has helped explain why we hope to increase the Graduate Student Activity Fee. If we all agree and vote on this we will be able to expand and improve services for our community for less than a ticket to see a movie. During the GSO Elections, please vote to increase the fee! Thank you.