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GRADUATE STUDENT GOVERNMENT (GSG) UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
1) My meeting with student government presidents from every school in the University of Maryland System has been scheduled and canceled three times by the undergraduates coordinating the event. I hope to take this meeting during the first part of next week.
2) As a result of the Campus Assessment Working Group’s survey report, which found that 37% of graduate assistants believe that they are working “much more” or “more” than the hours per week nominally required of their assistantship, and as a result of the Graduate Council’s Committee on Student Affairs continuing concern that existing policies regarding the time commitment of graduate assistants are not being adhered to, we have rewritten the “GA Duties and Time Commitments” section of the Graduate Handbook. The new policy will go before the Graduate Council on 14 Feb. Once the Committee has finalized the text of the revised policy, I’ll post it on the Forums sometime next week.
3) I had a meeting with Johnetta Davis, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, on Wednesday. At that meeting, she handed down to me formal notice on behalf of the Graduate School that, beginning in FY 06, they will no longer fund any of our office staff. Additionally, beginning in FY 07, the Graduate School will discontinue funding of the GSG Presidential Assistantship and will no longer provide any funding, of any kind, to the GSG.
In light of this new information, it appears that the Assembly’s passage of a new fee structure – which will take effect at approximately the same time that the Graduate School withdraws its funding – was particularly timely.
In order to ease passage of the new fee structure through the Committee for the Review of Student Fees, Graduate Legal Aid is drafting a letter of support and I believe that similar letters will be forthcoming from Dean and/or other senior members of the Graduate School.
Posts: 258 | I am: Graduate Student Government President | Registered: Oct 2001
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Good question, Bob. The SGA is a stand-alone organization (financially, that is), much like the GSG will become.
It should be noted, however, that this all is simply a financial reality that we have seen coming for a long time now. When the Grad School and Division of Research split, Research got all the money. That's the primary reason we're being dropped. I think the Grad School still loves us! Posts: 258 | I am: Graduate Student Government President | Registered: Oct 2001
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This just in: I just got off the phone with Dean Wylie. Apparently there was a slight miscommunication of the information regarding Grad School financial withdraws.
The actually terms of the withdraw will remain the same, i.e., a step-down from two to one assistantship, and then to none.
HOWEVER, the time table is one year different from the one I previously reported. The first cut will come in FY 07 (NOT FY 06) and the second in FY 08 (NOT FY 07).
Dean Wylie communicated to me that the reason for the 07-08 time table was to allow the GSG time to reorganize its finances without pulling the rug out from under us.
This is indeed good news and should allow a much more seamless transition from our dependence on the Grad School to financial independence.
It should also be noted that this announcement does not materially change the situation the GSG faces nor the rationale for the steps we have taken to secure our financial future. The withdraw is still coming and we need to protect our interests. This announcment merely gives us one more year than previously thought and removes any fall-out that a transition process might generate.
Dean Wylie is drafting a letter of support for GSG financial independence that I think will go a long way in helping us in the later steps of the transfer process.
Dean Wylie has been very sensitive to our position and has done everything she reasonably can do to make this as easy a process as possible. For her up-front approach, openness, and honesty, she has my thanks.
Posts: 258 | I am: Graduate Student Government President | Registered: Oct 2001
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