Whether intentional or not, this article confuses two very distinct issues: 1) the situation regarding the deficit and fellowships over at the Grad School; and 2) eventual Grad School withdraw of GSG funding, and the GSG's subsequent attempts to reorganize its finances.
The article states:
"...students were initially upset by the increase. However, students understood the need for the increase after receiving news of the graduate school’s debt..."
Later, it states:
"The graduate school is facing a debt of several million dollars... As a result, the graduate school will have to curtail its expenses, including cuts to the GSG and a decrease in the fellowship budget for next year by $200,000."
No where in the bill that the GSG passed to raise fees, at no time during the debate on said bill, and at no time during subsequent GSG Assembly discussions about fee increases did anyone make any connection between the Grad School fellowship "debt" and the need for the GSG to raise it's fees. This is patently not true.
The GSG initiative to raise fees was motivated by an anticipated withdraw of Grad School funding of the GSG, based entirely on the restructuring of the relationship between the Grad School and the Division of Student Affairs, and the resulting budgetary constraints faced by the Grad School. We would have made this move whether or not this fellowship situation had arisen; the two are completely unrelated.
It is my understanding, further, that this fellowship situation will be resolved BEFORE the Grad School begins it withdraw of GSG financial support.
But more troubling is the quote taken from the last Assembly meeting:
"“We will face very hard financial times,” said E.L. “Doc” Hunter, GSG president, at last week’s meeting. “The new fee passed came just in the nick of time.”"
While this is true, it has NOTHING to do with the fellowship situation. Whether intentional or not, this quote's placement after a paragraph that links GSG funding initiatives to the Fellowship "debt" raises the specter that I was talking about the artificial, nonexistent relationship between the two that is posited.
My only official comments to the DBK regarding the Grad School fellowship situation were:
"It's not clear to me that this will have any major impact on graduate students."
"This does not affect the GSG, as an organization, at all."
Both of these are taken from an email reply I sent yesterday.
I have already submitted a letter to the DBK insisting that a retraction/clarification be issued. Whether intentional or not, this article makes a spurious connection between these two situations and implies a position of the current GSG administration that is simply not true.
Posts: 258 | I am: Graduate Student Government President | Registered: Oct 2001
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