Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Council discussed their concerns about recent changes to the council's basketball ticket distribution policy and wage rates for graduate peer and athletic tutors.
Graduate students' complaints focused on the removal of a clause from the policy, which previously guaranteed tickets for any graduate or professional student in his or her final year of study at the University.
"The last year guarantee was very unfair to students in longer programs," said Brenda Faiola, a second-year graduate student in immunology and co-chair of the basketball ticket committee.
Students in the two-year program at the Fuqua School of Business or in the three-year program at the Law School had an unfair advantage, Faiola said.
She added that yearly changes in the policy have caused confusion among graduate students. "Every year the policy changes," she said. "Maybe that's the problem. People don't understand that the policy changes from year to year."
Many graduate students are also upset about the fact that students who received ticket books in 1992 and 1993 will have their tickets automatically renewed for the 1996-97 season, while those who entered the Graduate School after 1993 will be forced to camp out and enter a lottery in order to receive tickets. "The problem is that there are only 500 tickets and there are 4,000 of us," Faiola said.
GPSC also discussed efforts to increase the hourly wages that graduate students receive for peer and athletic tutoring at the University.
The council's request originated from the disparity between wages that a student can earn as an independent tutor and as a University tutor, said Clark Smith, a second year graduate student in mechanical engineering and a peer tutor. Currently, a graduate tutor receives $10 an hour from the University.
Smith said that he has discussed possible wage increases with Jim Roberts, vice provost for financial affairs. Roberts has been very helpful in working through the process of reviewing GPSC's request, Clark said.
IN OTHER BUSINESS: GPSC's Affiliated Group Funding Committee also presented the names of the groups that will receive funding in the upcoming financial cycle.
The committee receives $3 in dues from each graduate and professional student and then dispenses funds to various graduate student organizations. Funding preference is given for on-campus events, interdepartmental functions and programs that will affect a majority of the graduate and professional student body.
The Domestic Violence Advocacy Project, the Professional Schools Women's Alliance, the Graduate and Professional Women's Network, the Fuqua School of Business Conference on Diversity, the National Association of Environment Protection Symposium and the Medical Studies Conference each received funding this cycle.
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