The Graduate and Professional Student Council helped put roofs over my classmates' heads last summer.
Let me explain.
Graduate students at Duke's Sanford Institute of Public Policy must complete a summer internship. Being the save-the-world-types that we are, many of us accept internships at non-profit organizations that can't afford to pay us.
This is where the Sanford Institute Internship Fund Committee comes to the rescue. It provides public policy graduate students with financial support to cover their living expenses during unpaid internships.
The committee obtains its funds, in part, through various fundraisers it organizes throughout the year.
This is where GPSC comes in.
Fundraisers themselves require funds in order to take place in the first place. And who's going to provide some of those funds? GPSC!
Last spring, GPSC provided the Internship Fund Committee with financial support to put on speed-dating and wine-tasting fundraisers. These successful events helped provide many of my classmates with funding to cover living expenses during their internships.
This example is just one of the myriad ways that GPSC touches the lives of graduate and professional students.
But GPSC hasn't increased its $4.75-per-semester fee since 1999 and currently its expenses exceed its revenues. GPSC recently sponsored an on-line survey to gauge students' opinions about a fee increase.
Sixty-two percent favored a fee increase. And about half of those favored a small, reasonable increase of up to $2 per semester, while the rest supported an even greater fee hike. A measly $2 per semester would provide $24,000 of extra revenue, enough to cover last year's shortfall of around $20,000.
Tonight, GPSC will vote on whether to increase its fee next year, and if so, by how much. I urge all GPSC representatives to vote for a $2 increase.
Community is worth an extra $2 a semester. A $2 fee increase benefits us all beyond the numerous student group activities, social events and speakers that GPSC sponsors. Through helping to bring us together and build a sense of community, it makes G&P students a strong, united group. And, we need to be a strong, united group when it comes to issues that affect us all, such as parking, health insurance and representation on the Board of Trustees and Duke Alumni Association Board. For the university to serve us well, we need political weight, and ultimately that only comes from having internal group cohesion.
My one suggestion to GPSC is that it urgently needs an informational campaign. When it comes to a fee increase, G&P students want to know, "What's in it for me?" It would be helpful to have a detailed list posted on-line of exactly which student groups and types of activities GPSC was funding. Through performing a search on Duke's website, I was able to find such a list deeply buried, but this list is not accessible via GPSC's website as far as I can tell.
Through GPSCNews, GPSC has shown that it can communicate effectively with students about campus events. It can surely do the same when it comes to informing students about exactly where their GPSC fee money goes.
I'm graduating in May, so any fee increase will not affect me. I can only argue that a stronger, more cohesive G&P student body will enhance your experience at Duke and make this institution more responsive to the unique needs of G&P students.
Preeti Aroon is a graduate student in public policy. Her column usually runs every other Wednesday.
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