The Graduate and Professional Student Council approved a $4,625 increase to its annual budget at its general assembly meeting Tuesday night.
The vote on the budget increase, which will be devoted to student programming, was passed by all but one member of the council.
"Our surplus is due to student fees," said Executive Secretary Kat Mitchel, a third-year graduate student in molecular genetics and microbiology. "We have an obligation to the students who paid to pay them back through student programming."
Treasurer Bart Michalczuk, a second-year graduate student in economics, explained that GPSC has a large surplus of around $40,000, which will be spent at a rate of $10,000 per year over the next three years. The budget also accounts for a buffer of $10,000 for fiscal year 2012-2013 in case the council needs the extra funds.
The general assembly elected Law Student Representative Katherine de Vos as the final member of the Young Trustee Screening Committee.
Mitchel suggested that those in the assembly apply for the position of Young Trustee and motivate those who they think are qualified to apply as well.
"The Young Trustee is one of the greatest privileges and honors that the graduate and professional schools are given by the University," she said. "This year we are trying to have our application process be more interactive. We are trying to become more of a ground campaign. If you know someone who you really think is qualified, I will solicit an application from them."
As part of his pledge to speak at GPSC meetings once per semester, graduate Young Trustee Xing Zong, a sixth-year Ph. D. candidate in physics who is serving a three-year term, encouraged others to pursue the position.
Zong told the assembly he felt that the Board of Trustees valued his opinion.
"The position of Young Trustee is where you can make a difference," he said. "You can raise various concerns to the Board of Trustees, who make the decisions."
He noted that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which has an 80-person board, has never offered such a position to students, not even undergraduates.
"We are lucky," Zong said. "Not many universities offer a Young Trustee opportunity to students."
In other business:
Academic Officer Sara Salahi, a second-year Ph. D. candidate in biomedical engineering, told the assembly about the various graduate and professional certificate programs that exist at the University.
She said students are eligible to receive one masters degree before they graduate. Council members were unclear on whether or not the University would pay for one masters degree if it was outside of a student's department.
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