Council Clippings: GSS denies funding for Katrina group

The Graduate Student Senate (GSS) passed three bills, failed one bill and postponed discussion on one bill during Tuesday’s weekly meeting.

The meeting began with officer reports, then moved on to a presentation given by guest speakers from WREK radio. Following the presentations, senators passed a bill allocating $3,000 to the Mock Trial team to compete in a national championship tournament and failed a bill which proposed to allocate $4,543 to Campus Crusade for Christ for a mission trip where they engaged in rebuilding efforts in Hurricane Katrina-affected regions. The senate also passed bills to charter the Surface Mount Technology Association and Dance Marathon at Georgia Tech. They postponed a bill intended to create a waiting list policy for ticketed events which are free to students.

During officer reports, Vice President Mitch Keller reported that due to greatly increased demand and limited funding, no subsidy will be available for next year’s mandatory graduate student health insurance. Keller pointed out that although no insurance subsidy will be available, American students will still be paying less than they have in previous years, even without the subsidy. International students will be paying slightly more per semester for health insurance than they have in the past.

Graduate president Kasi David reported that applications to run for the positions of president and vice president of the GSS are due in the SGA office by 5 p.m. Friday, March 31. Applications are being accepted from any graduate students who wish to submit them.

Senator Adam Brancato, a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering graduate student, reported that as per recent changes in policy, SGA will no longer vote on the chartering of new organizations on campus. When the new policy takes effect, the responsibility of chartering new clubs will move directly to the Student Activities Committee.

Immediately following officer reports, General Manager Aakash Jariwala, Chief Engineer Eldon Stegall and Operations Manager Jeremy Varner of WREK radio took the floor to inform senators about the general operations of the station. In response to a survey conducted via campus-wide email, WREK radio assembled a regular weekly schedule which includes classical, jazz, hip-hop, both new and classic rock, blues, DJ specialty shows put on by students and shows about political affairs. WREK Radio’s schedule grid may be viewed at http://www.wrek.org/stream/schedule.shtml.

The representatives from WREK radio pointed out that student organizations are permitted to host DJ specialty shows and advertise free of charge on WREK.

Senator Randy Weinstein, a Biomedical Engineering graduate student, questioned the representatives from WREK about the station’s choice in radio shows, citing alleged complaints from various students on campus about the shows Making Contact and Radio Nation being “Anti-American and Anti-Israel.” Jariwala replied that the radio shows were chosen in keeping with the station’s mandate to educate, but that he would like to see radio shows with more scientific content getting air time on WREK.

Finishing second in its most recent competition, the Mock Trial team very recently qualified for the national championship tournament.

Kyle Thomason, president of Mock Trial went before SGA today to request $3,000 to defray the cost of transporting the seven member team and one coach to Des Moines, Iowa for the competition. The estimated cost of the trip is $7,500.

After collecting money from corporate sponsors and individual team members, the team still needed $3,000 to cover expenses.

Joint Finance Committee (JFC) policy sets a maximum of $0.15 per person per mile on allocations for travel expenses. JFC recommended granting Mock Trial $293.40 to help defray the cost of travel. Despite this, senators voted 21 to one in favor of granting the $3,000 the team requested. $2,909 of the money was allocated for travel, and $91 was allocated for display aids.

The next bill was the Conference Committee version of a Joint Allocation to the Campus Crusade for Christ that had previously fairled the senate. The bill requested $4,543 to send students from the organization to Pass Christian, Miss. for rebuilding efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Allocating more than $0.15 per person per mile is against JFC policy. GSS voted to uphold JFC policy in this case, while the undergraduates voted to waive the policy and give the organization all of the requested money.

The committee version proposed to fund the bill based on a weighted average of the amount of money voters agreed to allocate to the organization. The organization already made the trip, counting on SGA funds to pay the bill. The bill failed in a senate vote of 4 to 14.