Syracuse University’s Graduate Student Organization discussed its special budget financing, the contentious United States tax reform bill and open GSO senator positions during a meeting Wednesday night.

GSO members at the meeting voted to approve the allocation of the GSO’s “special budget” to academic trips and graduate student events.

The SU chapter of the Public Administration and International Relations Association also presented its funding request for its Washington, D.C. and New York City networking trip. The trip gives graduate students an opportunity to network with industry professionals.

“GSO has a budget that they use to give money to registered graduate student organizations on campus, and that’s normally done through reimbursements and individual budgets to the organizations,” said Michelle Butcher, a graduate student studying public administration and a member of PAIRA. “But the special budget is for the money programs need outside of what they already have.”

Attendees of the meeting were also encouraged to voice their concerns to local representatives about the proposed tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The bill proposes a repeal of Section 117(d) of the United States tax code, which could cost graduate students thousands of dollars.

Section 117(d) rules that tuition remission — a tuition waiver universities provide to graduate student employees — would not be counted as taxable income. The new tax plan counts this tuition waiver, worth up to $36,000 at SU, as income and subjects graduate students to thousands of dollars in income taxes.

A handout provided by GSO to members Wednesday included the contact information for members of the U.S. House of Representatives and a list of sample tweets they could use to address members on social media.

“The proposed tax reform bill would make it nearly impossible to be a graduate student without holding another job. #ReworktheReform #NAGPS4U,” read an example tweet on the handout.

Rikki Sargent, a doctoral student in social psychology and GSO vice president of internal affairs, presented open senator positions within the organization at the end of the meeting.

An at-large senator position is open. At-large senators are elected by the GSO Senate body to represent graduate students that are not in an academic program. Other open positions are for the academic program senators, who represent academic programs within SU’s graduate program.

“What I would like the graduate student body to know is that every academic program can have a senator that can vote in our meetings,” Sargent said. “We would love graduate students to see if their programs are represented, and if they’re not, to consider being their program senator.”

Published on November 29, 2017 at 11:13 pm