To the Editor:

Your recent article titled “ISU student government is an extensive system” was not entirely accurate. The information regarding the Special Student Fee Committee was misleading and you failed to mention the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) as a representative student body.

A significant omission from your list of Student Fee Committee members was Tom Thielen, vice president for student affairs, who is an integral part of the allocation process.

The Special Student Fee Committee recommends student fee allocations to President Jischke. Student fees ($115.48) are paid by undergraduate AND graduate students, equally, each semester.

The line item allocations which you listed appear to be randomly selected. The five largest allocations are (per student each semester): Student Government $23.92, Memorial Union Operations $20.74, Recreation Facility debt $15.25, CY-Ride $14.78, and Intercollegiate Athletics $14.75. No other allocation is greater than $10.00.

It is apparent that your reporter and, consequently, your staff are misinformed as to the distribution of the Student Government fees.

From this line item, undergraduates contribute 100 percent to GSB (which purchases Daily subscriptions for students). Graduate students contribute 50 percent to GSB and 50 percent to GSS.

Please note that graduate students support both GSB and the Daily. In fact, three seats on GSB are held by graduate students, and the GSB president in 1994-95, Margaret Pitiris, was a graduate student. Additionally, reporters and members of your publications board have been graduate students.

Graduate student involvement on campus is extensive through participation in GSB and the various University committees (which you fail to mention in your article), all having graduate student seats.

However, your largest omission was the failure to mention the Graduate Student Senate.

The GSS is an additional arm of the student government structure. With over 4,000 members, the GSS is the second largest student group on campus, after the GSB. The GSS is a single body consisting of 68 senators.

Each department is permitted to have one senator per 50 graduate students which are elected yearly. Nine senators, elected by the Senate, make up the Executive Council which handles the daily operations of the Senate.

The GSS has led discussions on issues that have resulted in improved student health insurance and improved child care for all students at ISU.

The GSS was a founding member of the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students which organizes graduate student groups from universities throughout the country for, among other activities, Congressional lobbying.

Currently, NAGPS is on the forefront in leading the fight to maintain subsidized and unsubsidized loan funding at current levels for all students.

In the November meeting of the GSS, a bill was passed which will be sent to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior asking that the Memorial Union Browsing Library and Chapel be evaluated for their historical significance.

Your staff’s ignorance as to the activities and the existence of the Graduate Student Senate is disturbing, considering the funding graduate students provide to your newspaper and the many beneficial issues which the GSS has undertaken in an effort to improve college life for all ISU students.

In the past, the GSS has requested that agendas of GSS meetings be published in the Daily (the GSS meets only once per month) and that a Daily reporter be present at the monthly meetings to report on the minutes of the meetings. You have ignored our requests. Your ignorance in this matter serves to magnify the question of reliability and integrity of your newspaper.

If you wish to report on the second largest student group on campus, which is also a group responsible for determining policies within ISU, please contact our office at 294-8725 for meeting dates and meeting agendas.

If we do not hear from you, we will assume that, in your words, you “…are often unaware how and by whom they [students, the Daily] are represented.”

Alex Soejarto

Graduate student

Chemical engineering

GSS Treasurer