The Graduate and Professional Student Senate voted on multiple bills, primarily allocating money for Iowa State’s graduate students’ needs, including those who are incoming freshmen, students of color and those seeking gender-affirming care.
Funding for the Rest Assured Project for International Students
GPSS unanimously approved a bill that will allocate $6,000 to provide beds to first-year international students arriving at Iowa State. Students must live at the University Village/Schilletter Village to receive the mattresses.
“Most international students arriving at Iowa State do not have immediate access to basic furniture, including beds,” James Afful, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, said. “The [University Village] is a popular housing choice for many international students due to its proximity to campus facilities.”
The $6,000 will allow the Rest Assured Project to purchase 15 double and queen beds and provide the transportation needed to haul the beds into the apartment.
A group of senators opted to change the bill, increasing the $6,000 to $10,000, but were denied during the vote. The vote failed because the Rest Assured Project had already planned to use $6,000 for 15 beds.
“We choose double and queen mattresses compared to a double mattress like in the dorms,” Afful said. “We want them to be used long-term and as they get older still be adequate.
The Rest Assured Project has been providing mattresses to incoming international students for two years and hopes to continue the project.
Funding for the People of Nia Celebration
The People of Nia Celebration was created by the Black Graduate Student Alliance and the Black Student Union in 1997 in response to low retention and high attrition to celebrate their black students.
“Our normal graduation ceremonies do not have a lot of representations for people of black and African heritage,” Taea Bonner, a graduate student in criminal justice and sociology, said. “We like to have our own to be able to celebrate those people.”
The bill passed unanimously, and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate granted $1,000 to the People of Nia Celebration to help with the financial planning of the event which will take place at 6 p.m. on May 8 in the Memorial Union Sun Room.
Funding for the Sloss House resource room
“The Sloss House is a resource room that provides access to necessities like women’s reproductive health products, ethnic foods like spices, parenting supplies and basic necessities,” said Kimia Noroozi, a graduate student in chemical and biological engineering. “Many graduate students volunteer here and use it for basic necessities.”
Sloss House is a student-run pantry and a satellite location of Student Helping Our Peers (SHOP).
The Sloss House also provides gender-affirming care and parental and childcare needs.
“The existence and maintenance of the Sloss House is very important to graduate students,” Noroozi said. “It is open three times a week, and all the students have to do is say the number of items they checked out.”
The bill passed unanimously, allocating $5,000 toward donations to the Sloss House Resource Room specifically for a refrigerator so they can begin providing perishable items.
Spring 2024 GPSS regular allocations
A semi-annual bill to fund graduate and professional student organizations was passed unanimously.
The GPSS finance committee reviewed all spring 2024 allocation requests, withdrawals, appeals and accepted withdrawals.
“Basically, it is the money we gave them,” Kean Fallon, a graduate student in the department of mathematics, said. “Compared to how much they spent leading us to how much we got back from them.”
Student and professional organizations that asked for funding include:
- Agronomy Graduate Student Club
- Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Club (request denied)
- Good Earth Student Farm (request denied)
- HDFS Graduate Student Network
- Graduate Student Organization of Plant Biologists
- Iranian Students and Scholars Association
- Language Assessment Student Organization
- Mathematics Graduate Student Organization
- Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology GSO
- Microbiology Graduate Student Organization
- Plant Breeding and Genetics Student Organization
- Vine and Wine Club (request denied)
In the end, GPSS allocated $5,609.45 in returning money.
Graduate and Professional Student Senate Budget for Fiscal Year 2025
The GPSS Finance Committee has developed a budget for FY 2025 based on financial projections for the current year and increased their income which passed unanimously.
The executive scholarships budget will be increased by $5,500 to increase the GPSS president’s yearly stipends by $1,000, other executive members to $400, college chairs to $200 and the minutes taker to $100.
The Senate and executive board meetings budget will increase to $750. The budget for GPSS Regular Allocations will be decreased by $7,400, leading to the removal of their budget.
The Board of Regents Meeting budget will increase by $500, and the Wakonse Awards will increase by $2,750.
Allocations of funding for doctoral dissertation study support
A bill allocating more than $80,000 passed unanimously, allowing GPSS to allocate $40,000 over the course of two years for a total of $80,000 for the creation of a dissertation study supply award.
Doctoral candidate applicants can receive a single, one-time payment of $300 per doctoral student to utilize for the completion of their dissertation research study.
The students who become eligible for the money will need to have reached ABD status (a doctoral candidate who has completed required courses and examinations but not a dissertation) via advisor confirmation, proof of demonstrated need, a proposed budget, a list of expenditures and other sources of support for their dissertation.
