Budget

Executive Updates 10/17/2023

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 02:45:46 +0000

Executive Updates 10/17/2023 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/17/2023 - 20:45

To our graduate and professional student colleagues, here are this week's announcements and updates:

Announcements:

Congratulations to our new GPSG Executives!

President of Engagement: Saydie Sago

Saydie is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Integrative Physiology with the College of Arts and Sciences; she looks forward to advocating and supporting minoritized student population groups, specifically- Native and Indigenous students. As a current graduate leader for the Native Graduate Student group and a past committee member for the Center of Native American and Indigenous Studies, Saydie continues to evolve the graduate student experience through shared governance, organizing student cultural events such as workshops, conferences, concerts, and art nights.

President of Administration: Pritha Agarwal

Pritha is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Advertising, Public Relations, and Media Design with the College of Media and Communication Information. Pritha has a history with GPSG, as she had an opportunity to shadow our previous President of Outreach, Mckenzie Dice. Pritha comes with experience from Washington State University, where she served as the President of the Indian Student Association, overseeing a vibrant community of more than 500 members. She plans to foster a collaborative dialogue with campus leaders and other shared governance groups to create an inclusive environment where every student's voice is heard and valued.

Please join us this Wednesday, October 18th, 2023, during our Legislative Assembly meeting for the Introduction and Assembly Ratification of our two new executives, Saydie & Pritha.

Updates:

Happening this Assembly meeting Wednesday, October 18th, 2023 https://app.zoom.us/wc/5531069073/

The Rules and Finance Committee (RFC) will have the second reading of their GPSG fee increase proposal. The last GPSG fee increase was in 2021, which would go into effect July 2024. We invite you to listen and comment.

Senator Carias will host a second reading of 2023 AB 02: A Bill to Improve GPSG stipends. This bill proposed increases to the current GPSG leadership.

There will be the first reading of a suggested Assembly Resolution 2023 AR 01: Resolution to add Caste Protection to the Protected Groups in CU's Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Policy authored by Prasanth Prahladan CSGSA Vice-Chair for Antiracism and Inclusion.

The Award and Grant Committee (AGC) will introduce amendments to the Excellence Award Bylaws.

Ongoing meetings:

Rules and Finance Committee- Tuesdays @ 12 pm

Awards and Grants Committee- Tuesdays @ 4:15 pm

Executive Team- Wednesdays @ 5 pm

Assembly Meetings- Wednesdays @ 6:30 pm

Equity and Advocacy Committee- Thursdays @ 10 am; please email chiefofstaff.gpsg@colorado.edu for the Zoom link if interested in attending.

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Response to College of Arts and Sciences Statement on the Budget

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 19:21:39 +0000

Response to College of Arts and Sciences Statement on the Budget Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/04/2020 - 12:21

Read our latest statement regarding the statement about the College of Arts and Sciences budget from our Director of Legislative Affairs, Matt Harvey:

On Wednesday, December 2^nd, the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences released a statement illustrating the dire forecast for the university’s fiscal budget. In order to meet a 4.8% budget reduction, the College has announced that fifty tenure-track positions will be eliminated in favor of adding 25 instructors. Overshadowing this statement is the veiled threat of “eliminating about three medium-sized departments or disbanding the college and reforming it with fewer faculty from many units.”

The Dean’s statement asserts that the reduction of tenure track faculty will mean “investing in more staff, infrastructure, better support for research and creative work, travel, an ‘excellent new ideas’ fund, faculty retention and the like. With somewhat smaller ranks of tenured faculty, we would be able to better support the faculty, staff and students we have.” However, we fully recognize that this transition will place an undue labor burden on contingent instructors, while the university can conveniently eradicate the fiscal costs of benefits associated with a modicum of job security. This is a blatant means of cutting expenses by marginalizing labor within the university, and it is particularly telling that administrative salaries are left untouched in these desperate fiscal times.

The end result of these cuts will be the marginalization and exploitation of a temporary workforce, poor continuity of education for our students, and likely the continued systematic undermining of the humanities – all made under the cover of a pandemic-generated fiscal crisis. Despite what our administration might believe, the university is not a marketplace. The university is not an investment bank. The university is not a corporation. And these appeals for a “nimbler” College of Arts and Sciences predicate cuts that we vociferously oppose.

We at GPSG stand in solidarity with our tenure-track faculty, instructors, and staff. We call for university administration to readily embrace the financial cuts to their salaries that they are so ready to inflict upon an overburdened workforce with little to no bargaining power or job security.

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Statement Regarding Budget Cuts

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 06:00:00 +0000

Statement Regarding Budget Cuts Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/02/2020 - 00:00

Our Director of Legislative Affairs submitted this statement today to the Colorado Congressional Delegation (CODEL) on behalf of GPSG.

Statement to CODEL

On August 28^th, leaders of the Graduate Student Government at CU Boulder met with university administrators to discuss fiscal planning for the next budget cycle, and we were informed that the university was pursuing a 5% budget reduction across the university system. This budget cut could be disastrous for higher education in the state of Colorado, and we have little doubt that other university systems across the country will be placed in a similar financial position due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The University of Colorado system is initiating a series of employee furloughs and pay reductions for low-level faculty in order to begin preparing for this budget shortfall, placing the financial security of graduate students, faculty, and staff at risk. We are engaged in active efforts to lobby the Colorado State Legislature to nullify the TABOR Amendment and return Colorado to a progressive tax system, so the university has funding sources beyond catering to high-income out-of-state students for tuition and can better invest in communities in Colorado.

However, we are also asking Congress to consider implementing another round of funding under the CARES Act, in order for the university system to stave off the worst impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its exacerbation of a broken economic system. It is our position that, without federal support, the university’s cost-cutting measures will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations within higher education. Students, faculty, and staff at CU Boulder already struggle with the extreme imbalance between a lack of guaranteed funding and low salaries with a constantly increasing cost of living in the Boulder and Denver areas. This manufactured financial crisis is only being worsened by the pandemic, and support at the federal level is desperately needed.

- Matt Harvey, Director of Legislative Affairs

edited on September 4 to correct the spelling of TABOR amendment

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