Constitutional Amendments, 2023-2024
- (PASSED) Amendment 1: Delegate Assembly Duties
- (PASSED) Amendment 2: Executive Council Duties
- (PASSED) Amendment 3: Shared Meeting Timeline
- (PASSED) Amendment 4: Future Amendment Execptions + Precedence
Referenda, 2023-2024
(FAILED*) Increase to Graduate Student Association Fee
*126 votes cast, minimum voting pool of 20% not attained
The Graduate Student Association (GSA) of UC Merced is proposing an increase to the UC Merced Graduate Student Association Fee to provide additional financial support to the GSA of UC Merced. The purpose of this increased financial support is to enable the UC Merced GSA to be able to provide more and greater services, such as more and larger travel awards and awards to registered graduate student clubs and organizations and more community building events, to the associated graduate students through expanding GSA events and funding opportunities and providing UC Merced’s GSA officers with a stipend for their service. Currently UC Merced is the only UC campus whose GSA officers receive no stipend to support their work for the student government.
In effect, this increased fee will allow the GSA of UC Merced to continue its work supporting graduate students through means such as travel awards, financial support for graduate student organizations, and social events designed to foster a sense of community among UC Merced graduate students. This fee will enable the GSA of UC Merced to expand its capabilities to support the graduate student community and will enable its officers to accomplish more than if they remained without a stipend.
This proposed referendum will increase the UC Merced Graduate Student Association Fee from its current $10 per semester to $15 per semester (Fall and Spring), effective academic year 2024-25. The return to aid portion of the fee increase would be 25% of the $5 fee increase. The 25% ($1.25/semester in academic year 2024-2025) return to aid portion of the fee increase would be returned to campus to fund financial aid for eligible graduate students. Starting in academic year 2025-26, this fee will increase annually by $5 per semester (excluding summer session) up to a maximum total fee of $50 per semester.
As the fee increases, several initiatives the GSA will undertake include awarding more and larger travel awards, awarding more and larger funding awards for registered graduate student clubs and organizations, and organizing and hosting more frequent and larger community building events. Additionally, new initiatives and programming will be created to address needs and desires expressed by the associated graduate students. If not approved, the permanent budget of the GSA will stay as the collective sum of the current $10 per semester fee the associated graduate students pay, which means that the GSA will struggle to maintain its current level of impact as increases in enrollment and inflation occur.
Do you approve of an increase of UC Merced, Graduate Student Association Fee from its current $10 per semester, to $15 per graduate student per semester (Fall and Spring), including an increase of $5 per semester up to a maximum total fee of $50 per semester?
