At its meeting Friday afternoon, the Student Senate met with Provost G. P. “Bud” Peterson to discuss the accusations concerning the Graduate Tuition and Student Support Policy and its impact on teaching assistantships, and approved the activity fee for the 2006 fiscal year. The latter saw a 1.1 percent increase over last year’s undergraduate fee and a 2.1 percent increase for graduates, which work out to a five dollar increase for each.
Peterson provided the Senate with research he had had done on TAs over the past few years, which showed that the total number of TAs in the math department has not changed since the GT&SS policy was implemented, and that the “average number of students per TA” in that department has dropped over the past three years. Peterson said he still supported the 2002 policy, and in response to the concerns voiced, said that there was “a little more rhetoric than usual coming from the departments.”
Peterson and various senators, including President of the Graduate Council and Senator Wally Morris II, spent a great deal of time discussing the particulars of TA allocation throughout the Institute, and whether the problems being experienced by some departments lay there. Peterson said his office distributes 550 tuition waivers to the five schools which are broken down between TAs and “internal research assistants.” The School of Science, for example, is allocated 165 tuition waivers that it breaks down into 136 TAs and 29 internal research assistants.
When Morris challenged that this number of TAs is not adequate, given that some professors are changing syllabi and cutting recitations, and citing his own experiences as a TA where he is being forced to spend 10 additional hours per week without compensation to make up for the shortage, Peterson responded that the allocation is probably to blame. “I don’t believe for a second that it is done perfectly, and I don’t think I could stand here and say it’s done well,” he said, continuing that increasing the number of TAs will not solve any problems.
Senators asked about the feasibility of looking at increasing this number, but the Provost said that at present the policy is costing RPI $8 million per year, and any increase would mean pulling that money out of some other area. “I don’t believe and the other people in the decision-making process don’t believe that that’s the right decision,” he said. “What do I cut in order to make that decision?”
Peterson at times in the meeting said he believed the number of TAs is adequate, while at other times acknowledged that he did not know “if it is the right number of TAs, but it’s the number we can have” and said that they are working to optimize the system with limited resources.
After Peterson had to leave the meeting, the Senate turned to the recommendation of the Activity Fee Subcommittee for the fiscal year starting this July. Senate-Executive Board Liaison Adam Jubanowsky described the budgeting philosophy as funding “the most services possible while still staying in line with the club’s purpose.” The five dollar increases mean the total undergraduate activity fee for 2005-2006 is $470.50, while the graduate fee is $244.
The increase will partly go to pay for nine new clubs such as the billiards club, Dance Dance Revolution club, and the Vietnamese Students Association. The budget for next year features such large decreases as a zero subsidy for the Aquarium Club (down from $4,603.80 this year), a $2,000 drop in subsidy for Pugwash/Ecologic, and a $9,400 drop for UPAC Lights.
There were also several large increases, such as an additional $6,000 each for GM Week and Go Be Red, the latter being a new school spirit campaign. There was also a $2,400 rise in funding for the Pride Alliance, and $4,300 more for W2SZ, the HAM radio club.
Overall, the club budget saw a drop of $1,144.39 from last year to this year. However, this is offset by a 10 percent drop in expected income, and a 7.1 percent increase in the intercollegiate athletics budget that will go toward various areas including increased officials’ fees and more recruiting for men’s hockey, as well as the women’s hockey team’s shift to Division I. The last would have greatly increased the intercollegiate athletics budget, but the Office of the President subsidized the move.
