GAPSA elects new vice chair

The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly elected its third vice chairperson for Graduate Inter-School Activities Council last night in what one executive board member called "the first contested election at a GAPSA meeting" that she or anyone else could remember. GISAC is the graduate students' equivalent of the undergraduate Student Activities Council and gives money to over 20 graduate student groups, including the Ultimate Frisbee Club and the Penn Cricket Club. Brennen, who was praised by Vice Chairperson for Policy Susan Garfinkel for her work with GISAC in the past, fills the post vacated by graduate student activist Elizabeth Hunt last month. Later in last night's meeting, Engineering graduate student Sarah Mooers, a representative of Academic Planning and Budget Committee, told GAPSA members that the committee is looking for a way to cut costs and increase faculty productivity during what she called a "budget crunch" at the University. "[The committee] is talking about doing away with classes that have fewer than three to five people in them," she said. "[Currently] there is no University-wide policy on this." The elimination of small classes would "disproportionately affect graduate students" because their classes usually have fewer students than undergraduate courses, GAPSA members added. Graduate School of Fine Arts student Robin Landow said that the change would "drastically affect" her school. "Some specialized courses attract very few people," she said, adding that it is important for professors with specializations to spread their knowledge. Another possibility the Committee may look at is holding small classes every other year instead of every year, Mooers said. The Committee also discussed the future of need-blind admissions at the University, saying that the University can remain need-blind until 1995 but beyond that it is unclear, Mooers said. In other business, GAPSA members overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the body's by-laws which makes the normal length of meetings two hours long, instead of the previous 90 minutes. GAPSA also unanimously passed a resolution calling on HIV/AIDS Awareness Week to be held on an annual basis.

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