GAPSA demands General Fee details, 'equitable' spending

For nearly two years, University officials and undergraduate student groups have been wrangling over the University's disclosure policy for the $28 million gathered through the General Fee, a fee paid along with tuition to cover student activities. But Penn's 10,000-plus graduate students are only beginning to voice their complaints in earnest, demanding what they consider to be their fair share of the funds. "Each grad student is paying a couple hundred dollars or more to fund undergraduate activities," Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairperson Sanjay Udani said. But University Budget Director Mike Masch denied that the General Fee money was being unfairly distributed, adding that GAPSA has no evidence to support that claim. For the past two years, undergraduate from student groups -- primarily the Undergraduate Assembly and the Student Activities Council -- have demanded expenditure records for the revenues gathered from the nearly $2,000 paid by all undergraduate students. Graduate and professional students pay between $1,100 and $1,400 per year. In October, after a SAC-funded Freedom of Information Act request to the government designed to force the University to disclose the figures, Penn officials released to student groups a breakdown of how the General Fee is distributed among various University departments. But GAPSA was not satisfied with the broad outline of expenditures. "This is all we've gotten after two years," Udani said, holding up the figures given to him by the University. "Two pages." While SAC is concerned that they were not told where the money was spent, GAPSA members said that, based on the information they were given, they are upset with how the money is being spent -- primarily on undergraduate students. "If all of these things are only undergrad, then they're effectively using grad money for it," Udani said. "Don't use my money for things that don't matter to me." Udani blamed the situation on a lack of involvement by graduate students in the past. "Up until now there were no grad students active asking for money, " he said. "Money goes where the demand is." University Budget Director Mike Masch said he "respectfully disagreed" with Udani's claim. "I don't think they have analysis that would support that claim," he added. Masch stressed that once collected, there is no distinction made between the General Fee paid by undergraduate students and by graduate students, and that no attempt is made to fund programs based on the preferences of who contributed. "The approach of the Office of Student Life is that they are not funding undergraduate activities and graduate activities but student activities," he said. "There are no separate pots." Masch was also critical of what he deemed GAPSA's intentions to divide many services -- such as Career Planning and Placement Services and Counseling and Psychological Services -- into separate undergraduate and graduate divisions. Udani, however, said GAPSA does not support the idea of splitting these services, which he praised for being "shared by everyone." In addition, Udani said GAPSA members are upset by the lack of information provided by the University, adding that GAPSA cannot prove that they are being short-changed since the University has not provided them with a comprehensive breakdown of General Fee expenditures. "We are not 100 percent sure of what's going on and that's part of the problem," he said. "If we can't get information from the administrators, then we can't prove anything."