2009-2010 GSA Treasurer

Erica McKenzie is the 2009-2010 GSA Treasurer and can be contact via gsatreasurer AT ucdavis DOT edu.

See also 2008-2009 GSA Treasurer.

The GSA Treasurer primary responsibility lies in developing the budget, and then monitoring spending and making adjustment (or reprimands) accordingly. In addition to the GSA budget, the GSA treasurer is responsible for the following:

• Determining the number of representatives each department/graduate group gets
  

• The GSA Travel Awards
  

• Ex officio member of the Student Services and Fees Administrative Advisory Committee (SSFAAC)
  

• What ever the the GSA Treasurer is interested in

What are the sources of income for GSA?
GSA's primary income source is the from GSA fees, which are paid by every graduate student ($12.00/quarter). Additional income comes from the GSA reserve (drawing it down as well as income from the accounts), and some supplemental moneys from Graduate Studies and Student affairs.

What does GSA spend money on?
The easiest way to answer this question is to look at the budget, however, in brief, the budget supports the following:

• Salaries for office coordinator
  

• Executive Council stipends
  

• Department support - department funds and orientation funds
  

• Organization funds
  

• Special project funds
  

• Travel awards and Interdisciplinary Graduate Symposium
  

• Social events - GSA picnic, Friday coffee/bagel/donut day, Third Thursday pizza, Outdoor events (e.g., skiing)
  

• Lobbying for graduation students - locally, and nationally

Determining the budget
Prior to the end of the fiscal year, the treasurers final task (if he/she is leaving office) is to prepare a preliminary budget to balance the coming year's income and expenses. This is molded by feedback in the previous year from the general assembly and usage of each line item, as well as the opinions of the Executive Council (EC). The EC must first approve the budget before it is sent to the General Assembly (GA) for discussion, modification, and approval (June meeting). This budget is then revised over the summer, and then new budget usually reflects more accurate income estimates. It is once again reviewed and approved by the EC, and then again reviewed and approved by the GA (October meeting).

Through the course of the year, it is inevitable that the budget will not be spent exactly as planned; some lines will be overspend while other lines will be underspent. In order to more accurately reflect this, the annual budget undergoes one final review, where line items are adjust to reflect actual and expected year-end spending. It is then again reviewed and approved by both the EC and the GA (March meeting).

At the May 2009 General Assembly meeting, the EC and assembly discussed the history of the GSA reserves, and how they should be handled in the future. The results of these discussions is the below policy document which has been signed by the GSA Chair, Malaika Singleton, and GSA Treasurer, Erica McKenzie.
Reserves policy document.pdf

Below is the approved 2010-11 budget; this budget was reviewed and approved by the June GSA General Assembly:
GSA Approved 10-11 budget.pdf

Last updated 3. June 2010. After three years at the GSA treasurer, I will be handing over my responsibilities to the Treasurer elect John Petersen; he will still be contactable through the gsatreasurer AT ucdavis DOT edu.

The GSA budget. The 2009-2010 budget was passed in the June 2009 GA meeting; this budget reflected the change in the budget reserve policy. Over the summer, the office coordinator position went from full- to half-time and also the staff person changed (formerly Sandra, now Jennifer). Additionally, GSA was subject to a 5.4% total cut in the funding that it receives from Student Affairs. As a result, the budget was not re-reviewed and re-approved until the December meeting. In spite of this delay, spending has been in-line with expected and approved amounts. The approved budget is shown below:
Approved 09-10 budget - Dec 09.pdf
The approved 10-11 budget is available here:
GSA Approved 10-11 budget.pdf

(SSFAAC). This is a committee which is devoted to advising the administration regarding student fee issues; it meets every other Thursday (meetings are open to the public; if you are interested in attending let me know and I will let you know when/where the next meeting is). SSFAAC is currently working to improve their site, so if you visit it and have comment feel free to share them with me or with the contact listed on the site. With the current budget climate, there are many interesting and scary facts/scenarios which are brought to the committee. SSFAAC has been heavily involved in advising Student Affairs on current and upcoming budget cuts, and owing to the volume of work associated with the budget cuts, minutes have not recently been approved. For more information, see the committee meeting minutes below (only approved minutes are posted — ~1 - 3 month delay):
SSFAAC Minutes Oct 8 2009.pdf
SSFAAC Minutes Oct 15 2009.pdf
SSFAAC Minutes Oct 29 2009.pdf
SSFAAC Minutes Nov 12 2009.pdf
SSFAAC Minutes Dec 3 2009.pdf

2008-09 SSFAAC minutes can be found 2008-2009 GSA Treasurer.

Orientation Fund. Orientation funding is guaranteed at $2.05 per student this year. This year, 23 application were turned in, which is slightly more than the last two year (22 and 21 for 07-08 and 08-09 respectively) and the applying programs represented ~40% of the graduate student body. In 2008-09, orientation funding was awarded at the lesser of $8.86 per student or the amount requested, while in 2009-10 it was the lesser of $7.18 per student or the amount requested; the 2009-10 amount is closer to 2007-08 funding level.

Travel Awards. I have worked on many iterations of the travel award application through the last couple years, and I am here to say that it is finished as far as I am concerned. I think that the new application require slightly more work in some areas (e.g. filling out the course record table), however is better defined. This January 2010, the number of travel award application submission was considerably less than it has been in years past (17 compared to typically double that amount); this is possibly due to “an over circulation of announcements.” Regardless, judges worked hard to evaluate each of the admissible applications and fourteen recipients were selected. Congratulations to recipients and many thanks to all the judges!

For the May/June funding cycle (travel any time in the 2010 calender year), 54 applications were received (compared to 72 in Spring 2009 and and 106 in Spring 2007); as stated above, this decline may be due “an over circulation of announcements.” Again, judges worked hard (with some great questions about scoring) to evaluate the applications, and 37 recipients were selected with awards ranging from $100 - $500.

In addition the the changes made in the actual application, GSA Travel award recipients are now required to provide a transcript; a academic advising transcript (or "banner" transcript) is acceptable so long as it is sent directly from the home department to the GSA office (is never touched by the student). If you have any comments on the Travel Award application or judging process, let me know on my (comments) page.

Student Health Fee Oversight Committee. I am serving as a graduate student representative on this committee. The first meeting this year was an urgent meeting to approve the new Cowell hours of operation. This change was enacted in order to accommodate staff furloughs. Additionally, Cowell has changed to a “same-day appointment” scheduling method. The student health service reports that the new limited hours have received no criticism, however that several people, and particularly graduate students, have found the “same-day appointment” to be difficult as they need to arrange time off to visit the doctor for routine things. Cowell is looking into how best to accommodate this, and is considering allowing a limited number of advance-scheduled appoints. The student health service has moved to their new building, and preliminary reports indicate the love the new space and layout. Additionally, in the May HFOC meeting, the committee decided to extend the reduced hours of opertation that were instituted to handle furlough times; patient visits and surveys indicate that these reductions were not having a large impact on students.

UCD Student Affairs Budget Cuts Marrah, Cynthia, and I have all been involved in an ad hoc advisory committee to Student Affairs regarding the upcoming budget cuts throughout the later part of 2008-2009. SSFAAC has also been heavily involved in this. In 2009-2010, this committee has only met once, and it was largely as an update of the situation. The EC spend a lot of time reaching out to grad students to understand what Student Affairs units are important to them. These efforts, and their results are summarized in the below letter.
GSA - SA budget cuts.pdf