Frustration with the Arizona Students Association and rising tuition and fees are major concerns for the Graduate and Professional Student Association, said Brian Collier, association president.
Collier spoke about the group's 2004 agenda at a GPSA assembly Friday.
"ASA continues to be unprofessional and disorganized, and I am at my wit's end with them," Collier said.
Collier was a major force behind the Web site that allows ASU students to get a refund for the $1 they pay for ASA services, and has made his frustrations with the organization well known.
"It is high time that ASA show us the money," he said.
ASU President Michael Crow's proposed $1,200 tuition increase for graduate students will be a main agenda item this year for the GPSA, Collier said.
"Our group is affected more than any other group, and a lot of people will be hurt by it, especially those who are not teaching assistants or research assistants, and receiving a tuition remission," he said. "I am speaking out against the speed of the increases more than anything."
Jennifer Clary-Lemon, an assembly member and English graduate student, said she was very concerned with the proposed raise.
"I would like to see a cap at 34 percent like the undergraduates have, because all students would like to see their tuition as low as possible, not just undergraduates, TAs and RAs," Clary-Lemon said.
Antonio Garcia, ASU's Academic Senate president and an associate professor of bioengineering, said that despite protests, tuition is likely to increase each year. The Academic Senate is ASU's governing body for faculty.
"Even if graduate tuition is capped at the bottom third, [like undergraduate tuition], that is a moving target, and will be difficult to hit," he said.
Impending fees also were highlighted at the assembly meeting Friday. The most pressing for the GPSA are the proposed fee for improvements to the Memorial Union and Student Recreation Complex and the health fee, Collier said.
"I wanted the MU/SRC issue to be separated, but Undergratuate Student Government passed a measure joining them, and we didn't want to further confuse the regents," Collier said. He added that he would vote "no" on the measure.
The Arizona Board of Regents will decide whether to approve the expansion and renovation, if ASU students vote "yes" in the online election Feb. 18 and 19.
"We need a huge voter turnout, no matter which way they vote," Collier said. "It would be great if more graduate students vote than undergraduates; that would be telling indeed of whose campus this is and who are the people that participate in campus life."
One of the biggest misconceptions among the ASU community is that graduate students are "apathetic," Collier said.
"We've really made an impact on this campus this year, and we have a great momentum going to hopefully make some more positive changes for graduate students," he said.
For more information on the MU/SRC election, go to www.gotvote.org.
Reach the reporter at annemarie.moody@asu.edu.
