GPSA April Meeting Summary

Upcoming Events & Announcements

Casino Night- April 16, 2015

GPSA is excited to bring you Casino Night! The event is taking place at Milberry Union on Thursday, April 16 5-8 p.m. Attendance is free, but you must bring your Eventbrite ticket (either printed or on your smartphone). With RSVP, each student will receive two drink tickets, $500 in poker chips, and a raffle ticket. The raffle prizes include four tickets for the opening of ANNIE The Musical, a $75 gift card to a restaurant, and a $50 voucher in Bear Hugs. Don’t know how to play card games? Not to worry! You can join a table and learn as you play. RSVP under the Events tab at gpsa.ucsf.edu.

Incoming GPSA Board Voting

It is Spring and that means that it is time to vote in the new GPSA board! See candidate stations on GPSA homepage at gpsa.ucsf.edu. At least one candidate is running for each position. Vote for your favorite applicant by Friday, April 17!

Updates

GPSA held its monthly open meeting on Monday, April 6.

UCSF Student Housing Discussion

UCSF Housing is self-funded, meaning that the housing residents, which include UCSF graduate and professional students, postdocs, and faculty, fund housing. The prohibitively high cost of living in San Francisco has been an increasing concern of UCSF students and administration. As a result, the UCSF Housing has been working to increase the number of available housing units to the incoming UCSF students. Due to the high cost of real estate in SF, as well as some longstanding housing contracts with a portion of the current tenants, opening up new housing has been a challenge.

Vice Chancellor of Campus Life Services, Clare Shinnerl, came to the Monday meeting to hear student government feedback on issues surrounding housing shortages. Vice Chancellor Shinnerl reassured the GPSA board that the University has begun the long-term process of acquiring new housing. The new strategy is to implement no more than 2-year term limits for students to allow enough time for students to become familiar with the city, and to then to enable the incoming students to reside in the UCSF Housing during their first two years.

GPSA posed some ideas on how to improve the housing situation for incoming students. One suggestion was to allocate housing with priority to incoming students over postdocs and faculty. Another suggestion was to make the off-campus housing referral service more robust and streamlined to help connect landlords in the city with UCSF students.

Student Services Fee Advisory Committee Update

The annual revenue from student fees is gathered and distributed among student service units on campus, such as Office of Career & Professional Development, Student Health, Fitness and Recreation, Family Services, Arts & Events, and Student Life. An annual committee of student leaders and administrative faculty gathers to review financial proposals form each of the units to verify how the funds are utilized, as well as, to review requests for additional funding. The funds from student fees therefore cover hiring personnel needed to run the aforementioned units, as well as, the resources required to run student events. Most units have independent funding sources to supplement student services fees, which are by themselves inadequate to maintain all the services offered on the UCSF campus.

Due to the persistent nature of inflation, there is a 4% annual increase in the cost of personnel hiring, which includes salary and benefits increases. This year, the Student Services Fee Advisory Committee (SSFAC) was hesitant to approve any increases in funding. The committee made the decision to remain revenue-neutral, meaning that a funding reserve of about 10% will be retained as a safety net, even if requests to increase funding are received. Any student service unit requiring additional revenue to support annual benefits increases will need to secure independent funding sources.

The UC Council on Student Fees convenes on April 11-12 at UC Merced. Student representatives Henock Woldu and Polina Pulyanina of the School of Pharmacy will be in attendance.

Volunteers Needed for Inside UCSF

Inside UCSF is an annual program that welcomes undergraduate students interested in attending UCSF for a two day orientation. This program allows students to get to know the University from the inside. Student volunteers are needed to help guide visitors during this event. If you are interested in volunteering for Inside UCSF, please email Jennifer Rosko at Jennifer.Rosko@ucsf.edu.