At its weekly general body meeting Wednesday night, the Undergraduate Council of Students postponed its vote on a resolution addressing pay for graduate students to allow time for revisions.
Though a draft of the resolution was handed out at last week's meeting for council members to review, members decided at last night's meeting to abstain from a vote so additional clauses can be added to the resolution for next week.
The resolution outlines a number of policy changes by the Graduate School that have negatively affected some master's students - including cutting tuition remission and health insurance. According to Sara Damiano '08, chair of the Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee, these changes will hurt graduate students and are inconsistent with the University's Plan for Academic Enrichment.
"The resolution calls for the Graduate School to enter into a dialogue with the people affected by the changes," Damiano said.
When UCS began discussing the resolution, Zac Townsend '08, a former member of UCS, questioned why undergraduates should care about graduate student issues.
Jessica Johnson GS, one of three graduate students who helped draft the resolution, said changes in pay for graduate students affect large introductory courses because a shortage of teaching assistants can force professors to cap courses.
"There is very little we can do without undergraduate support," she said.
Townsend also pointed to language in the resolution that says "master's students serving as community directors will no longer receive tuition remission," asking how many people are actually affected by this change.
Damiano said the numbers were not clear and added she will do more research before next week's meeting. She said clauses would be added to the resolution clarifying the reference to community directors and how graduate students' pay affects the size of undergraduate courses.
The council then voted 18-4 in favor of tabling the resolution.
Following discussion of the resolution, the council heard committee reports.
Michael Glassman '09, chair of the Communications Committee, announced that UCS has so far received 600 responses through its current online poll. Glassman said he hopes more students will fill out the poll.
Damiano said the University's new initiative regarding a winter session, "January@Brown," is moving forward and committee members are currently working to choose courses for the winter session.
Brian Becker '09, chair of the Campus Life Committee, announced he is working on an initiative to expand movie selection and allow students to take movies rented from Media Services in the Sciences Library out of the building.
The council also voted to appoint Stefan Smith '09 to fill a vacant at-large representative spot.
UCS also categorized three student groups. Ziggurat, the Brown journal of religion, was given Category III status. Visions, an Asian-American publication, was designated Category III, and the Slavic Club was given Category I status.
