By Signe K. Skinion

Two Undergraduate Student Government proposals are in limbo now that the Graduate and Professional Student Council passed alternatives to the proposals at the council’s Wednesday meeting, USG members say.

SPC is a campus organization that plans events and activities, such as concerts, for the student body. It is funded through student fees allocated to the group by student government.

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USG proposed a $2.25 student activity fee increase earlier this month, and in February, the USG Senate proposed an increase in the Student Programming Council’s funding. It also called for a special advisory board to monitor the funding and spending of SPC.

GPSC wrote a counter-resolution to prevent the student activity fee increase. The GPSC plan also requests that the increase in SPC funding be postponed until next year while a committee made up of the two organizations reviews SPC’s funding and spending procedures.

Scott Pfeiffer, USG chief of staff, said the senate has three options now that GPSC has countered the previous resolutions.

First, we can see if we can come to a compromise with GPSC over the resolutions, Pfeiffer said. Second, the senate can review our resolutions. And third, we could just leave it up to the higher levels, like the SIU Board of Trustees or Student Affairs, and let them make the final decision on the matter.

David Vingren, USG Thompson Point senator, said he understands the council’s concern with the two proposals and said he was not surprised that GPSC opposed the student fee increase.

Vingren said when the senate voted on the fee increase, he opposed it because his constituency was against it. He said the people he talked with felt the increase would be unnecessary at this time.

Basically, it was pretty much a dead bill after I found out that GPSC and the Board of Trustees were opposed to it, Vingren said.

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However, Vingren said the SPC advisory board is needed. He said he believes that through the board, GPSC’s concerns can be answered.

Vingren said he sees two problems both organizations agree on arising from the GPSC counter-resolution. One is how to pay for SPC, and the other is a need for an investigation into the funding and spending procedures of the organization.

Pfeiffer said there will be a lot of discussion among USG members before any decisions are made on the proposals.

In all honesty, we’ll have to wait and see what kind of feedback we receive, Pfeiffer said. After talking with senators and the executive staff, we’ll see what route to take.