by Wendy J. Allyn

Concerned about SIUC’s drop in enrollment, a loss equaling $1 million, Graduate and Professional Student Council executives urged council members to be aware of department cuts which may affect the graduate school.

SIUC must make up for the loss by cutting some department programs, GPSC President William Karrow said.

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Karrow said he is concerned about how graduate students will be affected by cuts to their departments. Because Karrow is on the Graduate School Budget Planning Committee, he asked that council members be aware of what is under consideration for cutting and report to him with recommendations for their departments.

All departments may have to bear the blunt of these cuts, Karrow said. If there are cuts made, I’m going to do my best to represent the students.

Mark Terry, GPSC vice president for graduate school affairs, said although nothing can be decided immediately, council members should talk to department heads to find out what is under consideration to be cut. They should watch for low-priority expenditures in each department, he said.

It’s very early in the process. Bill (Karrow) was just trying to tell them, you ought to be aware and contact your department,’ Terry said. He wanted to raise the question, why or why not should cuts be made?’

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the council decided that a GPSC member will attend the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students’ upcoming conference in Miami to report on President Bill Clinton’s Sept. 11 visit to SIUC.

Kevin Boyer, executive director of the association, a graduate student lobbying group, organization, requested that an SIUC representative attend the conference, Terry said. Boyer first informed GPSC of Clinton’s visit to SIUC by electronic mail on Aug. 22.

Karrow said the association is primarily interested in hearing about the experience of having Clinton on campus.

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NAGPS informed us first that Clinton was coming here. They probably would like to find out how it turned out, Karrow said.

The council decided the representative would be responsible for submitting a report to the GPSC executive board and informing the council about the conference. The representative has not yet been determined.

In addition, GPSC closed nominations for vice president of administrative affairs. Law student Doug Phebus, who was nominated at two previous meetings, now holds the position in accordance with GPSC constitutional rules.