GSAS Student Council Passes Budget, Constitutional Amendment at First Fall Meeting

The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Student Council passed its annual budget and called for student nominations for unfilled council positions at its first meeting of the fall semester on Thursday night.

Approximately $167,000 of the $195,000 budget will come from the annual student fee — which was raised from $25 to $35 last year — with an additional $4,000 coming from the dean’s office. The GSC set aside $10,000 for January@HarvardGriffinGSAS, which provides academic and professional development workshops alongside community programming for graduate students.

The budget also set aside $50,000 for conference and research grants — which fund opportunities for GSAS students to travel to conferences around the world and pursue research projects they cannot individually fund — an increase from the $35,000 allotted last year.

The council also allocated $27,000 for student events it runs, including a $10,000 student leadership banquet and an Ivy+ research summit for graduate students at Harvard’s peer institutions. Each year, a different university hosts the summit.

Funding was also set aside for several social events for graduate students, the first of which — “Lunch on the Lawn”— will occur Saturday.

The GSC also passed a motion to permanently modify the chair of support position into a co-chair position, held by two elected executives.

After the vote, the floor opened for nominations for GSC’s unfilled council positions. The council is still looking for candidates to fill a number of top positions, including the GSC’s chair of technology, chair of communications, chair of research, and five divisional and at-large representatives.

Laura König, who was elected as president during special elections for the GSC last May, encouraged students to nominate themselves for unfilled council positions and discussed her own positive experience on the council.

“I’m so excited about the upcoming year. I’ve had so much fun already with my team, but also with everyone I’ve met at GSAS so far. It’s so nice to get involved in all of this and have a sense of community,” König said. “It will only get more fun from here.”

The GSC also called for program representatives, who appear on behalf of each of the 81 GSAS programs. Currently, only 40 of the 138 positions are filled.

The interim chair of technology, Tejaswi Polimetla, and the interim chair of research, Yash Rana, were nominated before the meeting. One student, Olwen Blessing, nominated herself for the at-large representative of master’s students. Asynchronous voting for the elections will end on Sept. 12.

The meeting concluded with an open discussion floor, with GSC Treasurer Fardin Aryan apologizing for the meeting running late.

Correction: September 7, 2024

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that former GSC President Aden Solway apologized for the meeting running late. In fact, GSC Treasurer Fardin Aryan made the apology.

—Staff writer Maeve T. Brennan can be reached at maeve.brennan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @mtbrennan.

—Staff writer Angelina J. Parker can be reached at angelina.parker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @angelinajparker.