At its first meeting Wednesday, Council of Graduate Students members discussed how they could influence existing university committees and form their own for graduate students.

After electing two students to committees in Academic Governance, COGS members discussed nominations for their finance committee and for the Academic Council's provost-search committee.

COGS will recommend four of its members for the committee, of which two representatives will be selected in late September, COGS president Carl Newman said.

"We'd like to get a list of people for the committee as soon as possible," Newman said.

He expects to have nominations before Sept. 25, he said.

COGS is also involved in the university's plans for college reorganization.

Brad Love, who represents COGS on the Committee for College Reorganization, doubted the administration's concern over graduate student input.

"Nobody has really talked about students in the whole deal," Love said during the meeting. "They're really not a big topic in the deal."

He said he only has heard professors mention graduate students when they talk about their production speed.

Love plans to continue voicing his concerns to faculty about the restructuring of colleges and their departments, he said.

Also during the meeting, Ed Nerowski, a Russian graduate student, was re-elected to the finance committee, making it functional again.

Last semester, three members of COGS' finance committee - which approves grant requests for graduate students - graduated, making the group inactive until Wednesday.

Nerowski said he didn't question Newman's approval of the grants during the committee's break.

"He basically knows the rules," Nerowski said. "Since he was treasurer last year, he knows what's going on."

COGS will address the issues of job placement for international graduate students and the university's choice of a new student-insurance company.

COGS next meeting will be Sept. 29.