While ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, is trying to get attention as it prepares for upcoming elections, the Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, also will have a spot on the ballot next week. COGS’s student tax will be up for renewal starting next Monday, with graduate and professional students able to vote on the matter until April 15. Polls open Monday.
At a February meeting, the executive board elected to keep the graduate student tax at $9.25 per student per semester for the fall and spring semesters and $4.75 for the summer semesters, COGS President Stefan Fletcher said.
The tax renewal is on a three-year basis where major governing groups have their tax voted on.
All graduate and professional students are eligible to vote online, determining if the organization deserves the funding.
COGS solely relies on the student tax for funding, and Fletcher said not having the tax revenue would be a big blow if the student government was not to receive the revenue.
“Without the tax, COGS can’t provide the conference grounds, event planing, free legal services, the various social activities that COGS holds,” he said.
While losing taxes would cripple the organization, Fletcher added the organization has relied on student taxes for the past 45 years, receiving revenue from graduate students.
COGS hopes to get more graduate students to vote by advertising through social media and encouraging representatives to get the word out to their respective contingencies.
Fletcher said it is a coincidence that COGS decided to extend Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week — which began at the beginning of April — to stretch through part of election week, hopefully giving people a reason to support an extended COGS tax.
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Discussion
Share and discuss “Vital three-year COGS tax up for vote” on social media.
