Cal State University Chancellor Charles Reed moved yesterday to keep graduate student State University Grants (SUGs) in place for the 2012-13 academic year, after speculation that some grants would be eliminated.
Reed and all 23 CSU presidents met for their regular bimonthly meeting in Long Beach, where they discussed a broad range of issues, including the status of SUGs, which provide tuition assistance to roughly 20,000 low-income graduate students.
Campus financial aid offices were notified yesterday that 2012-13 financial aid packages for graduate students would include SUGs, according to Erik Fallis, CSU spokesman.
But Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander said that even though the grants are secure for one more year, potential losses of $200 million to the CSU next year could affect future financial aid policies.
“This [discussion] was just to figure out how we survive next year and in coming years,” Alexander said.
A coalition of protesters from United Auto Workers 4123, an organization representing graduate assistants, teaching associates, and instructional student assistants, brought a petition with 2,500 signatures to the meeting in hopes of convincing Reed to keep all graduate student SUGs in place.
The group of about 30 students from various CSU campuses, including San Francisco State, demanded to speak with Chancellor Reed. Instead, Executive Vice Chancellor Benjamin Quillian broke the news they had been waiting for.
“First, he told us that we were very effective,” UAW 4123 President Rich Anderson said. “Then he told us they were going to keep the grants in place.”
California State Student Association Executive Director Miles Nevin said he was unsure of exactly what prompted the decision, but that the student-led movement was likely a factor.
“When 2,500 students speak up it has an impact,” Nevin said. “I think that did play into the decision.”
Many students were led to believe the SUGs would be eliminated when the CSU began withholding them last week in order to begin a review of policy and increased demand for financial aid.
Hayley Levanthal, a graduate student at San Francisco State University, who started a petition of her own to raise awareness about the potential cuts, said she was relieved and ecstatic when she learned that the SUGs would remain in place through the 2012-13 school year.
“I am so glad to hear that Chancellor Reed and the CSU Presidents continue to support graduate students and their departments,” Leventhal said via email. “Over the past week I have read every single one of the over 300 comments posted on my petition, including story after story of how the proposed cuts would affect individual students.”
Tristan Grigoleit, a psychology graduate student at CSULB, said he signed Leventhal’s petition the minute he found out about it.
“Graduate students are vocal,” Grigoleit said. “We’re very stubborn. My continuation in this program is contingent upon being able to secure [grants].”