The studentry passed the graduate student representative amendment to the Student Fed constitution on Tuesday.
President Arielle Mueller said the vote passed 76-37. The amendment allows for a representative from the Van Andel Graduate School on Student Fed. Pending President Larry Arnn’s approval, the amendment will be enacted.
According to the Van Andel Graduate School Policies, “Graduate students will have a representative on the College’s Student Federation, and are free to join and participate in student club activity.”
The graduate students already pay student fees, according to Ronald Pestritto, the dean of the graduate school.
“Graduate students are part of the student body and thus need to be represented in student government,” Pestritto said.
An anonymous person or persons littered the campus bulletin boards with a vague message: “Vote No.”
The culprit wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, but the message behind the signs became more clear when a revised message of, “Vote NO on the Student Fed Amendment” appeared.
The signs posted across campus kept disappearing and the person or persons posting them replaced them upwards of five times in a day.
Despite their efforts, the amendment passed overwhelmingly.
Pestritto was puzzled by the pushback to the amendment.
“Graduate students are part of the student body and thus need to be represented in student government,” Pestritto said. “I’m not sure what the argument against that could be, especially since they pay student fees like everybody else and are thus entitled to representation in the process that determines how those fees are spent.
“In fact, we thought this had been taken care of last year, but evidently it fell through the cracks,” Pestritto said.
