COGS Treasurer Shannon Demlow said the finance committee will ask the COGS full council for a “slight lessening of restrictions” on the circumstances under which graduate student organizations, or GSOs, can apply for funding.

About $13,000 is allocated in the fall semester budget for student events but less than half of it has been utilized, she said. Demlow also said event funding applications have come in more slowly than usual this semester.

COGS Vice President for Internal Affairs Adam Lovgren said a major change COGS plans to make is allowing food to be included in funding requests.

COGS currently can grant up to $1,500 for each student event and soon could allow up to $150 to be spent on food, he said.

In the past, food funds were limited to prevent GSOs from only using them for food and nothing else, he said.

COGS Representative from the Department of Horticulture Carolyn Lowry, said no funds were given to the horticulture department for events this semester, but she plans to ask for funds next semester for a plant scientist graduate research symposium, an opportunity for graduate students to share their work with each other.

Lowry said many groups work around food when planning event budgets by asking for funds for different purposes and paying for food themselves.

“Every time I talk to someone about COGS, they say it would be so great to fund food,” she said.
“I feel like if they opened (funding up) to food … it would be the perfect compromise.”

Demlow said the finance committee might ask the full council to reallocate the unused funds for other COGS functions next semester, such as graduate student trivia nights.

The funds also could roll over to the spring semester to allow future student group funding, she said.

COGS is holding its last full council meeting of the semester at 5:30 p.m. today in the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center Auditorium, at which the funding rules will be discussed.

Lovgren said COGS also will make a formal statement by voting whether or not to pass a resolution supporting the renovation of Chittenden Hall.

COGS will turn to other student groups for support if the resolution passes, he said, and is expected to sponsor Get Chitt Done, a 5-km run next semester to support the renovation.

Also on the docket are updates to plans for next semester, including the COGS child care grant and potential restructuring of the full council.