Graduate students may request GSO Partition funds from the GSC for their student group event. If you are interested in requesting funding, please read all of the material below carefully. If you have any questions not answered on this page, contact the Graduate Student Counsil Funding Committee Chair at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for assistance.

Funding Information

• The Goals of the GSO Partition Fund
• Eligibility for Funding
• Types of Funding
• How to Apply for Funding
• Line Items for Group Budgets
• Criteria Used in Funding Committee Recommendations
• Things the Funding Committee Will Likely Not Recommend Funding
• The Rights of Groups Applying for Funding
• Funding Follow-up
  
  

Other Information You May Find Helpful

• Advertising Your Event
• Alternate Sources of Funding
• History of Funded Events/Groups
• GSC Finances

The Goals of the GSO Partition Fund

As per the GSC By-Laws (Article III, Section 2, Subsection C.2), activities funded through the GSGF shall pursue at least one (and hopefully more) of the following goals:

• Provide a broader educational and cultural experience for graduate students.
• Enhance interdepartmental social interaction among graduate students.
• Strengthen the campus-wide sense of community among graduate students.
• Make the graduate school experience more valuable and enjoyable for all graduate students.

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Eligibility for Funding

In order to apply for GSO Partition funds, groups must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• The group must be a Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) registered with the Office of Student Activities (OSA).
• The group must fit the definition of a Graduate Student Organization (GSO), where at least 35% of members are graduate students.
• The group must NOT receive any funds from a special fee that is levied, in whole or in part, on the graduate population.
• Any event with multiple GSO's organizing/running the event must apply together during a single Funding Committee meeting.
• Any series of events must be proposed for during a single Funding Committee meeting.
• Event and group must be open to entire graduate community and held in English. No funding for religious or political events, with the strict exception of events that are educational and that all grad students would be allowed to and feel welcome attending.
  
• All advertising should feature the GSC logo and "Funded by GSC."
• Events must comply with University Policies, such as the Party Guidelines and Critical Policies listed on the OSA website and in Student Organization Handbook .
• Must submit a budget on myGroups before midnight on Thursday in order to come to the Funding Committee meeting the following Monday.
• Must attend Funding Committee meeting held on Mondays.
• Must attend GSC meeting after coming to a Funding Committee meeting in order to get final budget approval.
• Must post event information to the grad-events mailing list by 6PM the Sunday one week before the event. (E-mail goes out on Mondays).

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Types of Funding

Applications can be made for either annual funding or funding for a single event. With either type of funding, the maximum cumulative annual funding possible (not guaranteed) for a group is $8000 per year. Due to extremely limited resources, most groups request and receive substantially less.

Co-sponsorship by the GSC is another possibility for an event. Questions about this can be directed to the funding committee

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How to Apply for Funding

The Financial Officer from the applying group must fill out the appropriate funding request at https://mygroups2.stanford.edu/ and should refer to the Funding Manual for assistance. Please contactt Jeff Lock This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with any technical questions. 

The GSC Funding Committee Chair will then call a meeting of the Funding Committee to review the application and make a recommendation to the full GSC. At the next GSC meeting, the members of the graduate population present will come to a consensus on the funding request.

The Funding Commmittee meets at 11:30 am nearly every Monday during the year, and every 2 weeks in the summer. All are welcome to attend. Groups must send a representative of your organization to go over your application/budget with the committee.

Please note that, once the funding decision has been made by consensus, there is a one week period during which, by a majority vote, the GSC can override a funding decision. Because of this requirement, however, groups receiving GSO funds may not draw on those funds until one week (2 weeks in the summer) after the decision to allocate the funds has been made.

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Line Items for Group Budgets

Below is the list of GL Codes groups are elegible to use when requesting GSC funding.

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Criteria Used in Funding Committee Recommendations

While not intended to be comprehensive, the following list should give you some idea of what criteria the Funding Committee will use when making their recommendation to the rest of the GSC.

• What is the target population for the organization and its activities?
• How will the organization's activities be advertised?
• How realistic and specific are the activities and budget figures?
• Is the allocation a fair and efficient use of the GSO Partition?
• If applicable, have the organization's previous funded and non-funded events been successful?
• Do the organization's activities provide sufficient value for the amount of money allocated?
• Do the organization's activities make a unique contribution to the community?
• Has the organization been active in seeking outside funding?

In addition to these criteria, the GSC has set the following guidelines for funding requests:

• Courses offered for credit
  Courses offered for credit in a department should, in general, be funded by that department. The GSC realizes, however, that departments are sometimes reluctant to fund a new course. Because of this the GSC may partially fund a new course for up to 2 academic years. After that time, it is expected that the department will take over funding the course.
   
• Conferences
  The GSC may help subsidize conference registrations for academic conferences if such a conference is significantly related to an organization's activities. This will be limited to $100 per person for up to 6 people for conference registration.
   
• Travel
  The GSC has set a standard mileage rate of $0.25 per mile for up to $10 per person. For conferences, a 6 person limit applies.
   
• Space for regular group activities
  The GSC understands the importance of having regular, consistent meeting space for organizations. The GSC also understands the difficulty in obtaining such space without paying for it. However, the GSC will not provide money for such space. The GSC will work with groups to help obtain space through other means, and the GSC is working with the University to help alleviate the situation.
   
• Honoraria
  The GSC Funding Committee is not overly enthusiastic about funding honoraria. As a maximum (not a guaranteed amount), the GSCFC would at most recommend funding the first $100, and after that would fund up to $750 only if there are matching funds from another source. For example, if the cost of honoraria was $400, the GSC FC would recommend at most $250 of that ($100 + half of the remaining $300).

• Room Rental for Special Events 

Funds for special event room rental is highly restricted, since most on-campus locations are free to student groups if available. Groups are allowed funding for one event per quarter in Tressider.

• Janitorial Fees:

Funds for janitorial fees are highly restricted. Unless building administrators insist, GSOs should do setup and cleanup.

• Community Service: 

            Up to 10% of annual Funding Committee  budget is spent on community           service groups. These groups are evaluated on case-by-case basis.

• Equipment check out:

Groups can check out a sound system, a projector and a Karaoke system .

• No retroactive funding!

• Groups who do not advertise on Grad Events have their funding revoked!  

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Things the Funding Committee Will Likely Not Recommend Funding

• Events held off campus (very rare exceptions are made).
• Events that are by nature limited in appeal and scope and which do not appear to be intented for the greater campus community
• Gifts for volunteers (e.g. T-shirts)
• Capital expenditures
  If the GSC funds the purchase of capital equipment, it will usually be for something which other groups would also have an interest in, and must be essential for the event. The GSC will take posession of the equipment after the event so that other groups, including the applying group, are able to use the equipment in the future.
• Date-specific banners
• DJ equipment
  The GSPB owns DJ equipment which is loaned out to groups on a first-come, first-serve basis. We do not believe that we should be funding the rental of something which is available for free.
• Newspaper Ads
  Newspaper ads are largely an ineffective way of reaching graduate students. Instead, groups are encouraged to use other ways of advertising events. Groups are also required to advertise their GSC-funded event on the weekly GSC Grad Events E-mail Bulletin. Events must be posted on this form by 6 p.m. the Sunday one week before the event.
• No funds for regular, consistent meetings including space rental, food, and other meeting costs.
  
• To be fair and equitable to all those who put money into the fund, the maximum funding per fiscal year is soft capped per student. Groups with highly overlapping membership will be treated as such.

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The Rights of Groups Applying for Funding

Any group applying for funding from the GSO Partition may attend any meeting where their application will be discussed. This includes Funding Committee meetings as well as full GSC meetings (all such meetings are always open to the public). Groups applying for GSO Partition funds will be notified of the time and location of all relevant meetings at least 48 hours in advance. If either the Funding Committee or the GSC fails to meet the requirement and the group is not able to send a representative to the meeting as a result, the group may, within one week, request that their application be re-evaluated at a time when a member of their organization is able to attend.

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Funding Follow-up

If an event is funded, at least one GSC representative will be in attendance at the event. The Graduate Student Council requests that all advertisements acknowledge the GSC's support of the event. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of any advertising produced for the event, and also require that a follow-up form be submitted before the GSC Funding Committee will recommend funding for the group's next event.

• Follow-upForm0708 (to be completed after the event)
  

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