The graduate activity fee is paid by every graduate student who registers on main campus. It is a mandatory fee paid once in the fall and once in the spring semesters to support the Graduate Student Organization, your independent representative governing body on SU’s campus. The GSO receives no funds from the university. The fee is currently the organization’s sole means of support.

Being a graduate student, or being admitted as a graduate student, does not automatically make one a GSO member. A graduate student becomes a GSO member once his or her graduate activity fees are paid. Once a member, all of the privileges of membership are bestowed upon and the student and that student becomes subject to the rules, constitution, and bylaws of the GSO.

The graduate activity fee, despite its nomenclature, is not merely a fund for campus activities. It funds graduate campus-wide services, special initiatives, representation to the administration, speakers and conferences, and an array of other things chosen each year by elected representatives. These elected representatives are selected in each department by the graduate students themselves. Each department is allotted one senator to represent the interests of all enrolled students in that department. It is a senator’s responsibility to work with the members of her or his own department. Any concerns conveyed to a department senator then are brought to the GSO Senate for redress.

No one’s fees may be waived. The GSO Senate unanimously voted to abolish fee waivers half a decade ago, which has become part of the GSO constitution since 2005. Requests to have the fee waived today will be automatically denied. Payment is made mandatory by the GSO Constitution. Executive officers have no power to waive fees and should not be asked to do so. Currently, failure to pay the graduate activity fee for three consecutive semesters or more will generate a registration and records hold on a graduate student’s account. The GSO can however assist you in adjusting your bill if you have been billed in error. If you registered on main campus as a graduate student in any semester after fall 2004, you have not been billed in error.