Members of the Graduate and Professional Students Association approved the $15,000 budget proposal for the Children’s Center at their regular meeting Monday.

GPSA will propose a budget to the S&A Fee Committee, which will later recommend fees and allocations of funds to the Office of the President.

Josh Munroe, vice president of Legislative Affairs, said they received guidance forming a reasonable S&A request.

“We’ve received some encouragement to take the path we have,” Munroe said.

GPSA President Shane Reynolds said the process would be challenging if the S&A Fee Committee chose not to fully fund the $15,000 proposal. They would have to look at the reduced budget presented to them before thinking of the reductions they would be able to make, he said.

GPSA Vice President Amir Gilmore said he has full faith that the S&A Fee Committee would approve their proposal.

“I’m really happy that it passed,” Carolina Silva, GPSA senator for the Department of Teaching and Learning, said. “I didn’t know we would have so much support.”

Silva said the proposal is a no-brainer because many graduate and professional students use the services at the Children’s Center. As a single student, she said, she has a choice to go to conferences or share a room. For her friends and colleagues who have families, they are unable to make the same decisions, she said.

“They don’t even get to go to the conference because they have to put their families first,” Silva said. “When we’re voting for this, I look at it as voting for my friends and colleagues to have the same opportunity I do.”

At the meeting, Munroe also discussed Coug Day at the Capitol, which allowed a few graduate and professional students to advocate for WSU-related issues in late January. He said they received a lot of support for research funding, providing protection for marginalized communities and “decoupling” S&A fees, meaning disconnecting the fee rate from tuition rates.

Munroe said he was able to meet with Gov. Jay Inslee to discuss mental health. It was encouraging to hear this issue was at the forefront of the governor’s attention, he said.

“Hopefully we’ll see some good stuff come out of that office in the near future,” Munroe said.

Jennifer Johnson, GPSA director of Professional Development, said it was her second time attending Coug Day at the Capitol. She said it is important to have graduate students in the legislative offices.

“Sending emails and calling is great,” Johnson said. “When you’re in front of them, they have to listen to you.”

GPSA will host presidential, vice presidential and college representative candidate debates at 5:30 p.m. March 5 in Butch’s Den. Voting will be open online from 7 p.m. March 5 to 5 p.m. March 8.

An earlier version of this story misspelled Josh Munroe’s name in the photo caption.