After a 92-percent cut in scholarship money from Penn State and several summer resignations, the Graduate Student Association (GSA) will undergo some changes this year.

Ashley Averin, GSA treasurer, said that in previous years, the GSA received a $25,000 scholarship that was divided up among the group's executive board. The president received $11,000, the vice president received half that sum and the executive secretary and treasurer received the remaining amount, she said.

This year, only the president and vice president received $1,000 each, she said.

Averin said the financial cut caused many GSA executive members to supplement the lost funds by finding assistantships, meaning they had to quit the group.

GSA President Brian Borawski said he was unaware of the stipend cuts until a GSA member referred him to an article in The Daily Collegian last semester. "We were really shocked," Borawski said.

Stan Latta, director of union and student activities, said in an e-mail message that group advisers and presidents were told of the stipend changes via e-mail. Groups were also notified through letters, display boards in the HUB-Robeson Center and public service announcements.

Borawski said he plans to restructure the executive board into two parts, though GSA will remain one government. He discussed GSA restructuring with the old executives this summer but decided to pursue the plan with the new executives.

"As GSA fell apart, I needed to rebuild it," he said.

In past years, the GSA executive board included a president, vice president, executive secretary and treasurer. Under the changes, it is now divided into an internal and external branch. The internal branch will take care of GSA's day-to-day needs, including meetings and member appointments, and the external branch will handle projects and initiatives.

Other new GSA positions include office manager, a liaison to the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and a liaison to the Commonwealth Campuses.

Averin said that although the new positions have been filled, they have not been written into the GSA constitution. Averin said the group hopes the new changes will be in effect by next semester.

GSA also plans on working more closely with USG and University Faculty Senate as GSA restructures its government, Averin said.

USG President Galen Foulke said he is looking forward to developing closer ties with GSA, since the two organizations are "student representatives of University Park."

"As a united front, we could speak to 45,000 students together," he said.