The Graduate Student Council (GSC) denied $8,000 of funding — the maximum amount of money the Council gives to a graduate student organization — to the Comedy Club at its first meeting of the year last night.

The Comedy Club planned to showcase 30 comedy events during the 2007-2008 academic year with the money petitioned, but the GSC only approved $2,480 for the group — money which will come from the graduate student general fee.

“This is the normal amount we give to student groups,” said Kristina Keating, a doctoral student in the School of Earth Sciences and co-chair of the Council.

According to Melahn Parker, co-founder of the Comedy Club, the group requested $8,000 in order to bring professional comics who have TV credits and national recognition to campus.

“We have to pay them [comics] something — these guys are professionals,” Parker said. “The comics we have had since January 2006 are good, and some have even performed for free. But the headliners are usually paid $500 a show. They are professionals and do this for a living. This is a decent pay.”

According to GSC parliamentarian Adam Beberg, graduate student organizations are given a “big bonus” when they start off, but are expected “to kind of draw into and to work with the Concert Network, or with the Speakers Bureau to get more monetary support.”

“The Comedy Club has been the best use of GSC funds ever,” Parker said. “It has benefited the most people at the lowest cost, and I’m incredibly disappointed that the Council no longer wishes to support the club as it has before.”

But Beberg argued that the GSC doesn’t approve funding based on the number of students listed on a group mailing list.

“For a group of this [small] size, this is way beyond [what] we have ever done,” he said.

Parker said the club has around 350 members.

The Comedy Club has hosted 59 shows since January 2006. The events are held on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. at The 750.