Wednesday, May 6, 1998
Survey questions back on ballot despite SAGE’s rage
GSA: Offending items at first removed; signatures returned them
to voters
By Christy Lin
Daily Bruin Contributor
The graduate student government (GSA) and the graduate student
union (SAGE) still grapple with the labor issue, yet survey
questions remain on GSA’s ballot, with elections beginning
today.
After being voted onto the ballot by the GSA Forum April 15, the
Student Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE) petitioned for an
emergency session of the Forum to remove the survey, which SAGE
finds to be prejudicial and misleading.
The offending survey questions were removed by a majority vote
of the forum on April 23, but after the meeting, some forum members
approached Internal Vice President Lance Menthe and asked if there
was a way the survey could be returned to the ballot. There was,
and 200 signatures later, the survey is back on the ballot.
"(GSA is) making up the rules as they go along," said Michael
Miller, a representative of the executive board of SAGE.
SAGE continues to disapprove of the questions on the ballot and
also questions the validity of the signature gathering.
Mark Quigley, a member of SAGE, attended a recent Elections
Board meeting to indicate problems SAGE had with the controversial
survey. He pointed out that the GSA Constitution and Codes do not
explicitly contain a process for putting surveys on the ballot.
The Elections Board found that there is a procedure for putting
surveys on the GSA ballot, through the spirit and precedent of the
GSA Constitution and Codes. Two percent of the 10,000 graduate and
professional students, approximately 200 students, had to sign the
petition to reinstate the survey.
SAGE has asked to receive a copy of the petition containing the
200 signatures, but the GSA cabinet will not allow the petition to
be shown to the public.
"It was a unanimous decision made by the GSA cabinet," GSA
President Andrew Westall said. "Ultimately, it’s a protection of
privacy."
The GSA cabinet felt that the petition documents were in effect
elections documents, which, like official ballots, are not made
available to the general public. The petition contained both
student names and student identification numbers.
Miller believes the existence of the signatures to be
questionable, citing the Public Records Act, which mandates that
such records be made available to anyone who asks to see them.
SAGE also feels that GSA is being used by the administration,
since they received funds from the university for the election.
Menthe disputes this, saying that the chancellor did not know
about the survey question until the night of the second Forum
meeting.
"This was something that graduate students did all on their
own," Menthe said.
The two survey questions disturbing SAGE ask graduate students
if they would want SAGE to be the officially recognized union of
graduate student employees.
The survey needs to be conducted by a neutral third party, said
Miller. SAGE still wants an official legitimate union election
along the guidelines of the Public Employment Relations Board
(PERB).
GSA states that the cabinet members were not explicitly directed
by the Forum to avoid such activities and so are not in the wrong.
An investigation will be conducted on this issue.
Miller believes the survey questions were "worded in a tricky,
manipulative way. The people who are doing this are thoroughly
corrupt."
Westall, however, sees SAGE’s actions as destructive.
"I’m not going to be pressured by one particular interest group.
SAGE is obstructionist and undemocratic," he said. "And ultimately,
what they’re trying to do is undermine the student government."