With Graduate Student Association elections just a few days
away, three candidates are competing for the core position of vice
president of internal affairs.
The candidates, Marilyn Gray, Eric Lai, and Laith Mahmood, all
confident contenders, focus on different issues.
The vice president of internal affairs is responsible for
running forum meetings, overseeing all the association’s
paperwork and is responsible for the group’s organizational
details.
Gray, a doctoral candidate in Slavic languages and literature,
is currently GSA’s vice president of academic affairs.
Gray feels that with her past experience as a GSA officer and as
a GSA representative to the Associated Students of UCLA Board of
Directors, she is the most qualified candidate for the
position.
“I decided that I could have the greatest positive
contribution to GSA by running for vice president of internal
affairs,” Gray said.
Throughout the year, Gray has been working on two issues and
plans to continue this work if she wins office again.
Gray said she wants to help the 13 academic councils, which
represent the graduate academic divisions, be more aware of funding
and fund-raising issues in their school or division so that their
voices will be heard by the leadership of those divisions.
“If the councils are better aware of what their dean is
doing they can have a greater voice,” Gray said.
In addition to establishing council and departmental
relationships, Gray says she wants adequate representation of
graduate students on faculty executive committees.
“I started a project this year about the faculty executive
committees (and) some faculty executive committees do not currently
have graduate student representation,” Gray added.
Gray notes she is the only candidate in this year’s GSA
elections who has previously held a position on the board.
“I’ve already done a lot, and I know the councils
well. I already have trusted and respected relationships with key
people on campus that can help make a change,” Gray said.
Eric Lai, a first-year public health graduate student, has been
actively following GSA throughout the year. When GSA held a special
election in February to re-elect a vice president of external
affairs, Lai was a candidate.
Lai, excited to run, said many areas exist in the graduate
community that should be strengthened.
“I don’t see a whole lot of unity between the
different departments … vice president of internal affairs is a
position where you are overseeing the council of the 13 different
departments, and we need to facilitate these departments to
organize more social events,” Lai said.
Lai plans on focusing on two main issues: graduate
community-building activities and GSA publicity.
“I want every department to sponsor an activity for the
whole graduate community,” Lai said, adding that another goal
was making GSA more visible.
“I want GSA to become more vocal and active in publicizing
what it does and what it offers,” he said. A way to enforce
this change, Lai said, is to create a GSA newsletter.
Lai, a graduate of Stanford University, served as an
undergraduate senator on the student life and budget and finance
committees.
Laith Mahmood, a third-year dental graduate student, said he is
running for the position because of its heavy involvement with
leadership and on-campus activities.
Mahmood is involved in a community-based dental project that
provides dental care to low-income families at the Umma Medical
Clinic. He founded the clinic’s dental aspect.
Mahmood wants more students to be engaged in GSA and more
community-based involvement from GSA and graduate students in
general.
“We are a public school, we should give back to our
community,” Mahmood said.
He added, “I know how to work with many types of people.
… I hope to bring a happy, comfortable, professional, and
laid-back atmosphere to GSA.”
Creating a more solidified voice among graduate students, and
enforcing stronger lobbying efforts for graduate students, both
academically and politically, are among other issues Mahmood plans
to address.