In next week’s election, graduate students will have the
option of voting to amend their constitution to fund a Graduate
Writing Center that would assist students with various types of
professional writing.
The Graduate Students Association voted to put a referendum on
the ballot that, if passed, would add a $3 fee per quarter starting
next fall to fund the writing center.
If the referendum passes, the Graduate Writing Center’s
“biggest expansion will be the development of workshops and
programs,” said Christine Wilson, coordinator of the Graduate
Student Resource Center.
“Graduate students need writing assistance for all levels
of writing, from the most basic level to proposals, dissertations
and theses,” Wilson said.
Marilyn Gray, chairwoman of the Graduate Student Resource Center
oversight committee, said the writing center will be targeted
toward all types of graduate students, and will offer workshops
featuring speakers that are professionals in various fields. The
workshops would have specific focuses ““ for example, one
could be offered on writing in the sciences, she said.
There is a temporary writing center already located in the
Graduate Student Resource Center, but it only has enough funding to
last until the summer.
The current center is a pilot project and opened at the
beginning of spring quarter. If the referendum passes, the writing
center will remain in the GSRC, but the program will be
expanded.
The Graduate Student Resource Center is one year old, and the
writing center was funded with money that was given to the resource
center three months ago. The temporary writing center has four
tutors and no program director.
“Currently, graduate students do not have any resources
they can use on campus, whereas (undergraduates) have several
writing resources,” said Wilson.
“Right now it doesn’t seem there is any way to fund
this type of service without a referendum,” Wilson said.
All four elected GSA officers have endorsed the referendum, as
well as Forum, GSA’s legislative body which consists of 28
members that represent different academic councils on campus.
Since there is now no comparable resource, GSA President Jared
Fox said the writing center is “a major issue, especially for
our international students.”
“Writing is probably the most vital skill that any
academic or professional can have,” he said.
GSA Vice President of Internal Affairs Mac Marston also pointed
out that many other schools have the type of writing center that
would be created.
“All of our peer institutions have some type of writing
support for graduate students, and UCLA is really behind in that
respect,” he said.
Because of the way the Graduate Writing Center will be designed,
all students will have representation in what types of services
will be available, as each of the 13 academic councils of GSA will
have a representative on the Oversight Committee, Gray said.
She added that the $3 per-quarter fee is “a little bit of
money every year, but it’s an investment. Even if you go
once, it pays for itself.”
Voting in the GSA election begins at noon on
Tuesday.