Graduate Student Association presidential candidate Jamal Madni vowed to create a student government that understood the stressful schedules of its constituents and encouraged a multidisciplinary approach in graduate education.
Assistant news editor JJ Yang sat down with the biomedical engineering graduate student for an update on the programs.
Daily Bruin: What motivated you to run for president?
Jamal Madni: As graduate students, we are all exceptionally busy and we are all motivated students focused on our particular departments. I’ve been so fortunate to be at UCLA, and I thought running for president would not only be an opportunity to give back to the campus, but make life better for graduate students as I saw it being a student here for two years. Being at UCLA for three years I have firsthand experience, experiencing the good and the hardships of being a graduate student. The work of a graduate student is demanding, so you begin questioning your passion, and often people will stop their graduate programs for the wrong reasons.
DB: You said you wanted to give back to the community? Why is that?
JM: Community outreach is a big area for GSA. I think that USAC does a tremendous job with community service. The community service commission in USAC is fantastic. As graduate students are very busy, very few graduate students participate in these programs. Community service is a great opportunity for personal development.
DB: What would you identify as GSA’s top priority this year?
JM: Year in and year out, the major priority for GSA has to be increasing our visibility and awareness. Unlike USAC, there’s a tremendous lack of knowledge from the students of who we were. We’re trying to solve this by having a host of events where students are allowed to come, and we are in the process of developing a brand new and sophisticated Web site which will include a host of features that will increase awareness. It’s the rebuilding and restoration year of GSA. This is Year 1 of GSA from a visibility standpoint. We are also advocating funding for the graduate student resource center to help students with whatever problems they have.
DB: Could you elaborate on your push for more interdisciplinary research?
JM: I want to promote an environment of interdisciplinary research and work with the vice chancellor of graduate affairs and student affairs to create a multidisciplinary program where students would take a course or two from various schools and create a certificate program. We want to build a culture and relationship of multidisciplinary research. We are still in the incubation phase, streamlining and working everything out, but we plan on moving forward with it this year.
Graduate students are very fragmented and isolated on this campus because they’re focused on their research. With so much interdisciplinary research going on and the wall of traditional studies breaking down, it’s imperative that students interact with graduate students across all the graduate schools. Just by having our events that promote people of all departments ““ from socials to scavenger hunts ““ to socialize and network not just socially but professionally, it will be a major resource for students to come up with answers with any problems graduate student-related.
DB: Are you working toward collaboration between other University of California campuses?
JM: We have monthly conference calls with all the other graduate student presidents, giving us the opportunity to see the perspective of the other campuses. Through this we see how statewide issues are affecting other campuses and encourage a lot of collaboration and idea sharing. Some student governments are more visible than others ““ we are certainly in the bottom half.
DB: You also said you wanted to increase financial aid for graduate students. How do graduate students handle finances?
JM: To be a doctorate student, you have to be funded by a lab or a professor or some sort of research entity. But the question arises how long their funding goes. In years past there were no worries; nowadays given the state of the budget and the national debt there are no guarantees of long term funding. Guaranteed funding is three years, so students need other ways to be funded.